momay4000

Guys you are all so kind - I cannot thank you enough for all the good laughs (BTW it takes me like 5 minutes to type these messages one handed b/c of all the typos)...lol. Surgery is scheduled for Monday AM - the doc said nothing more than a coffee cup in weight for my left hand for 12 weeks. However, what he doesn't know is my coffee cup holds 128 ounces, which is about 8 pounds....and that's much less than a rod/reel....lol. All jokes aside, Pugsley's is pulling my boat out for me free of charge - I want to thank ALL of you for all the offers to help out with my rig and all the offers to take me out. Man, you guys are so freakin' special...... Be safe out there - I'll be watching this site closer than ever before the next few weeks b/c I still feel like part of the action, - Chris

Hey guys, You are all so very, very kind. Reading all of your well wishes brings tears to my eyes. I will still be reading all of your reports b/c it makes it feel like I'm still out there! As far as the ladder goes - I was on the second to the top step - leaning sideways with electric hedge trimmers in my hand. The ladder went out from under, and I landed on my side on the ladder (broke the three ribs). I must have broken my fall with my left hand, b/c it looked like a Dreamweaver paddle. Broken radius, ulna, scaphoid, and some ligament damage. i thank the good Lord that it wasn't my neck Once again guys/gals - thank you all so much for all the kind words - you are all very special, - Chris (BTW I've got to get used to this one hand typing thing...lol)

Hey gang, I had an unfortunate incident yesterday when I fell off a ladder and broke three ribs, my left arm and left wrist along with significant ligament damage to my wrist. Needless to say, but my season is probably over b/c I will be off to surgery ASAP. The orthopedic guys were talking 8-12 weeks out. What a bummer, but it certainly could have been worse. To all my good friends on this site - I always enjoy posting - and reading - all of the great fishing reports. Thanks to you all for a great season. Good luck to all and be safe, -Chris

John, When I talked to you on the phone today, I told you we had 41-43 degrees down between 90 and 110 feet (on my rigger counter with significant blowback). I could not see my cables on my graph so I'm not sure what the exact depth was. I have a Subtroll, but my guess is that you were losing your signal down there and that's why it was reading 72 degrees (or possibly you have a bad battery or faulty probe) - Chris

Fishing Report Chris / Liv n' Ellie: ============== TRIP OVERVIEW ============== Date(s): 7/30/11 Time on Water: 6 AM - 10 AM Weather/Temp: sunny Wind Speed/Direction: NW Waves: 2-3' Surface Temp: 70's Location: I-Bay LAT/LONG (GPS Cords): =============== FISHING RESULTS =============== Total Hits: 12-13 Total Boated: 6-7 Species Breakdown: all kings Hot Lure: Trolling Speed: Down Speed: 2.5 Boat Depth: 130' - 280' Lure Depth: ==================== SUMMARY & FURTHER DETAILS ==================== Fishing was slower for us today compared with previous weeks - but we still had a blast on the water. As expected the best temps were deeper after the NW wind yesterday. We had 41 degrees down about 90-110' on my Subtroll so we started in 130' and worked north, starting just due north of I-Bay. Almost immediately we had hits and it was steady until about 8:30 AM when it shut right off for us. The best water for us was 150'-170', on a West troll into the waves. We slid out to almost 300' after we fought a nice fish for about 10-15 minutes but it was barren out there for us for about an hour so we trolled south back in to 150' and the screen looked better and we managed two more fish before we pulled off the lake. We had a hard time keeping fish on today, lots of head shakes and we wound up losing more than we landed. This was not from dull hooks either - some of the rigs we lost fish on were brand new hooks I tied last night. It was all kings for us, and our biggest fish is pictured below (27# at the dock). We threw all back except the biggest king b/c it was spent after a 30 minute battle on the copper. Fish hit Familiar Bite herring strips in a Rhys Davis clear baithead behind a green tango chain and a white on white 10" Spinny on wire out 250'. We also had hits on rigger (95' down NK 42 sec mag spoon and stinger NBK), white/green dot Spinny/Atomik green hammer fly (85' rigger) and of course 600' coppper. Biggest fish were on 600' copper (see the kind below) pulling a 42 sec flasher.fly combo Good Luck to all, - Chris

That band is not 10-15 foot thick - it only looks to be about 5-7 ft. thick. That is a thermocline where plankton, debris, etc. is changing the density of the water near the top and where it's easier for your sonar to pick up. When the surface temp is 75 degrees and down 20 feet it's 60 degrees, there is going to be a layer of debris at that interface. Do yourself a favor, drop a temp probe to to the same depth and see if the temp changes. - Chris

