UpGrady

Anthony, Sounds like it was well worth your money to get out and see some things firsthand. It's tough to convey all of the small things that you just do out there as second nature... it just comes from experience, but seeing things firsthand hopefully opened your eyes to a few things and you'll keep learning more and more from your own successes and failures too. Great day!

Frank, I thought the name might be you when I saw a few other posts. Bongard proudly showed me the pics this AM. Way to go! Needless to say, I was coming off as you were going out... I HATE NE WINDS!!!

Fished from 6:30-1pm, generally 160-220'. Ended up with 8 kings, a laker and dumped a few other kings. Biggest was a little over 24, a few others were 19-21lbs and a couple 14lb jacks. Temps were all over the place, 110' down was 44-62 degrees dependent upon troll direction and water depth, heavy currents made a westerly troll pretty much futile. Rigger bites were 85-110', 280' on the wire #2, Blackjack Spinnie with a Kryptonite Fly was smokin' most of the morning, before the fish found the rigger spoons a little more inviting. Will be back at it on Friday and Saturday this week again.

The east end of the bluff beyond Hedges was the spot for me for a number of years as well. Never had to go all the way to the plant, but I can imagine it was even better! Sodus has been awesome for over 10 years now... tough to beat the Maxwell basin..

This is all great news for the Eastern basin... just too bad for the central areas of the lake... Smallies off Hedges were a great option for a lot of years... hopefully we'll strike a balance in a few years... I had heard the same about Sodus area being on fire again this year. A few co-workers, two weeks ago, with no real knowledge fished off the trailer park and caught a pile of big smallies up to 19", with very few gobies...

Jerry, Nice!!! No snow and 80 degree sunshine... all winter! Ok... maybe I'm a bit confused with Kona, but I can dream...

Got a late start this morning with the Father & Brother-in-law, cleared the pier head around 8:15 and was greated by the armada working 40-60fow, so I couldn't resist at least taking a look at it. Set lines and found temps 25-40', marked a fair amount of bait and fish, but did not turn anything or see a net fly in the pack after 30 minutes and the boats were generally scattering, so with limited time, I pulled and went north. Dropped in around 150 and worked out to 220 and back in from about 9:30-11:30am. Temps floating in the 40-55' range thru most of the water, currents were interesting to say the least as you'd expect in the conditions, quite a bit of bait and fish scattered around. Pulled one 18lb King (45' down) and a 6lb Steelie (130' 2 1/2 wire diver). Both fish were very sluggish, barely even fought. I hope the early bite was as good as the screen showed!!!

It's amazing how stable the lake has been this summer... I'll eat my words!

The warm surface water generally begins sliding out in the direction the wind is blowing from, as a result the cold water essentially "rises" in the water column, eventually replacing the warm water which disappears, hence the wild currents. Generally this coincides with a frontal boundary and moisture/rain in a 70 degree air mass, coupled with 45-50 degree surface water, creating the fog banks near shore... the further offshore into the warmer surface water you get, the more the fog will dissipate. Can just be a long run getting there at times... This wind has been blowing pretty hard for 18 hours now, so more than enough time to start the propagation and it will continue thru the night... once it begins and continues for another 12 hours, I'll be very surprised if it does not make it to shore. What's really remarkable is that we've gone this far into the season without a full upwelling, another reason that the lake is long overdue.

I'm running a pair of Big Jons from 1985 vintage, still running strong, slow as heck compared to new ones, but you get what you pay for.... Cannon's likewise are very reliable, I just hate the lunky design, Big Jon's are just much more compact on the back of your boat and I enjoy the mostly all metal construction as well... some people knock the Big Jons b/c of the "spring" in the arms, but that "spring" in the arms in rough water saves your cable and weights much more than other riggers...

The lake is rolling pretty good out of the NE and will continue into the night so I would not bother tonight... Friday will be clearing out, but probably a stiff NNW wind behind the front. The weekend looks nice, although I'm sure that Sat AM will still be a bit bumpy with a confused 2-4' sea from the NW, N and NE which should settle during the day. Sunday should be real nice. The question will be how much cold water actually comes up and whether or not it makes it all the way to surface and shoreline... then you'll have fog to deal with all weekend hovering over the cold surface water near shore.

