skipper19

Brought my friend Robert out for some salmon fishing Saturday. We arrived at the launch on Archibald road, nice and sunny, and began preparing for launch. Not many trailers there, and was wondering if all the noise from the shoreline was going to mean too rough to fish. We get set up to launch and I pass one boat in the parking lot and its name is "Haywire"...hey I know that guy!..well sorta, on this forum, anyway I stop and holler out the window and said "Which one of you guys is Kooter?"..he waves and comes over and introduced himself. Great to meet you bud! Ok now we are headed out of port 7:30 am and there was a stiff NW breeze, and nice big waves coming from the same direction..ugh!..but we ain't skeer'd and hammer into the 5-6 footers ..occasional 7s that were like a wall! Took a long time to reach the 29 line 535 fow but, set up with the rollers on a southeastern troll. Speed was all over the place surfing along on the waves. 1.9 up to 3.1 and everything in between. Well it didn't seem to matter as the bite was on. The simple six rod spread the two of us had was busy enough. First to go was purple thunder mag spoon off the 65 rigger and a nice chunky king hits the surface like a steelie, or should I say marlin, and porpoises over and over right past the boat! Was spectacular watching that fish and Robert trying to keep up with it!..next to go was the 80 rigger, small steelie returned unharmed. As we moved into the 28 line things began to slow a bit, then the 210 diver took a shot and seemed to be a good fish but came unbuttoned before being able to gain any line. We came into the 27 line and there we began marking fish deeper. Robert took a nice 26 lb king on the Gator mag spoon at 80 down. Lowered a rigger running at 55 that had done nothing yet down to 90 with a moonshine rv crabface mag spoon on it. Now we have everthing running 75 80 and 90, plus 2 divers and a 300 copper twinkie meat rig in the chute. The wave action settled down enough now to make a turn back north and hit the action waypoints again. Back in 27.5 to 28 line, we run into a hungry pod of kings, and within 30 seconds of each other, we have a triple going! The crabface gets hit first at 90 down, I grab it and then Robert is grabbing the 210 diver, 42 second spin doc and ATOMIK Narby's gold 42 second fly as it starts throbbing and screaming away from the boat. We are both standing in each corner with screamers on and the 80 rigger flies off with another fish on the NK Gator mag spoon! Talk about exciting!..suddenly I remember...COPPER....IN THE CHUTE!...and a diver!..I'm already prepared to issue it's last rights..three kings on at once, two of us, nobody at the helm, and trolling into waves and wind. I managed to gently turn the boat back down wind and get straight, the copper and diver still in tow. Robert gets his fish up to the boat first, mine is close and I had the net so I tell Robert to play with his fish for a bit at the side while I net my own. I managed to net the 27 lb salmon and dump it on the deck, go over and net Roberts fish, a 15 lb king. Now the one that took the 80 rigger is still dragging along so while Robert unhooked his fish and cleared the net I brought king # 3 onboard self netted once again. This one was smallest of the 3 at 11 lbs. I finally realise...Hey we did this and all three fish are in the boat...guess what!..No tangled copper or diver wire.. they still are running! Amazing they never got tangled! The 300 copper washed all morning without a hit but was probably running too high out of temp. Well now its Noon and we are boxed, the cooler lid just barely closes on the catch. Robert is feeling a bit queezy from the washing machine effect of the waves and we head in. At the launch the DEC survey takes a look at our catch and finds two fish with the data tags and retrieved them and took weights and measures and scale samples. A very productive day! Nice weather and angry waves! Mark Sent from my PC36100 using Lake Ontario United mobile app

