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Posts: 246
| Hi All, Do the bait fish stay on or near spawning grounds all the way till ice up? Do they keep spawning until ice up or do they stop at a certain temperature? Any input would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Gman |
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Location: Green Bay, WI | Check out the (free) online version of Becker's Fishes of Wisconsin, specifically page 333. More than you ever thought there was to know about Lake Herring (Cisco).
http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/EcoNatRes/EcoNatRes-idx?ty...
EDIT: Check out page 337 as well. There is no direct mention of how long the fish stay on the spawning grounds, but there is an indirect hint here:
Spawning occurs at night. It is accompanied by considerable jumping and playing. The fish rise to the surface, occasionally in pairs, and sometimes in trios composed of one female and two males; the female emits spawn on each rise, and the males, smaller-sized than the female, simultaneously discharge milt. The eggs are broadcast and settle to the bottom; they receive no parental care.
So this implies that once the spawning activity is finished for the fish, they likely vacate the spawning grounds. The text did also say that spawning activities can last from 2-6 weeks, starting sometime between the end of October and mid-December.
TB
Edited by tcbetka 10/8/2017 6:45 PM
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Posts: 409
Location: Almond, WI | From what I've read the best way to put it is it depends. They don't guard nests, yet at that time of year temp and oxygen are favorable so they could be anywhere in the lake they want. Some will likely straggle behind, most likely go back deep. Of note, whitefish, perch, bullheads, and suckers will predate upon the cisco eggs, so there should be some forage concentrated in the area. |
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Posts: 409
Location: Almond, WI | Oh and the temps I've read for them are ~45F for whitefish peak, ~39F for cisco peak, but it seems to vary a bit lake to lake. |
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Posts: 1828
| Any insight on where they would spawn on a smaller, heavily-weeded lake? There's a lake with emergent veg around the entire shoreline - 90% is lilypads, maybe 10% bulrushes along the slightly-harder-bottom areas. Along the drop off (which is steep everywhere) there's cabbage, coontail, etc. Basically no gravel or rock anywhere. Lots of ciscos. Where would they spawn?
Edited by jaultman 10/9/2017 10:46 AM
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Location: Green Bay, WI | Hit that link I posted above, and read the 3-4 page section on the Coregonus spp. You can also download the full section on PDF. It's over 45MB in size so I can't upload it here. But it talks about their preferred spawning habitat in some detail, so you should then be able to apply that information to your specific lake and come up with the most likely spawning location(s) to target.
TB
Edited by tcbetka 10/9/2017 11:30 AM
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Posts: 1906
Location: Oconto Falls, WI | A lot of "crap" in this thread. Go to page 3 though, and look for JBush's response about mid way down. The Gretzky line hits it on the head! JBush's response also answers your question about spawning continuing until ice up.
http://muskie.outdoorsfirst.com/board/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=69...
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Location: Green Bay, WI |
That's actually a pretty great thread, especially regarding the fish vision material. I haven't talked to Dr Jerry in YEARS, since we both attended the MI International conference together. Great guy.
Steve's material on color under water was fantastic--and I even found a copy of the Sosin book for $6.85 on Amazon just now...in "Used - Very Good" condition, and with free shipping! Oh, and I also clicked on the "shoaling" link!
Tell him what he's won, Johnny!
TB |
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