Matt, Awesome report - thanks for sharing bud. That's one beautiful brown. BTW - I love your line about the "greased bb", I have to start using that one. lol - Chris

Hans, I hear ya.......I have stayed in that eastern water for my past three trips and it has been fantastic. Thanks for the advice to stay close to port!! Also, FWIW, I talked with Walt Thompson- the owner of Familiar Bite (I put an email into him today and within ten minutes he was calling me personally!!) and he gave me a few pointers on running the firmer, salted cut bait Herring strips. Most likely, they were getting beat up by my bait heads that were too big for the strips and the tandem single hook near the bait head. I ordered some of the Rhys Davis heads from him and I'll be tying some of my own teasers along with using some of his Tango chain set-ups and hopefully it'll solve some of my issues this past weekend. I also ordered a few of his Sushi Fly rigs, and I look forward to tying a few of my own to use this coming weekend. If any of you have ever have the pleasure of talking with Walt, he is extremely receptive to feedback on his products and he is a great wealth of knowledge on running meat. To have the owner of a company call you personally on a Sunday is second to none!!! Good luck to all, -Chris

Fishing Report Chris / Liv n' Ellie: ============== TRIP OVERVIEW ============== Date(s):7/23/11 Time on Water:5:45 AM - 10:30 Weather/Temp: hot Wind Speed/Direction: SW then West Waves: 1-3 Surface Temp: 70's Location:I Bay LAT/LONG (GPS Cords): =============== FISHING RESULTS =============== Total Hits: 16 Total Boated:15 Species Breakdown: chinook, lake trout Hot Lure: Trolling Speed: Down Speed: Boat Depth: 150'-420' Lure Depth: ==================== SUMMARY & FURTHER DETAILS ==================== Fished with my good buddy Anthony (Pike Hunter) and we continued the good fortune out of the Rochester/I-Bay area. Everything other than cut bait took fish today. After we started out in 150-200', we steadily picked up 10 or so fish on our program which seems to be working the past 2-3 weeks. After it slowed a bit, we slid out to the deeper off-shore action to see if we could find the "Kings Highway" out deep and indeed we found a few more kings in the 350-400' depth. We had a fantastic day and as always it's a real blast to fish with my good pal Anthony - always lots of great action and great laughs to boot. Lures which took fish: 42 second NK spoon deep rigger 75'-80' free slider Mooncricket DW SS on the same rigger NBK Stinger free slider on 65' rigger Green/white dot SD/green hammer fly on the 65' rigger 600' copper pulling 42 sec. SD/Fly took mostly lake trout and one small king Wire Diver 225' #2 pulling Dalmation SD/ purple mirage fly seemed to be the hottest today I think it's the first time this year targeting kings/silvers that I have not taken a steelhead. FWIW, I used Familiar Bite cut bait which I re-ordered this week(new stuff which seemed to be smaller and salted in small ziplock bags) and I was very disappointed b/c it wasn't holding up well at all (each time we brought it in to change it, the cut bait seemed to have disintegrated). The old fillets were much more meaty and seemed to hold up better. The newer stuff is much smaller and salted. Maybe Mark Cole or Walk from Familiar Bite can chime in on this. Good luck to all, - Chris

Mark, I fished all last weekend from sun-up til about 10:30 or 11 AM both days and it was the best fishing I've ever had on this lake with fish biting the minute we set the rods in the water. I talked to a few of my buddies on the water Saturday and Sunday and there was no shortage of bites early on. I would focus more on speed and your set-up rather than the moon phase. Good luck, - Chris

Awesome report Anthony - sounds like great action for only an hour and a half on the water! See ya Saturday - I hope this craziness keeps up........... - Chris

Skip, I have on '08 Trophy 2152 and it has the worst bow wander on any boat I've ever owned. I think it's the style of the boat. Trimming my motor all the way so it pushes my stern deep into the water helps......a little. - Chris

