9:16 AM
Matthew Supinski's Gray Drake/Selectivity/Nexus Blog
After my nice long discussion with the" Doctor" of Great Lakes forage base knowledge- Chuck Madenjian at the USGS in Ann Arbor, MI, who does the trawl netting bait fish sampling of the lakes, despite a long-term uncertainty with the alewife population- which has always been severely cyclical, he was very optimistic about the 2014/15 year class of alwives . It is something charter captains have been noticing despite doom and gloom data collections from Chuck.
The last few steelhead I have caught guiding are showing signs that that they are feeding heavily on that year class, along with other bloater chubs, sticklebacks, gobies- and more recent in the diet mix: the growing perch, sculpin and smelt populations, which are on the increase, along with anything they can get their mouth around. Warmer lake temps translate into more aggressive/active feeding, rather than passive/dormant states of predator behavior, like we have seen in the past two brutal Polar Vortex winters . (#Selectivity).
Yesterday we saw one of a series of half dozen "solid' decent sized females/males that were more of the shape of what we are used to seeing on the Muskegon- large and rotund- not thin and undernourished like we saw at the beginning of the fall .
(January 28th- well proportioned hen steel)
( Jan/2016- well proportioned male- Dr. Zaccheo)
Despite a dismal fall, by early December , we started seeing hefty steelhead, with body shapes that indicated excellent forage and growth.
(Here are Dr. Davidson and the Steelhead Queen in December /2015 with some gorgeous well proportioned females from the 'old mold cut'.)
This bodes well for a strong spring run since the fall run was weak due to warm and low waters in November. ( weak fall runs have translated to 'stronger' spring runs in past history- but not always!) Later running gives the steelhead extra time to pack down on bait fish during the December/January period as they approach shorelines with river effluent/power plant discharges, which attract bait- like Consumers Power plant on Muskegon Lake were bait stacks up- especially with a mild 'el nino' winter.
Our trout have also been feeding heavily on the Muskegon, and especially the Big Manistee below Tippy , which is loaded with an insane population of 12-16 inch brown trout , and should be great size by the time the first salmon sac fry hatch and the first egg laying female stone flies are on the water in April/May....lots of good stuff to look forward to! Remember, everything has been running "LATE' for the past two years with the massive Great Lakes ice overs and cold temperatures- nothing new! As global warming heated the rest of the planet, the Great Lakes were in a virtual ice-age.
For more interesting reading, here is an excellent article explaining more of the story.
( Are Lake Michigan steelhead this size still possible- we will see very shortly)
Cheers!...hope to see you in 2016!- very optimistic about this spring based on what we are currently witnessing .
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