ah...some of them get kinda skippy hahaha

Yes, Loby, Quinte was quite productive for Claire and the gang.  Jimmy and I didn't get to go, **** thing that has since been changed.  209 'eyes or something like that over 5 days.  Ralphie had the biggest at 14 1/2#.
 
Alewives were originally stocked to be a forage base for the 'eyes.  The problem is, you need BIG predators to keep the adults from eating the fry of desirable species.  Lake Ontario is chalked FULL of Alewife and it produces lots of walleyes each year, especially in its eastern basin.  The 'eyes aren't as dramatically affected by them due in large part to the fact that our good friend MR. CHINOOK finds them quite tasty and keeps numbers of adult alewife predated. 
 
A perfect living case study of the affect of Alewife can be found in Saginaw Bay.  Lake Huron's Salmon fishery crashed in the early part of the 90's because they basically ate themselves out of Alewife.  Now that the Alewife population is decimated, the walleye and perch populations in the Bay have flourished with incredible hatches in 2003, 2004, and 2005 and the walleye fishery is UNBELIVEABLE.
 
 

I haven't been on line looking at this site for a few days. I made a comment about carp impacting the fishery in a negative way. Although I am sure a carp would eat fry or eggs given the oportunity, that is not the primary reason carp in large numbers impact a fishery like Pym. Any body of water can only support so much biomass of fish before water quality deteriorates. Carp is a very tolerant species, being able to live in warm,over fertle, and lower oxygen conditions. They rout on the bottom  keeping the water stirred up. Also they eat vegetation changing the presence of some desirerable cover and photosynthisis. Think of the huge amount of nutrients that are injected into the lake from the carp feeding alone. They are considering the negative impact of Pa's trout hatcheries on the streams they are located on, why they still allow the carp feeding in Pym. to continue I will never know. The lake is changing and noone can stop that, but the siltation and heavy nutriant load that Pym. has endured for so long has to be adding to its eutrophacation. As the lake changes so will its ability to harbor specific fish species change.

I fished PYMY last night till 4:30 am Tuesday,water is cold maybe 38 -40 degrees,ice just off whole lake,Monday Pa.FC just set there nets on the crap side for eye egg gathering,They only half 5 days to get those eggs,so I hope they do! Fishing was tuff( do to the local crowd that never leaves the spot),but once in Bullifter and I limited out by 4:30.Only room for one of us to fish so he'd catch one then it was my turn to catch one,only thing so he was getting them in the mouth and I wasn't,he limited out by midnight,and it took me a LONG time,12 fish caught in the mouth and several foul hooked fish released. If you don't think Pymy doesn't have huge fish,should have seen the hogs last night,they would equall fish out of Erie.Several in the 8 to 9 lb class. My biggest was 29 inches,and don't go there it went home( just like any local boy would do).Like I said on a earlier post,I will not release a fish that is legally caught any more,so it can be caught and taken home by the around the clock 24-7 local gang.One more trip for me and Bulllifer and the gready locals can have them all to themself,they seem to hate it that a guy can travel 80 miles,spent a lot of money on gas,and catch THERE EYES,I love it,love to rub it in.

If we get a few consecutive sunny days next week, the slabs ought to start firing up in the back bays!!!!

ORIGINAL: carpin05

I would like to rub something in their face....
That is the problem..GREED lake erie too last year some one said they had to empty the freezer to make room for more eye's....
Keep shoveing your fat greedy face's and some day you will want to taste a walleye and your fat****will have none!!!!!

WOW Now thats funny carpin. But it really is'nt you are rite.

Ill be up the weekend of the 11th if the weather is fair.  I hope the water temps, rise it seemed like dead water besides the shad i seen.  seen tons of them. last weekend.

REF,Im a old timer(not that old 56) I've done the spillway thing since the 1972 but stopped doing it in the early 80's,because I fished Erie and really didn't need Pymy eyes,stopped fishing Erie in 94 or 95( buddy and I sold the big boat) but I kept all the toys down rigger rods,tons of long A's.ton of spoons,NK's,dipsy's,down riggers,planner boads.Two or three trips a year to Pymy is all I do,take kid and show him what the spillway is all about,we hit Erie a couple of times a year with a buddies big boat.I really love to fish,but my line of work,doesn't let me fish,from late April till November,so I've got to take what I can,I mostly ice fish to tell you the truth.Sorry to get off topic,but every time is different on the wait to fish the spillway,just be ready for a long wait,if you've been there only 5 or 6 guys can fish each side ,don't go there with a short rod,9 to 12 noodles are a must,waders or hip boots,lanturn,long handle net, good assortment of Vibe-E,or sonars,cidadas.They do snag alot of fish(do not keep them,no matter how huge they are) there is always a warden there,or under cover snitch,so do release your foul hooked fish.You can get them to hit the lure,I've found dusk to dawn to be best,but have limited out in 45 min.in the day under right conditions.This is a short thing,its over first week in April but may last a little longer this year because of cold temps and high water level.The local,s will move ,next to the causway and fish the underpasses next and pound the snot out of them for a couple more weeks.I just wonder what the hell you do with 200 or more eyes a year? My son and I keep about 50 eyes a year,from Pymy and Erie,and we can't even eat(50) that many,I always give several bags away to family or friends.The sad part is some of the locals brag about the numbers they get and still have the nerve to say they got tons of fish in the freezer from last year.I don't care if you caught a 1000 eyes if they get eaten,but the waste and gread thing bugs me. No the spillway thing is not for everyone,but why let the locals think its just for them?The last 5 years the fish are quite nice alot of males 19 -23 inches and really big sow females up to 30 inches,there are NO small fish,this is a problem,you will not see a sub-legal eye,Pymy was a great lake,trolled many years with hot an tots, it still can be great,but they got to figure it out,I'd start by taking out as many carp as possible,net traps,bow contest,carp fishing contest,what ever,and stock the hell out of it with fingerlings not fry,and get Ohio to stock eyes also,carp may or maynot eat the eggs and fry,but just all the waste,they put in the lake has to really be bad,along with siltation problems,the lake can only support so many fish(so while let it be carp).

