John Kelley

Wire divers, and copper and lead-core setups will get you down deep. definitely get some downriggers, though.

You got it all right, except the we don't target walleyes part. That is about the only thing most Sodak's do target, aside from perch. They don't target pike, which is why all of the sloughs even, have giant northern pike in them.

Yeah, Lake Sharpe is a great fishery, but Lake Oahe is even better. KIngs and giant pike in Oahe, as well. Francis Case also does very well in the spring. They are all impoundments on the Missouri River.

Thanks, and yeah, there is a different kind of beauty out there on the plains. Wide open and rolling hills. Not many trees, though. Fantastic upland bird and waterfowl hunting, too. Thanks again.

Hopefully this weekend, Les. Have my fingers crossed, buddy!

Gold, Silver, it is all good, Pap!! Nice job on the Kings, men. Looks like it might be a banner year on Lake Ontario!!!

Howdy guys, I finally got out on the Big O on Saturday, it was nice to be chasing browns from my favorite port on all of the great lakes. My friend Tim Green(Poverty Stricken) was also up, and Eric the Maniac, Stankiewicz(with some clients). Things started out badly for me, as my brand new 2018 Ram with 5,000 miles on it decided not to start. Good thing Tim Green was there to put my boat in the drink for me. Thanks Tim. I started fishing by about 6:00 a.m. and put lines in at the breakwall, on a westerly troll. I was running a stick bait on a planer board out the port side, a mini diver and spoon out the starboard side, and a small spoon off the port rigger. Pretty soon the rest of the brown fishing fleet was out there with me, and everyone was catching fish, except me. I really hate that feeling!! Eric told me to up lines and head to where they were, West of Johnson's Creek. This spot did not seem to work for me either, so I headed back east toward the break-wall. I think I was just past the pumphouse when an 18" coho popped my mini diver and spoon. Yay, not skunked. I tossed that one back and kept trolling east, as the wind started to build. Pretty soon, just before the break-wall, my mini diver fired again, on a 21" coho. I figured I had better keep this one, or I might not have anything to show for myself. The waves built up to almost sporty size, and I had worked out into 30' of water when my rigger, down 25' fired on a nice football 8 pound brown. That is what I was after. Right after I re-set the rigger, it fired again, on a longer and leaner, big headed 10 pound male brown. Then my mini diver fired again on another 18" coho, that went back to Davy Jones locker. I looked at my phone, and it was time to get off the lake, to meet Ed Ball at his house, for our first all nighter on Lake Erie, but that is another story, in the Walleye section. A couple of days later, waiting for my truck to be fixed, I decided to troll around for some kings, and popped two nice 13 pound bright springers in 47'-50' of water on the UV bad Toad magnum sized spoon off of 5 color on a walleye board. Just east of the ladders but before the flats. Could not get bit on meat, was kind of weird. I took a pic of the stomach contents of the fatter king, to dispel the myth that you should not use magnum spoons in the spring because the bait is not that big, yet. That is a magnum sized carbon 14 spoon in the pic, for size comparison. Thanks and enjoy.

Not the fishing, but the limits, yes. I have 50-60 fish evenings by myself on the prairie, but can only keep 4, with one over 20". Lots of catch and release out there. Those were some pretty nice sized male walleyes, though. You don't see 5 and 6 pound males very often, where I live. Salmon and trout fishing are hands down, way better out here!!

Howdy fellas, my name is John Kelley and I hail from South Dakota. I have been working an and off in upstate NY since 2012, but have been focusing most of my free time concentrating on Lake Ontario, since I can always catch as many walleyes as I want when I am home. I decided to go fishing with my good friend Ed Ball and our good mutual friend Dennis Walter on Saturday, though, and check out the spring shallow water night bite on Lake Erie. We had a pretty good go of it, and returned to the truck at midnight to offload our Saturday limit of 18 nice male walleyes. We then headed back out to our waypoint after 1:00 a.m., and caught our sunday limit of 18 nice, male walleyes by 5:00 a.m. We were fishing west of Dunkirk. Water was very murky and colored. All our fish were between 19-26" long, and no females in the group. All the fish were milting, or still had milt in them, so the spawn looks like it is right about in the middle. The big females ought to be hungry pretty soon, I am thinking. The lake was like glass all night, so it was awesome for boat control. Not a bad first outing for me on Lake Erie, but all I had to do was set lines and reel and net fish all night. Captain Ed drove us right over all the hungry fish!! I am not at liberty to say what the magic lure, depth, or waypoint was, because it was not my boat, and I don't want to betray my friends. Great night of fishing, though, with great friends! Hope you enjoy the pics

Agreed, it was a beautiful day on the water, for sure!! Weird how Black and silver was so effective in that dirty water! I was expecting high visibility colors to do much better in the mud.

