pvelyk

Nice night! You get that outboard squared away?

I would first like to say how great a job was done by everyone on the shootout committee putting on such a great event, it was done professionally and was really great at fostering the trolling community aspect of the sport . I am just getting fully back into the salmon and trout game after a 20 year absence and was completely intimidated by the idea of joining a tournament. My goal was not to come in dead last, try to produce a box I could be proud of, and most importantly have a good time. In my book I accomplished all three goal and had a great time talking to everyone. Started prefishing Wednesday with Larry (Henrybud) We setup right out of Sandy in 100 foot of water and trolled north to 250. We had a great north-south bite all morning and had the best day on the boat since I got it late spring last year. We went 13-16 with our biggest being a 21.5lbs. It was surely a spoon bite with Geezer being the star for most of the morning. Once again on Thursday Larry and Myself left the dock and tried duplicating the setup of the day before. We again saw a spoon bite similar to the day before with geezer shining as well as a Northport Nailer spoon in Glo Blue chartreuse doing some damage. We went 6-7 for 7 before the bite shutdown on us and we called it an early morning. Best fish was a little over 16. Big Fish Friday brought a new weather pattern with bigger waves, and much like everyone else we headed west to the nose to setup. We did leave a little later than a lot of guys and it seemed by the time we setup and decide to troll west while we missed a lot of the morning bite. We soon started trolling with the waves but spoon bite really slowed down for us and what we got on them seemed to be shakers. Larry decided to change the program up and started running some Big Weenie rigs and meat on the dipsy's. Within ten minutes of the change-up we managed to put a 10 pounder and a 16 pounder on the deck. Unfortunately those were the biggest fish we could boat and while we brought up the rear of those weighing in we at least had something to weigh in. Everybody was great to talk to at the East Fork Weigh-in and it was great seeing Tom make an appearance. The atmosphere was really nice to be part of. The SCS shootout - We added my wife and daughter to the crew for the shootout and decided that we were going to out the creek and troll downhill instead of making the run west, we didn't want to risk missing a majority of morning bite again. We setup and 70 foot of water with the meat program on the dispy's and the spoons on the rigger. Unfortunately the first hour or so only gave us a few of the shakers everyone has become so familiar with. The morning was very slow for use but we finally managed to have a slightly better fish hit the dipsyy and we pulled in a 6 pound king in. Not long after we got another solid hit on the meat and put a 22 pound king in the box. Unfortunately what we hoped would be a better string of hits with bigger fish did not occur and we kept dealing with those smaller fish. We did get a 4 or 5 pound steelhead that we released. Around 12:45 we switched to laker rigs and pulled up a 6 pounder and another smaller one we released. At this point we had a long trip back against the waves from Braddock's and only a hour in a half to get to weigh-in. We pushed the speed the best we could with the waves and got to weigh-in with ten minutes to spare. We brought in 3 fish for a little under 35 pounds and 28th place. If I would have kept that steelhead the ten points for the fish and weight would have moved us up 3 or 4 places, but since we were not in the running for money, I am glad there is a steelhead out there swimming today instead of a needless casualty. I am really proud of what we did in were rough conditions and I am very proud and happy to have such a great crew. My daughter did a great job of sticking it out in some nasty waves and managed to get three fish with that laker in the box being her contribution to the weigh in. Larry did a great job of changing our program up when the spoons bite died. I would also like to congratulate Matt French on a great salmon and Scream n reels on their winning box. Thanks, everyone it was a great fun and can't wait for next year.

Yeah, that is not good!

My first thought also.

Went out fishing today with Henrybud and got our weirdest looking king of the year.

I seem to remember an article way back about muscles filtering the bad stuff, Gobies eating zebras and bird eating gobies and getting sick. Perfect example of bad things going up food chain.

No job.

emk, Not sure what equipment you have. Most people who get into salmon and trout fishing on the lake troll. Easiest and quickest setup is to get dispy divers and copper lines. Dipsys at this time of year need to get deeper say 50-100 feet deep and you can't do that with mono. You need to run dipsys on rods that have either get wire or braid loadedon the reel, braid being a pain to use at this time of year because of fleas. From Dipseys or copper you can runs spoons like Dreamweavers, Michigan Stingers, Moonshine or Finger Lakes tackle. You can also run spin doctors and flies or cut bait in meat heads. If you want to continue to fish for salmon you need to also look into purchasing downriggers.

Had one last year enter the channel after I was already in it coming back from lake and told me she had the right of way because I was a power boat. I told her she was to when under motor power and she needed to get on her side. Needless to say I have had more productive conversations with walls.

You may have some issues with the braid dispsys and fleas. Most people use wire on the dipsys to avoid that issue.

I hope it originated in the Lake Ontario designated bait corridor. This is how we get those damn invasive species! Next thing you now those paws will be pushing the alewife's out of the lake and then doom!

That is a pig brown.

Great report!

Remember its the Fed's flooding the lake with Lake Trout not the DEC's decision. Fed's want everything back to original fisheries natural state and trump what states want. Feds pay for and push lakers and Atlantics. NY state handles rest of Salmoniods.

Take a look at the Gambler Rigs with Hammerhead cowbells for sale on this website. That combo will get you all the lakers you want and more. Derby proven! http://www.lakeontariounited.com/fishing-hunting/topic/56147-custom-spin-n-glow-rigs/

Real nice way to start the day! Good luck out there.

We were out Saturday and fished 80 to 250. We were 3-5, all lakers. Never marked any bait pods, I am hoping the alewifes were more inside getting ready to spawn... We marked fish but they seem scattered pretty good. Made a bunch of adjustments, but just not the right ones to get the silvers to bite.