Gill-T

The food is always better when the girls are on board.

Congrats on the new ride Jason!

When the bugs are hatching and the water is like glass, get some high running spoons off the boards for steelhead and cohos.

Glad you are doing well Glenn. My back surgery is scheduled for thurs. morning Got a blown disk L5-S1. Glenn, how jacked up am I going to be?

This is just nuts IMO. http://www.glanglerforum.com/forum/show ... uot-5-quot

With two back to back weekends of tournament fishermen pounding Niagara County shores I was wondering what everyone's opinion on bait levels seen on the graph and stomach contents? With all the Cormorants around and all the KINGS doing their thing......I was wondering how the bait was holding up? What are your thoughts and comparisons with previous years?

I will second R&R spoons. Nice to support local talent. If you email Dave he will paint anything you want. On a side note, Northport Nailer spoons paint jobs hold up the best IMO and I see Cabelas has expanded their line of Northports. Blue Mahi Glow, Green Mahi Glow, Orange Ice, Purple Passion Glow are all good spoon patterns. I am not affiliated with the company, just like to pass on info on a great product. My DW's and NK's have always held their paint as well. We would not be discussing this frustrating thread if their Stingray and Magnum blanks weren't so adept for catching Kings and Lakers. Part of the paint issue with Michigan Stingers is the flex of the blanks causes the paint to pop. You would think they could come up with a flexible paint formula by now. This is not a new problem.

Most fishermen are fishing below them. Head out to deeper water and run some spoons with a split shot near the surface or short leadcore segments.

I have a 1988 Trophy 23' model, and the only way I can see to get at the tank is to cut the floor. You probably don't need to remove the block. How do you know you have a hole?

Thank you for posting "overthelimit". Skunk reports are as important as good days.

Are you sure it wasn't all those Kings pulling your arm out of the socket? Better get in shape for next year when those fish are all pushing closer to 30 lbs! Nice shooting

That would be my experience.

NICE....you finally made it up to the mayhem. These reports must have been killing you . I am scratching my head how you went the whole weekend with only a few Lake Trout......what is you secret to keeping them off the line?

A couple reasons. One, the hook only grabbed a small piece of flesh and tore out. I am starting to move away from Owner cutting trebles and have had better luck with just a traditional hook point but still to early to tell if this helps. Two, the fish are in the nippy mode, again only hooking themselves with just a little bit of tissue. The initial thrashing of the head when a dipsy rip happens is extemely violent, followed by the fish turning and burning with the hook pulling in the opposite direction it entered the tissue. A lot of luck is involved in getting a mature salmon to net. With experience you will make your own luck percentages go up, but somedays we all get the dropsys. I will disagree with Ray on this one......I don't recommend setting the hook with no stretch braid or wire as the initial strike and run is plenty of pressure to put the hook in place. Setting the hook is only going to potentially open a bigger hole around the hook IMO. I generally loosen the drag during the initial run to lessen the pressure on the hook and allow the fish to tire while getting centered in the spread behind the boat away from other lines. Experiment for yourself.

After 350' of wire is out, the drag on the line will plane-out the dipsy and you will stop getting deeper without slowing down.

x2 I use all those calls with exception of the Screamin'Green.

Ah......Pete, maybe you can expound on this "wet noodle action" you have been getting.

I have had them hit bottom with a flasher/fly at about 112' going 2.4 downspeed with 350-400' of wire out. If you want 150' you need to go to 1lb thumper weights.

When I first saw your thread title I thought to myself.......a virgin in Olcott? I have GOT to see this!!! ....oh well, welcome to the addiction and a great first trip out into deeper water.

The pup was chewing on my daughter's nose in the picture.

Great hunt!!

In previous years, teams would have loved a 15 lber......not this year!

What a bummer!!!!! No worries though.....the fish are not going anywhere any time soon. Nice meeting you at the dock.

The kids got to help pick out my new hunting buddy. An all liver German Shorthair.