Bluegrass 9/25

[JustinM]

Fished for a couple hours right before dark. We caught 3. 2 were shorts one was barely a keeper at 18". All throwing spooks by the grass. Now for the problem I have seen for a few months now on bluegrass. Where the heck did all the shad go this year?!?! Last couple years it's been loaded from spring to winter. You could always find just huge balls of shad. This year? Nope hardly any compared to last couple of years. I have noticed rather large schools of gar this year and have seen or known of a lot of 20"+ Muskie being caught. Could these two factors absolutely destroy the shad population within a year? Anyone else fish it enough over the years to notice the huge decline?

[fishNnut]

Musky will do a number on the shad, but every time the creek floods, more shad are going to be introduced into the lakes. I'd say they are still there, but didn't it flood pretty good earlier this spring?

[psvec]

i went yesterday and didnt have a fish, i fished for about 4 hours. my buddy had one about 15 inches. I did see a lot of shad up towards the small ramp. i was in my buddy boat yesterday, mine is in the shop, just hope east side doesnt screw me, had a noise in the lower unit

[JustinM]

There is some shad but nothing like years past.

[Moveon]

East Side is not cheap but I think that they are honest. I have spent a lot of money at that shop over the past 30 years.

As for the Muskee Eating the Shad question. They may make the shad change their habits to try to avoid these new predators.

But I wonder just how many muskies are actually in the lake that can eat the bigger shad?

Justin: can you see the shad balls on your Humminbird 798? If so is that how you know that they are not around as much as in the past?

Remember that yesterday we had a cold front come though and the air temperatures dropped from 95% F to around 60 Deg F in one day. That's got to drop the surface water temps a lot really quick. I wonder how that drop in water temp effected the shad's location in the water column?

I have not fished all summer due to the extreme heat. But I may get the boat back out and fish a little this fall. I want to do some more exploring of Bluegrass.

It's too bad we don't have a food source like threadfin shad instead of these gizzard shad.

In the Patoka Lake Walleye thread someone said that the walleye had dropped the Patoka Lake Shad population by 60%. Can't recall who made the post but they claimed that the IDNR said that the shad population at Patoka Lake dropped by 60%. They didn't provide a link to the source of that claim so I take it with a big grain of salt. But I thought I would throw that rumor into this mix.

I know that walleye will move in and take over the same spots that small mouth bass like to occupy. This I read about in the In Fishermen Book on Smallmouth bass.

I do think that it makes sense for a fish with bigger teeth to run off fish with smaller teeth.

Remember that fish living in warmer water can digest their food faster and will eat more food than in cold water. Fish grow faster in warmer waters too.

I would think that a 20" long Muskie could eat quite a few shad. Just not sure if they could eat them all but perhaps they can.

I am still learning how to read the humminbird display and see the fish.

i went yesterday and didnt have a fish, i fished for about 4 hours. my buddy had one about 15 inches. I did see a lot of shad up towards the small ramp. i was in my buddy boat yesterday, mine is in the shop, just hope east side doesnt screw me, had a noise in the lower unit

[JustinM]

Well I've noticed it all year. There use to be shad balls 15' across all over the lake last couple of years. Especially the main lake. Now you're lucky to see a ball 2' across. I see balls just fine on the SI, just not nearly as big. My guess is the shad population is 1/4 of the size as last year? Maybe I'm going crazy but fishing the lake at least 3 times a week makes you notice things. But with the large numbers of gar being seen and caught, the Muskie and healthy bass population I'm getting worried about food for the bass. Also I spoke to the CO that is always up there, forgot his name. But some sauger have been caught out of loon. I think the lakes up there are in for a huge change over the next couple of years.

[psvec]

mike is the co, he loves to fish for crappies

[Moveon]

mike is the co, he loves to fish for crappies

Mike Kellner? Yea he fishes out of that Lund boat for crappie on weekends. I've seen him fishing for crappie a lot on Otter Pit and Lund Pit. He likes to fish the grass edges for the crappie.

[fishNnut]

Mike could catch a crappie or walleye out of your bathtub.

[Moveon]

Mike could catch a crappie or walleye out of your bathtub.

If he did he would never tell where he got it. LOL The man just doesn't like to chat when he is getting ready to go fishing.

[fishNnut]

Probably because the guy gets to spend most of his time talking fishing and hunting when he is in the field at work. Most of the people they run in to are pretty stupid actually. I don't blame him for not wanting to talk. He is still as good of a guy as you will ever meet, can catch the heck out of fish and does his job well.

[Moveon]

He doesn't have to talk much. All one has to do to learn where he fishes is to watch him. It's pretty hard to fish at Otter Pit and keep out of sight.

I don't need to fish his spots as I have my own spots to fish.

He does his job well. And I understand that he doesn't like to talk much. If I were in his job I would do the same thing when I was on a break and out fishing.

I even helped him catch a poacher or two in the last few years.

I consider the CO's the good guys.

I'm not fishing much these days anyway. Today I did put the Registration stickers on my boat and put the boat registration paperwork in a safe place. I aired up the boat trailer tires and clean the oil off the lower unit. I didn't take the boat out today as it was pretty windy and I didn't feel like going fishing today. Perhaps I'll take it out this next week.

I can't eat fried fish anymore so I am not that interested in catching fish to eat these days. Beside I did pretty good this spring and still have a lot of fish fillets in the freezer.

I figure that with hunting season here that Mike and the other CO's are pretty busy people these days.

Probably because the guy gets to spend most of his time talking fishing and hunting when he is in the field at work. Most of the people they run in to are pretty stupid actually. I don't blame him for not wanting to talk. He is still as good of a guy as you will ever meet, can catch the heck out of fish and does his job well.