Freeze

[Ted]

Here we go, she's going to ice over. Will there be any open water ice fishing on the Western basin? What does a nice icing do for the for the spawn and the fish population in general?

[wakina]

Here we go, she's going to ice over. Will there be any open water ice fishing on the Western basin? What does a nice icing do for the for the spawn and the fish population in general?

With the extended forecast there is no chance for open lake ice becoming thick enough. And it is to late in the season to have any chance also. I don't know how the spawn success will be, but feel it will probably be OK. That is not the problem, getting them thru their first season will be. There are a ton of walleyes in the lake right now that are turning 1 year old and they will raise hell with the fry and fingerlings this year! Those yearlings are ravenous so I personally do not look for a successful recruitment of the 2016 spawn. I feel the late summer early fall trawls will reveal a well below average recruitment.

[whitecapper]

History has shown that late ice usually results in an above average spawn. See the past couple years.

[wakina]

History has shown that late ice usually results in an above average spawn. See the past couple years.

Yes it does appear that a solid ice over does contribute to the success of the spawn. That is what I believe also. The biologist are studying that fact right now. The spawn is different than the recruitment and that is probably why there is no scientific data to support that ice over theory.

A successful spawn is when there are enough fertilized eggs that survive to hatch. Recruitment is when at least some of those hatched eggs live to a larger size, from fry to fingerlings and on into adulthood. With last years hatch and recruitment being the 5th largest on record there will be a very very large number of those fish hatched last year to decimate not only the walleye fry and fingerlings but also perch and all of the other fish that spawn in the lake this year. It is believed that the large hatch and recruitment last year led to the shortage of emerald shiners experienced late last summer and fall. It has happened before! The lake, even with all of its abundance, can only support so much life before the natural process(predator starvation) sets in to lower the number of fish to a more sustainable level.

ON EDIT: One must also remember that there was a very large yellow perch hatch and recruitment last year, that large yellow perch hatch and recruitment will be adding to all the other survival problems faced by any fish hatched this year.