Sk8man

I went solo this morning at 6AM and launched at the north end and stayed there at the north end for most of the day. I had no sooner (5 minutes of fishing) got my lines in the water (2 downriggers one with slider the other with a section of leadcore, a 300 copper with spoon and the rigger fired.with a 4 lb laker 55 ft down over 69 ft. A few minutes later I had a triple both riggers and the copper ended up with 5 lb laker and lost the other two fish before I could get to the rods one stripped some line pretty good. A little while later about 7:30 the 55 ft downrigger went off and as soon as I cinched up the slack I at first thought I had bottom or something it was so heavy but I was in 70 ft and then it took off peeling line and staying down. I was running the big motor and needed to slow it down but was unable to get to the throttle (I guess an autopilot would be nice after all ) Anyway the fish was barely budging even woith the drag tightened down pretty good and then all of a sudden I could feel it give and he was gone.....very heavy fish but didn't get a look. i trolled in that area from 6-noon and caught 8 lakers and 3 rainbows all released except the biggest rainbow that I had a hell of a time getting the hook out of and he was a nice 25 inch male and interestingly had dark markings on his cheeks and in his mouth. I trolled out deeper when things shut off and marked only one fish in 3 more hours of trolling south (east side/middle to Pelican Point). The bait and fish seem to be at the north end and on the west side right now. While I was fighting the rainbow the Canandaigua Lady went by and the people were scoping things out.....quite the audience Most of the fish came on the same no name taped up spoon. Fun day!

As far as I am concerned the furor is a whole lot of BS about nothing as the fish was a beauty and it stands as that period. I guess it could be a lesson of sorts though about mentioning anything about "state records" in a post no matter what the intention.....just the words alone seem to arouse potential controversy. I don't think you need to defend anything either.....it was an uncommonly large walleye in a small body of water without an ongoing stocking program and the fish is apparently still out there for someone else to have fun with in the future. State records are fine but it isn't necessarily what our sport is about or even good sportsmanship is about for that matter.

Nice going ifishy. Good example of why it pays to experiment with different stuff than we may be used to

For those folks just starting out or new to fishing for king salmon some additional basic information (based on my own experience at least) about them may help or be in order. Kings are a very special fish with special circumstances when compared with trout or most other fish for that matter. They have a very highly defined life cycle with fairly strict time limits imposed on them to feed, grow, breed and die. This situation needs to be considered when fishing for them at different points in the season, and it is especially important as we move toward the Fall. There are also big differences in fishing for mature vs. immature fish as they have very different needs or habits in their respective parts of the life cycle. The imatures wil actively feed all throughout the season increasing their growth rate rapidly while once the kings mature they are concerned mainly with procreation and propagation of their species and their feeding needs decrease as the season wears on and drops off rapidly with the changes going on in their bodies as the staging and actual spawning starts to occur. These mature fish are now motivated and maybe "obsessed" with spawning concerns and the search for their ancestral root locations, "mates", and territorial defence of nesting or potential nesting sites so they become very aggressive in their behavior and this behavior is very different than feeding responses. Out in the lake as they are searching for or homing in on the streams or locations of their origin or birth they may unleash their aggression on any object coming to their attention especially if they perceive it to be a threat of some sort to their instinctual spawning concerns or processes. In this case the use of bright shiney highly colored up or erratic action lures and attractors are the things to go with to provoke them and get them to evoke the aggressive behavior. Sometimes this even may translate to them attacking the attractors rather than the spoon or fly itself. At this time of the season a much different "mind set" is needed to be adopted by the successful chinook fisherman. It is all about getting the the mature kings attention and provoking him to respond. The immatures will still respond to spoon and fly presentations as in feeding situations and scattered at different depths or mixed in with matures while staging kings may not respond to anything at all or only if provoked (sometimes repeatedly) and sometimes they can be seen in large groups on or toward bottom looking like stacked up cordwood off the mouth of or near stream mouths waiting for the water levels or conditions to be good for spawning. To be successful catching them it is necessary to understand this basic pattern in their behavior and the changes in strategies needed to consistently catch them and during this time water temperatures are nearly totally irrelevant to them

Now that is the information I'd be going with especially at this point in the season and fishing the marks anywhere around any bait is always a good idea too.

Great job! The look on their expressions says it all really...they are psyched

Nice going Mike and good report. My cousin is up here from Nashville and I'm still figuring out where to take him fishing sometime this week....Cayuga looks pretty good from what you've been doing there Seneca is sounding pretty weedy right now and Lake O is always a big question mark regarding the weather....ah the big decisions in life

Great report and great fish and despite the fact that it may have been a record fish I think you did the right thing releasing it to keep the gene pool going That is what true sportsmanship is all about

Thanks tinfin your guess is as good as mine on the fight etc. I've often wondered if it was because they may have been hooked before and got away and they know what is coming when they see the net especially. Also some of them seem to instinctively go for your other lines or head straight down and toward the prop of the motor. I think they may be a little smarter than we give them credit for

There shouldn't be much of an interference problem with other transducers because it operates at 70 khz and that frequency was selected on purpose to avoid just that. Most modern depth finders are either 50, 83/200 or combinations of higher frequencies (DI or SI units)

Nice work Kevin and Gene. Great looking eyes there.