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Brutal Winter-Will It Affect The Spring Bite ?


knightfisher

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I'm thinking ice out will be later this year.

Will this delay spawning in some species ?

Do you think this will change the timing of the spring bite ?

Wondering what your thoughts are.

:Gonefishing:

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Won't affect the pike. With late ice up north, pike will spawn despite the ice. Same with perch. As for the other species, it all depends on water temp. Spring can be late, but if it's heats up fast, the delay can be minimal. Too many "what ifs" to really say. Fish don't look at a calendar.

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I think there are many veritables at play ,like water depth , bottom structure and fish species . Some protected shallows may warm up quickly and some fish will move in to spawn . I found this old pdf on the Great Lakes fish spawning temperatures . Some fish have much greater temp. range for spawning .....Last year was cold and the ice was thick & I believe the spawning was delayed 2 or 3 weeks later than average . I expect the same this year .....

these are old stats but may still be accurate ......

Table 3 Season, range of water temperature and reproductive guild for Great Lakes fishes. Ranges

given indicate temperatures above and below which a species will not spawn. Reproductive guilds

correspond to Balon (1975) as follows: A.1 open substratum spawners = broadcast; A.2 brood hider

= hide; B.2 nest spawners = nest. Other information is indicated with a c and details are given in the

'Comments' column. For species marked with an asterisk (*) inferences about relationships have

been drawn. n/a = not available.

Common Name Season Temperature

°C

Reproductive

Guild

Comments

lake sturgeon spring 13-21 broadcast

longnose gar spring 19-29 broadcast

spotted gar spring 21-26 broadcast

bowfin spring 16-19 broadcast

alewife spring 13-21 broadcast

gizzard shad spring 16-25 broadcast

rainbow trout spring 1-18 hide

Atlantic salmon fall 6.7c hide cpeak

brown trout fall 7-13 hide

arctic charr fall 0.5c hide credd construction begins

brook trout fall 2-13 hide

lake trout fall 3-14 hide

lake whitefish fall 1-12 broadcast

cisco fall 2-5 broadcast

bloater winter n/a broadcast

kiyi fall n/a broadcast

shortnose cisco spring 4-5 broadcast

shortjaw cisco fall n/a broadcast

pygmy whitefish fall n/a broadcast

round whitefish fall 2-4 broadcast

rainbow smelt spring 1-18 broadcast

northern pike spring 2-18 broadcast

musky spring 8-18 broadcast

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spring bite will be there...but high flows might push steelies back in a hurry in some tribs. Seen lots of bass last year still guarding the beds on opener.

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spring bite will be there...but high flows might push steelies back in a hurry in some tribs. Seen lots of bass last year still guarding the beds on opener.

i seen the same thing last year with the bass the water temp took a long time to warm up last summer and quite sure it will be the same this year

but will have to see what spring brings but i heard that March is going to be cold this year and as i said in a post before i think we will be ice fishing

in April like last year so it will have an affect on some fish but for how long it depends on water temp

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I think the late spring is even much better for pike and walleye fishing. Anyway bass is closed up to July and late early or spring doesn’t affect bass fishing.

The pike and walleye opener is 1st or 2nd Saturday of May. if it close to pike spawning time we may get some luck.

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I've found on the Detroit river the late winters only keep the anglers off the water longer due to ice flows. Most of the big girls have spawned out by 1st week in April regardless of temp. We fished april 15-20 last year and only caught 3 females. Over 200 fish caught easy. I'm sure other areas could be different

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