Buoy is showing NE at 15 gusting to 20 this AM, looks to keep blowing thru the night... just in time for the weekend. The swimmers aren't going to like this one!

My two cents, but if you're really after Steelhead action, the offshore waters (8-15 miles out) from Sandy Creek (not Pond) to Olcott are the place to be right now thru mid September. The cold deeper water in the western basin of the lake is more of an attractant for them in consistent numbers than the eastern basin. Expect to catch fish 20-60' down in these offshore waters. Steelhead prefer to be as close to the surface as they can find 55-62 degree water. So that water fits the bill better than the 100'+ in the Eastern basin this time of the year. I don't want to downplay what can be found in the eastern basin on any given day, but for consistent steelhead Go West!

I've been fishing smallies in this lake, in between T&S of course, since the late 70's from Hedges to Sodus to Henderson. I've seen the haydays thru the mid 80's to the downfall of the late 80's to early 90's and then the rise again from the mid 90's to about 2005. For the past 7-8 years, I've pretty much fished the Hedges area exclusively for smallies (closer to home and more recently having my boats docked at IBay). Up thru 2005, the fishing was insane there from July thru end of September. Last year saw a drastic downturn in the number of smallies in the area. I found that I could not get thru the gobies to find many smallies. I literally caught about 6 smallies last summer over a handful of trips, the gobies just annoyed the heck out of you after an hour with live bait. I tried many jigging techniques to no avail as well. I made it out in late June this year for an hour with four of us onboard, we caught a hundred gobies and 2 nice smallies, so my enthusiasm is very low for trying again right now. I have heard numerous reports that trolling is still producing some numbers, but it defeats the purpose of bass fishing for me, so I refuse to do it. The thrill of a smallie hitting on light tackle and exploding to the surface is completely lost in trolling for them. My gut feeling in observing the bass fishery as well as perch on this lake for 30 years is that there are upturns and downturns and we just need to be patient and ride the waves. Right now we are on a severe downturn which should be alarming, but if we learn from history, the invasion of the gobies WILL be normalized by the lake, just like the Zebies. Smallies are far too strong of a fish to not survive, they are adapting to a new way of life right now in the lake and will be back again in much better numbers for the future. The gobies will fall off and we will regain our fishery. The positive is that if you do hook into a smallie off Hedges, the past 2 years have shown me that it will be 15-17"!!!

Rich, 1st- The wrong place is in front of the darn computer even typing a message!!! 2nd- We'll give Anthony a Get Out of Jail Free Card this time... shouldn't be saying that to a lawyer or should I?!? Hmmm.... Anthony, You've managed to find some fish each of the last few times you've been out... Rule #1 of fishing in this lake is "Don't leave fish to find fish"... If you don't find anything in the shallower water you've been fishing to West, don't be afraid to move more easterly, but you're becoming more comfortable with that area, so don't fix what isn't broken right now while you're figuring things out. Oh, if you title IBay Report, then the assumption would be in the vicinity of off IBay... I think you're fine titling IBay as reference to your port, but if you fished off of the River, Braddock's, Russell, Webster Park, Hedges or such then just mention it in the report (That is if you want to disclose the secret honeyhole!)

Anthony, At least you boated one decent one! I picked lines and was headed in around 8pm... surprised that you found much in the 100' area, I cruised through it and saw nothing around 5:30pm, so setup in 140 on a north troll. Thumburn, I generally tend to fish straight out to slightly East of the Bay and do not stray too far either way as I'm generally only out for a few hours here and there. I will tend to stay more toward the East as you can find deeper water a little bit faster in the areas East rather than directly off the river basin. I have not fished much to the West of the river. This is now my fourth season out of IBay, all of my previous experience has been off the Oak for many years and Sodus for early years of trolling.

Tough evening out there, toughest in quite a while for me... currents were wild... temps were inconsistent, floating between 50-70' down. Worked 140-220', 160-180' was most active on the screen with random bait pods and fish, generally in temp. Went 2 for 5, 2 small kings, dumped one good one after it had burned off a bunch of line. 55' rigger with NK NBK took 4 bites. As usual with these currents, divers were quiet. About a 60 degree heading was my only consistent speed and produced 4 of the bites. Checked out 90-110 fow on the way out and it was desolate.

