Bad Spawn

[horst]

I was cleaning a northern last night and just like a lot of them Ive cleaned this spring she still had eggs in her.They shoulda spawned right after ice out but didnt for some reason.I been hoping for weeks now it was just a delayed spawn but what I seen last night pretty much got rid of that notion.

I took he first fillet off expecting eggs to come out, they didnt.I looked closer and a clear sack had formed around the eggs.The eggs themselves looked about half rotten and the sack was only half full of eggs from the fishs back fin clear up to her throat, the other half of the sack was full of a clear liquid.

Id heard of this before but its the first time I ever seen it in person, the northerns in this area are now re-absorbing thier own eggs because conditions werent right for them to spawn this spring.The DNR biologists up hear have noticed it to, apparently the ice went out to fast and it warmed up to soon, the water was past spawning temps before the northerns were ready to lay thier eggs.

Looks like a real bad year class of northern fishing coming up, and it was widespread in this area to.all the lakes except possibly one, and both rivers are still full of unspawned northerns.Hope it dont take em long to recover from this setback

[fisherguy]

Re: Bad Spawn

yup, it happens if things get messed up. I have seen it happen here for two reasons. It seems either a really quick spring where the water warms very fast can mess up a spawn, and also if during the spawn the water cools, and the spawn stops often the remaining fish don't ever spawn that year. Sucks to lose a year class, but just all that much more important to release any big fish this year, and don't keep over the limits.

[horst]

Re: Bad Spawn

In a normal year I only keep maybe 9 or 10 northerns total.Thats coming from from 5 or 6 different lakes.Only hard part with them will be turning the bigger ones loose, the little ones suck to get the bones out of.A couple of these lakes were just starting to show a lotta promise for big northerns after they were stocked a few years ago.Dont know how the DNR will make the call on this one, maybe theyll substitute some stocked fish to make up the difference

[bulldawg]

Re: Bad Spawn

We found alot of bluegills last year that did the same thing. Bad news, but that's mother nature at work..

[fisherguy]

Re: Bad Spawn

If the fishing pressure isn't too bad, and it is just one year class lost you should be fine. Pike live a good number of years,and breed well. It usually only turns into a significant drop in fishing quality if there is a lot of pressure, or you get two or three bad spawns in a row.