11-06-2019, 03:23 PM
[quote Cowboypirate]Maybe just the camera angle but thier bellies look pretty chunky. Did you happen to pop them open to see what was on the buffet table they were munching on?
I can likely guess based on what bait indicators you were searching for with the finder, but I have been wrong often.[/quote]
[#0000FF]Virtually all of the perch over about 10 inches are females. And at this time of year their tummies are filling up with large egg masses. That accounts for a lot of the visible girth. But two of the fish I brought home also had small shad. I suspect they are slurping up the late spawned shadlets that are dying in the cold and because they have not developed mouth parts to allow them to feed on anything but the disappearing zooplankton.[/#0000FF]
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[#0000FF]This picture is from a couple of years ago when a trip coincided with a shadlet dieoff. The little tykes were floating to the surface and the birds were going crazy. Almost like a wiper boil...without the wipers.
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[#0000FF][inline "BIRD FOOD.jpg"]
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[#0000FF]I did not see any dead floating shad on the surface yesterday. Nor did I see any tern or gull activity that would indicate a current die-off. The fact that the water temps are already well below 50 suggests that the dieoff probably happened last week and there are still just a few remnants for the scavengers.[/#0000FF]
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[#0000FF]There are few remaining shad bait balls in most areas. And where you find them you will often find predators in the vicinity. Kinda like following a food truck around for when you get hungry. [/#0000FF]
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I can likely guess based on what bait indicators you were searching for with the finder, but I have been wrong often.[/quote]
[#0000FF]Virtually all of the perch over about 10 inches are females. And at this time of year their tummies are filling up with large egg masses. That accounts for a lot of the visible girth. But two of the fish I brought home also had small shad. I suspect they are slurping up the late spawned shadlets that are dying in the cold and because they have not developed mouth parts to allow them to feed on anything but the disappearing zooplankton.[/#0000FF]
[#0000FF]
[/#0000FF]
[#0000FF]This picture is from a couple of years ago when a trip coincided with a shadlet dieoff. The little tykes were floating to the surface and the birds were going crazy. Almost like a wiper boil...without the wipers.
[/#0000FF]
[#0000FF][inline "BIRD FOOD.jpg"]
[/#0000FF]
[#0000FF]I did not see any dead floating shad on the surface yesterday. Nor did I see any tern or gull activity that would indicate a current die-off. The fact that the water temps are already well below 50 suggests that the dieoff probably happened last week and there are still just a few remnants for the scavengers.[/#0000FF]
[#0000FF]
[/#0000FF]
[#0000FF]There are few remaining shad bait balls in most areas. And where you find them you will often find predators in the vicinity. Kinda like following a food truck around for when you get hungry. [/#0000FF]
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