momay4000

Gentlemen, Dreamweaver has both a silver back and a white back. The SS white back has worked better for us. Try this site (they have both patterns): http://www.greatlakestackleshop.com/ Disclaimer - I have no financial ties to Dreamweaver or GL tackle. Good luck, - Chris

Thanks for the report Bill, It gives us a good depth starting point for tomorrow morning. I'm glad to hear your whole family got a piece of the action!!! - Chris

Stinger, Fantastic pic - that's the only one I've ever seen with a "lake" brown and land-locked (atlantic) side by side. My guess is a lot of fisherman are keeping smaller Atlantics b/c they think they're browns. Thanks again, - Chris

10990.........Oh sorry, that was another thread that will never die...... -Chris

Gentlemen, You all have me blushing......I'm just gettin' lucky this year that's all....but if I could narrow it down to a few common themes it would be: 1.) Free sliders - (Gambler you are the man!!!) 2.) Red, red, red, orange, orange, orange on the sliders 3.) Dirty White boy on the sliders 4.) Fish the screen - be less concerned with temp. 5.) Don't leave home without that deep copper with a white Spinny...... 6.) Did I mention free sliders? As far as the name, we're still looking for a name (I'm trying to integrate the names of my kids and my wife somehow - Olivia, Elizabeth and Kimberly). If anyone has any ideas, let me know! Thanks again guys for all the kind words, - Chris

Bowbender, Use 30# mono. I use Big game and it works great. Last night I had one rigger rod with 12# mono and it had 4' of fleas in about an hour and the 30# test on the other rigger was clean as could be. Good luck, - Chris

Anthony, Are you using free sliders? Without a doubt, free sliders with red/orange spoons and a Dirty White Boy have been saving my "bottom" this year and seem to be one of best for picking up a lot of the high steelhead. I think Gambler recommended it a few weeks back - I really owe him one this year. The evening bite has also been a bit better this year than year's past...... Good luck on the water bud, - Chris

Chris: Fishing Report ============== TRIP OVERVIEW ============== Date(s): 7/6/09 Time on Water: 5:45-7:00 PM Temp/Weather: upper 60's Wind Speed/Direction: calm Waves: calm Surface Temp: 65-68 degrees Location: I-Bay LAT/LONG: 33-36 W lines =============== FISHING RESULTS =============== Total Hits: 3 Total Boated: 3 Species Breakdown: 1 king, 1 brown, 1 steelhead Hot Lure: DW SS 42 second, DW SS Matt Rock special, DW SS Dirty White Boy Trolling Speed: 2.2-2.9 sog Down Speed: 1.8-2.4 mph Boat Depth: 140-200 fow Lure Depth: rigger 85' free slider, rigger 110' free slider, rigger 110' down ==================== SUMMARY & FURTHER DETAILS ==================== We fished a little over an hour and had great action once again. I'm starting to think that the first calm night after a few rough days seems to be a hot bite. We set up in 140' and we started marking fish. Fish were scattered and out of temp. but were still on the screen despite a down temp. of only 58-59 degrees. (The coldest temp. we found was 53 degrees down 110' over 200 fow). We had so much blow back from the probe that we didn't want to go deeper. First fish was a nice king on our 110' rigger with a free slider Dirty White Boy in 150 fow. We ventured out to 200 fow and the screen was sparse so we motored back in to 160-170 feet and the screen was nice again. We then had a double as soon as we sped up to about 2.4 mph at the ball - a nice steelhead on a free slider Matt Rock Special DW SS spoon on our 85' rigger and a brown on a 42 second DW SS on our 110' rigger. We thought we had a "close" Derby steelhead so we flew back into port and had it weighed at B-E Tackle in Ontario - only 8#7oz. Oh well.....it's funny how they look so much bigger on the boat..... In hindsight, I wish we would have stayed out b/c the 140-170' depth seemed like it was getting hot. However, a huge storm blew in around 8:30 or so, so we were lucky to be off the lake. FWIW, the spiny fleas are in full force. I was still using 12# mono on my deep rigger and I paid the price on the brown b/c I had 4' of fleas and wound up having to hand line the fish in. If it was a 20# king, forget about it. Good luck to all, - Chris

Bill, I run 9'6" older Daiwa Strike rods for my wire rods. They have a stiff backbone (Heavy action) and are long enough to avoid tangling my corner riggers. I've used them for years and they have yet to wear through the guides. However, I have changed the Twilli tip on them twice. Many guys use Daiwa Heartland rods as well. Since most of us run wire rods with Dipsys, or a similar directional diver, it makes sense to pick a rod with a stiff back-bone (Heavy action) to hold up to the stress of the diver. I think the Daiwa Heartlands only come in 9'6" and 10'6" in the Heavy action rods made for Dipsy's. For me, I like my wire rods no shorter than 9'6", simply b/c I can run a longer leader from the Dipsy to the lure and so that they can clear my other equipment. Good luck, - Chris

