reelintense

I know you all get enough information from Nick (Ruff Rider) to figure out what to do, without my little tid bits of information, however I did want to post yesterday's results, as some of it is different and goes to show you how still whacky the fishing is right now for early September. We (like the Sodus Armada) was out on the water at 6am and set up in 60 fow and started north towards the previous day's hot bed of 120-150fow. Screen was amazing, with most marks and bait down 60-80fow as we trolled out. Didn't take long to lose a nice fish on the 50 rigger....not sure if it was a main line or a free slider hit, but I broke off at the swivel and lost the set up. Time to look at all my lines again...LOL Wasn't long before we lost a hit on the port side 175 diver, #3 setting... 0 - 2 Took a rip on the starboard 150 diver (Mag size on #1 setting) and lost the fish, when the leader from SD to fly broke off and swam away with said fish... 0- 3 As my son Josh was resetting that line, the 10 color with a fire-frog spoon takes a rip and I can see a nice steelie come right out of the water with line and all!!! Now I am worried about losing another fish and as I am fighting, he is setting the starboard diver back out and BOOM.....Port side diver goes screaming and before long that fish is 400.....500.....600 foot back and he is into a nice long battle. I get my 8 lb steelie into the net by myself.....and now we are 1 - 4.....thank goodness for that. After 15 minutes or so, Josh gets this brute (and it definitely fought like a 20+lber) to about 180 foot of line back, he turns, makes a run towards the boat......and guess what...... G O N E..... popped the hook right on out. About 90 minutes into the day and we are 1 for 5!!! UGH Lets just say that over the next 3 hours we take 2 more rigger hits that are there and gone.... 3 solid diver hits that make off with 40-50 foot of line and then are gone and we are staring at 1 for 10!!!!! The bait and marks were in that 100-150 fow, as many of the armada continued to do battle for the fish that were there and with a couple of hits here and there, we wanted to stay, but calm waters for the first time that weekend, made the call to point north and go for deeper water. Boats were still getting fish here and there at this point, but not lighting them up, like it was the first couple of hours of the morning. So we set out towards Canada... At some point after 190 to about 250 fow, the screen seemed much less, with a couple bait pods and a couple marks...but btw 260 and 290 we lost 2..yes 2 more hits on the port side dipsy...which all day was my favorite WHITE Pearl Glow SD and Green Hijacker Atomik fly. UGH 1 - 12 Then we hit 300 and a lot more bait and marks and a good screen and before long we are hooked up on that port side dipsy and while Josh is fighting his fish, the starboard dipsy hits and starts really screaming good...woohoo doubled up again, and I feel like I might be into a 20lber. Josh gets his 10 lb king into the boat and after a very nice battle, with several good runs and wanting to stay deep, a very respectable 18lb king hits the back of the boat as well. Was surprised it wasn't bigger, but frankly this year, an 18lb king is good!!!! So 3 for 14 on the day...!! We turned around at 420 fow at that point and trolled all the way back to about 200 before we had to leave. We had one more rip on the center rigger when we weren't paying attention and couldn't get the hook set. All in all about 3 for 15 for the day...... My normal hookup ratio is 70%, so hard to see a 20% day as a good day, but Josh and I had a wonderful day on the water. What I am still in amazement about is that Nick and others are catching matures in 80 fow on a free sliders on a 66' rigger, while I am catching matures on a #1 setting mag diver at 220' fow back, so under 100 foot of water in 350'fow off shore. Fish are scattered everywhere...reading other peoples reports off Ibay.... 400-500 fow and while they are darkening up....and I am guessing by my hookup ratio, jaws are getting hard.... they are still not staged and are ALL OVER THE PLACE. I think the fishing off Sodus is the best it has been all season, drop a line in 50fow and start trolling everywhere. Just make sure to check all your lines and sharpen your hooks. okay, I will be out tomorrow.....I can only hope my CATCHING rate is better! Jason

Way to go Rich.......cant go wrong with taking them out one last time! Now for some LOC fishing this weekend!

Dan, Great Day.......So wish we could have gotten out. AWESOME job on the steelies!!!!!

FLEAS???? WHAT FLEAS???? BAWAAAAAAAAAAA

Never have used PAM, and not sure what scent to run? LOL Don't think I will do that because of the potential of smelling fish away. As for divers, yes...that is the line counter distance. With Divers you really need to know what distance they are behind the boat, because that helps determine what depth they run at. A standard dipsy at a 2.5 setting on the dial, with a boat speed around 2.5mph, will dive about 3 to 1 ratio, so 325' is about 110 feet down. I run standard dipsy's with their rings on the outside on a #3 setting, so I am covering away from the boat that 100-110' down. The mag divers I run with their rings attached, I run at a #1 setting and the ratio is 2 to 1, so at 240' it would be about 120' down or so and closer to the boat, so these are run on the inside, if your running 4 divers (2 per side). I try and keep about 75'-100'+ spread between the two divers. if you don't have line counters, you can count passes across the reel, but I find that hard and tedious to do. IMHO Jason

