Gator

If you look out into the lake, you can see Nothing But Net sitting a mile or two offshore. Remember the dog that Beavis and Butthead put into the washing machine? That was us a couple minutes later. It was an impressive thing to watch.

Fishing Report Your Name / Boat Name: Gator/Nothing But Net ============== TRIP OVERVIEW ============== Date(s): 5/19 Time on Water: 5:30 am Weather/Temp: sunny, 70F Wind Speed/Direction: light and variable Waves: none Surface Temp: 57F Location: LAT/LONG (GPS Cords): =============== FISHING RESULTS =============== Total Hits: 8 Total Boated: 6 Species Breakdown: two lakers, two teenage kings, and two skippies. Hot Lure: No pattern to speak of... Trolling Speed: Down Speed: Boat Depth: Lure Depth: ==================== SUMMARY & FURTHER DETAILS ==================== It was slower than I'd expected Sat morning. We fished two guys, six rods for a couple of hours. No real pattern, with fish coming from 40 ft down to 120 ft down over anywhere from 110-150 fow. Sounds like a couple of the boats got into some Atlantics up high, but not us. We probably could have caught a bunch of lakers if we'd targeted them, but we tried to keep things on the high end for chinnies. I dropped two fish before getting a look at them, but likely lakers, as well. Only two good rips, both teens, both 70 down over 130 on the rigger running an NK Chartreuse (?) NBK with a long lead. It got hot fast, and the flies were with with us from the word go.

Okay, I'll chime in...no horror stories, though. The key to buddies owning a boat together is that you have to be willing to sacrifice the boat for the friendship. I would rather sink the damn boat and take a dunking on the $$$ than lose my friendship with Keith. And if I didn't feel like that, we wouldn't own a boat together anymore Even when you're good friends, there are times when you butt heads about simple things like storage, maintenance, modifications, etc...The boat can't be the priority, or you won't be friends for long. And Keith hit the nail on the head when he said make sure that everything is clear up front. I'm not certain that you can possibly foresee all of the changes that might occur over the lifespan of the boat. The bottom line is that, if having a boat is important to you and you can only afford to purchase a boat this once, buy what you can afford alone. Keith and I have only made it work because we are both so patient and easygoing

Sorry for the late report...got home @ 9pm last night after leaving the house at 3 am in the morning. It was a long day. We launched out of Olcott @ 5 am and tested the inside waters (70-90 fow) for an hour. One teenage king later, we pulled the four rigger/two wire spread and headed past Wilson to 280 fow. The next three hours were pandemonium, and we lost count @ 10-for-15. Green/silver Spin Docs running Fox Flies, 42 Second and Gator Spoons (all Mags) fished from 150-200 out on the wire and from 50-120 on the riggers. The deep rigger accounted for our biggest fish of the day, which was 24.8, but we had three others over 20 and another four in the 17-19 lb range. It was an entirely king bite, with the remainder of the fish in the low teens. As a friend had mentioned to us from the day prior, we found that a faster troll, ~2.75 mph, triggered the best action (thanks, Scott!). After 9:30 am, the action slowed to a crawl and from noon onward it was non-existent. That's three days of derby fishing out West where we've failed to figure out how to trigger a daytime bite. If anyone has advice, I'd love to hear it...feel free to pm me. I slept well last nite...

I'm not sure that we have many Stingers on the boat anymore. Once burnt, twice shy I guess. DW, NK, Savant, Moonshine and R&R comprise most of what we run.

Yeah, I agree. I don't have a photo; Keith might. The guys at Fish Doctors weigh-in were certain that it was a coho, even though the caudal fin rays were smooth, there were spots on both the upper and lower part of the tail, and there were 12 anal ray fins. They looked at the mouth and the scales coming off the fish, plus something else that I didn't catch, and concluded instantly that it was a coho. Since they're much more experienced that I am, I didn't question the ID. Honestly, we were uncertain what it was from the minute it came on board. It was a long and lean fish, and the tail was torn up like it had been spawning recently...lots of conflicting cues. Regardless, the fish ended up in one of the guys smokers, so it didn't go completely to waste.

After the threat of severe weather on Friday, we were ecstatic to be greeted by gentle breezes and partial sun Game on! With four riggers (35-120), two wire divers (120-300), and two copper rigs off the boards (125 and 150 +/- divebombs), we started in shallow and worked our way out to 170 fow. Capt. Vince was following us the whole way out, so we knew we were on the right track We probably should have stopped inside, but we were seduced by our first nice king, which came down 110', and we sort of ignored the mid-depths in the water column and ran a high-low spread. Still, we boated some decent fish and finished the day around 14-for-17 or so. A couple of small fish kept us out of the game for longer than they should have while we gave them a free ride around the lake. The nice weather (and <4 hrs of sleep) made us groggy, I guess. Even so, the afternoon bite was almost non-existent, and this was a trend that continued throughout the weekend. Maybe the "super moon" effect? Anyway, we threw in the towel around 5 pm and went to grab some grub. Saturday we found a better class of fish. With the East wind, we went further West than we had on Friday. Around halfway to the bar, it turned into Lakerville, so we pounded back into the waves for awhile til it started to calm down. We concentrated our efforts in 70-100 fow and had a 2:1 mix of spoons over Spin Docs. Green in any flavor was good for us, but no real patterns emerged, other than the "40 down and 40 back" that we heard repeatedly. While we had a good day, there seemed to be a few boats in the area that really had it dialed in, and every time we looked over they were fighting fish. I'd like to say they were laker fishing, but some of the fish looked really bright and were tearing it up behind the boat. Tough to watch when you haven't had a hit in awhile and you just keep changing things up to no effect. That fishing, though. Oh, and the boat traffic was unbelievable on Saturday. I had no desire to join the pack in 90-110 fow, so we stayed inside for the most part. Sunday we decided to be on the water early, and we wished we'd been even earlier. With the moon so bright and the lake calm, we could have fished all night. Considering the blood-bath the first hour brought, we should have. All kings, all in the mid to upper teens, with one over twenty, same depth and lure selection as the day prior, with the wire out 120' being best. And at 7:30 am when the moon went down, 3 hours of mayhem ended and it was back to reality. We picked at them for a few more hours, but it was really anti-climatic, so we pushed off by 10 am and let my buddy head back on his way to Boston. We didn't weigh in any fish (except a "steelhead" that turned out to be a coho...yeah, rookie mistake, but it was a very strange looking fish, it had some identifying characteristics of a steelie, and at 13.2 it would have been the top of the board), still it was a great weekend. It would have been really great if the fishing from the first few hours had continued throughout the day, but we were lucky to have nice weather all three days and no problems with the boat. Here's a couple of fish...the one picture has my buddy holding one with me fighting another in the background.

