Gill-T

Small fish this year. Winning team this weekend only had a 15.5 lb average. Another LOC fall winner below 30 lbs. https://pubs.usgs.gov/publication/70204588 I think this will be the last year class of kings that were negatively effected by the 2015 winter/alewife hatch. Poor alewife spawn 2015 results - lower number of adult alewives to create babies in 2019 - to feed the year-one king plants in year 2000 (theory).

Two fish today on rattling silver horde plugs. Off by 11:30. That’s a wrap for the year! Ironically I pulled the plug on the season after our mag dipsy snagged a fellow fisherman’s weighted steel junk line pulling a Kevorkian Spin Doc (Dr Kevorkian reference- the OG plug puller). I don’t recommend running junk lines on the Niagara drop due to traffic and changing currents. That weighted steel line snakes more like leadcore. Our boats were not that close and yet his line was drifting way south on strong north to south down current. I was able to return the trollers gear. All fish were returned to swim again. All told we caught 32 fish over four days that we really had to grind for. Hours spent trolling over heavy marks while waiting for those subtle clues to trigger a flurry. Meat rotted mostly- taking only a few fish. Spoons sucked. It has been mostly a flasher fly and plug bite to catch this class of three year olds. I will say good riddance to this graduating class. This was the COVID class that only had Oak Orchard, Olcott and Niagara pen projects plus no lamprey treatments. Cormorant harassment had not started yet upon pen release. These 3’s have always presented short and fat. Not sure if it was lamprey effect (lots of scars) or less feeding in captivity due to COVID restrictions or a late jump to size because of a poor YOY class of alewives that year. One thing for sure, they are moody as stagers!!!

They didn’t want Lymans either. Believe me I tried. Lakewide lockjaw from East to West. I wish I knew the magic formula other than approaching fronts.

Only a couple of kings today off the bar so far. Trolled over probably 10,000 fish. Frustrating. I have not seen anyone’s net move and mostly everyone has left

Weather is supposed to get nautical tomorrow by 2 pm

You can’t sell out on any one program. Fish trigger preferences change moment to moment. Yesterday plugs. Today they wanted flasher fly. Put out a nice diverse spread and see what they want in the moment

Note red belly from rubbing

White silver horde customized with a UV ladder sticker across the back

Stagers inside

Seven kings today on plugs …….

A quick recon mission this afternoon to see if any stagers set up yet. The lake was starting to roll over. 44 degrees 48’ down over 90-150’. We watched the green water leave and the clear stuff move in. After tonight’s NE wind she will be a cold mess but should start the fish moving in.

Thank god for the two year old class of fish this year as the three year olds have been mostly absent

NE/NW winds this weekend will change things

Remember this time of the year, it is important to consider equally “where the fish are” as it is to consider “where they are going “. Staging should be starting.

34.2, 16.5, 15.1

I don’t know too many people that have a good program for 12’ waves

Ya but our riggers don’t use Natural Gas so we will ok.

Forecast was wrong. Buoy data says she is still rocking so looks like I am working on house projects……

Going to take a second stab at gold on Sunday. Saturday’s winds should bring a fresh batch of fish.

I hand stitched my bags for repair using a heavy duty needle and Berkley Fireline 30lb. Two years later no problems.

When it is blowing close to 20 mph, it has a positive effect on fish and a negative effect on fishermen

It is hard to read on the tag Brian but I believe it says to call in the color of Gambler rig used to catch it.

Thanks for the read. To help shape the conversation about rainbows and browns in the finger lakes, they were stocked, not native. Some of the anger directed towards walleye in favor of trout is curious.