One place they might survive is Lake Saltonstall, a natural lake down just east of New Haven. It is very deep and carved out by the last ice age.
A few years back when Bob Orciari was the Inland Fisheries Western District Manager, we were discussing a series of sonar markings that registered on a state boat that indicated huge fish just off the bottom at the deepest point in the lake down along the north east shore line. We met that Spring at the lake, rented a boat, and I installed my Lowrance Paper Graph so we would have a permanent recording. We also brought some dead alewife herring and some heavy freshwater gear for fishing.
We found the markings which showed as boom-a-rang marks about 15' off the bottom. There was no indication that huge carp will go that deep and no other species was even close to that big. Huge Brown Trout would be more towards the upper end of the thermocline, etc.
Lake trout could be that deep though and as the ice age increased over time to its maximum, native lake trout from other water systems could be flushed down to the south. The state record lake trout is something like 29lbs, caught years ago, in Wono (lakeville Lake). How did it get there?
During the peak of the ice age, maybe 15,000 years ago, the oceans were about 400' shallower than today and the Long Island Sound side of the Race, from the RI land-mass to the Orient Point land-mass on the north shore of the Long Island area, was a land barrier that formed a huge fresh water lake. The East River and the Hudson River had a couple of hundred miles of down hill run to reach saltwater. So Saltonstall and the "Long Island Sound" area could have held all kinds of northern species as their last refuge.
Anyway, deep jigging with dead herring, jigging spoons, etc. just off the bottom and continuing up about half way produced zero hits or hookups. We worked it for a couple of hours before we quit and went walleye fishing up at the other end of the lake. So we don't know what these "fish marks" were. Maybe not fish at all but old timber but we never got hung up either and the marks seemed to move around though a paper graph has no GPS function and does not have the detail of today's electronics.
So the mystery continues, if you fish Saltonstall head over to that area and run your electronics and see what you can print.
My wife & I have been trying to figure this out also. We've tried the frozen alwives, but not jigging them just 3-way drifting. Even tried nightcrawlers to no avail. We have an Al Linder "In-Fisherman" vhs tape "How to catch Trophy Lake Trout" (we used to fish MooseHead Lake for them for about 10 years.) One technique that would possibly work is Al would jig a (I forgot what type/style jig.) but he would tip the single hook with a chunk of fresh sucker meat, then let it drop to hit bottom and proceed to start from bottom and work the water column.
We never tried this approach, but I'm sure "if" they are in fact Lake Trout I don't see why it wouldn't work. That is if the(?) fish cooperate. Maybe something like a 1-4oz Diamond Jig?
This area I refer to it as "The Trench" bottoms out at 109-110 FOW and we've marked the (fish) at anywhere from 75-95 FOW. They are ALWAYS THERE too. If I remember correctly the deepest end is on the South end of The Trench and at the Northern end it comes up quite quickly to around 35 FOW so that kind limited the drifting pattern(s).
Never thought of this idea until just now, (it's kinda "dirty pool") but if you feel very lucky, could drop a "snagging weighted treble hook" like for snagging bunker...? I know that would be almost grasping at straws because you'd have to be literally directly under them. I know that that would be "cheating- foul hooking" but I really want to find out WHAT THEY ARE.
Any updates will be greatly appreciated.
P.S. A portable downrigger is another very good idea, except you'd have to research the length of The Trench & depth as to not have the downrigger ball hit the northern ledge. Or try trolling it from the North end and head south. It is not very long if I remember correctly, maybe 50-75 yards long? Don't remember how wide it is, but exactly where they hang out at is a not very big window of opportunity.
Best of luck to all who make an attempt to solve the mystery of Lake "S"