Howdy Pap, I think I am going to call Oswego my home port this summer, as it is much closer to where I am working, and I want to hone my big brown trout skills until around July, when I hear the kings really turn on around there. I would love to meet up with you at the ramp, and swap tactics and tales! This weekend, however, I plan on hitting Lake George, and targeting some LL's and browns there!

Here is the pic of the hot Michigan Stinger we were running on our 3 color rod. The back is gold or brass colored.

I have been seeing mostly gobies, but our largest brown yesterday in Oswego had about an 8" perch in its gullet, too!

I took a friend of mine and his nephew from Middleburgh NY, who had never been brown trout fishing before, to Oswego yesterday for my shakedown trip of 2018. Aside from a blowout near Syracuse on my port trailer tire, we arrived in mostly one piece. We got to the boat ramp around 10:30 and got some discouraging news from a boat that was pulling out already. They said they had a bad morning and went 1 for 2. My friend Tim Green had texted me earlier, from the Oak, saying that they had been doing pretty well right in the mudline with natural colors. None of us had ever been to Oswego before, so I just pointed the boat to the east of port, where there was a healthy blue/green and green/brown color lines. There were also quite a few boats fishing in this area. After getting the 9 rods all out, and making a wide circle to the east, and out of the color, we headed back toward the mud-line, to the west, and popped a couple of nice fish just east of the break wall, in 18 fow, right in the mud, on black and silver Stinger Scorpions. We then missed 2 fish in the same area, and the boat traffic got too congested for my liking, so we headed around the harbor and started trolling along the western breakwall, toward the double smokestacks power-plant, staying in about 20 fow. The water over here was noticeably cooler, and I saw the temps drop from 42.5 to 41 degrees, and the water was really green over on the west side of the harbor. When we were about 200 yards from the factory or powerplant, I noticed that the temps were starting to jump back up, and mentioned that to my friend Greg. Then we almost instantly had a double on. Fish hit the port side Big Jon mini diver out 70' and the 3 color down the chute. Soon the water temps rose to 43.6 degrees, and I told the boys to "get ready, because I believe we have found our spot!" We spent the next couple of hours doing some circles between what I think is a college and that double smokestack factory, and had our limit of nice browns by 5 p.m. We caught a couple of fish on gold and black Rapala husky jerks on the boards, but the majority of our fish came on Stinger scorpion and standard sized spoons. It was awesome, because we were the only boat over there, and the lake just kept getting calmer and warmer. Black and silver and anything that had browns and chrome in it did very well for us. Couldn't move a rod on any high visibility colors. The best lure was a brown and chrome stinger spoon, with UV decal on the front on our chute rod 3 color rig. Not sure of the name of that spoon, but I can add a pic later. 20-22' seemed to be the magic depth for us in that area, and 2.2 to 2.4 MPH was the speed they wanted. We ended up 9 for 11. One fish we missed was about a 5 pound steelhead, all the rest were Browns. Thanks.

Cool story and nice reproduction mount!!

Reef runners are great, once you tune them in just right, and I have caught hundreds of eyes on them. The Rapala Deep tail dancer, though, always seems to run true right out of the package, and runs 5' deeper than a Reef Runner with the same amount of line out(200'). Give some Rapala Tail Dancers a try, PAP. They are a few dollars more than a Reef Runner, but worth it, in my book.

Remember too, that Russ is fishing on Lake Michigan, not Lake Ontario. In the spring, on Russ's side of Lake Michigan, everyone is catching a ton of coho salmon, and red and orange are the big go to colors for them. Almost every boat you see going out that time of year will be saddled with red dodgers/peanut flies, and orange dipsies. When the water starts warming up, you start seeing the king colors coming out more, but orange and reds still cover about half of the rods on the Wisconsin side of lake Michigan. Two different lakes with a totally different population density of salmon. Many of the southern charters on the Wisconsin and Illinois side of Lake Michigan offer money back coho charters if the client's limit is not caught. I think cohos make up way more of the summer catches on Lake Michigan than on Lake Ontario, as well, from my own experiences. Thanks.

Went out to Otsego lake Saturday, with my Jet sled and gear, and the made the 1 mile trek from the Public Landing to the Sunken Island at about 4:45 a.m. Good thing for me that the recent warm weather had melted all of the snow, and left an icy surface. I got all set up off the east side of the sunken island before first light, but then realized I needed to head north a little further, to get out of the rocks, and find the weeds in 12-13'. I finally got all set up on the right area just as the sun was coming over the horizon. The perch bite was pretty hot, and I missed a few, but ended up with 40 fish from 11"-14". They were really attacking large minnows on the tip-ups and bobber rods and Hali's with waxworms on the jigging rod!! Well worth the long hike Saturday. Oh yeah, the ice was about 15 inches thick where I was.

I personally like that Pautzke Fire Brine in the chartreuse(Mountain Dew) color. Seems to work great.