Tufts Lab

Now that the water has warmed up we thought it would be a good time of year to share our video How to Fizz a Bass. The Smallmouth will be moving deeper and we believe tournament anglers catching fish from deep water should consider fizzing them if they will be holding these fish for extended periods of time in their livewells.

There has been a lot of interest in our Walleye tracking project and we thought it was time to share some early results on our Facebook Page. This post shows the general movements for some Walleye tagged in 2018. Note that these interpreted movements are predicted from receiver detections and do not provide exact locations or represent all Walleye in the waterbody. Still, we find them pretty interesting and hope you agree.

If you're angling in Zone 20 this season please remember to keep an eye out for tagged walleye. Ideally, release them. They are providing us with some great information that will help manage the fishery. If you retain the fish, please call it in and we'll arrange to get the tag back. There will be some interesting updates about this project in the next few days.

As a follow-up to our most recent post about the timing of the closed season for bass on Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River, this post is providing links to some interesting reading about the potential impacts on recruitment when nesting bass are angled for those who are interested. One is an article in lay terms by Gord Pyzer and the other is a scientific publication from Dr. David Philipp’s research. Scientific Publication by Philipp et al. http://www.fecpl.ca//uploads/2014/02/PhilippEtAl_BassBook_

Most anglers that fish Lake Ontario and the St Lawrence River realize that many Smallmouth Bass are still at various stages of spawning when the bass season opens on the 3rd Saturday in June. For the past several years, we’ve been conducting research to accurately determine how well the current closed season for bass is working in these waters. For the years 2015, 2016 and 2017, our research shows that the number of Smallmouth nests where fry have reached the swim-up stage av...erages less than 10%. In fact, the opening of bass season is often occurring at the peak of the spawn for Smallmouth Bass when most males are guarding eggs or bottom fry. We’re providing this sample video to show how susceptible these guarding males are in this clear water. While the impact of angling and quickly releasing these fish is still debated, the effect of tournaments at this time of year can be substantial. In addition to publishing this science, we’re making it broadly available here as part of our effort to correct the timing of this closed season. Hopefully, this video will be shared and stimulate discussion around this important topic. See more