Why did the lakers quit running??

I thought the lakers were on the rebound bigtime, and as for big browns when I used to work on the lake I personally weighed 2 fish that were 29#s and saw a ton of fish well over 20. the average brown was between 5-12#s, man when your used to an average of 12 inches, that gets the blood pumpin.

Good info. MS....

While I am certainly no fisheries biologist however some things I do take notes on. The lake trout used to be the nuisance fish to the charter captains back in the early 80’s. They were as said here so plentiful they would follow the salmon up river (which is why we seen them in the rivers) . Lake trout are not stream spawners but spread deposit their eggs over rocks & bolder areas in depths of about 40’. Now here is where my thoughts come in… Around the mid 90’s (first found in the GL’s in 1988) these little things called zebra mussels started collecting on the very rocks and depths that lake trout used to spawn.. I have heard good (they filter out pollution) & bad (the destroy habitat) but the 1 thing I know for sure , The lake trout population on Lake O went down. So now we fast forward about 10 years and have found another invasive :
The Round Goby. Gobies take over prime spawning sites used by native species such as lake trout.
So why some fish may be thriving on invasive species such as, smallmouth, perch & walleye others are threatened.
Just my thoughts…

Now the Big Brown theory :
In no way are the browns today the same footballs of the years past. Football browns were the claim to fame for the spring trollers on the Big lake. Today we are seeing more river fish and the more typical long slender browns that a stream angler is accustom to. Sure a big hog will still swim the waters , it’s a big lake but anyone who has fished there long enough has to see the difference.

So How Big Is That Fish ?
I would never doubt someone’s word but a fisherman’s size of a big fish always seem over estimated. The excitement of catching what may be their biggest fish ever sometimes changes the reality of the actual size, heck I do it all the time… That Fish Was HUGE !!!! We see it on TV all the time, “that’s a 6 >7 > 8 pounder son” But put a scale on it and it can be humbling to see that giant weigh so less.
I have caught tons of what I would call big Browns, Steelhead and Salmon on the SR but honestly my biggest brown was 11.2lbs, steelhead 14.8lbs salmon 32.11lbs. To me they are HUGE… An average brown is 4lbs, steelhead 6lbs, salmon 20lbs.

Just a guess how big do you think those 2 browns are in the picture above ??? (no telling tippy-toe)

Dang. I heard a big blast of Coho's went earlier in the week too. I coulda, shoulda, woulda made the trip.

HT- those Browns are 3 pounders. I won't go as high as 4. What you think?

The slot limit really devasted the Lakers. Seen many floaters on the lake. Bag limit that is in place now has helped. 2/day and only one slot.