Quote:
Originally Posted by reason162
Great smallie Gerry!
I've heard many people say zebra mussels + gobies have dramatically improved smallmouth waters throughout their range. 30lb+ bags are normal for pro tournaments now...where low 20s won tournaments couple decades ago.
Sometimes I catch a skinny summer smallmouth and wish we had gobies in NJ.
|
Absolutely incorrect.. The bass are WAY bigger, its true as they gorge on the Goby hordes.. However, the Bass numbers are a fraction of what they used to be.. In Cayuga Lake I used to regularly catch 20+ SMB in a few hours while fishing for panfish.. Could not keep them off the hook.. This is every trip, in all seasons,, They are about gone now in cayuga ..
Haven't caught one in years, and the fishery for them has collapsed pretty much.. Anyone that says Gobies and Zebra mussels have "improved" the fishing has no idea what they are talking about.. I suppose top flight pro bass fishermen that could catch bass out of a toilet might like the new much larger average size, but most every day fishermen have found a lot less fish to catch of all non Salmonid species.
The only fish not impacted numbers wise are the trout and salmon that are stocked. The Gobies eat the eggs and fry of everything else, and simply out compete other species due to their highly aggressive behavior. The Zebras eat all the plankton that the alewives eat. These lakes have been ruined as far as I am concerned, unless you like to troll 100 feet down for trout, which is not how I like to fish.
Bottoms are simply paved with Gobies sitting on a bottom completely encased with billions of Zebras... No longer any sign of spawning Bluegills, Rock bass or Black Bass , where at one time, the beds covered the bottom as far as the eye could see.. Nothing but Zebras now from 1 fow to over 400 feet. Not what I would call dramatically improved by any stretch of the imagination... A quick pic of what our lake and river bottoms look like today..
This video is real.. if you drop a worm into the water it is attacked on all sides by hundreds of gobies.. Thats what spawning fish have to deal with.. No you do NOT want these bastards in NJ...
bob
https://www.caryinstitute.org/sites/...fact_sheet.pdf
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeqgjvGC6qs
