chinook

Agree with Skeiner. Scotty's .- Have to say that I fished out of the Oak yesterday, and was pleasantly surprised with all the more fleas that were present, compared to the last time I was there.

Skeiner, is absolutely right, in that as the month of August progresses, temp becomes less important, especially for the matures. Notice on the Oak site that matures were taken in 75 F.O.W. and some turning dark already. Last year at this time, I made the prediction that some kings would be in the Oak come Labor day weekend, and they were. I see the same for this year developing. Not a major run but any stretch, but there will be the early stragglers I believe. Point being, don't be afraid to keep a high line or 2 up to keep them honest. Don't be locked into the mindset that most of the sets need to be @ app 40 degrees or so. Obviously keep a few deep, but I have taken many kings that came from the 60's degree range at this time of year from here on out.

Penn Yan, thanks for your understanding. Best of luck in the L.O.C.-Duane

Ray, you got me on that one. I know that you have been rather active in youth sports. Need to tell you, that I just got finished ( tournament director) with a 51 team girls softball and boys baseball tourney that we wrapped into one, over the weekend. Did it in memory of one of our umpires who passed away this past March. He had over 25 years of local involvement. Needless to say that as you know, many hours go into this, not only leading up to the event, but during and after. So I plead guilty, but only from a lack of sleep however, that I had a brain fart and forgetting the word 'no" Thanks for pointing that out. Ray, Happy Birthday. and best of luck to you while at the Oak. Just leave me the 35#'er

Gene, again I like your hunch. I'm going to be at the Oak starting on the 22nd thru the first. Would like to get together sometime during then to shoot the bull. Will be at Lakeside on site 17 and 20. Stop in sometime or call my cell. 814-671-1430 -Duane

Penn Yan, please take offense because I used the word you. That was thrown out in general. Maybe I could have said how does "one" have. I know you were only relaying what was on the site at that time.

Sorry, but I can't agree with always having the high line furthest out. Number of ex. fixed cheaters or free sliders, get picked off thus telling you the fish are aggresive and will come into the spread. Having a so-called high line running it further back will in fact get caught on occasion by an aggresive target that takes off for the other side of the boat. We have all had it happen. Running a tail gunner such as a S.W.R. off the deepest rigger has triggered many strikes from targets who come into the spread, then dropping both down and back, thus picking off this trailer. So my point being there are times to run the highest line furthest out, and times when the opposite is true- Duane -HeavenBound

How do you have winds West to NW 10-20 and have 1-2's for Friday? Don't think so.

Gene, I like your line of thinking Be nice if the Oak claimed both the Spring and Fall LOC. But I think you are a little high on your guesstimate. I'm going to say that the Fall LOC winner comes in at slightly over 34# . As much as I'd like to see the Oak claim it, think it will be caught out East in Mexico bay.

The Oak from the 22nd thru the 1st. Is there anywhere else?

Yankee, do you know if Maniac fished on Sunday and how he fared? He called me ( thinking I was fishing on Saturday). Where as I was actually the tournament director for over 50 teams this past weekend. Thus not allowing me to fish. But when Eric called Sat morning, sounded like he had a good day going. Don't know how he ended up .

Capt, Carl , beautiful king you took as listed on the Oak site. Hope that is a sign of things to come. I plan on being there this Friday thru Sunday, if the weather holds-HeavenBound

A lot of it has to do having confidence in certain Go To spoons and set ups. Such as spoons- 42 second spoon ( which was being use weeks before the numerous mentions at the Oak) Simply because past history- it has proven it self time and again. Purple Thunder, along with glow frog and gold spook, are just a few that I can count on almost faithfully. Pearl fishscale 11'' Coyote with a glow frog head,large red bubble eye with meat. If I was limited to just 1 rig from mid Aug on, that would be the rig I'd choose. Hands down. Don't get me wrong in thinking I don't buy the so called latest and greatest. I do. Just don't forget about the old reliable stand bys. But then keep the faith and have confidence. Adjust speed, direction, lead lengths, temp changes and fish the marks as needed, etc., to put the puzzle together. Then the rods will start to fly.