Scott, Awesome fish bud!!!!!! Sorry to hear about the LOC.... - Chris

Fishing Report Chris / Liv n' Ellie: ============== TRIP OVERVIEW ============== Date(s): 7/16 and 7/17 Time on Water:5:30 AM - 10:30 AM both days Weather/Temp: sunny Wind Speed/Direction: Waves: calm; 1 ft Surface Temp: 70's Location: I-Bay LAT/LONG (GPS Cords): =============== FISHING RESULTS =============== Total Hits: honestly over 50 Total Boated: 40's Species Breakdown: king salmon, steelhead, tons of lake trout Hot Lure: see below Trolling Speed: Down Speed: 2.5 Subtroll Boat Depth: around 3 mph sog Lure Depth: ==================== SUMMARY & FURTHER DETAILS ==================== I took a buddy of mine out for the first time, yesterday and today and the fishing was superb. He is an avid outdoorsman and when he tells you "this is the best fishing of my life" you know it's good stuff. We fished east of I-Bay 140-220 fow (special thanks to Hans - Up Grady) to avoid a haul to Braddocks. Our weekend started yesterday morning with an immediate wire bite right after setting the rod in the rod holder, and it ended today with our final bit (20#+ king) when we were pulling the same final rod to head back to the dock. We had at least ten doubles, two triples, and a first for my boat this year - a quad (two steelhead - one off the rigger, one on wire, one huge laker on the 600' copper, and a king on the other shallow rigger - and we landed all four fish). Every single rod and lure presentation took fish today. Lure/Depth details: Rigger at 55'-65' (White/Green Dot SD/ green hammer fly) Rigger at 85' (42 sec. mag NK spoon with purple frog and steely dan DW SS free sliders) Wire 225' - 250' (Kelly green SD/ green hammer fly; Black dalmation SD/purple mirage fly; FAMILAR BITE herring strips behind a white 10" SD and Big Weenie green/chrome teaser were hot/hot/ hot for BIG fish early) 600' Copper (42 sec. SD/Fly) took many, many fish - mostly lake trout As you can see, we didn't have to change much and we ran the same deep spoon all weekend and only changed the flasher/fly program a few times. ALL fish but one were released to fight another day FWIW, the Familiar Bite herring strips were great and held up beautifully. The lake trout population is really something this year. The weather was fantastic and there were very few boats out. I hope this fishing keeps up - it has really been unreal lately. Good luck to all, - Chris Things were pretty hectic and we rushed to get the fish back in the water, but we still managed to take a few pics:

Gentlemen, Thanks for speaking up. I find many - but not all - of the Tweets useless and nothing more than a bragging board as well. FWIW, it has nothing to do with Tourney time. -Chris

You guys are awesome! Thanks for the great replies guys.....you are all welcome on my boat anytime. I just lost my phone landing a fish (200 fow) a few weeks back, and I'm updating all my contacts as we speak....lol Tom - you still have the best steaks in town - hands down - it's making my mouth water just thinking of them..... Good luck to all this weekend, - Chris

PM sent and message left on the 600' copper - Chris

Fishing Report Chris/ Liv n' Ellie: ============== TRIP OVERVIEW ============== Date(s): 7/11/11 Time on Water:9:30 AM til 12 noon Weather/Temp: hotter than a hound dog Wind Speed/Direction: SW Waves: <1 ft Surface Temp: low 70's Location: east of I-Bay LAT/LONG (GPS Cords): =============== FISHING RESULTS =============== Total Hits: 6 Total Boated:6 Species Breakdown: laker, steelhead, kings Hot Lure: flasher/flys Trolling Speed: Down Speed: Boat Depth: 150-220 fow Lure Depth: ==================== SUMMARY & FURTHER DETAILS ==================== Fished solo today for a few hours after re-installing my raw water wash pump after a burn-out. I wanted to try just east of I-Bay for something a little different and it was a great day. Ran only two rods - first it was rigger/ wire combo than I switched to 600' copper and one rigger with a flasher. The day started immediately with a hit on my wire 275', #2, white/green dot spinny with a green hammer fly, and it took a nice 10-12# king. Back he went and shortly thereafter, I took two small skipper kings on the rigger, 85' over 180' fow, free slider purple glow frog (thanks to the charter captain on the radio who said he was catching some on this free slider presentation). Then it slowed down for about an hour, of which I sweated my sack off washing the boat deck down. After an hour I hit another small king on the rigger - 42 sec. spoon 95' down. I pulled the wire and spoon and hesitantly switched it up to a 42 sec. flasher/fly on my other rigger, only 55' down (after seeing quite few marks at 50-60 feet) and I put out the 600' copper (kelly green flasher/green hammer fly) and after that all "heck" broke loose. After ten minutes I had a rip on the copper which turned out to be a 17# 12 ounce lake trout and half way into the fight, the rigger hits and a steelhead rockets out of the air. I had to put the copper in my rod holder (still about 400' out) and fight the steely. After I landed it, I weighed it in a Wegmans bag and couldn't believe it was 12# 11 ounce. Back in the water it went, but it was floating so I threw out a planer board to mark it to swing back around and pick it up. In the meantime, I caught my personal "solo" best laker - 17#12 ounce. During the laker fight, the steelhead started to thrash on the surface and it revived itself and back it went. After clearing the deck for an hour, I went back and picked up my board and I was thrilled to see the steelhead survided to fight another day. What crazy fishing lately - it's been one heck of a summer. Both fish would have been on the LOC board, but I was fishing solo so that's how it goes..... Good luck to all - here's one pic of the steelhead on my deck and one of the laker in my fish box. - Chris

