rdebadts

Seriously, I cannot catch a salmon on a spin doctor. I run at least one in some combination all day every time I fish salmon. I have caught over a dozen salmon in the last few trips alone, and not one on a spinnie. I can catch them on every other dodger known to man- in fact dodgers have caught the majority of my salmon this year- but its usually on a prochip or stinger. I have run the spinnies on riggers, copper and dipseys. Like I said, there is always one out there. I have a dozen of the most popular, regularly mentioned patterns (at 12 bucks a pop).... Here is how I run things- do you see anything wrong? 1. down speed 1.8-2.5 on the fish hawk 2. leader 20-24 inches 3. 50 lb test flouro with atomik flies 4. I prefer them on dipseys but will use them on riggers/copper occasionally 5. I have tried both the fast and slow holes on the back... I do well without them, but would love to make spinnies a regular part of my routine. They have alot of great colors and are available everywhere. My guess is that I go too slow, but I am not willing to sacrifice my spoons to that end. Any advice welcome.

============== TRIP OVERVIEW ============== Date(s): 7/7/10 Time on Water: 6-9:30 Weather/Temp: HOT and SUNNY Wind Speed/Direction:SW 5 Waves: <1 Surface Temp: 70 Location: straight out front to 2 miles east LAT/LONG (GPS Cords): =============== FISHING RESULTS =============== Total Hits: 7 Total Boated: 4 Species Breakdown: 2 steelies, 1 small king, 1 nice atlantic (about 28 inches) Hot Lure: NK- black/green front with copper back with purple and glow ladders Trolling Speed: Down Speed: 1.8-2.5 Boat Depth: 110-230 Lure Depth: 60-100, wires 180 on setting 2 ==================== SUMMARY & FURTHER DETAILS ==================== Fair to decent day out of Sodus this am. Set up in 110, screen looked good, and had 4 quick ones in about 130 feet, 67-80 down by 7:15. Trolled out to 160, where I did several majors on monday, with a fair screen, and picked a small king. It was an absolute desert from 160-220- we did see a few and land a decent steelie out in 230. Trolled back in and did another fish down about 60 once we were back in the 130s. Best picture was 110-130, best lure a black/green NK that i doctored up. The Snow bird (white paddle and green tourney Atomik fly) had 2 hits right at the end. Dissapointed that I couldnt find a major today- I have done at least a few hits on salmon every trip the last 2 weeks... But I dont complain about nice steelies. I caught a real nice atlantic- which probably would have fought alot better if he hadnt inhaled my hook and destroyed his gills.... Love seeing them buggers around more this year.

Yeah Steve. Unbelievable bite- especially considering that it w!s alot of majors and its freaking JUNE. I am excited to see what August has In store for us!! Thanks again for the invite. I still love my sodus bay but sandy made me a believer... [ Post made via Mobile Device ]

Oh- ran copper for the first time. It caught me two dinks but loste a screamer when I couldn't clear fast enough. I don't know how I feel about that... [ Post made via Mobile Device ]

============= TRIP OVERVIEW ============== Date(s): 6/26 Time on Water: 6-10 Weather/Temp: coolish Wind Speed/Direction: sw 10 Waves: 1-2 Surface Temp: Location: straight out to w miles east LAT/LONG (GPS Cords): =============== FISHING RESULTS =============== Total Hits: 8 Total Boated: 6 Species Breakdown: 2 majors, 2 decent browns and the rest immatures Hot Lure: green glow mag Trolling Speed: slow Down Speed: Boat Depth: 130-170 Lure Depth: 100-120 ==================== SUMMARY & FURTHER DETAILS ==================== A decent morning. Started off with 2 majors one about 17 with a decent pick of smaller fish after that. East in front of the bluffs looked fantastic down100-130 down over 130+150. [ Post made via Mobile Device ]

This time of year they have the fallback forecast of thunderstorms possible with associated higher winds and waves.... I am usually happy if they just have the wind DIRECTION right [ Post made via Mobile Device ]

I know a lot of guys go faster for salmon.... but I never get above 2.5 Sog. Just my experience. Mag spoons and spinnie/fly combo are always good. And consider wire for your Dipsey to get more depth. [ Post made via Mobile Device ]

Man you had a food weekend! I went to oneida and caught no eyes but 2 huge sunnies on Sunday.. shoulda stuck with lake o and my program from Saturday (i have learned my lesson) [ Post made via Mobile Device ]

For the first time in a long time I had streakers that turned into hits also- and they were coming from deep

Here are a few pics too Interestingly- temp was apparently 100-120 down according to guys running the temp probe. All of my fish were well above that.

Fishing Report Your Name / Boat Name: ============== TRIP OVERVIEW ============== Date(s): 6 19 Time on Water: 6-12 Weather/Temp: warm sunny Wind Speed/Direction: s sw 10 Waves: 1-2 Surface Temp: Location: west of the chute 200-250 LAT/LONG (GPS Cords): =============== FISHING RESULTS =============== Total Hits: 12 Total Boated: 9 Species Breakdown: 3 steels, 2 teen kings, 1 king about 20 and 3 skippers Hot Lure: alewife stinger and anything purple. White flasher with atomik fly Trolling Speed: Down Speed: Boat Depth: 200-250 Lure Depth: 60-80 ==================== SUMMARY & FURTHER DETAILS ==================== Beautiful and productive day. Good rigger bite 60-80 down. Dipsey had a few goes at 240 on setting 1.5. Ended the day with a screamer that tipped over 20. Fished just off the old light house and a bit west [ Post made via Mobile Device ]

I never want real specific info- just basics to get me going. Ilike to figure the rest out myself. But saying something like "on the north east end in 25 feet" tells me a lot but still really gives up nothing... And you are so right about seneca lake perch! I can never get ANYTHING!!! [ Post made via Mobile Device ]

