Great Lakes trivia thread

[Tig]

I don't think Champlain was the first European to see all of the great lakes, just the eastern part.

We had a plaque in the village commemorating his visit here. I always wonder is he set foot in my yard or if he paddled by, heading upstream.

Anyone remember the alewives die offs in the 60's and 70's.
PEW!
Miles and miles of beach littered with dead fish. EW!!!

And once the stink was gone, piles of the very sharp bones remained on the beaches.

Anyone remember the blue pike (walleye)? It became extinct around the same time we were stuffing the lakes with splake, coho and whatever else we wanted. I never liked the fishtank approach to stocking the lakes. We have some fine native species.

I've always wondered what the true native species are for the Great Lakes.

 

[MossRoad]

And once the stink was gone, piles of the very sharp bones remained on the beaches.

Oh yeah. OUCH! I remember trying to build sand castles as a kid and digging into piles and piles of bones. No fun!

 

[Brad_Blazer]

Guess....Lake Michigan?

Correct! The seaweed was on Green Bay, 4th of July. It was hot and the cottage didn't have A/C so we swam and had a big seaweed fight. Had to wear shoes because the bottom was rocks with zebra mussels. Lots of seaweed but the water was clear. You could see the gobies swimming on the bottom. There's a growing whitefish fishery there as the whitefish feed on gobies.

 

[Deerherd]

Anyone remember the ailwives die offs in the 60's and 70's.

PEW!

Miles and miles of beach littered with dead fish. EW!!!

The NYS DEC made a great decision to stock Pacific coast salmon to combat this problem in the 70's and has turned Lake Ontario into the greatest fishery for salmon, Lake trout rainbow and browns in the US. Plus it cleared up the beaches of the mess!

 

[jimmyj]

Anyone remember the blue pike (walleye)? It became extinct around the same time we were stuffing the lakes with splake, coho and whatever else we wanted. I never liked the fishtank approach to stocking the lakes. We have some fine native species.

I've always wondered what the true native species are for the Great Lakes.

My book has a bunch of info on the Blue Pike. I'll dig it out and post today.

 

[jmc]

So now there's a huge imbalance of native species VS non-native species, directly caused by the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway.

My now dead fishing buddy used to be famous for his malapropisms. He always called it The St. Lawrence Freeway. Guess he was right!

(Malapropism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

 

[nybirdman]

I live on the St. Lawrence river,the Seaway hasn't been all bad.Non native Gobies,Zebra mussels have;cleared up the water on the river and provided a great food source for the game fish.The size of both the walleyes and small mounth bass has increased.Just this week(DEC.2012) three friends of mine caught 20 walleyes,one nite fishing,that ranged from 7-13 lbs.
It used to be very rare to catch a five pound small mouth bass and now it is common place.Legal Muskies are now 44 inches and about 35lbs.Few people keep these large fish but they sure are fun to catch and fish for.

 

[MossRoad]

You ever see the zebra mussel infestations at power plant intakes? Yikes!

 

[Tig]

The zebra mussels seem to have reached a balance here. They are about 40% of peak (my observation). Water has returned to the previous clarity (or lack there of) and the previously dominant and then all but wiped out weed species are making a come back. They are only 1% of what they were, but for ten years they were gone. Time will tell if the weeds and the fish return to their previous locations. As it stands now we adapted to fishing pickerel 2 to 4 feet deeper. Partially out of convenience of avoiding the new deeper growing weed species.
The seaway is an awesome fishery. Around Morrisburg, smallmouth schools hovering at 25 to 30 feet in 50' of water makes for great day of fishing with 4lb test line.
Down river in Bainsville and St Anicette the perch fishing is equally incredible.
We fished a lot of Musky in Ottawa and used to fish Summerstown on the St Lawrence looking for that big one. My buddy did get a fat 48" one fall day.
I've visited the 40 acre shoal in the islands during family vacation, but I've never fished that are seriously. Just fun to float around legendary waters.
I now live on a bay off of lake Ontario, Pickerel fishing is great and a couple times a year I break out the musky gear and go play. Patterns are very different here I've not been able to locate one close to home. Maybe if I figure out the baitfish spawns I may be able to find one visiting the bay from the open lake.
I wonder about the salmon that come to spawn here. Are conditions right for them to actually reproduce or is this just a stocked, put and take species?

 

[MossRoad]

I live in South Bend, IN. The St. Joseph River flows south out of Michigan into Indiana, then turns 180 and flows north again back into Michigan and empties into Lake Michigan. We have a pretty good salmon and steelhead fishery here. The fish do reproduce naturally, but most don't survive. The Indiana DNR captures fish in the ladders and raises the fry for stocking. They also trade to other states for walleye to stock here. The St. Joe is a great walley and small mouth fishery as well. Plus lots of cats and good bluegill and crappie in the channels/slack waters. The river used to be a polluted ****-hole but has really cleaned up over the years. There are 5 dams with fish ladders that the salmon and steelhead traverse before hitting a big dam in Mishawaka that stops them. Overall, its a great place to fish from both boat and shore.