Gill-T

Time to get out the waders and micromanage the shoreline cover while the water is down....ie stack some rock piles.

Find some non-ethanol fuel stations. Use SeaFoam gas treatment to help get rid of the carbon build-up. Hopefully, there is nothing internal wrong with engine.

Scale down on wire size and go to a torpedo style. You could also tailor your gear to troll slower ie. flasher/flies and thin flutter-style spoons that run well at 2 mph. If you could master meat fishing which is a slow presentation that does well with a "thin" spread, you could compete with the big boys under the right conditions. http://www.afwhiseas.com/product-p/r135ta-4.htm

"Just my two pennies....and please keep in mind there's a big difference between disagreeing vs. telling someone they are wrong........" Chris Yes you are correct! Sorry for the angina.

Dr. Chris you are dead nuts wrong. There are fish offshore all the time. The difference is the fleet had to go chase them because the inshore bite was non-existent compared to other years. I have to believe we lost most of the three year olds somehow. Didn't mark them on my fishfinder, not seeing them on the piers and now trib guys are going to find out the hard truth. Why did a bunch of our three year olds run last year at age two?.....who knows? Did something happen at the hatchery or in transport?......someone probably knows. Did VHS in Gizzard shad die-offs the last two springs effect this years class of matures?......someone should know. Would VHS in Gizzard Shad die-offs in spring bath our pen-reared kings in virus laden water?.......someone better figure that out.

You were just prepping the fish for when it runs the gauntlet up the creek and obtains numerous hooks and "flies" and such on it's back.

One of the worst seasons for age 3 salmon I can remember. Thankfully, there were other species around to fill the void.

Curved Kyped jaws that are hardening daily. Nipping verses eating/engulfing bait. Except the challenges of catching salmon this time of year as par-for-course. I will say that you can do little tweeks to make the hooks stick.....such as extending your J-plug or trolling fly trebles back a little further to stick those short strikers.

ELOTSA

What type of fish do you see in those depths?

Better to check the buoy data then rely on NOAA. At 2 am the wind died on the lake. Should be great fishing this morning.

Hot n'tots and mag wiggle warts are a staple off the piers.

I would add that as the lake cooled over the winter, the last batch of warm water persisted offshore north of Rochester the longest. I PM'd Gambler over the winter to ask if there were any open launches free of ice because I was sure most of the Kings were going to end up there and I wanted to give-em a go. Never could get out due to ice but if you go back and check the reports, the Rochester area had a better than usual King bite this spring. I don't think it was a coincidence. Add into the equation the Niagara plume was feeding the middle of the lake instead of the shoreline and you can see the fish never had to leave their winter pattern offshore. I do think there is something amiss with the King numbers and this will be shown with the trib runs. Canadian fish are usually running by now and their lake-take numbers are WAY down. Just an odd year that I am glad is over. It was easy to put the boat away this year and start thinking about hunting.

When fish start true staging they are creating a "meet and greet" before running up the rivers. If boat traffic is not too bad, they will often stack vertically in a lose ball and chase each other around. I caught a King last year 15' down on a flasher in 70 degree water when I was setting a cheater line. High marks often get missed on our sonar because zoom is set lower. Next time out before you set lines, just sit in the water and don't move. You will be amazed at how many marks appear on the sonar at all different levels this time of year.

Yellow NBK Mags

Thanks for the report. I almost towed my boat down there but figured with turn-over and East winds it would be a weedy mess down there. Good fishing was found off Olcott Sunday in 350-400'.

This is not new news. I think it is among the top 20 most polluted waterways in the US. Believe me it will not stop people from fishing it OR keeping fish from it. By the way, the rocks in the Niagara Gorge are supposedly too toxic to touch as well.