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| Jump to page : 1 Now viewing page 1 [25 messages per page] Walleye Fishing -> General Discussion -> Trolling with or against the waves. |
walleye express |
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 Member Posts: 2680 Location: Essexville, MI./Saginaw Bay. | I'll try and make up for that lame post of mine about walleye tags with this one. I actually borrowed the question, and my answer to it from another board. But it has merit enough to be posted on this site as well.  I'll expect your "Guest" opinion on this thread as well, Fish_On. LOL. Oh and check my spelling would ya? Question: Here's one that has me baffled. I troll the offshore central basin of Lake Erie for walleyes. I have read many articles extolling the importance of determining current flow and it's relationship to how it affects the true depth that lures run. None of the articles, however, describe HOW to determine the current direction and flow. Any ideas out there that might shed some light? Thanks for your help. Jim My answer: Jim. Yes there are currents. In some respects, there are really two kinds; surface or wind driven currents and deeper long-term currents. The currents we might notice the most are surface wind driven currents and they will vary in direction with the wind direction. They can be quite strong and are accompanied by waves (as you might expect). See the web page link below for some graphics and current directions on each Great Lake. http://www.glerl.noaa.gov/res/glcfs Twice a year the lake mixes. This occurs when the water temperature is nearly uniform throughout (no stratification). Then surface winds will drive the surface water down the lake shore slope and push deeper water to the top. This happens in the spring and fall. This kind of cycling is important to the lakes biology too in that it can cycle nutrients and other water chemistry. During the summer, the lakes stratify (cold on bottom / warm on top) with the middle the thermalcline. This is a big deal to salmon fishermen as salmon will often orient around the thermalcline. Something similar things happens in the winter only opposite (warmest water on bottom). Its not as pronounced in the winter (thermal difference only 4 degrees compared to summer which might be a 20 degree difference). The winter phenomenon has to do with how density of water changes with temperature (a whole-nother discussion). Consequently currents will vary by season. They can be vertical as well as horizontal. The longer term or deeper currents have to do with how the lakes drain. Of course all the Great Lakes water eventually makes it to the Atlantic Ocean via the St. Lawrence River. This means that the lakes have a slow but steady draining current towards that outlet. Where the current becomes concentrated or narrowed, it can become noticeable and even very strong. Consider the Niagra River and falls an extreme example of that. Other notable locations are the Straits of Mackinaw. There are some wicked currents moving under the bridge. All of Lake Michigan has to pass in that narrow area. Same with the St. Marys River for Lake Superior to Lake Huron and so on and so on. Within the lake, there are measurable currents that a fisherman is less likely to ever notice. For example, the water current cycles through Saginaw Bay in a counter-clockwise direction. There are similar deep water long-term current directions that work slowly in each of the Great Lakes. They can be disrupted temporarily by wind events but eventually they reclaim themselves. Maybe a last current type is a near-shore (some times called long-shore or rip-tide) current that is a result of wave action. It can sweep swimmers and boaters out and along (parallel to) the shoreline. These currents carry a lot of sand and create sany beaches where the shoreline structure slows the current (so the sand drops out). We don't have a noticable tidal effect in the Great Lakes. Tides, of course, are caused by the gravitational pull of the Moon and are very pronounced in the Oceans of the world. Alas our lake are just too small. Some scientists have measured a tidal effect in the Great Lakes but its only amounts to inches at most, not noticeable to most any observer. Hope this helps. | ||
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| larry eaton |
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| FreeByrdSteve |
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| MikeF |
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| Uumm, not all of Lake Michigan flows where you think. Here in the Chicago area, we lock up to the lake, not down. Many years ago we changed the natural course of nature so we could flush down to St Louis. It is somewhat of a turbid current.  Ps- The slider rigs look great!! | |||
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| walleye express |
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Member Posts: 2680 Location: Essexville, MI./Saginaw Bay. | MikeF - 3/31/2005 6:41 PM Ps- The slider rigs look great!! Thank's, Mike. Hope they work on your bodies of water as well as they do on mine. Don't be afraid to use them with Gulp worms. And be sure to hook the top hook into the tip of the Gulps nose. Try to keep anything that would act as a keel or fin straight on the hooks. This keeps the whole rig running a lot smoother. They also look and work the best when trolled at faster speeds, and the Gulps hold up a lot better than the real deal under those circumstances.. Edited by walleye express 4/2/2005 7:33 AM Attachments ----------------  6_12_04a.sized[1].jpg (15KB - 85 downloads) | ||
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