mikejonestkd

We had a similar experience sunday morning. put in around 6 am and met Reel Drag and chatted for a minute with him. worked in the 90-150 FOW range, marked fish at three different depths : Just below the surface, at 35-45 feet and at 70-75 feet. So we set up surface lures, one rigger shallow and one rigger deep. We managed to have 9 hookups and land 6 which was one of our better days. 4 ( three small kings and a 10 lb laker ) were on the deeper rigger 75 feet down and a white glow spin doctor with a white echip fly 19" behind the doctor. we ran about 20-25 feet behind the ball. about 2.2 mph gps speed. we found 50-52 degree water pretty consistently at 70-75 feet when we were in the 90 FOW range. Two that we didn't net but got off after a few jumps were small young rainbows on j-7 silver and black rapalas with a few split shot to get them down a few feet. we also landed two small kings ( maybe 5-6 pounds ) on the shallow 45 foot deep rigger , one on a nk 28 watermelon and the other on a silver nk28 with a blue diag stripe on it. all in all a nice day on the water with dad, the wind bothered us for a little while but settled down.

The NK 28 hologram watermelon has been one of my favorites for several years. I have added a green ladderback tape to one of mine and a red ladderback to another one and they seem to work even better than the original.

Thanks for the report pops. We are headed oout to Sandy creek tomorrow morning and it looks like we will be going to run in the 10-20 feet down range once we find the right temp. And, yes, we will remember those that served our country this weekend.

Some guys run wire dipsys all season long. We use heartland/ sealine combos with 30# power pro ( with flourocarbon leaders ) for the spring flat line trolling and then for dipsys once we head out a bit deeper come June. Once the fleas come out or when we want to get deeper then the heartland/ sealine 30# seven strand malin wire rigs come out and stay in the boat till fall.

Thnaks for the kind words and help everyone. Pound for pound I believe that rainbows/steelhead are the best fighting fish out there. They spend more time out of the water than in it once you hook them. They are pretty tasty too.....yum. The 9 pounder came off a seth green rig, he managed to wrap more than a few spoons around the main line before we could bring him to the net. His initial run took over 100 feet of line before we could turn him. It was a great evening to spend time with dad. He is getting shuouder surgery next week and we will be without a captain for 6-8 weeks...I am glad that his last night of fishing was a successful one.

sorry, we only ran the temp probe down once or twice, it was around 44 degrees from 0 to 20 feet down. Thanks for all the help from guys on this board for the advice!!! I may still be a lousy fisherman but my tackle and lures are nicer than they ever were before...LOL

We just got back in from an evening of trolling. The weather and the scenery was beautiful today!!! Not many boats out there, the coast guard came by to pay us a quick visit but that's about it. We found fish once we got to 60-70 FOW and all the way out to 120 FOW or so, all were about 10-15 down and all were singles, no groups at all. Very few fish compared to most trips there. we trolled west to east at about 2.2-2.4 gps speed. We managed to get 5 good hits and lost three rainbows at or near the boat, all on NK spoons, watermelon, a habenero and a glow frog, landed two rainbows off of a j-7 silver/ black rapala and a plain silver NK with a diag green tape on it. Kept the larger one- 9lb 6oz. Dad fired up the smoker tonight!!! All hits were from lures at 15' down, a couple on the riggers, the rest on the seth green rig's top spoons. Took a quick tour up the creek to check out Bandit's new Trophy. NICE Boat!!!! I see you got to additional riggers since last weekend. dad wants one!!!! all in all a nice night to be on the water.

We just got back in from an evening of trolling. The weather and the scenery was beautiful today!!! Not many boats out there, the coast guard came by to pay us a quick visit but that's about it. We found fish once we got to 60-70 FOW and all the way out to 120 FOW or so, all were about 10-15 down and all were singles, no groups at all. Very few fish compared to most trips there. we trolled west to east at about 2.2-2.4 gps speed. We managed to get 5 good hits and lost three rainbows at or near the boat, all on NK spoons, watermelon, a habenero and a glow frog, landed two rainbows off of a j-7 silver/ black rapala and a plain silver NK with a diag green tape on it. Kept the larger one- 9lb 6oz. Dad fired up the smoker tonight!!! All hits were from lures at 15' down, a couple on the riggers, the rest on the seth green rig's top spoons. Took a quick tour up the creek to check out Bandit's new Trophy. NICE Boat!!!! I see you got to additional riggers since last weekend. dad wants one!!!! all in all a nice night to be on the water.

