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09-18-2005, 01:09 AM
Article published Friday, September 16, 2005
FOLLOWING THE FISH
Smallmouth bass elusive but persistence pays off
By STEVE POLLICK
BLADE OUTDOORS EDITOR
When it comes to smallmouth bass fishing in Lake Erie this summer, persistence pays off, at least a little, and Bowling Green angler John Harkness is proof.
On a recent foray into the Bass Islands region with the Rock Doctor, guide Jerry Abele, Harkness alone stuck with casting and dragging an olive tube-jig, this long after the rest of the party had forsaken them for walleye rigs. The day was billed by his buddy and ringleader, Tim Ayer, of Grand Rapids, as a smallmouth trip and Harkness aimed to make it so.
Which is why he alone produced a 3-1/2-pound smallie worth looking at any year, but especially this one, when Erie smallmouth action has been nothing to write home about. Earlier he lost a similar size fish. He was the bass master for the day.
As the crew gathered at dawn at Channel Grove Marina near Lakeside, Abele offered the day’s options, acknowledging that walleye have been more consistent producers than bass around the islands’ rocks and reefs. Even the Pelee Island area on the Canadian side has not been as productive as in years past.
"There’s a big hole in the bass population," said Abele, a veteran known for his years of "rock-picking" experience. Others in the crew included Greg Carson, of Grand Rapids, Eric "Itch" Evans, of Grand Rapids, Ernie Tebeau, of Gibsonburg, and yours truly.
It was telling when Abele suggested trying a variety of tactics, and when most of the guys went with bass gear — live softcraws or tubes — he immediately started with a Weapon, a hybrid mayfly rig baited with a piece of nightcrawlers. It has become a now-favorite walleye rig in the western basin. He immediately started catching walleyes on a gold-blade homemade Weapon as we drifted over Kelleys Shoal.
The wind directions were squirrelly this day, up and down, switching around the compass, and an approaching cold front was taking its time arriving. So the fish were finicky. Nonetheless we managed to land half a boat-limit of ‘eyes, most in the 15- to 18-inch range, not to mention as many sheepshead, or freshwater drum, as we wanted to play with. And about a million and three gobies.
Gobies. Abele could turn them — and double-crested cormorants, those explosively abundant, dark-feathered flying fish-eaters — into four-letter words. This invasive exotic species of forage fish has become an unconscionable pest in the lake. Its exponential expansion perhaps has been fueled by the explosion of two other pests, zebra and quagga mussels, which are a favorite goby food back where they both came from. So much for so-called federal control of polluted ballast-water releases by overseas shipping, the suspected source of the mussels and gobies.
In any case, Abele agrees that little can be done with gobies, other than to tolerate them and hope their numbers eventually level off. But they are bait-thieves extraordinaire, not to mention vaccuum cleaners when it comes to emptying bass nests of untended eggs during spawning season.
All of which is not to say that smallmouth cannot be caught. It is just that for the foreseeable future, the days of catching and releasing 50, 80, 100 bass are over, Abele noted.
But one fisherman we met at day’s end showed us a fine catch of bass he had taken on softcraws "up in Canada." At least two of them were five-pounders and the rest hefty. Unfortunately they all were dead in his cooler, headed for a fish-cleaning station. The guy must have been starving, unable to keep up payments on the shiny new luxury sedan he was driving.
Some fishermen just don’t get it, it seems. If you kill all the big old bass, which take years to grow to five pounds or better, there will be precious few left to share. Supposedly most of us practice catch and release with bass.
On a brighter note, area angler Dan Tucker sends news that the future may be brighter for Erie smallies, if conservation is widely practiced.
"We have been catching an believeable amount of young smallmouth bass around the reefs and rockpiles while fishing for [yellow] perch with minnows. We caught at least 150 or more of them over a five-day period, trying to locate some larger perch.
"These little beauties are running from three to six inches and are very healthy and stocky. They are very lively and spunky, and it does your heart good just to see that there has been just to see that there must have been a large successful hatch, despite the large population of predators."
Tucker, who has been fishing with guide Jerry Meyers, Sr., rightly urges fellow anglers, who may be perching this fall and incidentally catching these young bass, to return them to the water unhurt and to keep their time out of water to a minimum.
"Maybe some day we can return to the fantastic smallmouth bass fishing, like it used to be."
