Alewives no salmon

I was on LO Wed, June 9
Spent some 17 hours in the boat..
Went very early, before sunrise. It was very foggy. I nearly collapsed with another boat at least twice… The whole lake was around but somehow we came to the same spots… Go figure…
Anyway, it was calm and sometime at about 9 am when the fog cleared I noticed small fish splashing around. A good sign, I thought…
I started to troll around in shallow water (over some 120FOW). The splashing was quite dense and at the quite big area. Three other boats came around and a bit later a charter. The dense splashing continued for about two hours, but I still saw some later during the day in less numbers although water temp reached as high as 66F.
I didn’t see if anyone got a fish but I only got a few alewefes, hooked for the bellies or gills. Tried everything I had in my tackle box, different speeds and depths. Nothing worked. Came back at sunset without fish and even a solid popup...
I’m really puzzled. I expected salmon to be where alewife is. Seems like no.. But why were alewives splashing then? Or did I do something completely wrong?
Any comments/suggestions?
Thanks.

This event happens almost every year and usually around late May.....The alewife spawn event happened a while ago and when they get back out into the lake a water temperature change that happens too quickly results in a mass dieoff.

the worst I ever saw was well over 10 years ago when we went out and saw hundreds of thousands on the surface and the salmon were just smashing them. but like yourself, the bite for me was super tough that day and the next 3

Since then I have learned to stay on shore for a minimum of 3 plus days

Figures as we just re opened and I am rescheduling my weekend trips to another time frame.


you can still fish deep and maybe luck out with some salmon, lakers for sure, but all in all. it just really sucks

I have some photo evidence of this somewhere and sent it to those doing the anal creel census on baitfish that constantly state that they are in trouble, but I so disagree, but then what the hell do I know


It's a great sight to be seen and experience, but again makes for really tough salmon fishing for a while


By next week we should be back in business

Longshank,
Thanks a lot for your detailed answer! And it’s optimistic too! Really appreciated.
A couple of things to clarify though.
Of course I heard many times about alewife mass dieoff.
Do you think in this case they are splashing because they are dying (not enough oxygen?) or still because there is salmon which is chasing them heavily.
And then, fishing is tough because salmon have plenty of natural fish to pay attention to the spoons?
What are your thoughts?
Thanks a lot again!

I think part of the die off is due to temp swings........we just went through a heat wave right?

and some may just be weak from post spawn or age even


there are so many that when it's flat out there it looks like diamonds on the water everywhere plus you get lots by just snagging them with spoons.

tried using them on a setup more than once to no avail, but just see lots of salmon smashing them on the surface as they go in death spirals......truly an awesome sight to see

the salmon have an all you can eat banquet for some time, that's for sure and now that we have had 2 days of north east winds, surface and down temps will change a lot so once the remaining alewives start bunching up into the normal bait balls, it will be hot fishing :thumbs

that is what I have seen pattern out for 24 years


btw...nobody was catching that day you were out there and I know of the charter boat you saw he had to think quick and salvaged the day with lake trout

This is a good bad news, really!
Now, with your explanation it turned out that that day wasn't for nothing. I learned a lot!
Thank you!

Hi Mark

Which port did you go out of?

The Ref