pymie

[fisherman bob]

anyone been out on pymie yet?

[fisherman bob]

anyone been out on pymie yet?

[wallydvr31]

was up there just south of bay shore ice was 7" fished all afternoon w/ nothing but small perch. i was in 16' had herd that guys caught a few monday in 13'. i was there tuesday. not a soul as far as i could see.

[wallydvr31]

was up there just south of bay shore ice was 7" fished all afternoon w/ nothing but small perch. i was in 16' had herd that guys caught a few monday in 13'. i was there tuesday. not a soul as far as i could see.

[bountyhunters]

pymie has gotten a bad rep the last couple yrs . the few times I:VE been there I wonder why I went back . something has happened to that lake and the powers to be are not about to tell .some yrs back people complained of a fish kill and a bad odor coming off the lake . just here say and rumors. but I"LL stick to mosquito and erie. wonder if they tried killing weeds and killed the fish instead???

[Fishin Musician 1]

Hey Bounty,
I saw that sad sight with my own eyes! I never knew that there were that big of Walleye that big in that lake until I saw them floating on the shore! That was the last year that I camped there. I used to camp/fish there for years and finally moved on because the lake was so 'Dead' or I could no longer catch fish there. I became a Lake Erie guy myself. They said the oxygen level was so low and the water was to warm. ?????I also heard that it happens every 7-10 years, but I never noticed it before that. Some friends still camp there and catch a few, but they have to work for them even harder then before. Really sad! I dont mean to make anyone mad, but i have also seen Amish guys take loads of fish out of that lake, more then the limit!

When on the ice.....watch out for the ice-holes!!!!

Tim

[eyes on ice]

Spoke with the biologist just last week and he said there is still a problem and the effects will last for at least a 3 years. They stocked a record number of walleye fry last year with near zero survival rate. It is either something in the water (chemical) or that eagwa (spelling?) fish they introduced to the lake around the time the decline started!

[Fishin Musician 1]

MONSTER CARP!!! I wonder if that has anything to do with it?

I feel bad for the locals...I is an economic boom when the fishing is good.

When on the ice.....watch out for the ice-holes!!!!

Tim

[walleye33]

Another year gone by without the realization that it would be better to stock 100,000 2" fingerlings than 20 million frye. My research on the internet of other lakes with similar problems has found that you can stock as many frye as you want and the alewives will eat them all. I'm tired of even discussing it. There are plenty of other lakes in the area.

walleye33

[eyes on ice]

They did stock a couple hundred thousands of the developed fry (2"). Still no success! The biologists commented that the alewives are really large at pymy. Well fed!!!

[walleye33]

Well then I stand corrected. It's nice to see that they are trying something different. I remember being at Pymatuning about 5 years ago right after ice out. There were thousands of dead fish floating that looked like some kind of baitfish to me, but they were huge. Some were over 10" long. I'm not sure if they were the alewives, but they might have been. Here is a clip from a fact sheet on Alewives:

"...Size—
The alewife grows to a length of about 15 inches, but adults average only about 10 to 11 inches long and about 8 to 9 ounces in weight; 16,400,000 fish taken in New England in 1898 weighed about 8,800,000 pounds."....

Then I read another study where they said alewives won't eat fry over 2". I could not believe that if they were so big.

Here is another interesting clip from this website less than 3 years ago from a gentlemen who went through the same thing we are seeing at Pymatuning at his home lake in New York. Tell me if this doesn't sound like what we are going through"

..."I read with interest the statements that "alewives" have been placed in Pymatuning. I'm a retired NYS Cons. Officer that comes to Pytma. for several days in May to fish eyes. The park employee was correct when he stated that alewives impact greatly on "fry" they also will become one of the main diets of walleyes, this in it's self can lead to tough fishing. We have a walleye lake "Honeoye" by name and someone interduced alewives into it and the fishing decreased by 80%, the sample netting showed that the lake was full of legal walleye's.
Alewives are subject to extreme drops in temp., Honeoye was lucky in the respect that about five years ago there was a total kill of alewives in Honeoye. Most of the Finger Lakes have alewives and are an important forage for all salmonids. Thats my two cents worth, am planning on being at Pymatuning in May..."