That would be a real pain to deal with. First the 1# ball would create a severe bow in the mono, and the diver would be almost be counteracting what the weight's intent was. Next, trying to trip the diver in the event you wanted to clear that rod or simply switch out the setup. With the weight in front of the diver, this would be a real P.I.T.A. One setup used a while back, was to use a Jettison release while using a pounder. App. depth with a 1 pound weight was and I say app. is 45 feet per 100 left out. So if you wanted to obtain 90 feet of depth app. 200 feet would need to be left out. Again I say app. As we know there are variables that come into play. I believe that Church now has a release to securely attach the weight and then retrieve it, thus not losing the weight itself. Hope this helps.

Skeiner. have to say that the last I fished the Oak before I left for vacation, it seemed like they were the worse I've seen at that time of year. Have to wonder what the next few weeks will bring.

Ray, thats OK. Just a simple brain fart. We all have them. Now that I'm getting a bit older, more often than I care to admit.

HeavenBound will be fishing in it next Thursday thru Sunday. Wouldn't miss it. Hope to be there the following weekend as well. Barring I don't coordinate a last minute Sr. girls softball tourney that I've been approached about.

Diesel, maybe I'm confused, but when you say about dropping it down the rigger cable, I think of something along the lines of a free slider. Esp when you mention about it going half way down. If that is so, how do you plan to put a load on the rod to eliminate any more slack upon release?

Diesel, Tom is correct that there are times when a longer lead behind the diver has turned the trick. Not to say that slide divers can't be incorporated, but not to many years ago one hot setup was using dipseys with 10-12 leads behind the diver. This takes a little experience, in that the fish must be more or less spent where as once the diver hits the rod tip,the person at the rod moves forward and then it then can be hand lined in. Thus netting the target if an extended handle is not in use. I never wrap the line just pulling the mono in a few smooth motions. It can be done, but should be used with caution however-

In 30 years of fishing the great lakes I've seen plenty of violent weather hit over the lakes. Again as I mentioned not to long ago, safety needs to be stressed first and foremost. When a micro burst hits like it did of about a month ago with 80 mile an hour winds, you better hope that you are sitting dockside instead of 10 miles out. Or just as Ron Penna mentioned a few years back when a colliding Low hit a Hi pressure, his comment was it was like the Perfect Storm. Winds out of almost 4 different directions and he made the comment it was like fishing in a soup bowl. I was at Point Breeze that day, and was thankful I was sitting in the State Park. I remember the time a thunderstorm hit Lake Erie with 90 mile an hour winds sinking a number of boats fishing a bass tournament. The list could go on and on. Any approaching thunderstorm cell should be viewed as a potential threat. As I made mention in another thread, I know of 2 individuals hit and killed by a stray bolt from a cell they said was 10 miles off. So it by all means doesn't need to be overhead. I don't want to become the " safety director" here. Just don't want to give others a false sense of security either. My policy has always been and always will be, if and when in doubt, pull lines and get back to dock. You may not get a second chance.

S19- As strange as it sounds that is why I mentioned about the white socks. When I wear a pair of light grey socks, they are not nearly as bad as when wearing white. Last week while fishing out of the Oak, my Penn Yan which is whiteish in color had them gathered on the outsides. Something about the color of white that they are really attracted to.

There was post on another site that mentioned about the biting flies. Best suggestion there was to take a new guy, have him wear white socks and go without a shirt In all seriousness, they are almost nonexistent when we have a dry Canadian air mass. When the air is more humid, they rear their ugly head.

Dave, first off thank you for putting the rec boat names back on the leader board. It is much appreciated by many I'm sure. Again, is there any chance at all that sometime the LOC would consider moving the cutoff weighin time back to 9:00 for the fall derby? I'm sure that this would be well received as well. Just trying to make a suggestion on helping to make a great derby that much better.-Duane- HeavenBound

Jim, Don't be leary to run a presentation in the cold waters for kings. 42 degrees is often a hot zone for matures. I always have a rig parked at that target temp.

Eric, you have a PM-Duane