Today's bows on the Island

beernut

Well-Known Member
Went out with a buddy from Hamilton and my boss from work for some rainbows on the Island. Started off the trip with 3 deer running out in front of the truck..a doe and twin fawns. Tried to snap off a couple of pics but this is all I got.
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Well we launched the boat and headed to the spot.....all I can say is the bows were on fire...double and triple headers for the entire time we were fishing. Landed between 50-60 bows, 3-9 lbs between the three of us in under 3 hours. Kept only the fish that were bleeding...leaving with our limit of 6.
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Got home to get a pic of our catch! can only hold 4 of the 6!
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Heard some ruckus and discovered 2 wild turkeys..one jake one hen near a fence on the property!
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Needless to say we had a blast today!
 
Nice, very nice. Would they be remnants of the fish that escaped the enclosure last year?? By the looks of their tails, I would think so.Same thing happened with the native pens on Colpoy Bay a number of years ago too, and we had an absolute blast as well.:D
 
quote:
Originally posted by big guy

Nice, very nice. Would they be remnants of the fish that escaped the enclosure last year?? By the looks of their tails, I would think so.Same thing happened with the native pens on Colpoy Bay a number of years ago too, and we had an absolute blast as well.:D

Judging by the guy with the CIA hat, he could be undercover investigating the break :)
 
Well considering every year they seem to have escapees from the pens I imagine they are from there. But hey...the more that escape...the better the fishery gets!
LMAO doubt anyone is investigating the net breaks...other than fishemen looking to get an awesome catch!!!
 
After a gazillion fishing trips over the years, we've concluded that if the wildlife are active, the fishing is always good. If we saw deer, turkey, coyotes etc. on the way, we knew we were in for a good day.
Not sure what the trigger is but when the animals are active, the fish are too.
Nice fish guys.
Thanks for sharing.
 
quote:
Originally posted by dropshot

After a gazillion fishing trips over the years, we've concluded that if the wildlife are active, the fishing is always good. If we saw deer, turkey, coyotes etc. on the way, we knew we were in for a good day.
Not sure what the trigger is but when the animals are active, the fish are too.
Nice fish guys.
Thanks for sharing.


I've noticed similar co-relations between animal/ bird activity. Especially when the weather changes drastically and the turkeys group and huddle together when the weather goes for a crap with blizzard conditions. The fishing just dies on the creek. If I hear hawks calling or see heavy deer or migratory bird movement fishing in the fall at least turns up, way up.

Stick

DSC00152.jpg
"Rivers are living things, sometimes swollen and discoloured, other times thin and anaemic. Spend enough time around a particular river, you learn to read its moods, like a spouse reads a partner."

Gord Ellis ONTARIO OUT OF DOORS
 
When driving to your favourite spot check the cows in the fields too. If they are lying down fish in isn't good. Grazing cows mean feeding fish.

That's what I've heard anyway!
 
Its Manitoulan Island...and the bows probably did escape long time ago...the most recent net break was almost the other end of the island.
 
Most of the trout and salmon stocked fry in the great lakes are there because they don't reproduce enough to sustain their population that's why we have hatcheries to supply fry for our future sport fishin. I remember a year we landed a bunch of chinnooks off the pier in hamilton in september and one avid fisherman said they were new york stocked fish cuz of the clipped fin!
 
quote:
Originally posted by Johny2

Most of the trout and salmon stocked fry in the great lakes are there because they don't reproduce enough to sustain their population that's why we have hatcheries to supply fry for our future sport fishin. I remember a year we landed a bunch of chinnooks off the pier in hamilton in september and one avid fisherman said they were new york stocked fish cuz of the clipped fin!



That's dangerous and incorrect information Johny2. A majority of Steelhead (rainbow trout) Returning to Canadian streams ARE wild fish, not stocked. Same goes for Chinook Salmon, they DO reproduce quite succesfully and stocking on our side of the border is minimal.

I get tired of running into people on the rivers that think it's OK to take home every fish they catch because they believe Trout and Salmom are all stocked anyway, far from the truth......

The topic of this thread is a completely different situation, there are huge numbers of escaped aquaculture Rainbow Trout in some areas around Manitoulin Island. These fish are raised in pens and sometimes escape into the surrounding water, milling about and becoming very easy targets for anglers. These are different fish than the Steelhead that run most of our Canadian streams. They are bred for tablefare and are dumb as rocks. Most will exhibit worn fins from their previous captive habitats and many are overly fat due to being bred or genetically modified (triploids) for fast growth. Harvest of these fish is generally encouraged due to the potential damage to the gene pool of naturalized Steelhead if cross breeding occurs with these "mutants".

Josh
 
Well stated Josh. I couldn't agree more with all you've stated here.


Stick

DSC00152.jpg
"Rivers are living things, sometimes swollen and discoloured, other times thin and anaemic. Spend enough time around a particular river, you learn to read its moods, like a spouse reads a partner."