They were lucky enough to get an extremely cold winter to kill them off. Otherwise, you'd have to stock some kind of fish like a pike or striper to eat them all. That obviously would have a negative effect on the rest of the fish in the lake.

Once the walleye get big enough that they aren't being eaten, they turn the tables and gorge themselves on the alewives. Therefore, they grow like crazy and are hard to catch. That is why we've been seeing much larger/fatter fish than ever before, Problem is, once there gone, there are no little ones.

Bottom line...once alewives have been introduced...good luck!

walleye33

[eyes on ice]

Great info. & post! I think that hit the nail on the head!! Don't you wish the people who introduced them to pymy. would have done a little more research? Shame on them and the salaries we pay them....

[Buckeye]

Wouldn't it then make sense that running baits that imitate saw bellies should produce?

[eyes on ice]

Guys do ok April-June running lead core and hot-tots. Trolling is like snaging or netting fish to me. I don't see the skill. Bottom line is the numbers are way down and the future looks worse.....

[Buckeye]

Ahhhh. Another "purist" snubs his nose at trolling! Actually when I posted my comment, I was not referring to any particular method but if I were going to fish Pymatuning during open water season, I'd certainly come prepared to troll.

I think it is a noble thing to handicap one's self by limiting equipment and technique to satisfy the desire to give the fish a chance. But at the same time, I don't file off the barbs on my hooks or tie flies on the tailgate of my truck either. I like the taste of fish way too much for that. I fish to catch fish and will use whatever method is best for the conditions and body of water.

I have never snagged a fish trolling, but have foul hooked many in my years of jig fishing for walleyes. The only time trolling resembles netting is when the fish is at the back of the boat and is ready to be dipped.

Non-trollers say trolling requires little or no skill and is boring. I can't argue with that if you are referring to just letting a line out a ways and dragging it around.

SUCCESSFUL trolling is quite the opposite. It requires a solid understanding of the fish you are targeting, a fair bit of knowlege about electronics, equipment, baits, and the ability to figure out how to put a bait in front of the fish with precision. (Style, color, depth, and speed). This is especially rewarding on a dead calm day, when the folks casting are sitting still honing their sheephead and white perch catching skills.

[carpetbagger (unlogged)]

No skill at trolling?? are you kidding?...taking a bait getting it to run at a target depth when taking into consideration current, speed, depth of water, dive curves...not to mention running 4 rods at once....a consistant troller is a science...especially for the elusive walleye.

Grant it on pymatuning i am pref a jig fishermen..i like doing it, but puttin out the lead core and tots on a day where nothing is working can make ur day go to skunked to enjoyable...

on erie there is no better method to catching walleyes in open water.

i definatly respect what you are saying, but to say trolling is like netting i would have to agree cause it loads the boat with fish...lol

CB

[eyes on ice]

I didn't mean to upset you guys. I have a 26 foot boat I dock at Conny. I troll most of the summer. I use and prefer other methods at the smaller lakes. And like it or not it does require more skill. It is more of what fishing is about. AGAIN, i also troll but don't enjoy it nearly as must and it does not take as must skill. Most would agree......

The point of the original post was the change and problems with pymy. Stay focused so that a solution can come about. Call the state and hatchery and demand results. I have.

[Buckeye]

I was just poking fun at you....

Getting back to the subject at hand, walleye33 made an interesting comment about a lake in NY having success rates drop after introduction of sawbellies while netting surveys showed healthy populations of walleyes. I don't know much about Pymie other than where it is located (I turkey hunt nearby) but after reading this thread, it is obvious there is a problem that has yet to be identified.

The reason I posted the idea of pulling baits that resemble alewives is, to borrow a phrase from fly fishermen, "match the hatch". That might shed some light on whether the stocking program is a sawbelly feeding effort, or vice versa. If the latter is the case it would be a situation that is simular to the one walleye33 described in Honeoye. There is so much for adult 'eyes to eat that they won't take traditional presentations.

A netting survey by ODNR would shed some light on the big picture.

[carpetbagger (unlogged)]

its pretty simple...i remember catchin 30-50 fish myself in recent years past on pymie. Sure maybe 5 were legal, but u caught fish and the days were enjoyable jig fishing the ledges...now i dunno what changed so rapidly, but the fishing quality has decreased GREATLY in a very very small amount of time.