Probes, downrigger weights and divers/flasher/flies at the bottom of this lake will make future geologists in the year 22,534AD wonder what the heck we were doing???? LOL

Well its about time I posted again. Been a very busy year, with much less fishing time and even when I have been able to fish, it aint been all that good, most of the time. This weekend showed me again the bi-polar'ness (if that is a word) of Lake Ontario this year. We were able to get out for a few hours on Friday morning 8-11:30am, as part of the Big Fish Friday for the Sodus Bay Salmon Slam and we almost crushed them. Or not!!! We set up in 140 fow and headed north. Not much wind/waves and not exactly sure what to expect in terms of screen. We took a rip only 10 minutes into the trip, and then gone. A few minutes later we picked up a nice 5 lb steelhead on a Yellow NBK stinger on the 60 rigger over 160fow and it started to look promising. Some marks and small bait, along with a ton of sea fleas! That was a story in of itself all weekend, so I will stop there and just say they are the worse I have seen in my time on this lake the last 15 years. Downrigger cables and probes, covered in them. Hooks on my rigger spoons even had them! Diver wire so covered in them, I lost an entire set up after trying (stupidly) to smack the water with 50 foot to go. Last time i will be lazy about that! UGH. Anyways, we worked in and out from 160-240 fow and only took one more rip on a 300' diver, and nothing. One fish and figured it could only get better the rest of the weekend. Sadly we had to get off the water to run some kids around and do errands. Saturday morning was the Salmon Slam, and my vet George, who I took out 2 years ago, asked for me again and I was honored to give him that opportunity. We left port at 6:30with a Coast Guard and Sheriffs Office escort from Arney's to the Lighthouse. We were NOT greeted by waterspouts and waves this year, but by calm seas! Set up again in 140' and headed north west, putting out 3 riggers with spoons at that 55' 70' and 85', where the thermocline appeared to be and 4 divers with spin doctors and flies...2-Mag's on a 1 setting back 200' and 225' and 2-Std on 2.5-3 settings back 300' and 325' and then a 10 color leadcore with steelie stomper spoon on church board to keep them honest. Took two quick rips on the 325' diver in the first hour or so, both gone in 10 seconds. After that, the next 4 hours we trolled 160-240 back and forth. Reports from deeper water were the same as the water I was in. Not much going during that time except for occasional fish. A king here, a brown there, some small steelies. Changed up lures (and cleaned fleas) every 30minutes and NADA. Then about 10-10:30 the second bite kicked in and a lot of the boats were getting nice steelheads from 6-almost 11 lbs. A few more kings, but not a lot, were taken. We managed a 12.5lb king on a white SD/green crush with green/blue ATOMIK Tournament Fly, and then not long after that the 60 rigger with UV Mixed Veggie fires and rod just doubles over and then screams out over 200' and then a nice fish jumps out of the water and I am hoping for a nice steelhead.....! Turns out it was a king, just under 10 lbs, but my Vet was very happy with the action on that king, on a downrigger rod vs Dipsy. Had one more hit after that and nothing. But after seeing how tough it was for everyone and the number of kings under 10lbs, I was happy we got 2 of them for our vet to enjoy! Sunday morning was almost cookie cutter as Saturday, with near flat seas. We took my buddy and his friend out and set up around 6:30in that same 140 fow and headed more west. Took a rip at 160' on the 85' rigger and nothing home. Then we fished the next 7 + hours going 10 for 11, with basically the same set up as Saturday. However I stayed almost entirely between 160-190fow going east and west. I found bait, marks and good water in there and after setting a waypoint off Maxwell, I ran up and back for 6 hrs taking 1 steelhead on a 10 color leadcore with Steelie Stomper, 3 smaller kings on rigger spoons, Black Widow and Mixed Veggie again and 6 very nice kings on the divers, 18#, 17#, 13#, 8# 6# and 5#'s respectively. We doubled 3 times during this stretch, which always makes things more interesting. The best part of this might have been as we were reeling in another king and I was ready with the net, the 10 color starts screaming like it was hooked on bottom. We were in 190fow, and the reel starts screaming and the orange church board is gone under the water and for 10-15 seconds it just tears line. I am dropping net, turning to get to the line and start figuring out how to set a hook with the planer board no where in site. Gave the rod to my buddy and said hold this til the fish stops running. Then it stops and I tell him to reel, cause I am guessing it turned to run towards the boat, but it spit the hook instead. In the last 3 years I have gotten 2 kings at 25lbs and one at 22 lbs on a 10 color and never have they done that to a planer board. I have no idea what I hooked, but man did that get us pumped. Wish I could have stayed out, as we took fish all the way til we pulled lines to head in at 2pm. Was finally a good day, although still smaller kings than the last 2 years, they are fighting like spring kings. No color changes yet, so I still suspect spawn will be later than normal. MY two cents. Hopefully will be able to fish all weekend again this weekend! Summer is winding down! tight Lines all! Jason

might have tried a little shallower. Fish were holding in that 140-200 fow, marks and bait pods! Fleas still sucked!!!