sorry to hear of your dog man. hope it works out ok.
you could have plopped down with us and fished man. that spot was a new area for us to anchor. there arent any secret spots on those lakes.lol we cruised the other favorite spots(oliver only) and didnt see heavy concentrations of fish. we also caught the trolled up trout in that area, so we tried it. it would be nice if the size was better but its still something different. loading the smoker later today with them yummy critters. they were all smaller fish. the biggest was 17". we had a limit sometime after midnight. i really think, with the numbers that are in there, trolling daytime is more productive than the night light fishing has been. we had a lot of bumps and on for a second fish while trolling. trailer hooks maybe next time! maybe i should slow down a bit more too? i was running polecats boat which is a lot different than mine. speed going??? not a clue.
the bigger trout had leaves in its gut. the smaller ones had the gray goo i told you about. eating the leaves as they sink/flutter in the water by accident?
mite have to soak some chubs under floats out there for those gators man! fall is coming fast!
next time you just toss out your anchor and sit a spell taxi. you missed a good laugh as i chased a trout around the floor trying to get a hold on it. at least polecat thought it was a riot. haha i think he said something about needing his video camera. things are like an eel smeared with Vaseline! lol
Glad to hear you got some fish. 17 inches isn't bad. The fish I lost at the boat was lucky if it was 11 inches. I think they're so small they don't get hooked and grab on to the nitecrawler and let go at the boat. LOL
The leaves are from foraging for bottom invertebrates like midge larvae (tiny red worms). The goo is probably zooplankton. If you squeeze that out of stomach and put it in a jar with water, then shake it, you will find it will probably separate into lots of tiny invertebrates and large zooplankton.
They'll never be a
consistent trophy fishery for trout on the lake chain without a coldwater forage like smelt. (Clear had gizzard shad and yellow perch). Indiana refuses to allow them to be reestablished. as they are "exotic." Aren't the trout exotic too?
If the cisco is designated as an endangered species we might just have to kiss trout stocking in Indiana lakes that historically had cisco goodbye. Would be a good excuse to end the inland trout program for those in the INDNR that have wanted to cut if for years. We heard rumors when I was a member of NEITA that there were those that wanted to end it. Again no diss against the hard working people in the INDNR. It is what it is.
What I fear is someone will take some smelt or alewives from Lake Michigan and dump them into the lake. On the surface it sounds like it would be a positive, but with fish testing positive for VHS (Viral Hemmorhagic Septicemia) in the Great Lakes, it could introduce the pathogen and we could see a major fish kill. Someone had already -- probably via their boat bilge tank -- introduced zebra mussels into the chain although I have not seen any. But then the marl gets kicked up so much from boats plowing through the shallow water they would be hard to see.