Matt, Thanks for the report. Glad to hear you're back in action. Fishing out of Rochester is hot, hot, hot!!!! - Chris

Fishing Report Chris/ Liv n' Ellie: ============== TRIP OVERVIEW ============== Date(s):7/9/11 Time on Water:6AM-10:30 AM Weather/Temp:sunny Wind Speed/Direction:N Waves: 1-2 Surface Temp: 68-70 Location: LAT/LONG (GPS Cords): =============== FISHING RESULTS =============== Total Hits: lost count Total Boated: many Species Breakdown:kings,lake trout Hot Lure: Trolling Speed: Down Speed: Boat Depth: 180-200 Lure Depth: ==================== SUMMARY & FURTHER DETAILS ==================== There was an earlier comment about the "big" fishing out of Rochester being slow and the best fishing west of port. I'm not sure where that one came from, b/c the fishing is terrific right now. Finally got the impeller repaired on my boat and we were back in business. Fished with two attorneys today - my brother Kev and his buddy Jim. Fished between Braddocks point and Sandy Creek today and the fishing was unbelievable. 180'-200' fow seemed like the narrow band where the action was great. There was a small break in that area with a subtle scum line and that's where the fishing was the best. Best fishing was a NW and a due East troll. We fished a five rod spread and had two triples and two doubles. 225' to 275' Dipsies, 600' copper, riggers 75'-100' all took fish. We only fished one spoon today - NK 42 sec. and it took big kings at 85' on the rigger. Familiar Bite cut bait pulled behind a white on white 10" Spinny and a Big Weenie green teaser took several small fish on the wire out 225'. 600' copper pulling the same rig as last week - 42 sec flasher/fly took an 18# king along with hit after hit after hit - at least 7 total with three or four lakers in the mix. Best lure today was a kelly green SD with pearl tape pulling a green crinkle fly, on wire 275'. Biggest fish came on the rigger 85' 42 second spoon - it screamed out 300' in seconds but we won the battle. Had three or four hits on our other rigger, pulling a white/green dot SD with a Green Hammer fly. Extremely "lite" bites today with many knock-offs, but all in all we landed almost 20 fish. Good luck to all, - Chris

Awesome Shawn - great report!! - Chris

Great job - I'm sitting here at work watching your play by play and it's like I'm on the water with you. Cool stuff - thanks for sharing, - Chris

Anthony you are too kind my friend - we had an absolute blast on the water - thanks for keeping us on the fish all weekend long! You know it's a great weekend when nobody wants to touch the 600' copper anymore b/c they're so tired of catching fish on it! Good luck to all, - Chris

Rochester fishing was great all weekend - I haven't posted in awhile b/c my boat was being repaired so I fished with a buddy of mine - Anthony (Pike Hunter) and I usually think it's courtesy to have the captain post a fishing report b/c he found the fish. First of all, I don't think 6/8 is a bad day at all. Second, it looked like you fished the right depth of water, but the bigger fish were deeper (85'-115' riggers, 225'-300' wire and 600' copper took most of our fish). We only ran two spoons all weekend (fixed depth rigger and a slider on the same rigger) and 80% of our fish were caught on flasher/fly set-ups on wire, copper and one rigger this past weekend. By far our hottest set-up was the 600' copper. I will tell you this - it is NOT a geographical thing right now - in the next few weeks the big boys will start showing up more and more, but I still think Rochester has been consistent. Good luck, - Chris

Engine update, I like reading this forum, so I wanted to give an update on what the problem actually was with the overheat, so that it may help others in the future. I pulled the boat almost immediately and here's the verdict: Thermostat was fine, but we still replaced it with a 160 deg. stat The overheat was from a bad impeller - it looked like it caused a little melting of the water pump so we replaced everything. Exhaust was fine (not blocked, no evidence of zebra mussels anywhere). Heatgun readings on the engine read 165 degrees, the guage on the dash reads 177 deg. like it always has. Also, on the day I pulled the boat, my raw-water pump stopped working as well. This was from a bad pressure sensor ($35 part). Historically I replace my impeller every other year - it will now be every year. Thanks to everyone for their help - should be back on the water in a week once we get the parts for the raw water unit. - Chris