Matching the forage - Alewifes

[EricCO]

What sizes, colors and types of crankbaits match an alewife?

I've never seen an alewife myself, but Big Mac in Nebraska is supposedly full of them and that is what the eyes are feeding on.

thanks for your help.

[Gabby_SD]

http://www.sarep.cornell.edu/Sarep/fish/Clupeidae/alewife.html heres a picture and discription hope it helps

[RANGER]

Eric,

Any of the "original" stick baits like the original Rapala's. The Storm's, Heddon's, Reef Runner's, etc. all have them. They are the long, thin baits and are best with silver/gold (depends on water) sides with a very dark back, usually black. Trolled mostly but can be "worked" through casting or hand held trolling. If you choose to impart movement (work your bait) to the lure, long sweeps are best. Try to troll them between 1 and 2.5 mph. Before you place the pole in the holder run the lure next to the boat, at your trolling speed, to see how the bait is performing. Adjust accordingly.


RANGER


"KEEP YOUR LINES WET, YOUR POWDER DRY and THE BEER COLD"!

[RANGER]

Come to think of it..........Last year I started trying a combination of my harnesses and Cabel's "Livin' eye" plastic minnows with pretty good success. I turned to this setup because I was losing tons of crawlers to the Sheepshead. I'd forgotten about that. I'll have to try it again this weekend!! I'm glad you asked! ;-)


RANGER


"KEEP YOUR LINES WET, YOUR POWDER DRY and THE BEER COLD"!

[cisco]

When alewives entered the St. Lawrence system, they created a new line of artificial lures -- the emergence of blue and silver is an outcome of the alewife invasion.

Incidentally, how could Nebraska have an alewife population without purposely stocking them? They are a salt water herring that runs river systems, thus the penetration into the Great Lakes. Some pickled herring you can buy in the stores is actually alewives.

If you had alewives in your waters, you would see them. They experience an annual die-off as mature spanwners. In numbers, they are a horrendous mess of dead, smelly fish on the beaches and shorelines.

For lures, however, look for silver with a tint of blue -- the blue and silver Rapalas are good imitations.

[Shindig]

Several reserviors in Nebraska are stocked with Alewifes by the Nebraska Game and Parks. They have done wonders for the reserviors they are stocked in as far as I am concerned.

I fish one of these reserviors several times a week and catch 99% of my 'eyes on crankbaits. Black and silver lures defenitely seem to outfish other colors on this particular reservior.

[eyewinder]

There are upsides & downsides.

Upside example: the walleye eat the alewives & get huge.

Downside example: (according to story in Omaha paper a month or so ago) if walleye weren't stocked in McConaughy, there would (probably) not be a fishable population -- the alewife apparently either eat tiny walleye, or outcompete them for food, or both.

Nebraska's cold, lengthy winter has apparently impacted alewife (and gizzard shad) recruitment in at least some of the reservoirs in Nebraska. The alewife hatch was apparently either late, or less productive, or both. It's been predicted that the cold winter would kill many of the large adult shad that developed during the past few mild winters, and predator fish would then feast on the increased numbers of young-of-the-year shad that were expected to fill the void.

This situation certainly doesn't appear to have hurt the walleye bite (thus far) this spring & summer -- it's been excellent for both numbers & size on several lakes.

[EricCO]

I hear you there. Fishing at Big Mac has been great. So far I've boated a 31.5", 24.5", and few 23" fish. All released.

I was there on Saturday and we were catching them out of 40+ of water dragging bottom bouncers and spinners on the bottom. We got the bigger fish Saturday on a Rattling Shad Rap taken deep with a rubber core sinker.

[GeneM]

Eric,
Was too hot for me up there over the weekend. Fished Friday night and Saturday night but stayed indoors during the day. Heard that McCook was 111 on Friday and 109 on Saturday. Worked the dam (along with about 30 other boats) on Friday and they went from 24 3/4" to 29". Did the same on Saturday but they were a bit smaller. High winds forced us off the water around midnight. This is the earliest in the year that I have ever work the dam after dark. Did not mind that a couple of boats anchored on the dam. They have just as much right to anchor there as I do to troll. What I don't understand is why a couple of boats insisted on trolling against the South to North traffic pattern.
I often snag alewifes while vertical jigging a spoon. Haven't
seen them yet this year. Leads me to think that the population is down from last year.
Will be seeing you at Glendo.

[HUSKER]

I live in Ogallala and have all my life. I grew up fishing big mac. I really believe that for whatever the reason the alewife are not there anymore. I hope this doesn't hurt our fishing in the long run. But back to the original topic. I like blue and black crankbaits the bigger the better,also hammered copper spinners with big blades.Hope this helps,also would like you guys opinion on the alewife situation.Good fishing!!!

[EricCO]

Here is what a NGPC officer says regarding Big Mac Alewife

"Sometime last February I began saying we should have some good fishing this spring and summer on our reservoirs statewide
because we had a real winter last winter, and that real winter would reduce the numbers of gizzard shad and alewives in our
reservoirs. Looks like that is exactly what has happened. Usually when this happens the baitfish populations quickly repopulate.
Actually this is the "ideal" situation because when you have mild winters much of the baitfish population (especially gizzard shad)
will be dominated by large, old fish that are too large for most predators to eat, and these large baitfish can compete with small
gamefish. Ideally you will eliminate most of the adult baitfish every winter and just enough will survive to produce loads of young
the following year. These loads of young baitfish ideally will remain small enough for predators to eat.

We are still waiting to see if that happens, and later this summer we will have a pretty good idea of what our baitfish populations
are like. Right now I am hearing a few reports that there are some young-of-the-year baitfish out there (like what you saw at
Elwood). As the summer progresses they will grow and there might be more of them show up so they will become even more
visible. The best I can say right now is we'll have to wait and see."

Daryl Bauer
Lakes and Reservoirs Program Manager
Nebraska Game & Parks Commission