ulrichdebrus
07-08-2006, 04:21 AM
Yesterday, I fished Fletcher's Floodwaters. For years not it has been my absolute favorite fishing paradise. See Fletcher's is the place for pike (http://oscoda.blogspot.com/2006/05/fletchers-is-place-for-pike.html)
Yesterday's trip is significant because it was the second in two weeks in which I caught northerns that had something seriously metabollically wrong. I am not sure if they are bearing some septic or otherwise man-made toxin or if they are diseased in the viral or bacterological sense. What I do know is that one that I cleaned two weeks ago had dandelion-yellow flesh. Yes, it's meat was yellow and the liver spewed a yellow bile-looking substance. THAT pike had an extraordinarily high amount of slime that coated the dead fish. They ALL get slimy after a few hours but this was, as I said, excessive.
Yesterday's three legal northerns that I and my mother caught (3 out of 10), after just an hour out of water, smelled quite very much like that of feces. I was prompted to check my shoes to see if I had stepped in some. I again smelled it in the car and upon drawing those fish out of the trunk of the car it was clear: the smell was coming from the pike and reeked very much of dog scat.
Now, mind you, the pike of late there have become amazingly agressive. While I am sure some have fished there lately and might disagree, my own personal experience of Fletcher's is that during June and so far in July I have witnessed northern agressiveness unlike anything in 35 years of fishing. Admittedly, I am now spending 90 plus percent of my time fishing with Aglias.
Could the two be related, I wonder. I have seen pike that had something seriously wrong with them medically and I have, in the same month, seen agressive fish unlike anything that could sensibly be referred to as the norm. I mean, yesterday a dogfish snapped at me quite deliberately and with aim and sliced my finger. Be warned: these fish have powerful jaws and, as I now know, very sharp teeth.
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Yesterday's trip is significant because it was the second in two weeks in which I caught northerns that had something seriously metabollically wrong. I am not sure if they are bearing some septic or otherwise man-made toxin or if they are diseased in the viral or bacterological sense. What I do know is that one that I cleaned two weeks ago had dandelion-yellow flesh. Yes, it's meat was yellow and the liver spewed a yellow bile-looking substance. THAT pike had an extraordinarily high amount of slime that coated the dead fish. They ALL get slimy after a few hours but this was, as I said, excessive.
Yesterday's three legal northerns that I and my mother caught (3 out of 10), after just an hour out of water, smelled quite very much like that of feces. I was prompted to check my shoes to see if I had stepped in some. I again smelled it in the car and upon drawing those fish out of the trunk of the car it was clear: the smell was coming from the pike and reeked very much of dog scat.
Now, mind you, the pike of late there have become amazingly agressive. While I am sure some have fished there lately and might disagree, my own personal experience of Fletcher's is that during June and so far in July I have witnessed northern agressiveness unlike anything in 35 years of fishing. Admittedly, I am now spending 90 plus percent of my time fishing with Aglias.
Could the two be related, I wonder. I have seen pike that had something seriously wrong with them medically and I have, in the same month, seen agressive fish unlike anything that could sensibly be referred to as the norm. I mean, yesterday a dogfish snapped at me quite deliberately and with aim and sliced my finger. Be warned: these fish have powerful jaws and, as I now know, very sharp teeth.
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