The round goby brown trout connection

Because of the exceptionally good spring brown trout fishing in 2007, I fully expect the 2008 spring fishing to be as good or maybe even better. last year the 2 year old age class of browns were very abundant and big for their age. This year those now 3 year old fish will make up a big portion of the catch and these fish should weigh between 8 to 14 pounds. I am not sure why the brown trout are doing so well, but I just read an article in In-Fisherman magazine by Marc Wisniewski entitled "The Brown Trout Goby Connection" and I think that the he may be on to something.

In this article the author explored the connection between great lakes brown trout and the round goby a small bait fish that was introduced into the great lakes by Ocean going freighters. When the gobys were first discovered it was all glom and doom but now it looks like the brown trout in the Great lakes are using this little invaders to their advantage. In the magazine article Marc Wisniewski reports on how he is catching brown trout using tactics that would be better suited to smallmouth bass fishing. All of his observations and much of his conclusions we based upon personal observations he made using an aqua-view underwater camera. These findings may explain why our brown trout fishing in the Eastern basin of Lake Ontario has been getting better every year with more and bigger fish being caught.

If you have an opinion on weather brown trout are eating gobys or not I would like to here it. Post a comment or drop me an email. Thanks Capt. Bill VanWormer   

Florida fishing

Barbara and I are currently in florida waiting for the weather to break so we can return to upstate New york and get back to fishing.
We spent a week in Cortez Florida and while we were there we went to the Star fish company for lunch. When you go there for lunch you can't be in a hurry because lunch usually takes at least an hour. While we were waiting we were sharing a picnic table with another couple and as usual the conversation got around to fishing. Even though the Cortez fishing festival was scheduled for this week end and Stu had company coming, he offered to take me fishing on Sunday. The fishing was great but the catching was slow. The company was outstanding and I did manage to catch my first bluefish so I had a great time. Stu has a blog at cortezfishing.blogspot.com and if you are going to be anywhere on the Florida gulf coast check out his site for news and information as I found him to be very knowledgeable.

Spring is coming and so is the brown trout fishing

My wife Barbara and I are currently in Florida enjoying the warmth and sunshine, and at home in upstate New York it is 7 degrees today and snowing and blowing. It sure is nice not to have to deal with the winter weather and I know it is selfish, but I am glad that they are getting a decent amount of snow up home. When we have a winter with lots of snow and cold the next spring we have a great spring brown trout season. When the snow melts and there is a lot of run off entering into the lake, it carries with it lots of nutrients into the lake which attract a great deal of bait fish. The bait fish in turn attracts predators which means good brown trout fishing closer to shore. If there isn’t a good amount of snow fall and if a mild winter happens to coincide with an early spring then there is nothing to keep the browns close to shore. They will spread far and wide in the lake making it a lot harder to find them. But It doesn't look like there is going to be a early spring this year there has been plenty of snow and winter is still holding on.

Spring Brown trout fishing on Lake Ontario

It really took some work to get the boat the Lucky Dutchman II ready for launch this year. The weather in upstate New York has been miserable with snow and cold. I had planned on launching on the 15th of April but it took till the 19th to get it in the water and on the 20th I had my first charter fishing trip. Normally I like to launch and fish with my grandkids before I take customers fishing, so I can check everything out. This year because of the weather that was not possible and the only thing I needed that was not on the boat was a pair of needlenose pliers. Thankfully my angler Mark Murphy had a pair with him. We fished just East of the Oswego River Harbor in 10 to 20 feet of waqter and we ran smithwick and rappal stickbaits on the surface lines and Michigan stinger spoons set shallow on the downriggers at 4 and 6 feet down. We caught all the browns that we wanted to keep and then we played catch and realease for a while. This past saturday was equally as good and after catching and releasing browns most of the morning we decided to try and catch a King Salmon, so we left the shallow water and trolled in the 30 to 70 feet of water. We had one bite in the deeper water but that fish didn't stay on the hook very long. Altho I haven't caught a King Salmon yet this year, a couple of the other Captains from Oswego have and the biggest of those fish weighed in at 18 pounds. All in all the fishing this year is living up to the expectations and I expect the fishing to get better and better as the weather settles down and Lake Ontario warms up a little. Catch you later. Capt. Bill VanWormer http://www.luckydutchman.net

Up Comming fishing season

There are a few things that I try to keep track off so that I have a feel for what is happening with our fishery. one tried and true indicator is how many small jack salmon follow the mature salmon into the river during the fall run. The more small jacks that run in the fall the more mature salmon there will be next year and last fall there were a lot of small jacks returning to the hatchery so this years mature salmon should be plentiful. One of the most important things that I watch is how well are bait fish are doing. There are a couple of trawlers on the lake run by the Federal Fish and Wildlife and the State Department of Environmental Conservation and their job is to sample the bait fish and report on how well the bait are doing. At the present time there are at least two good year classes of alewives which are the primary bait fish in Lake Ontario. I have saved the best for last. The round goby is a small perch like fish that was introduced in to the lake by Ships from Europe. They are being preyed upon by Cormorants. With the abundance of gobies in the northeastern end of the lake the cormorants are not flying down to Mexico Bay to eat our small trout and salmon like they were. The result is more and bigger trout for us to catch.
Barbara and I are looking forward to seeing all of our old friends again this year and we are hoping to make some new friends as well.
If you wish to contact us give us a call at 1(800)368-4467 or e-mail at luckydutch @earthlink.net
Catch you later. Capt. Bill