GAMBLER

Spent the weekend fishing both days with my son, Keith, Scott and Mason out of Sandy. Saturdays agenda was to fish browns hard and then go scoop up some derby lakers. We pounded the brown water with some decent brown action but it wasn't what I was hoping for. The 3-8lb brown classes are healthy and so is the bait population in those waters (I was able to make cutbait out of the alewife we foul hooked. We decided to bump out a little to get away from the bait and stumbled onto some mature kings inside of 100'. That gave us the starting point for Sunday morning and we headed out to the laker grounds. Laker action was steady but they were scattered way more than normal in the deeper water I usually fish. First laker was a decent fish hitting the LOC board at 18.02. This fish was 39 1/2" long and super skinny. We picked away at lakers until noon and the last rod in fires with another 18.02 laker that was only 33" long. Alien Gambler Rig in regular size behind A Hammerhead Froggy Aluminum cowbell was the hot set up for lakers all weekend. Sunday morning we broke the pierheads and headed to the water we found on Saturday. I knew it was going to be a stellar morning when I got three rods in and all three fired while we were putting out the fourth. The chaos continued into the late morning before we spent an hour beating up the boys and making them reel in lake trout after lake trout. Mason ended up boating an 18 lb laker that went back to catch next year since it would have been the bottom of the board after many lakers were weighed in Saturday.

After 6 trips with the Troll smarter, I love this product. Having the remote is awesome when its busy in the back of the boat and no ones at the wheel to adjust speed.

Nice job Mike!

I usually put my cheaters 10’ above the main spoon. If the rigger is my deep rigger, I run it 10’ or higher depending on where I see fish.

Getting better!

I like this one better!

I will be trying this one out tomorrow!

They didn’t do well and the DEC scrapped the program.

I run rollers and they are more efficient. The rollers take all resistance off the wire on the guides away. The only downfall is keeping the wire in the rollers. Make sure the rods you buy have guides that the wire cant jump behind. You also have to put the rod in the rod holders with the top of the reel facing the front of the boat to keep the wire in the roller and not the wall of the roller frame. On the left side of this photo you will see the diver rod and the position the reel needs to be in to keep the wire in the rollers.

I like the Greaser releaser!

Just the rig alone would be a big seller! I also have access to a big sinker mold and a ton of lead.

I haven't run a stacked rigger in over a decade. Free sliders or fixed cheaters for me. Three riggers with cheaters puts 6 spoons in the zone. Those other two extra rods can be put to good use running 4 divers or two coppers.

I might mess around with this tonight. I will let you know!

We (the water authority) have two intakes for our two plants Tom but we only go by the Temp sensor at the Plant on Dewey Ave. Our intake at the Basket Rd facility is at the same depth and generally runs close to the other plant. Its interesting to watch the temp changes with certain winds. As we all know, NE or East winds bring the cold water in during the summer months. It does the exact opposite during the winter. It is also cool to see how rapidly temp changes when the water densities are different due to water temp. When the water is in the 70's on top and 39 down deep, things change with very little wind. In spring and Fall when temps are in the low 50's or colder, there is very little temp change unless we have big winds.

Hmmm. I have a wire forming tool and all the wire.

It runs on a stocking program by the Michigan DNR and Lake Superior State University.

The St Marys project is the ONLY successful Atlantic project on the great lakes. What is the reason? Lets think about what happened in Lake Huron where the Atlantics grow to reach maturity. Huron had a huge alewife population crash. The biomass in Lake Huron is more diverse than it was 20 years ago. Less alewife = less chances of Thiamine deficiency in Atlantic salmon and better survival.

Shreksoff on this site is the man to answer this question. He runs the Kaho. The info was released last year that the YOY year class was huge. This years has not been released to the public from what I have seen.

I look at each species like investing in the stock market. You put your money in stocks that are going to give you the biggest return for your buck. We stock 240,000 Atlantics (2020 numbers - stocked as spring yearlings) yet the returns are dismal. We stock 325,000 Coho (2020 numbers 235,000 fall fingerlings and 90,000 spring yearlings which survive better than the fall fingerlings)and returns to the Salmon Rover alone are great. This will also be a one dimensional fishery for the most part. Most will end up in the Salmon River only and no where else. Is that what is best for the entire fishery? The DEC keeps pouring money, resources, and bait biomass capacity on a horrible investment return wise. This Atlantic project has been dismal for decades. It has shown signs of slight improvement but not enough to warrant a change. Until they can get Atlantics to be a good investment, leave the program the way it is. In order to add more Atlantics, they will have to cut or not increase king stockings if the bait biomass grows. Why do that when you cant get solid returns? You could cut a successful king stock for a fish that isn't surviving to get a return on your investment.

I agree but, Irondequoit Creek is a way better option than the Oak. Irondequoit Creek holds trout all summer and has tons of water that the Atlantics could not be left alone in. Its funny that we lost pen projects to ensure survival in numbers yet they don't follow the same logic with Atlantics. Another issue is the condition of the stocked Atlantics. I have caught stocked Atlantics in the Salmon River and they look horrible. I have not seen one with perfect fins. Most are deformed (crooked pectoral fins, smashed dorsal fins). They already have enough trouble surviving. They could also focus on a better product. The stocking numbers are close to Coho numbers and we see huge returns of coho year after year. Like you said, Atlantics returns are minimal at best.