palyo

Was a great day of fishing yesterday. Lost 5 beautiful bows, and landed a 12 lbr rainbow and a nice 4 lb brown. What would you think the bow is? hen or male?

I'm not much good at weight guessing. I caught a 23" male bow at Port Albert last week. What do you estimate a male bow 23" long would weigh?

They don't seem to be very good for bait anyway. I went fishing near the Shand Dam Wednesday evening and finally caught a trout after 5 or 6 skunkings. It was only about 10 - 12 ". Unfortunately I caught a bunch more gobis. The last couple times out I've used the gobis for bait but nothing biting them. There are so many of them that the big fish can eat all they want whenever they want so they don't seem very effective.

I went fishing in downtown Fergus Sat. evening. Caught 2 more Gobi's. Used them for bait for a while but no luck. This is at least the 5th consecutive trip between Fergus and Shand Dam without seeing a trout, much less catching one. Sat. night there were 2 other fisherman. They caught nothing either. I will get skunked (meaning no trout) maybe twice a year. (I fish the Grand an average of once per week. To go 5 or 6 times in a row without catching anything but Gobis is very worrisome. They are moving downstream fast. I"ve been fishing that part of the Grand for over fifty years and never saw a gobi till a couple of weeks ago. Now that's all I catch.

This comes as a surprise to me.I was under the impression the the gobis arrived in the bilge water of freighters that came to the Great Lakes. I thought dams and natural obstructions prevented them from moving upstream in places like the Grand. I fish between the dams at Dunnville and Caledonia quite often and have yet to catch a gobi in that stretch of river. Shand is upstream near Brantford or Cambridge isn't it? If they're up there then I'm sure they can float down to where I fish easily.
I buy my minnows from reputable bait dealers and have never come across gobis in my bucket. I guess maybe people who catch their own minnows may have transported them upstream too.
As for disposing of gobis, which the MNR instructs us to do. I usually cut their heads off and place them in a plastic bag and then toss them in the nearest trash barrel or bring them home and bury them in my garden. I have heard they can survive for some time out of water so I never toss them on shore as they may flip back into the water.

Alfie.

I contacted the MNR and was told there had been other reports on the Grand. I heard from another source that they got into Lake Bellwood by fishermen emptying minnow buckets. They could not have come upstream from Lake Erie due to waterfalls in Elora and Fergus. They're a horrible looking little fish. The suction cup on their bellys is really odd. If you plan on fishing the stretch below the dam to the first bridge before the end of the season I suggest using something other than worms. It's amazing how many worms they can strip without getting caught.