Never seen so many marks and caught so few fish.

[walleye express]

Went right back to where I went the 10 for 14 Tuesday and man were the fish ever all over on the bottom. I mean constant fish 18 to 21 feet down, Big ones, little ones and clouds of them. Yet we only went 3 for 4 all day. The one we lost was another monster, but that still would not have eased my mind or solved the loc-jaw problem they seemed to have today. We also only seen one fish netted around us all day. Even talked to my bud who had a 2 1/2 hour head start on us this morning and he only had one at 11:00am. Oh well, thats fishing I guess. :rant: :bash:

http://www.michigan-sportsman.com/photopost/data/500/8424IM000678-med.JPG

[Big Shooter]

We got a late start and landed 4 eye's and 3 drum. Fished from 12:00 til 4:00 pm. I fished on anouther friends boat from 1 and 2 bouys,all the way to the black hole and did'nt mark squat for fish. In the same areas sunday we marked tons of fish.Tried plastic, (2 eye's ) and meat (2 eye's and 3 drum ) everywhere top to bottom. Very slow :dizzy: I think I'll try the charities sunday. Good fishin! ;)

[daddyduck]

Anything happening around thomas rd?

[walleye express]

Daddy.

I just picked up an interesting report from my bud, while eating fresh cooked walleyes in his garage. Him and a friend fished with the MWT guys today. By the way my Cousin Mike Manyen is doing it again. He's in second place after day one of the AuGres MWT. Anyway, my buds bud caught quit a few yesterday 4 miles out the mouth of the Quanicassee, simply trolling tot's on the Oak Hurst humps, in 12 to 14FOW. Seems like that depth range was the ticket yesterday, while I was busy 18 miles out dredging the bottom in 23 to 26FOW. :bash:

[DREAMCATCHER]

Agree with your run down on this week-end. Was marking so many fish I thought my graph was on the blink. Most were tight or just off the bottom 28-33 fow. Had a few buddies that ran down to Pin bar and did OK but they regreted that move when they had to run back to Augres Sat.!!!! By noon the wave height was 2-4 and building. For me I stayed a bit closer and managed only one 4 1/2#er, 50/50 3/8 gold-black tot and was headed home by 12:30. Had other buds that ran out to charity area, north west side, and came back with one brown and a skinny,sickly looking SMALL king. Always next week-end.DC

[brdhntr]

I had the same thing on Erie yesterday. Couldn't get a fish to go the whole morning, and marked a ton. Tried everything, spoons, tots, bombers, warts, crawlers, gulps, no go. 1 silver in 3 hrs. First skunk this year.

[walleye express]

One of the things I noticed the last few days, was that we had a huge fly hatch. First the ones that look to be a little bigger than mosquitos. The water surface in the Quanicassee River was full of them. The local ducks were having a real feast around my boat Sunday Morning. Then I noticed about a dozen of the Big split-tailed May flies on my boat in the marina as well. Those are the adult stage of the spring wiggler larvae. These were just about extinct in our area for the longest time because of pollution, but because of cleaner waters have recently started making a come-back. :yikes:

Even though the giant Mayfly hatches play a big part in fishing success in northern Michigan waters. Rather there is enough of these to influence the forage habbits of the Saginaw Bays walleye inhabitants is up for debate. :16suspect

[MSUICEMAN]

over here in LSC and lake erie there are a whole lot of mayflies. Even though at times they can put a damper on the fishing, I would much rather have them than not have them. They are a GREAT forage base for everything from perch, baby you name it, to walleye. Not only that, they are year round food. This leads to better fishing overall, with nice fat plump fish to fillet when you do get into em.

Hopefully i'll put a dent in the walleye pop. of lake erie this pm, was going to go in the morning, but that fell through...... gonna be interesting.

steve

[Marrble Eyes]

So now that the tournament is over does anyone know where the top weights came from?

Dan when you said last week you were on all kinds of fish and bait off the channel, could you tell what kind of bait it was May Fly Larva, Shad or fry?

[eyecatcher1]

I can feel your pain Walleye Express. I couldn't beleive we could mark so many fish and not catch 'em. Fished the MWT and only managed 6 eyes in two days (5 on Sat and 1 on Sun) The fish we caught were all spitting up Smelt . There were huge clouds of baitfish in the area so I think the fish were full. Much of the success in the tournament was just out from the breakwall in Au Gres in 24 feet of water and just north of Point Au Gres in 30 feet of water. The fishing was best when the waves were less the 3 feet, which was only until about 8AM.

[walleye express]

So now that the tournament is over does anyone know where the top weights came from?

Dan when you said last week you were on all kinds of fish and bait off the channel, could you tell what kind of bait it was May Fly Larva, Shad or fry?


Marrble Eyes.

It used to be easy to identify the baitfish, as 80% of them used to be aliwife or shad. They would suspend in massive schools and so to the walleye feeding on them. I'm not sure something as small as Wigglers or other invertibrates in such small numbers and in our particular waters on the Bay, would even leave a visable/tell-tail signature on your graph.

I'm thinking both Gobbies and Smelt are becoming the main forage on the Bay, and especially in the deepers waters. Fallowed closely by immature white and yellow perch, sheepsheads and white bass. I also think shad and aliwife are still part of the forage base, but only become so after they have grown out of their spring fry stage. I'm afraid the easy limit days of the late 80's early 90's are over, at least until that massive (5 to 6 million) naturally reproduced walleyes we had last year, grows up and starts putting more stress on the available forage in the Bay. Less available food means hungrier more aggressive walleyes and expanded feeding periods.

All of this of course is only my own educated feelings and speculations on the matter. None is based on any scientific proof or data.

[walleye express]

I can feel your pain Walleye Express. I couldn't beleive we could mark so many fish and not catch 'em. Fished the MWT and only managed 6 eyes in two days (5 on Sat and 1 on Sun) The fish we caught were all spitting up Smelt . There were huge clouds of baitfish in the area so I think the fish were full. Much of the success in the tournament was just out from the breakwall in Au Gres in 24 feet of water and just north of Point Au Gres in 30 feet of water. The fishing was best when the waves were less the 3 feet, which was only until about 8AM.

eyecatcher.

It's been my experience that fallowing the wind is the best alternative on day two of any blow. That is, look for the more aggressive fish to move to the West if the wind is from the east, and vis-versa from the East. Does this hold true every time? I wish!! But it's happened often enough to me to give me a starting point.

[Tom22]

I also fished the MWT and pulled a zero on sat and 4 on sunday..I pre-fished on friday and did very well...The NE winds really put a damper on the bite.. Lots of 0-2 fish baskets on sunday....Tom