Tom, Way to go - to venture out solo that early with rogue 3-footers is impressive. Even more impressive is your sportsmanship and honesty with your "potential" derby 23# king. Thanks for the great and very detailed report. - Chris

Chris : Fishing Report ============== TRIP OVERVIEW ============== Date(s):7/2/09 Time on Water: 6-8:30 PM Temp/Weather: 70 degrees or so Wind Speed/Direction: East 5-10 mph Waves: 1-2 feet, building Surface Temp: 65-67 degrees Location: IBay and Genny LAT/LONG: 29-34 lines =============== FISHING RESULTS =============== Total Hits: 7 Total Boated: 3 Species Breakdown: 2 steelhead, one skipper king Hot Lure: DW SS Fireball, DW SS 42 second Trolling Speed: 2.3-3.0 sog Down Speed: 1.8-2.5 mph Boat Depth: 80-180 fow Lure Depth: rigger 72' over 90 fow, rigger 62' over 120 fow ==================== SUMMARY & FURTHER DETAILS ==================== Fished this evening - surprisingly choppy, especially when looking at the NOAA wave forcast. All fish were very healthy and released quickly. Every single hit but one came on our starboard rigger parked at 62', on a free slider rigged with a DW SS Fireball spoon. We lost 2 fish after some aerial action and two more hits with no-body home. We changed our entire program to a steelhead presentation using every different type of orange or red lure we had, but the only action was on the slider with the Fireball spoon. I finally hooked into one of those mystery late evening "hooks" on the graph in 60-90 fow that we all see late in the evening - it was a skipper king on a 42 second spoon near the bottom. I'm still not convinced that all those hooks on the graph are silver fish..... We fished 600' copper, 10 color core, 5 color core, one wire diver with a Spinny all without any action. "Dead " lures - DW SS Dirty white boy, green goby, watermellon (thanks anyway Anthony!), Steelie Dan, bumblebee, dave's salmon slapper, orange crush, Area 51, green dot spinny/Hammer fly, 42 second Spinny/Fly, NK purple thunder, NBK, Bud lite, solid red NK spoon, gold orange crush, Gettr Dun, and a few others I can't remember. Be back at it Saturday - weather/wave permitting (I heard 3-5 footers) Good luck to all, - Chris

Anthony, That's a bummer buddy.......but thanks for the report. Glad to hear you've been out 3 out of 5 days! Take it from me, you'll be thinking of that missed brown for quite a while...... We'll be at it Thursday and Saturday - thanks for the pointers, - Chris

Chris: Fishing Report ============== TRIP OVERVIEW ============== Date(s): 6/27/09 Time on Water: 5:30 AM - 9:30 AM Temp/Weather: 60's, mostly sunny Wind Speed/Direction: W 5-10 mph Waves: 1-2 feet Surface Temp: 62-64 degrees Location: I-Bay LAT/LONG: 30-33 W lines =============== FISHING RESULTS =============== Total Hits: 7 Total Boated: 4 Species Breakdown: 1 steelhead, 2 chinook, 1 brown Hot Lure: NBK on a rigger, DW SS Dirty White Boy slider, DW SS 42 second on a rigger, DW SS Steelie Dan on a 5 color core, green dot Spinny/Hammer Fly on 600' copper Trolling Speed: 2.2-2.8 sog Down Speed: 1.8-2.2 mph Boat Depth: 80-175 fow Lure Depth: rigger 80' down with free slider, 5 color core, 600' copper ==================== SUMMARY & FURTHER DETAILS ==================== Good action today - although our most "disappointing" day of the year b/c we lost two fish due to equipment failure. We lost what we think was a Derby king on a 600' copper. We fought the fish 30-40 minutes until the leader broke between the fly and flasher. It easily took out 20 passes of line before we could settle it down. We also lost a beautiful fish on our 5 color core after the split ring broke on a DW SS steelie Dan! I've never had that happen before and unfortunately the fish jumped three or four times just so we could catch a glimpse....it certainly looked nice.... Nonetheless, it was hard to find a set pattern today as the fish hit at different depths with different presentations. We could not get the wire diver to go today (42 second flasher/fly at 220-280 feet out) but everything else took hits. NBK on a rigger parked at 70' along with a free slider Dirty White Boy took fish. 5 color core with a Steelie Dan took one fish and lost one fish. 42 second DW SS took a fish on our deep rigger at 80 feet. 600' copper with the green dot Spinny/Hammer fly took the largest hit. Other miss was on the 70' rigger. Down temp. was about 47 degrees at 80-90 feet. Lots of current, lots of debris and a nice scum line early around 100 fow. I wished we could have followed the scum line a bit more, but that's when we hit the nice king and couldn't keep on course. Our "dead lures" today were DW SS orange crush, kevorkian, Gettr Dun spoon, 42 second flasher/fly, Crazy ***** flasher/fly, and a purple thunder I'm going to be thinking of our two lost fish for quite awhile..... Good luck to all, - Chris