Gord Ellis ONTARIO OUT OF DOORS
 
quote:
Originally posted by Josh Roelofsen

quote:
Originally posted by Johny2

Most of the trout and salmon stocked fry in the great lakes are there because they don't reproduce enough to sustain their population that's why we have hatcheries to supply fry for our future sport fishin. I remember a year we landed a bunch of chinnooks off the pier in hamilton in september and one avid fisherman said they were new york stocked fish cuz of the clipped fin!



That's dangerous and incorrect information Johny2. A majority of Steelhead (rainbow trout) Returning to Canadian streams ARE wild fish, not stocked. Same goes for Chinook Salmon, they DO reproduce quite succesfully and stocking on our side of the border is minimal.

I get tired of running into people on the rivers that think it's OK to take home every fish they catch because they believe Trout and Salmom are all stocked anyway, far from the truth......

The topic of this thread is a completely different situation, there are huge numbers of escaped aquaculture Rainbow Trout in some areas around Manitoulin Island. These fish are raised in pens and sometimes escape into the surrounding water, milling about and becoming very easy targets for anglers. These are different fish than the Steelhead that run most of our Canadian streams. They are bred for tablefare and are dumb as rocks. Most will exhibit worn fins from their previous captive habitats and many are overly fat due to being bred or genetically modified (triploids) for fast growth. Harvest of these fish is generally encouraged due to the potential damage to the gene pool of naturalized Steelhead if cross breeding occurs with these "mutants".

Josh


Well the gobys in the greatlakes are from half a world away and boy did they populate every greatlake in a dedade.I agree with you,THEY MAKE FRANKENSTEIN FISH FOR FAST GROWTH.And hatchery fish can still spawn once their on the loose,i have personally witnessed a hatchery truck loaded with brown trout smolt empty thousands in 50 point marina.Large brown trout roam that marina all year round especially for the fall spawn,some hatchery planted yearlings must still make a successfull spawn.
 
Eh josh I hear ya,rainbows being bred into hybred that's fine for a awhile but when dna codes of weekness get bred into these trout and any other living creature,its called degeneration,I know what ur saying,that's why they lose ther scare scense or ability to fear bait. 5na of existing man or animal will literally degenerate to extinction if u read up on it!
 
Eh josh I hear ya,rainbows being bred into hybred that's fine for a awhile but when dna codes of weekness get bred into these trout and any other living creature,its called degeneration,I know what ur saying,that's why they lose ther scare scense or ability to fear bait.dna of existing man or animal will literally degenerate to extinction if u read up on it!
 
Well I am no scientist..or ever claimed to be...but I have fished the natural bows on Manitoulan and the ones near the pens. Maybe its the bigger water that makes them "dumb as rocks" as opposed to being spooky in a small stream enviroment. I found the naturals to be as aggressive on the feed as any of the escaped ones. We did only slightly better near the pens as we did in a few of the bays where the bows were headed upstram to spawn. Only actually caught a few trout with visibly worn fins....but naturals would most likely wear thier fins too headed up the shallow rocky streams on the Island to spawn....might find out when I fish them post spawn this year.
Now if we could combine the fst growth of the pen fish and the instinct of the naturals...think of the fishery we would have!
 
Remember wild fish eggs led to farm raised fish. Boars led to domestic pigs in a pen. Wild goats,carp,what were wild cows, canines were coyotes, foxes or wolves which led to our domestic dogs which led to domestic dogs. Science channel says when ancient man began eatin fat rich animal meat our brains became larger able to process more memory and thought because of animal fat,this is accepted scientific fact.
 
I agree beernut, open water trout can be very easy to catch, wild or not. Farmed fish however, are just not nearly as wary as wild born Steelhead. I've been on a buddies boat and drifted over schools of escapees in 15' of crystal clear water, getting bit consistently before our baits hit the bottom, that just won't happen with wild fish. Keep in mind that the escapees do not necessarily hang around the pens after escape. Your catches at the river mouths are quite likely made up of a large percentage of aquaculture escapees. It's not at all uncommon to have escapees show up on north shore, Georgian Bay and Lake Huron tribs especially in the fall.

All of the fish in your pics appear to be escapees to me. The first has a less than perfectly formed dorsal fin, funny looking adipose fin and a deformed upper edge on its caudal fin. The fish in the second pic with it's deformed dorsal and caudal fin as well as being overly spotted is a classic example of an escaped domesticated trout. A little hard to judge the fish in the rest of the pics but each appears to have a deformed dorsal as well. The severity of the deformations can vary greatly depending on how long fish spend in the pens and how crowded the pens are. This is not to say that a repeat spawning Steelhead will not exhibit healed fin damage but in my experience the damage is usually limited to the lower caudal and anal fins.

Most of the streams on the island are rather small and recieve relatively low numbes of Steelhead, hardly enough to produce the huge number days that can be had up there with reasonable consistency. Bringing 15-20 fish apiece to hand in a few hours is a real rarity on even the most productive streams in SW Ontario.

Josh

I'd like to thank Wojo - my hero......
 
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