Quinte Fishing

I was fishing with my son off my friends dock on the Bay yesterday. I was amazed on how many Round Goby's there were. I can see now how the mnr is worried that they will out compete native pan fish. We caught at least 6 Goby's for every 1 panfish. And talk about aggressive some times they were jumping out of the water before we put the bait in. We easily caught over 80 in an hour and a half worth of fishing. Although my 5 year old did manage to catch a 3 pound large mouth and a 1.5 pound large mouth. He did have fun catching the Goby's and i did not have a problem killing them but there is alot in the Bay now. Is there any body else seeing these numbers.

I work too far away from home to see them, and was amazed at the numbers in your report. Hopefully like many introduced species, their population will crest and taper off to some degree.

Regards
Don Stokes

gobies, yuck, I banned my wife from using bait in anything connected to lake ontario because of those things, they look like some strange deep sea creature, actually they are from the sea aren't they?? Never had to deal with these when we lived in Sudbury, even more annoying are zebra mussles, they snag you and break you off. I've noticed on one of my outings that smallmouth will attack gobies sometimes fatally injuring them, I watched this as I stood patiently in the river fly fishing. I saw a 17" bass come up and bite one and leave it all messed up, started to drift downstream belly up. I sure hope that walleye aren't eating these things, cause I know alot of people in belleville like to eat walleye.

Hello hoser
I found your comment about the bass attacking the goby most interesting.

Given that I am working a considerable distance from home in the Bay of Quinte area, I would welcome hearing from other people that have observed or are ware of this sort of occurence (fish attacking and/or eating the goby). I have been under the impression that they were for the most part something that would not be too palatable for other fish given its fins. Thanks for posting hoser.

Regards
Don Stokes

I have not actually seen a bass EAT a goby, which is the funny thing, they will just attack it and leave it for dead, I've seen this 4 times now, south end of the moira river downtown. I've been studying smallmouth bass for a while now and learning about their behaviors, etc. What I gather from what I've seen is probably a territorial thing, although when it comes to walleye, people around town have told me that they eat walleye, and sometimes look to see what's in the stomachs and they have found gobies. I have also seen bass kill bluegills without eating them, but that was spawning season so it was for nest guarding

I know this isn't related to gobies but.....I was fishing Fortune Lake a couple of weeks ago and caught a 4.2 lb walleye at night fall. When it hit the bottom of the boat, it spit up a small mouth bass that was about 8 inches. It hadn't digested nor eaten this long before, as it hadn't stiffened up yet.

I've seen them spit up lots of things but this was my first with a bass.

CHEERS!

Hi guys.while we were fishing the bay in early august we had caught a couple nice size large mouths and when we were cleaning them i noticed that they had gobies in there stomach.So it looks like they do have some enemys out there.Hopefully the bass will start to help reduce the numbers of these gobies.

We tournament fish on Lake St Clair and it's a well known fact that smallies feed on gobies. In fact gobie coloured tubes and plastic imitation gobies used as a drop shot bait are pretty popular.

small mouth LOVE gobies...probably their number one food in their diet.

as for walleye, yep, they are eating them too...

all the ones we cleaned from the Bayview Derby had gobies in their stomach....

Hey Don,

I was fishing Lake Erie this past weekend and nailed about a 7-8 pound Bow. While cleaning the stomach, I came across about a 4 inch Gobie, partially digested. Maybe they will serve a purpose

_________________
WIG

That was neat to hear about the rainbow trout eating the goby. Hopefully this will become a regular part of their diet.

Regards
Don Stokes