Rod/Ray, Thank you both for your help - this was perfect. As always this site continues to amaze me with the timely replies and great advice! Thanks again guys, - Chris

Can anyone help clarify the Open division format rules and if the "rumors" of an Open Division for the Wayne County or Oswego County Pro-Am are true or not? As I understand it, an Open entrant can fish anywhere on the lake as long as their fish are entered in the appropriate port for the tournament on the day specified. Specifically my questions are: 1.) Clarification on the location of fishing 2.) Maximum number of fish per boat which can be caught 3.) Species breakdown of the fish targeted I realize there has been some discussion on this lately, but I'm still a bit confused..... Thanks very much, - Chris

Thanks for the compliments - but I made the same promise to my wife and kids that you made - never sacrificing time with them for fishing (thank goodness the fishing is usually good at 5 AM when they're all sleeping, or during a friend's birthday party at 6PM on a weekday!). This is a great site with fantastic advice - I'm glad to hear my reports help out, like others' reports help me each week. Good luck - we'll be at it again Saturday morning.... - Chris

Chris : Fishing Report ============== TRIP OVERVIEW ============== Date(s): 6/23/09 Time on Water: 6 PM- 8PM Temp/Weather: 80 or so, sunny Wind Speed/Direction: N <5 mph Waves: <1 foot Surface Temp: 64 degrees Location: directly north of I-Bay LAT/LONG: (GPS Cords) =============== FISHING RESULTS =============== Total Hits: 3 Total Boated: 3 Species Breakdown: 2 kings, 1 steelhead Hot Lure: all on DW SS Dirty White Boy - free slider Trolling Speed: 2.7-3.2 sog Down Speed: 1.8-2.2 mph Boat Depth: 120-165 fow Lure Depth: free slider on a rigger parked at 55 feet ==================== SUMMARY & FURTHER DETAILS ==================== Went out for a nice evening fish - solo once again. Since I was alone, I was targeting quantity vs. quality. 3/3 (kings around 5-7 lbs, the steelie around 3 or 4lbs) All bites on a free slider Dirty White Boy on my shallowest rigger at 55 feet. Down temp. was 42 degrees at 60-70 feet. Fish were very high tonight (in top 10-30 feet). I fished two riggers for about an hour and then changed to a 5-color core, but no takers on the core. The fish liked the stealthy slider bite tonight.... All in all, there was good action, good marks on the graph, some bait, and nice temperature stratification. I think things are starting to set up very nicely after the garbage east wind last week. FWIW, lots of surface debris, bugs, etc. and I saw a few swirls hitting the surface which I presume were probably steelhead. Good luck to all, - Chris

Spike, IMO, I think it's important to not only have the various depths of the water column covered, but it's also just as important to have different presentations, such as copper and lead core as each has a different signature in the water. Each day is a different adventure and what works one day doesn't always work the next. - Chris

I second what Stan said - as soon as I find 42 degrees, I park my lowest rigger 5-10 below that. I typically park my second rigger 10 feet above that, and change it depending on marks on my graph or based on the bite. - Chris

Spike, I fish a lot with three guys - here's my "start-up" spread late May - July 95% of the time: 2 riggers - both with cheaters (I only have two riggers on my boat) 2 wire Dipsy's one leadcore on an in-line planer either a 10-color leadcore or copper down the chute As the fish bite, I'll adjust my presentation accordingly... - Chris

Way to go Mark! Great derby brown!!! - Chris

Gentlemen, I think you can fish from any port on the lake you want as long as you are in the weigh-in line by noon. I think it's one of the best things going - I only hope that they offer an Open Division for Wayne County. As it stands now, there is no Open Division for the Wayne or Oswego tournaments (at least according to the website). http://www.lakeontarioproam.net/openevents.html - Chris

Hi Tom, Thanks for that great link - it was fantastic. You hit the nail right on the head - I think I'm so excited and had such a great day because of the sense of accomplishment fishing solo. I'm going to keep working on my solo net skills - I was netting from the transom, not the side approach as you recommend and man was it tough to keep constant pressure on the fish. I also only fish 12# test with spoons on my riggers until the fleas show up, so I was hesitant to "lift" the fish by grabbing the line by hand. Thanks again for the great read - I'm going to use your method next time... - Chris

No - I had Pugsleys put it in. - Chris

Just fishin, I put a Raymarine X-5 sport on the boat this year and it had been fantastic. Without it, I think solo fishing would be impossible as my boat has a ton of bow-steer. The unit has been great. - Chris