Notice to readers: This will be the last installment of the Follow the Fish feature for the season. It is scheduled to resume next spring. In its place Steve Pollick’s Outdoors column will appears Fridays in the Sports Section, in addition to Tuesdays and Sundays.
http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050916/SPORTS08/50915023
FOLLOWING THE FISH
Smallmouth bass elusive but persistence pays off
By STEVE POLLICK
BLADE OUTDOORS EDITOR
When it comes to smallmouth bass fishing in Lake Erie this summer, persistence pays off, at least a little, and Bowling Green angler John Harkness is proof.
On a recent foray into the Bass Islands region with the Rock Doctor, guide Jerry Abele, Harkness alone stuck with casting and dragging an olive tube-jig, this long after the rest of the party had forsaken them for walleye rigs. The day was billed by his buddy and ringleader, Tim Ayer, of Grand Rapids, as a smallmouth trip and Harkness aimed to make it so.
Which is why he alone produced a 3-1/2-pound smallie worth looking at any year, but especially this one, when Erie smallmouth action has been nothing to write home about. Earlier he lost a similar size fish. He was the bass master for the day.
As the crew gathered at dawn at Channel Grove Marina near Lakeside, Abele offered the day’s options, acknowledging that walleye have been more consistent producers than bass around the islands’ rocks and reefs. Even the Pelee Island area on the Canadian side has not been as productive as in years past.
"There’s a big hole in the bass population," said Abele, a veteran known for his years of "rock-picking" experience. Others in the crew included Greg Carson, of Grand Rapids, Eric "Itch" Evans, of Grand Rapids, Ernie Tebeau, of Gibsonburg, and yours truly.
It was telling when Abele suggested trying a variety of tactics, and when most of the guys went with bass gear — live softcraws or tubes — he immediately started with a Weapon, a hybrid mayfly rig baited with a piece of nightcrawlers. It has become a now-favorite walleye rig in the western basin. He immediately started catching walleyes on a gold-blade homemade Weapon as we drifted over Kelleys Shoal.
The wind directions were squirrelly this day, up and down, switching around the compass, and an approaching cold front was taking its time arriving. So the fish were finicky. Nonetheless we managed to land half a boat-limit of ‘eyes, most in the 15- to 18-inch range, not to mention as many sheepshead, or freshwater drum, as we wanted to play with. And about a million and three gobies.
Gobies. Abele could turn them — and double-crested cormorants, those explosively abundant, dark-feathered flying fish-eaters — into four-letter words. This invasive exotic species of forage fish has become an unconscionable pest in the lake. Its exponential expansion perhaps has been fueled by the explosion of two other pests, zebra and quagga mussels, which are a favorite goby food back where they both came from. So much for so-called federal control of polluted ballast-water releases by overseas shipping, the suspected source of the mussels and gobies.
In any case, Abele agrees that little can be done with gobies, other than to tolerate them and hope their numbers eventually level off. But they are bait-thieves extraordinaire, not to mention vaccuum cleaners when it comes to emptying bass nests of untended eggs during spawning season.
All of which is not to say that smallmouth cannot be caught. It is just that for the foreseeable future, the days of catching and releasing 50, 80, 100 bass are over, Abele noted.
But one fisherman we met at day’s end showed us a fine catch of bass he had taken on softcraws "up in Canada." At least two of them were five-pounders and the rest hefty. Unfortunately they all were dead in his cooler, headed for a fish-cleaning station. The guy must have been starving, unable to keep up payments on the shiny new luxury sedan he was driving.
Some fishermen just don’t get it, it seems. If you kill all the big old bass, which take years to grow to five pounds or better, there will be precious few left to share. Supposedly most of us practice catch and release with bass.
On a brighter note, area angler Dan Tucker sends news that the future may be brighter for Erie smallies, if conservation is widely practiced.
"We have been catching an believeable amount of young smallmouth bass around the reefs and rockpiles while fishing for [yellow] perch with minnows. We caught at least 150 or more of them over a five-day period, trying to locate some larger perch.
"These little beauties are running from three to six inches and are very healthy and stocky. They are very lively and spunky, and it does your heart good just to see that there has been just to see that there must have been a large successful hatch, despite the large population of predators."
Tucker, who has been fishing with guide Jerry Meyers, Sr., rightly urges fellow anglers, who may be perching this fall and incidentally catching these young bass, to return them to the water unhurt and to keep their time out of water to a minimum.
"Maybe some day we can return to the fantastic smallmouth bass fishing, like it used to be."
Notice to readers: This will be the last installment of the Follow the Fish feature for the season. It is scheduled to resume next spring. In its place Steve Pollick’s Outdoors column will appears Fridays in the Sports Section, in addition to Tuesdays and Sundays.
http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050916/SPORTS08/50915023