That was a great king Brian! We did inside down by the glass house and back to devils nose. By 8:30 we had zero fish in the box. Very humbling and nerve wracked. Lots of small fish, and we decided to run way off to the Scotch Bonnet Gap. The water was a bit lumpy out there, but we had better screen, and color. We had 3 in the box by 1:00 pm. The steel head kept us busy and ended up getting one keeper steelhead and then a hybrid chinho, finally a 23 lb king that gave Tom a real battle right up at the boat. We ended up pulling everything else out of the water due to the circus ride like a merry go round as this fish planned to go in one direction to the right and try to pass the boat. Several full power blasts on the little 9.9 to try to keep ahead of the race and we now have only about 15 minutes before we need to pick up and run 14 miles back to port. We just need one more fish to make a full box. Knowing the chance of placing with the chinho and steelhead in the box with the king was lost, we opted to put down a quick 5 rod spread of steelhead tackle and shoot for the steely prize. All we could do was pick more underclass fish and had to settle for the 3 fish box and try to make weigh in. Was a long way back and seemed to take forever at 36 mph, but after a couple miles we could see more than just the tops of the buildings in Rochester. The ramp at Sandy Creek Marina was busy, and more frantic moments pass as we waited our turn to load up, move the fish from the boat to the cooler in the truck. We pulled into Northstar sportsman club with a few minutes to spare. Thank goodness the close of weigh in was open a little longer than 2 pm. My two 14 year old competitors were perfect on the rods and I sure hoped I could get them on a better class of fish, but I knew I didn't want to show up late at weigh in. After all we had a great time fishing, it was a good day, no tornadoes, no big waves...except Sunday..5 to 6s breaking by afternoon. Still fun but couldn't muster more than a 19 king, and targeted lakers for a short while getting 5 of them all cookie cutter 8 to 10lbs. All out in front of devils nose 95 fow on the bottom. We ended the east troll in front of Watoma shoal light and ran back to port through the breakers at 15 mph. Motored up to east fork to find Jason cleaning his boat and his winning 27 lb king for Sunday big fish. Jason has the program that keeps on winning, and that takes hard work and skills to win every event since inception! Impressive fishing! Another great tournament, fun, relaxing, time fishing! Everyone, Make it a point to try this event, you will not be disappointed! Everyone comes away with something. The sponsor goodie bag for entering is worth a good portion of the entry fee, and even low scoring boxes win something from the sponsors. Can't go wrong! Everyone here had smiles and laughs and that is a reward in itself. Thanks to the organizers for another well run event. Hats off! Mark and team Stand & Deliver Sent from my PC36100 using Lake Ontario United mobile app

Congrates on the great finish! My hits take place when I'm eating a sandwich. This weekend I was in the middle of a swallow of my water when a rigger takes a hit and I am the only one out if five of us looking at it. Almost drowned trying to yell fish.while pointing frantically at it and stopping the deck. LOL! Sent from my PC36100 using Lake Ontario United mobile app

I know I don't want to see this evil crap this year! Sent from my PC36100 using Lake Ontario United mobile app

Some pics of my center console with the planer setup. A little crude, but works great. Rail mounted reels, and 2 foot masts that are from my old proos manual riggers. The masts are held by hose clamps tight to the upright on the bow rails. The proos arm works great to guide the tow line out and back in. I thought about ways to go on the t top, but then you would have the tow line going out over your head. Not that that is a problem, but if you are running dipsey rods that are long and you have the dipsey and leader problem of walking the dipsey forward with a fish on to get it to the net. The tow line will hinder that process. Hard to explain, but if you sit in the boat in the driveway and visualize this stuff I think you will understand. The center console design is nice, but the room to manage netting long lead fish on a diver is a bit compromised, therefore necessarily, you would walk the diver fish forward pass the console to do your netting at the side of the boat. Unless you have a really long handle net for the netting at the back. Mark Sent from my PC36100 using Lake Ontario United mobile app

I have seen a few questions on how to fillet big salmon. Most of us use 9 inch or bigger knives. I have had good results with a much smaller knife and thought I would share the method. This fillet method is borrowed from the way I learned to do one of the strangest fish I know.... A flounder. Yup eyes on one side, wonder where his guts are, door mat. How do you make that into a pan fried yummy fillet?....Butterfly it! I'll do my best to explain butterfly fillets here for a big salmon and eventualy I can try to put a pictorial display of my own, or maybe a video. Like I previously mentioned, I use a 7 inch blade, but also have done this with a six incher. The key is flexibility of the blade and of course be sharp. Step1 ...lay fish flat on a table either side up and see the lateral line running the length of the body from gill collar to tail along the mid section. That line is directly in line with the spine. You will cut into the line down to the spine all the way from gill collar to tail. Step 2... Make three 90 degree cuts across that lateral line cut just made, starting at the tail where the meat ends, then one across the lateral line just behind the anal fin. The next just behind the dorsal fin. You could do one more midway to the collar but it splits the pin bones into more pieces and makes more work for removing them. Step 3...at the head cut around the gill collar so that you get the nice meat around and under the gill plate and go around the pectoral fin. Now what you have is 6 sections of meat to carve away from the spine and ribs. Just make sure to not cut too deeply into gut cavity on the cross cuts unless you maybe already gutted and gilled the fish before putting them in your cooler. That's the best way to get good tasty fillets if you can do that. If not then be careful not to cut into the guts. Step 4...this is where the flexible blade is a must. At the tail, insert your blade in the lateral line and carve away the upper section of meat using the spine and radius bones as a guide. I leave the skin attached to the body so I have an easy grab with my free hand on the fish as I flip the carved section over and skin that section off the body. Repeat for the lower section by the same method. Move to the next section forward and remove those in the same order. Top first then bottom. Flip and skin off. The last sections are longer and contain the pin bones in the upper section. Place your blade in the lateral line cut behind the gill collar and carve from the spine outwards toward the dorsal fin using the radius bones as a guide. You will be cutting through the pin bones as you follow the skeleton. Flip the section and carve the skin off. Now the last section is the rib side. Angle the blade in the direction of the ribs and carve it down using the ribs as a guide on the knife flat. On this piece I flip the section and carve through the skin and leave the belly section and fins on the carcass. Just skin the section as you would for any fillet. That is it for one side. The other side is the same method and progression. The main reason for removing the top sections first is to give you more room to angle the blade and move it towards the tail and down on the lower sections so as to not puncture into the gut cavity and follow the direction of the ribs and radius bones. Pin bones can be removed along with a small thin strip of flesh from the section that came from the top in front of the dorsal fin. Run your fingers over the inside of the fillet and you can feel them. Sharpen your blade and make a slit along the outside of the pin bone line. Work carefully along it and carve away what I call the back strap of the fish. It's boneless. Now go the other side of the pin bones and slice away the thin flesh that will contain the pin bones. Now you have boneless fillets all skinned, in six serving size pieces from one side of the fish. When you get done with both sides, you have 12 nice size fillets and the carcass will be nearly bare bones and flaps of skin hanging. If done carefully you will be surprised how much more edible flesh you get. It's a great way to honor the king by enjoying as much as possible of its fleshy goodness. I'll try to find pics or get some done in the near future. It's not hard, it does take a little time more than one swipe with the bubba, but when all done the fillets are all serving size and ready for the grill. Mark Here are some pics I found off another site. Not mine but similar to what I do, there are some extra diagonal cuts that I don't do as I explained about the pin bones. Those pics I think the skin stays on the pieces. I flip it and skin the piece off and the skin flap stays on the carcass. Mark Sent from my PC36100 using Lake Ontario United mobile app Sent from my PC36100 using Lake Ontario United mobile app