Thanks for the info and the PM's. I think were going to break out the seth green rigs and cover the top 60' of water, starting at about 70 FOW or so. It's a nice way to get 5 spoons per rod in the water when the fish aren't really set up at a particular depth, we'll probably run two riggers to target any hooks we see.....if we mark any fish. Still....it is better than mowing the lawn.

Dad and I are going to spend the evening off sandy creek. I took a good look at the fishing reports and none really apply to the Hamlin area. Anyone have any timely advice on sandy creek conditions? temps? depths to start at? Lures? I am assumming that most of the in close 10-15 FOW fishing for browns is pretty much over, especially during the daylight hours. We have had miserable luck this spring so far, no time to get out there much and bad windy conditions when we have had time.

That is one sweet ride!!! Enjoy!!!!

Alot of guys use the public launch at the mouth of the bay. There is a nice book of maps of the bay that you can find at walmart or gander, or dicks that shows the depths of the bay. The depth and lures you mentioned are about right. Look for stained or slightly tan colored water and have fun!!! The channel issue isn't a problem with a small boat like yours, just don't blast across the shallows at full speed or you may find a few submerged rocks....a very bad way to ruin a fishing trip. most of the north end of the bay is between 2-4 fow in the shallows and about 8-9 in the channel IIRC. A 16' aluminum boat probably draws less than 2' so you should be fine. good luck and have fun!!!

Thanks shorething!!! I need to get back out there next weekend after my abismal performance last weekend. It was two nice days for a boat ride but little action for us..only a few fish...

A big ole' +1 on Yankee's advice.. I keep forgetting that EVERYONE here has a bigger boat than we do. I shudder at the thought of a 25 lb king on a 10' leader in our 16' boat....I'd have to sit in the bow just for the fish to be netted. We are heading out to sandy creek both sat and sunday morning, give us a shout if you see a tan polar krakt with a honda outboard. Its time to put the boat in the water!!!!

We usually run the dodger 6' behind the dipsy. rod length is important too, don't run the dodger/fly 10' behind the dispy on a 7' rod as it will be hard to control the fish at the boat.

We didn't buy much this winter just a few new rods and reels: 4 ADP47 reels 2 heartland dipsy rods spoons, dipsys, snubbers, and a few flashers new line on all reels, new LED trailer lights two new rod holders

Any J-7 to J-13 jointed rapalas are my first choices for stick baits. I like to keep it fairly simple for colors. Silver/ black, rainbow trout, brown trout, Orange/ gold, gold/ black and firetiger.

I've been going stir crazy with this weather. We just bought a bunch of new rods, reels, tackle and got the boat all ready for the water and now we have more snow..... If I don't go fishing soon I may end up doing something drastic....like listening to my wife and working on my ' honey do ' list that she gave me.... I'm not greedy, I just want to catch ONE fish before the end of the month.

Thanks for posting the videos. The boat is going in the water this weekend, I don't care where or what the weather will be like. I HAVE TO GO FISHING!!!!!

Fleas aren't too bad on the seven strand line. One nice thing about wire is that you can just crank it in and the fleas will be cut off by the wire as it goes into the rod tip. Fleas also shake or slap off easier than most other lines.

We are going to use flourocarbon for the first time this spring. We are running about 8' leads of 15# Seagaur for browns. The main line is power pro 30#, as the rods and reels are used for heavier duty uses in the summer time. We will just cut off the leaders when we switch to the off shore setups. We used to use 15# berkely big game as a leader for shallow water browns in the spring and fall, several people suggested flourocarbon, we'll see if it is any better..

The starcraft islander can be obtained with an extended platform for an outboard- so there is no doghouse taking up space in the boat in that version.

Like Ray said, single strand is more prone to kinks than 7 strand wire. We like malin 30# seven strand.

The super glows NBK series last year were great and I can't wait to see what's out this year...

I got in and out for under $100..only because they had no more ADP47LCs, other wise I would have bought 4 of them at that price. The place was mobbed when I went in, I haven't seen it packed like that ever before.