A quick question/comment for you all- The other day I was at Dicks shopping for some walleye stuff (I have a new walleye obesssion that I can't explain). I casually was talking to one of the salesman about what he fishes for- his response- bass, pike and walleye. So I asked the guy "in what lake are you getting the eyes". He says "what do you think I have gullible written onmy forehead" and walks away. Nothing more, very rude. This seems to be common when talking about eyes in general from what I can see. Noone divulges anything. I dont understand it. It got me thinking... I know that I am not this protective of my fishing knowledge. If someone asks about our trout/salmon, I will bring them on my boat and show them exactly what I am using. From my experience, us lake O trollers aren't too bad, though there are some guys that will get quite uppity with their info. These are big lakes with MILLIONS of fish. Whats with the attitudes of some people? I understand the silence around tourneys, but otherwise it makes no sense. Do people think that they are entitled to fish and noone else is? Do they think that sharing their knowledge will reduce their takes? Is this only with certain types of fish, or a universal thing? Do you think that we are good stewards on lake O? Are people on other lakes, ie the finger lakes, more protective? The mere existence of this website would indicate that we are good stewards of our lake. Maybe I am too nice...

They didn't even have it right for the CURRENT weather. Marine radio said se wind at 10, waves 1 foot while we were on the lake dealing with ne at 20 and building waves 3-5.... [ Post made via Mobile Device ]

Sodus has had good pike action the last few weeks. Many fish between 27 and 30 inches, and we kept one pig close to 35 inches. We have actually been trolling big spoons. Nice to see that they are back....

Date(s): 5/22/10 Time on Water: 6 am-1 pm Weather/Temp:warm and sunny, cloudless Wind Speed/Direction: SE 10 Waves: 1s Surface Temp: 49-51 Location: East of the chute LAT/LONG (GPS Cords): =============== FISHING RESULTS =============== Total Hits: 11 Total Boated: 10 Species Breakdown: 6 lakers, 2 steels, and 2 pike (in the bay) Hot Lure: cowbells! Trolling Speed: slowwwwwwwwww Boat Depth: 130-175 Lure Depth: toplines, and 140-150 down ==================== SUMMARY & FURTHER DETAILS ==================== I got some reports yesterday that fishing yesterday was TERRIBLE, so I was less than optimistic. After a slow start, the lakers got cranked up at 8:30 in 140-160 about 2 miles east of the channel. The bottom was covered and the fish were active, at least for slime balls. They were a steady pick, and we added 2 decent rainbows on top. No real break out there and nothing consistent for the steelies- just random fish. I had a gas gauge on E so we headed in at 10 to fuel up. Decided to go for some pike, and we did keep one about 8-9 lbs.... The steelhead fishing sucks, but man have the lakers staged a recovery! The fish were all beautiful, and we even did a few dinks that looked great. I did have to kill a smaller one, because he really swallowed the hook....

Browns are the ticket at this point. Can find them from the shoreline to as deep as 50, but I would try 15-30 first (in fact I will be there tomorrrow). Go west....

Just a few days ago you could see them lurking in as shallow as 5'- you just need some color....

I thought the same thing troutman. I cant beleive I lived this long without my furuno. The difference is huge. The two lakers you see me holding are as many as I caught all of last year......... mostly because I never target them unless things are looking ugly

============== TRIP OVERVIEW ============== Date(s): 5/2/10 Time on Water: 5:30-9:30 Weather/Temp: warm and sunny Wind Speed/Direction: SW calm Waves: NONE Surface Temp: 47-51 Location: straight off the chute to chimney bluffs =============== FISHING RESULTS =============== Total Hits: 3 Total Boated: 3 Species Breakdown: all lakers Hot Lure: mag froggy savant Trolling Speed: 1.4-2 Boat Depth: 135-145 Lure Depth: 130-140 ==================== SUMMARY & FURTHER DETAILS ==================== I heard the brown bite was good friday and saturday, so I got out all extra early sunday looking for some footballs..... Only to find crystal clear water the entire shoreline. After wasting 2 hours on the shallows, I trolled north. There was decent marks in 35-40 feet, but no takers. Once I got to 130, I noticed laker looking bumps on the bottom. I dropped a rigger down and low and behold we took one. In about an hour, we caught three- wish we had more time. One of the lakers was over 11 lbs, so not too bad. 2 notes: I got a new Furuno 585 sounder. Holy crap is that thing AWESOME!! It marked 3 times as many fish as my backup lowrange unit I am using, and is super accurate and very clear. Lakers down 140+ feet where clear as day, easily separated from the bottom. Money well spent there Savant spoons have been catching me alot of fish lately. Im kinda sold on them. That mag at slower speeds looked irresistable

Canada is certainly coming through with the atlantics lately. I have never seen more numbers on the atlantics than over the last 2 years

Heard a few guys limited out in front of the bay on sunday- saw no fish to confirm that though

Something to think about when running spoons in the shallows (if you are less than 15 feet)--- if you get a big one on and are bumping neutral to get the fish in and net him, those spoons will sink to the bottom and can get caught up, whereas a rapala will stay floating and will not hang up. This is particularly true when you run 1-2 small split shot 6-8 feet above the lure to keep it down a few feet-- which is my preference. Just food for thought...

Does anyone know where to find small red steelie spoons? I cannot find Hi-Tech (creamsickle) or Alpena diamond spoons anywhere.... any ideas? Does anyone have success with the smaller DW Superslim spoons in the red colors trolling the top off boards? Ive found that anyone who has the good stuff either wont let you use it or will not sell it... I am a few break offs from being critically low on steelie lures.

Thanks for the info guys... very helpful