It's really subjective and dependent on speed, lures, and as you mention, setting, but yes they will get down below 100'. Last year we had two identical setups running Mag Dipseys. They were hitting bottom in 95' with between 180-230 feet of wire out. So, in general figure 2:1. Any deeper than that and the curve will likely slip off. To get to 150'...not sure it's possible, given diminishing returns. Good luck

My buddy hooked the batteries up in reverse polarity last week and lo and behold we found a couple of blown fuses in the motor itself. I never realized that the alternator was fused, but one of the main mini-fuses under the hood was blown and when we replaced it, the alternator started working again. And hence we dodged the "$350 mistake"

This thread seems to have gotten to a few people, so maybe a cooler head can interject a couple of comments. No offense to anyone, as all opinions are equally valid...not necessarily right (either factually or ethically), but valid nonetheless. To be honest, most days on Nothing but Net we don't have to worry about whether we've killed more fish by releasing them than taking home our limit, if you know what I mean? But on those occasions where the fish were snapping, it's certainly possible that post-release mortality killed some portion of our catch. And I don't feel good about it...who feels good about dead fish that nobody else can enjoy...but I don't get too worked-up either. We do what we can to release them safely, and accept that we're not always going to be successful. The cooler full of ice water is a great trick to revive the fish, and I know that Jason from Trout-N-About uses the technique successfully. And yes, we've motored off fish that were biting well because of undue stress we were putting on them, mostly juvenile salmon/skippy, but we've also stayed on a hot bite for hours, just enjoying the strike and the bend of the rod. Those are the days that I live for. I don't think this makes me a bad person, but I'm not going to claim Conservationist of the Year, either. I think that the best we can hope for is that everybody just considers their actions, considers the consequences to the fish, and does their best to minimize their impact, while still having a great time and enjoying this amazing fishery. Gator out.

Heck, I've got more boats than I know what to do with. We go from 8' kayaks to 14' canoes to jonboats to the Lund all the way up to Nothing but Net. Take your pick. They're all just holes in the water...

Steve is living proof that a man cannot have enough tackle He'll pay you more than you're asking if you don't tell his wife

Brian, I'll accept $20 to take them off your hands Out on the water in one hour...I'll call you later. Gator

I just ordered some removable fighting butts that go over the end of the rod. They're supposed to distribute the pressure evenly rather than leave bruises on your groin like hard butts do. Okay, that sounded bad. I'll post more when we have a chance to try them out.

I spit my morning coffee laughing

Happy Birthday, Brian! And a word to the wise...don't try to pry off any rigger mounts today

Last year was banner because of all the runoff keeping the water colored through mid-May. This year is likely to be clear water and slim pickings. We chose to fish perch in the Bay rather than troll. The first couple of days after a NE blow should light them up, and if the weather continues like this, we'll have >60F inshore and the browns will be in their summer haunts by May

The perch fishing in I-Bay was outstanding! Saw a couple of browns splash around in there, and Steve had one chase his perch minnow to the boat yesterday. This is a strange, strange year...

I don't know what Scott is going to run off his riggers this year, what with all the busting that's going on

You expect me to buy that? too good to be true...

Ditto! [ Post made via iPhone ]

You can add a rod by simply running a copper down the chute, or if you want to get more sophisticated, try running copper off the big boards just like spring fishing for browns. You need really good boards and releases, though. You can even mix a couple coppers per side with Mag dipseys, if you're willing to chance the tangle from Hades. Letting things out slowly is key. If you're comfortable stacking rods, why wouldn't you keep them in the set? With three guys on board, you could run stacked riggers, a couple of wire divers, and a couple of coppers off the boards, and still have room for a copper down the chute.

You can launch a car-top boat from the park on the North end. The southern launch was open to parking by ice fishermen, but I don't think that it's completed yet. I don't know the anticipated date, though.

Steve ran into the guy who runs it and I guess he called it quits. Too few boats entered last year to make it worthwhile...of course, what do you expect when the same guys seem to win year-after-year? There's a couple groups of elite anglers down there that are hard to beat. I'm sure that someone will correct me if this information has become obsolete, but I think that it's off.