Open Water Salmonids Information

Hello everyone. This is going to seem like a very out of place thread being as it's steelhead season and all but I don't plan on waiting until spring to start my research. Anyway, as a little (well, relative to big state funded research) project I'm doing on my own time with the bulk of the research taking place from now until mid April, I will be attempting to create very in-depth fishing charts/maps that will show as detailed statistics as possible for anglers wishing to target Salmonids in Erie during the open water season. This chart/map will be for the PA waters of erie and will include as exact of a depth as I can find for a very specific area, bottom contour (and substrate, if I can determine it), average surface water temps for different times of the year, and what species of Salmonids have been recorded in general areas within the last couple of years (so no, I'm not asking all you pros to give away the coordinates of where you caught a 25 pound laker, but if you want to PM that to me I'd be very appreciative :) haha). The reason I've decided to create these maps is because while there is an abundance of resources and references for walleye and perch fishing in the lake, there are only a small handful for fishing the open waters for steelhead, lake trout, brown trout, etc and I'm hoping that these charts will help out anglers who wish to target these amazingly strong, hard fighting fish. I plan on making five charts to start out, including ones for the entirety of the PA waters, offshore from the point, the mountain and the deeper waters north of it, the trenches, and the west side trib mouths (I may do the east side tribs too at a later point). The species of fish I will be attempting to pinpoint on these charts will be Lake Trout, Steelhead, and Brown Trout primarily, as well as any of the less common Pacific Salmon (Chinooks (Kings), Cohos, and Pinks) we have in the pond if anyone reports catching any recently.

So basically what I'm looking for from you guys out there is the number (or an educated estimate) of each species of Salmonid (if you have a rough or specific range of sizes for length, girth, and or weight as well and would like to post that, that would help progress these charts along quicker) that you caught outside the channel of Presque Isle Bay at any point this year up to now in the PA waters of Lake Erie (again, these include Lake Trout, Steelhead, Brown Trout, Chinook/King Salmon, Coho Salmon, and Pink Salmon). Feel free to share as little or as much information on the fish as you'd like, though I completely understand not wanting to disclose your best spot(s) to the public. If you only want to include the number of each species you caught, that's completely fine. If you want to include where at (roughly or specifically) they were caught, depth, water temperature, bottom contour, substrate, and anything else, that's fine as well. If you want to PM me any info, that works well too. Most of the very specific info you give on your fish will not be included in the charts that the public will see in the form that you give it, I will just be using it to plot fish patterns, such as what structure, substrates, depths, etc that the different species tend to associate with.

Thanks for your help on this project guys, and I will be posting all of these charts here for public reference as soon as they are finished! With any luck, we'll soon have a great reference for fishing for open water trout and salmon!

-Sean


Also, for anyone who is interested, this is my personal tally for open water Salmonids for 2015. We are new to trolling starting this spring and have only been using two rods all year off downriggers, so that's why the numbers are so low, same for walleye haha, hopefully four rods next year with a wider spread will bump the numbers up.
-11 Steelhead (The Mountain, off The Point, The Trenches, and 1 in the bay bottom bouncing for a mixed bag)
-5 Lake Trout (The Mountain)
-1 Chinook/King Salmon (The Mountain)

I can never figure out how to upload images here so here's a link to the picture: http://www.roughfish.com/...t-images/image_454.jpg

I thought it was a steelhead for a week or so but then I realized that Steelies don't have black mouths and cohos don't have spots on the entirety of their caudal fin haha.

Bump.

eyedreamn
Water temps in the low to mid 40's in the spring time is laker pound town. Once you spend a little more time out there the honey holes will show themselves....

As the lake warms and the water gets into the mid 50's the fish start to dissprurse into deep dark depths. At that point let them go. Start looking again late October.

A down probe is very useful. The surface temp doesn't mean much for these bottom dwellers.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RsLkX7NUUrU

Great video! What were you guys using for bait, think I saw a few spin'n'glows right? I didn't know there was a second season for Lakers! I know they're supposed to spawn in mid or late October but the little I've heard from people is that the Lakers in erie aren't spawning for some reason.

Lakers spawn. The issue is the survivability off the eggs/offspring. Our lovely human race has pumped enough sh*t into the atmosphere that now there are chemicals in the lake that kill off the offspring.

The gobby also reeks havoc on the eggs. The lakers spawn in rocky areas. The gobbies move in for meal time.

The biggest preditor for the adult laker is the lamprey. A good portion of the fish we catch have lamprey marks on them. Im not sure if the lamprey have been shaken off during the fight or the fish did it. Ojce the lamprey gets fully rooted the survivability of the fish is very very small....

The lamprey population is currently out of control. The great lakes cold water commitee has recorded record levels of lamprey.

Thanks for the chart links guys!