I am not sure about the rest of you but I am in amazement about how few baitfish I am seeing. I suspected the super high water right in the middle of the spawning cycle would hamper the spawning of some fish but not as severe as it appears now.

I am usually seeing piles and piles and piles of freshly hatched dace, bass, walleye and pike but this Spring I have seen 17 individual fry in 35-40 hours of river fishing. Typically, the only year of reduced spawning success I had previously noticed on this river translated into a very good fishing year.....especially for trout and walleye.

The water was not just high this Spring but the highest I had ever seen it in my 19 years here. All islands were completely submerged and weed growth is way down too. There were no areas for the fish to successfully spawn with an extra 5-7 feet of water to contend with for such an extended period of time. From the time the water temps were in the low-40's to upper-50's, the river was raging.

(The Kinzua walleye bite is on fire this year as well an I am hearing mixed reviews of decreased bait populations there too . With the huge DAV walleye tournament coming up this weekend, it will be interesting to see how many limits come to the scales.)

After the outstanding days of trout/walleye fishing we had this past weekend, the lack of "food" has to be the primary reason. The bite lasted all day long with the early morning period being the worst period for action which is abnormal. The largest fish were caught when the sun was high and canoes/kayaks passing in front of us. Go figure.

It is going to be interesting watching this unfold just to see if things remain "hot" or was it just a lucky few days.


Is anyone else noticing a decrease in new fry this year??