I think you already know some of it if you're used to butcher cutting cows. Sorta like removing the shank from a leg.I'll do my best to explain it here and eventualy I can try to put a thread up with a pictorial display or maybe a video. Like I previously mentioned, I use a 7 inch blade, but also have done this with a six incher. The key is flexibility of the blade and of course be sharp. Step1 ...lay fish flat on a table either side up and see the lateral line running the length of the body from gill collar to tail along the mid section. That line is directly in line with the spine. You will cut into the line down to the spine all the way from gill collar to tail. Step 2... Make three 90 degree cuts across that lateral line cut just made, starting at the tail where the meat ends, then one across the lateral line just behind the anal fin. The next just behind the dorsal fin. You could do one more midway to the collar but it splits the pin bones into more pieces and makes more work for removing them. Step 3...at the head cut around the gill collar so that you get the nice meat around and under the gill plate and go around the pectoral fin. Now what you have is 6 sections of meat to carve away from the spine and ribs. Just make sure to not cut too deeply into gut cavity on the cross cuts unless you maybe already gutted and gilled the fish before putting them in your cooler. That's the best way to get good tasty fillets if you can do that. If not then be careful not to cut into the guts. Step 4...this is where the flexible blade is a must. At the tail, insert your blade in the lateral line and carve away the upper section of meat using the spine and radius bones as a guide. I leave the skin attached to the body so I have an easy grab with my free hand on the fish as I flip the carved section over and skin that section off the body. Repeat for the lower section by the same method. Move to the next section forward and remove those in the same order. Top first then bottom. Flip and skin off. The last sections are longer and contain the pin bones in the upper section. Place your blade in the lateral line cut behind the gill collar and carve from the spine outwards toward the dorsal fin using the radius bones as a guide. You will be cutting through the pin bones as you follow the skeleton. Flip the section and carve the skin off. Now the last section is the rib side. Angle the blade in the direction of the ribs and carve it down using the ribs as a guide on the knife flat. On this piece I flip the section and carve through the skin and leave the belly section and fins on the carcass. Just skin the section as you would for any fillet. That is it for one side. The other side is the same method and progression. The main reason for removing the top sections first is to give you more room to angle the blade and move it towards the tail and down on the lower sections so as to not puncture into the gut cavity and follow the direction of the ribs and radius bones. Pin bones can be removed along with a small thin strip of flesh from the section that came from the top in front of the dorsal fin. Run your fingers over the inside of the fillet and you can feel them. Sharpen your blade and make a slit along the outside of the pin bone line. Work carefully along it and carve away what I call the back strap of the fish. It's boneless. Now go the other side of the pin bones and slice away the thin flesh that will contain the pin bones. Now you have boneless fillets all skinned, in six serving size pieces from one side of the fish. When you get done with both sides, you have 12 nice size fillets and the carcass will be nearly bare bones and flaps of skin hanging. If done carefully you will be surprised how much more edible flesh you get. It's a great way to honor the king by enjoying as much as possible of its fleshy goodness. I'll try to find pics or get some done in the near future. It's not hard, it does take a little time more than one swipe with the bubba, but when all done the fillets are all serving size and ready for the grill. Mark Sent from my PC36100 using Lake Ontario United mobile app