I strictly fish erie June-September, but i love pymie April-May. it seemed like I went from gettin maybe 40 keepers a year (sping only) outa pymie to gettin maybe 14 in like a year, and it certainly isnt for lack of effort. Its pretty obvious the numbers are greatly reduced in this lake...no matter if its cause of alewives or the fish kill...the fish are just not there in the numbers as we all have experienced in the past.

The fish are like scattered amongst the weed beds and u really gota work to get a few. it seems as if all the ones u do catch are of keeper size, but the numbers just arent there....i never have put much time in in June-September, and i understand those seem to be good months for the trollers, but i just cant drag myself away from erie.

CB

[carpetbagger (unlogged)]

its pretty simple...i remember catchin 30-50 fish myself in recent years past on pymie. Sure maybe 5 were legal, but u caught fish and the days were enjoyable jig fishing the ledges...now i dunno what changed so rapidly, but the fishing quality has decreased GREATLY in a very very small amount of time.

I strictly fish erie June-September, but i love pymie April-May. it seemed like I went from gettin maybe 40 keepers a year (sping only) outa pymie to gettin maybe 14 in like a year, and it certainly isnt for lack of effort. Its pretty obvious the numbers are greatly reduced in this lake...no matter if its cause of alewives or the fish kill...the fish are just not there in the numbers as we all have experienced in the past.

The fish are like scattered amongst the weed beds and u really gota work to get a few. it seems as if all the ones u do catch are of keeper size, but the numbers just arent there....i never have put much time in in June-September, and i understand those seem to be good months for the trollers, but i just cant drag myself away from erie.

CB

[Fishin Musician 1]

Well put CB. I really do think that all the carp have something to do with it. When I moved out of Bay Shore in 03, there were ALOT of carp around and not much more.

Hope it recovers!

[Vex]

Had to laugh at the 'trollin' requires no skll' thing. Admittedly, trolling dipsey's/spoons in vast open spaces with huge suspended schools of 'eyes isn't rocket science. However, inland trolling can be a whole different beast. With 'eyes frequently oriented to the bottom, it can be very challenging. Throw in stumps fields, submerged log jams, and changing contours, one can see why casting is preferred by some. It's much simpler.
For the record, in the days when B.A.S.S. events were just starting, they were dominated by Spoonpluggers. Ray Scott asked Elwood "Buck" Perry, who invented Spoonplugging/contour trolling, how to prevent the Spoonpluggers from winning all the events. Perry said the only way was to outlaw trolling at the B.A.S.S. events. The rest is history. Kind of a shame. The sport was essentially dumbed down. The pitchers/flippers/casters were unwilling to learn and take the sport to the next level. Precision contour trolling while 'straining' depths, Spoonplugging, is an art that few are willing to make the effort to learn.

[KillitGrillit]

Actually, if the truth be told, today, tournaments on Lake Erie and St. Clair do use "trolling". Many of the guys bass fishing in the tournies are dragging their tube lures while using their bow mounts, especially on flat days. It has gone on for years. I asked a director one time why the pitch to the guys with kickers about no trolling in his tournies...the bass monkeys are doing it with their electrics. Of course, being a bass guy he didn't understand.

>Had to laugh at the 'trollin' requires no skll' thing.
>Admittedly, trolling dipsey's/spoons in vast open spaces with
>huge suspended schools of 'eyes isn't rocket science. However,
>inland trolling can be a whole different beast. With 'eyes
>frequently oriented to the bottom, it can be very challenging.
>Throw in stumps fields, submerged log jams, and changing
>contours, one can see why casting is preferred by some. It's
>much simpler.
>For the record, in the days when B.A.S.S. events were just
>starting, they were dominated by Spoonpluggers. Ray Scott
>asked Elwood "Buck" Perry, who invented Spoonplugging/contour
>trolling, how to prevent the Spoonpluggers from winning all
>the events. Perry said the only way was to outlaw trolling at
>the B.A.S.S. events. The rest is history. Kind of a shame. The
>sport was essentially dumbed down. The
>pitchers/flippers/casters were unwilling to learn and take the
>sport to the next level. Precision contour trolling while
>'straining' depths, Spoonplugging, is an art that few are
>willing to make the effort to learn.
>