Monster Lakers

[todd1966hoffer]

The last 3 times I fished the mouth of Burns Ditch I absolutely tore the big lakers up. The coho have been in there too until today 2/4. The bait is still out front but the coho were not. The other fishermen got them at Gary Light. Oh well it was a blessed morning on the water and I'm home safe in a warm chair watching the weather turn to crap. 

[Dirty]

Nice work Todd

[Pikesmith]

Nice Job!

[bob]

Way to go Todd 

[Steelie Don]

Wow! Time to warm up the smokers and make a run for the Captains Wafers. Nice haul.

[Ltrain]

Nice catch!

[StormJunkie]

[quote="todd1966hoffer" post=29801"]The last 3 times I fished the mouth of Burns Ditch I absolutely tore the big lakers up. The coho have been in there too until today 2/4. The bait is still out front but the coho were not. The other fishermen got them at Gary Light. Oh well it was a blessed morning on the water and I'm home safe in a warm chair watching the weather turn to crap. 

Was readng about the problems Yellowstone lake is having with a large invasive Lake Trout population and how the native Cuthroat Trout have been decimated by them.  I have to wonder why the large Trout are in the same water as the Coho this time of year. I thought the  Trout spawn was over and see no reason why the Trout would be shallow without a food source.  Is it just coincidence?  Years ago catching Trout early along the shoreline was something of a fluke. Now they are far more common and much larger. 
Here's an excerpt from the article I was reading.
[url=https://www.nps.gov/yell/learn/nature/lake-trout.htm]Lake Trout - Yellowstone National Park (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov)[/url]Behavior

• Lake trout are voracious, efficient predators.
• Frequently live >25 years and grow very large. The Wyoming state record weighed 50 pounds (23 kg).
• Fall spawners (September/October). A 12-pound female could produce up to 9,000 eggs annually.
• About 30% of a mature lake trout’s diet is cutthroat trout. They can eat up to 41 cutthroat trout per year and can consume cutthroat trout up to 55% their own size.

 
 [/quote]

[BNature]

Several things are possible as to why the fish are there now and (probably) weren't there historically.
1) The fish are probably not there because the cohos are there.
2) The fish are probably there because of forage - most likely gobies.
3) The fish may have been there for decades, but the last few "open" early season winters have allowed more anglers to give 'em a go instead of ice fishing or heading for Florida.
4) Indiana and other states used to stock some of the trout in shallows hoping the shoreline structure (such as Port of Indiana rocks) would provide spawning areas. Other natural strains of lake trout historically spawned in streams. So lakers spawning in the shallows shouldn't be unexpected.
5) What isn't known is if the nearshore spawning trout in the 80s, 90s, 2000s stayed shallow or spawned and then retreated back to deep water. Maybe they did, so with no reason for them to stay shallow, they headed back to the deep. Maybe they stayed, but it was too cold for people to fish for them. Maybe they stayed, just because they found gobies tasty and available.
As far as I can tell, the winter fishery is primarily for spawning age fish. You don't see many or any 3 to 5 pound juveniles, so that give credence to the "theory" the fish come to spawn and stay over to feed.

[todd1966hoffer]

Thanks for the good info. The whole salmon/trout thing kinda blows my mind.

[BNature]

Realistically, comparing the lake trout/cutthroat trout interaction in Yellowstone with laker/coho interaction in the Great Lakes is like comparing walleyes in Lake Erie with walleye in a remote Canadian lake.  Same fish, but their environment is so different the dynamics are completely different. 

I'm not saying having lake trout in Lake Yellowstone is a good thing, but I've been hearing the Park Service piss and moan about how awful the lakers are for 20 or 30 years. It's like the climate change extremists of the 1990s claiming something had to be done or we'd all be dead in 12 years and when we all don't die, they keep claiming it will still be 12 years to doomsday - starting now.  Thirty years ago the lake trout were on the verge of eating the last cutthroat in Yellowstone lake. I guess they are still on the verge of doing it. 

A part of the issue is the "native" or nothing mentality which has been indoctrinated into modern day biologists/environmentalists. 

I do remember at one time (before it was understood that the reason laker reintroduction to the lower Great Lakes was stymied by the trout eating alewives), some biologists seemed to think the problem was that the trout being reintroduced weren't from native strains. So there was a plan to head to Yellowstone Lake because the stocks used to infest Yellowstone originated from Lake Michigan.  Don't know if any of the federal hatchery people in charge of replenishing the Great Lakes got a free trip to Yellowstone Park or not.