5/3 Monroe and Burnham

[MattC]

Best day at the lakefront I have ever had!!! Started out in the morning heading over to Henrys to buy a fishermans parking pass only to wait for them to open which they were ½ hour late. When they opened I grabbed my number and picked up a pack of erie darter jrs and some 3/16oz mushroom jigheads. Soon they called my number only to find out that the park district hasn’t given them the passes for this month yet….crap now im going to have to pay out of the ass for parking.

Arrived at burnham harbor around 6:45 and forked over the $11 to park and decided to head over to Monroe harbor. Worked this area good with nothing to show for it, just a couple nibbles from gobies or small rock bass or something. By 9am I am done with this area and am thinking its going to be one of those days.

Next stop I walk back to Burnham and work the west wall. Lets just say I should have started off here because the action was almost non stop. And these weren’t dinks, they were mostly all quality fish. I stopped counting after about a dozen. You could barely feel the hits, they would just pick up the bait and swim off slowly so keeping an eye on your line was a must. Casting parallel to the walls and dragging the baits inches at a time is what caught all the fish.

Bait of choice

[Frank Macikas]

GREAT looking fish!! I have never fished the lakefront and have been talking about doing it for years. Maybe its time I should actually get around to it!

[Ken G]

I passed a link to this report on to Dale. I couldn't remember how to spell your last name so I sent him your phone and email in case he want's to talk to you.

I figured you wouldn't mind, hope I'm right.

[Special Ed]

Matt will make the blog.

That was a nice pile of fish Matt.

I am

[MattC]

Thanks guys, no problem Ken.

[Ed79]

Lakefront smallies LOVE themselves some gobies, don't they? I caught several smallies when the perching was slow last summer, by just tossing out a goby imitator and doing exactly as you said. They must really hate those fuckers. I think the gobies are why the smallies in the lake aren't "small" for very long. They're all getting to be monstrous out there.

I have to say though, there should probably be something in place to keep people from targetting smallies that are on their beds in the Big Pond. I have to imagine pulling one of them off their bed during spawn results in most of their spawn getting devoured, but I'm no expert. I'm not directing that at you, btw. I doubt any of those fish are spawning yet in LM. Just saying.

Were those fish starting to make beds yet, or just in and feeding like crazy?

[MattC]

I seen a couple making beds but the fish were not on them yet. Alot of fish just cruisin around and obviously hungry.

[Ed79]

I seen a couple making beds but the fish were not on them yet. Alot of fish just cruisin around and obviously hungry.

That's what I figured. Fucking gobies are a curse, and a blessing, all in one. Especially for the smallmouth population. I think they are an excellent food source for those smallies, but, on the other hand, they have to be cutting down on their population quite a bit. Though, the smallmouth population in LM exploded in the years prior to those gobies really starting to establish themselves, so, who knows really. I honestly think smallies are the PERFECT fish to stock into LM to deal with gobies. They are extremely aggressive, and they will eat almost anything. They also seem to reproduce quite well, and they like to inhabit the same areas gobies stake out. A battle between a goby and a smallmouth is really no contest, so eventually they should more or less wipe those fuckers out. If the smallmouth population ever starts to dwindle, I really hope they stock more smallies to deal with the gobies.

[Ken G]

Years ago when I was doing the Kid Fishing program and fished the lake all the time, we were finding out that everything eats gobies. Perch, salmonids, bass and even the pan fish pick them apart. We were all sitting around talking about how everything eats gobies on the day the Trib came out with an article about what a scourge goby were because they had no natural predators.

They apparently didn't talk to fishermen for their article.