The Big June Nor'easter and fishing
What a storm! :eek: The Big Nor'easter flooding the entire Western Basin, pushing the water levels up to flood stage. I'm sure we'll get some great photos posted in the high water photos thread.
Both the Miller and Kelley's Island Ferrys shut down all day Saturday. I'm sure that was a big financial hit for the islands, happening on a summer weekend. A lot of docks and piers were under water all along the shorelines along with flooding. Some wind gusts were near or at 50 MPH.
The effect on the fishing? Once things calm down expect the fishing to essentially start over. During the storm the high wind direction when from East to North East to North from Friday late night through most of today (Sunday), not significantly dying down until this morning but still windy through most of today. It will then switch around to the west but be light. The currents this storm caused really stirred up the Lake. In some places the currents switched almost 360 degrees during the storm. Cooler bottom waters in the Central Basin that were mostly stationary got pushed around and some were pushed a little way into the Western Basin. The surface waters were cooled just a little from the cooler air temperature and this water was forced down along the western shores and moved by current back east. Water temperatures may drop a degree. The take away is the entire water column in the Western Basin has been completely stirred around and mixed with some water from the Central Basin. This is unusual for summer.
The water clarity in the entire basin is also really stirred up along with muddy rain water from the rivers. Expect the clarity to remain poor for days, probably most of the coming week. The first areas to clear up will probably hold walleye. This means the shallower rocky areas (reef complex and around the islands) with lots of zebra and quagga mussels may clear first, along with the West Sister Island area that gets the clearer Detroit River water. It is possible the fishing could be good close to shore again for awhile.
I have little doubt the walleye, and most fish species, got moved around a lot. Once things calm down the walleye will move to find water conditions they prefer and begin searching out prey. This means the hot fishing spots could be almost anywhere this coming week. It will be very interesting to see where the first fisherfolk that get out will find them.
Let's hope this is the last big wind event this summer and the Lake will get back to a more "normal" weather pattern.