First, it's a cold water upwelling, the lake does not actually flip like small lakes do (too deep). Best bet is to run offshore in the summer until you at least start to see the surface temp rise into the 60 degree range, typically things begin to change in the area drastically, usually significant rip currents, wind direction changes etc... setup and troll north, the fish will begin appearing when temps and water stabilize at some point north (different with each upwelling, but a starting point for you) Keep in mind that this location is likely at least 5 miles offshore but as many as 15 miles out, it just depends upon how severe the upwelling actually is. If an upwelling occurs, but does not change the surface temps nearshore, fish likely will still be in the same less than 200' depths, just higher in the water column due to the thermocline rising, but not a complete upwelling. Don't be surprised on these days to find fish in the top 40' of the water column and you mark very little because of that fact. Biggest problem with upwellings are the severe current changes in the lake, troll direction becomes even more critical than in "Normal" conditions. Some of my best steelhead and salmon catches over the years have been offshore after an upwelling, it tends to put them in a crazed feeding frenzy at times. Likewise, upwelling's in August can produce some huge king catches in less than 100' of water 20-40' down, as there are times when their will to stage near the tribs is greater than their need to move due to cold water.

Good question, mine is performing the same way. 13-14 volts at the alternator 12 volts at the dash meter. I questioned the mechanic at first, but the alternator seems to be putting out and I have been trolling on the engine without any issues, so I was assuming what you are, but cannot explain it.

Actually sounds like a voltage regulator problem to me.

I had a very similar situation last Labor Day off the Genny, boated several kings on wire divers w/ flasher/fly setups, but busted off 3 right near the treble, all new flies. I believe that when they hit, then turn and run, the flasher is beating them against the tail area, if the treble is fairly deep in their mouth, the line can be back under their gill plate and out the corner of the mouth, combined with the flasher flopping, the mono doesn't stand a chance against the sharp gill plate or corner of the mouth.

C & R as much as possible except for a few derby fish. No sense on keeping ones that will go back, you'll have your share that will swallow it as well as flop themselves to death in the back of the boat anyway, they're the ones to keep and eat or give away... C & R has really become the way of life for most rec fishermen in the lake, we're all conscience of the delicate balance of this fishery, but we also recognize that netting these fish and handling them will kill a certain percentage of the fish. My brother caught his first sailfish two weeks ago off Charleston, SC, since it was his first sail and the 17 year old with him caught it, they decided to hoist it over and snap a picture, then C&R the fish... the kid posted the picture on the forum down there and he proceeded to get a ration of BS for being a fish killer... apparently, there are "Billfish" laws governing that you cannot take a billfish out of the water unless you plan on keeping it... Florida has also passed legislation to aggressively go after violaters of these laws. I just hope that the delicate balance we have and the techniques we need to use on this lake are not compromised by beureaucrats and PETA in the future.

Anthony, Rougher water fishing can be just as good, but requires alot more work to keep the lines and cables straight and turns are critical to pay attention to what you're doing and how everything is tracking. It gets to point, no matter what boat size, that beyond 4 footers in this lake becomes a single direction troll, with the waves only... esp. with 100'+ of cable out. I fished too many times and years on this lake to beat myself up in those conditions (unless it's a tournament of course!). Better luck next weekend... the 180-220 range is pretty stable off IBay and should continue to be your target for the coming weeks. Fish the screen that you see, likely will be 90-120' down.

Fished from about 5:30-7:30 in 160-220, went 4-6, all kings up to 21lbs. Divers were dead, probably due to the wild currents, ended up just pulling them in as they keep getting in the way with only two of us on board battling rigger fish. 90' rigger with 42 second spoon accounted for most of the bites, 100' rigger with Kevorkian took one king. Probe was at 90', temp ranged from 45-65 degrees dependent upon direction and speed. Fleas were horrible, but the bite was good and a beautiful night!

None attached, but I'd say that half of my Kings this year have been scarred. We're overdue for an upwhelling, good to see it finally happened, wasn't looking forward to fishing 120' down this weekend the way things were going! Of course the WNW today will fix that and we'll be back to 100' again...