As soon as its done at the spillway,next stop causway,best from a boat,anchor under the bridges and same program,Vibe-e's,the locals will be there! They got to get ther 200,should get them till around trout season opener,did well in the past years fishing sand bars in the lake with jigs and twister tails but don't think it that good any more( a lot less) eyes. Hope this helps,a good tip,if theres alot of cars or boats, there doing it,this is like hitting the lotto for the local boys,they love THERE EYES,so get your butt up there and get some of THERE EYES,I'm leaving in a couple of hours, to drive 80 miles and help them catch some of THERE EYES,I'm pretty sure this will be my last trip this year,first trip 7 keepers between son and I big fish of trip 26 inch female,second trip 12,two limits (son and I) big fish of trip 29 inch female,thats 19 fish from 18 -29 inches.Almost up to are quota,24 fish,the locals need them more than we do,good luck. BIG TUNA     P.S. over heard locals talk on the Monday's trip take one of there bud's got two fish under the causway one night sat or sun. When it done at spillway,it starts at causway.

Does anyone know where to get current water temps, on the net???????? thanx..

They should just close it off and end all the contraversey.

Just take the wire past the old tracks so you could not wade to the old bridge. There is so deep of water past that, then you,ll have 25 boats on the wire.

LOBY,no need for that,I,m sorry that I used the word locals in a negetive manner,their are quite a few VERY NICE LOCALS,its just this certain group 4 or 5 guys that LIVE on THE WALL,I've seen them their every time i've  been their in the last 5 years.Fished Wed eve to Thurs day morning,long wait,9 boats,some so close I could tickle them with my noodle rod,two boat did very well,(they sort of cut us off) but thats fishing.Started good but died,tough bite,but son did ok,he got 6(in the mouth)and I got 2 that I kept(I snagged quite a few and released all),the great PYMY brown trout where thick ,last night we must have got 30 of them. I saw 5 or 6 sub legal fish caught last night( good sign) I got one aroud 15 -16 inches in the mouth and released it.Well 3 trips this year 7,12,8 fish= 27 eyes thats enough for us,I think it may be winding down,I had a great time( very amusing trips). I was their the night of the hand gun thing.it was just some young kid,saying he was going to shoot some geese,and he pulled out his hand gun and started to wave it around,not to cool but no big deal,the warden came later and wanted someone to be a witness and press charges,but no one did,the kid was from Texas. Again I'm sorry I seemed to put the locals in one negetive group 99 % of you guys are good guys it's just the 1 % that can cause some trouble.I hope the lake gets turned around and I hope to be back next year for the walley rodeo,Tuna

Chauncy,would you like Shenengo closed during the crappie spawnding period ? Its the same thing in a way,they should put wires all around your brush piles,You take more fish out of that lake than 50 guys do and I could care less.You fish hard and do it right,just like MOST OF THE TRUE EYE GUYS,WE DON"T WANT TO SNAG EYES,BUT GET THEM TO HIT AND KEEP LEAGALLY CAUGHT FISH. Take it a step farther,closed down spring turkey season,deer season in the rut,ALL SPAWNDING SEASONS OF FISH,EYE RUNS,STEELHEAD RUNS,CRAPPIES,PERCH and so on,maybe you can see things a little different.WE ALL HAVE TO USE ARE JUDGEMENT ON WHEN  to KNOW HOW MANY FISH SHOULD WE KEEP,I,ve seen your  post on keeping 2500 crappies from the lake.Did you get enough? I'm not THE KEEPER,all the walleyesin PYMY don't swim to the spillway to spawn,

Well you were the one to say lets move the wire...we all know they won't. It's to easy for them to stand up there and make countless fines. The other night they got i think 3 guys in boats so thats about 300 bucks or more. then they got soemone else fishing on the other side of the wire. They were actually talking about extending a some sort of dock there so people could fish off of it. Now who knows he could have just spinning yarn. But the lake, on that side, is supposed to be able for everyone to fish..and not make more stipulations on "ohh you cant fish that channel...those walleyes are in there now". I liked seeing the small fish, very few..but liked seeing it. looks like some of the stockies made it.