Weekend Waywayanda Trip

[Capspath83]

Originally Posted by bulletbob

Typically, if a lake is full of landlocked alewives and there are trout and salmon in that lake, they will key on alewives to the exclusion of just about anything else.. they don't relate to structure or lesser food sources..
Trout and salmon in nature are stream fish.. Stocking programs over the years have made them lake fish, and they have adapted.. Most trout/salmon lakes are loaded with alewives, and thats where they go in such lakes, swimming right in among the balls of baitfish.. They become strictly pelagic and no longer eat natural trout food such as insects, crayfish, small minnows, larvae of various types, worms, etc..They eat the food thats most calorie efficient, and with easiest access. When I lived in NJ I tried using other minnow types in Waywayanda, .. Nothing touched them while guys with herring slayed trout... Same here in the Finger Lakes.. Trout and Landlocks ignore shiners and fatheads. You wouldn't know there were trout in the lake until you put an alewife on the hook.. Up here alewives are call Sawbellies.. On a good day you might catch a small freshly stocked trout or salmon on a fathead, but the keeper size fish generally don't hit them.. I suppose you could try fatheads, but in all the years I have fished I have done nothing with trout or salmon using smaller minnows in big lakes that have good alewife populations.. Your mileage may vary of course, but IMHO, lures are a better choice than "off brand" minnows on alewife eating trout/salmon... bob

Much appreciated insight Bob. Thanks for all of that. I am definitely going to use Herring the next time I go in September or October. I will just need to find out how deep they are at that time. My fishfinder, granted it is over 20 years old, did not even pick up the fish that I was catching that day.