SteelEyes

Holy cow did that reporter misinterpret what the scientists are talking about. The goby didn't save the snakes in the face of the reductions of the native prey fish. It was a primary cause in their demise and the snakes eat the goby because they are the food source that is left.

As Dan Duchniak states in his opinion piece, Lake Michigan water is the best option for Waukesha, since developing local water resources like shallow water wells, the Fox River, or using local reservoirs like Pewaukee all could have negative effects on the citizens of Waukesha. If they get to use water from Lake Michigan they get all the benefits, but get to leave all the adverse effects with the residents of the Great Lakes watershed. It's a win-win for them.

http://www.walleye.com/BoatsforSale.aspx

Got into town Friday afternoon and took the boat out myself to see if I could locate the fish. Went out of Ashtabula Lakeshore Park. Headed North-Northeast out of the harbor. Started at the 4 line and trolled NW to just beyond the 7 line. Got a lot of white bass, then got into the walleye at the 7 line. Was running 1 dipsey and 1 rigger. Got the walleye on the rigger at 50' down, 50' behind the ball on a Dreamweaver SuperSlim Spoon, Blue Monkey Puke. Dad and I got out Saturday morning and headed back to the same area, started between the 6 and 7 line, trolling NE with the waves the whole time. Trolled out to beyond the 11 line, so from 10-17 miles out in ~75' of water. Speed was around 1.8, but would be faster or slower depending on the wave surge. Ran 4 lines: 1 rigger, 1 wire line, and 2 dipsies. The rigger was 50'-55' down, running the bait 50' behind the ball, the same DW SS Blue Monkey Puke spoon. It got 2 small (~12") steelhead which we released, two 28"+ walleye, & one 22" walleye. Never changed the bait on this since it consistently produced. The wire line was probably 250-275' back, and started producing once we put the purple & white reefrunner on it (I think eriedescent). Got one ~28" and one ~22" walleye on it, and 1 big steelhead which shook off right by the boat. (Old man wasn't happy reeling in all that line only to lose it before the net even got in the water ) Only got one walleye on a dipsey, not even many junk fish on them. Tried a variety of baits on them, spoons, stickbaits, wiggle warts, etc. The one we got, ~28", was our last fish and we were then at the 11 line, was on a 1 setting 125' back, had brought it in and changed to a longer leader length of 9', and put on a Luhr Jensen 3.5" Coyote spoon, color Hot Dot. Not sure if it was the longer leader length, the spoon color, or pure luck that finally got us a dipsey strike. Note the spoon colors, both are silver backed, with darker colored fronts. Around 1:00 we started to try to troll back through the same area heading SW, but the lake was getting rougher and was hard to control the boat. Decided to head in before it got to rough. But think we could of had our limit if we had made another pass through. Just didn't want to take any chances for the long ride back since there was a Small Craft Advisory coming for late afternoon.

Went out Wednesday afternoon (7/3) and Friday morning for walleye, couldn't find a program to get them to bite. Fished from 60'-72', marked fish anywhere from 30' to the bottom. Markings were sporadic and based on radio chatter it was hit and miss for everyone. Seems like they aren't really schooloing up yet. Ran in and went back out for perch Friday afternoon (7/5) and had a 2 person limit in less the 2 hours. Couldn't keep the hooks in the water, often had a hookup before the bail was closed. 62' of water pretty much straight north out of the harbor. Went back out early Saturday morning to the same spot, started a little slow, but then got going again around 7:30am. Had our 3 person limit by 10:00 am. All real nice fish, with a good mix of big ones in the 12"-14" range. Used emerald shiners off of crappie rigs.

Went out for walleyes Saturday out of Conneaut Harbor. Was our first time out on the water, and our shakedown cruise. ODNR watercraft was at the public ramp and got a vessel safety inspection. Long week for us, so got a late start, fished 9:30 am until 4 pm. Surface water temps were around 60F, warm sunny day, lake mostly flat. We got skunked, caught 1 sheepshead. Fished anywhere from 58-71 feet of water. Marked the most fish in ~64 feet of water, suspended anywhere from 30-50 feet. Also marked some fish on the bottom, but guess they were sheepshead based upon the one we caught. Varied presentations from stealth to aggressive, ranged speeds from 1-2mph (GPS). Ran a variety of worm harnesses, spoons, and crankbaits. Trolled all directions versus surface conditions. Couldn't get a bite. Didn't see anyone else out there catch anything either. I have heard reports of people catching fish, and limiting out. Based upon everything seen and heard so far, need to get out in the morning before the fish go negative. Most reports I've read had everyone catching fish coming off the water as we were going out. Seems the daytime bite hasn't started yet.

Very cool. Hopefully they have some success in re-establishing ciscos and natually spawning Atlantics. If populations of Cisco come back in Lake Huron and Lake Ontario then we might also see some success in getting them back in Lake Erie.

If the cyanobacteria/toxic algae got into the 2 reservoirs on the Scioto in Columbus, Oh that provide drinking water for the city we might actually see some real moves at the state level to address agricultural pollution and finally fix/moernize all our serer systems.

Good. Hopefully this goes somewhere, but I won't hold my breath...

Fished a day and a half over the weekend. Put out of Padanaram launch both days and fished the north half of the lake. We drifted jigs with minnows or worms. Saturday was blue skys but low wind. Caught 4 walleye, 4 keeper perch, 2 crappie, and 2 big bluegills. No consisten location/structure for the walleyes, but more often than not in 10-12 feet of water. Sunday was overcast and a nice wind picking up to heavy wind by noon. Caught 1 walleye, 4 perch, and 5 big crappie. Caught the biggest crappie between the islands south of padanaram (two 14 inchers and two 12 inchers) when the wind was really blowing. We were drifting really fast, practically trolling speeds.

Hopefully the Mi DNR will have success with their proposed plan to stock Atlantics (as far south as Oscada if I remember correctly). I'd make an annual trip up for a mixed bag fishery that featured atlantics.

There are no 'kinks' to work out in wind power generation, it's been around for quite a while. The midwest has wind farms all over the place, they are up in the rocky mountains from California to Alberta, heck there is a 504 MW wind farm out in the North Sea. There are no engineering obstacles to overcome, no major efficiency technologies on the verge of development. There is an overabundance of power on the regional grid in both base and peak load generation. All an Erie wind farm would be is another unneeded peak load source among the glut of other wind farms that haven't been able to compete with other sources on the PJM and MISO grids. And wind generation can only be peak load generation as it will never be able to meet the legal/regulatory requirements in regards to reliability in order to be considered base load generation.

You got it, the power is needed so badly onshore that First Energy is shutting down 4 real power plants along the shore of Lake Erie. They are not worth upgrading do to the overabundance of power on the regional grid.

Even without the aesthetic impact, impact to migratory birds, power cables littering the lake floor, abandoned turbines in 30 years, etc. I don't see how they can justify 'giving away' public real estate in the lakes to private power companies. Especially when there are so many companies that made investments installing wind turbines on land throughout western Ohio, Indiana (& Illinois?) who will now be a a competitive disadvantage because they did the right thing and actually bought (or rented) real estate.

Although still more dams on the river, hopefully this will over the long term improve the steelhead fishing on the river as well as the native species.