Chinook Chaser

Tons of great suggestions and actually have started getting friendly with a few guys where I launch so this will help. Some guys in my area (close to sodus bay) told me not to feel to bad if its slow now its slow for them as well and the fish will be moving into our area heavier soon. My lines and leaders are all 30 pound flea flicker with about a 20 foot leader of 15pound fc. I was off the boards first time I went out and fished over from 70 to 120 foot of water and my deepest bait was around 10 feet. Surface temps around 43 so I kept them near the surface. I ran spoons and stick baits, dont remember kind or color. This is where the notes will be handy. Was running from 100ft to 150ft back. Second time out was about an hour with all suttons spoons at depths between 10 and 20ft. Nothing so after an hour changed to all stingers for another hour before the wind blew me off at same depths. Fished over 60 to about 110, didnt mark anything.

Silver Fox --That sounds awesome! Can we talk details? I run my own business and can be very flexible.

Thank you to everyone again. This forum is really awesome. Its enjoyable being out there regardless of catch numbers (to a point) and like trying different things and sometimes have great days and get a little lucky. Those awesome days make the slower days easier to handle. Taking notes would be a great thing to do and I will start doing so. I have actually been meaning to do that. Through keeping track of what is working I will figure out that it really isnt really luck. One day in particular last summer was amazing had a die off of sawbellys and I ran nothing but suttons and couldnt keep the fish off, had doubles all day. Then out the next day and totally different conditions and didnt catch much. I will see if I can get some guys together for a charter.

Final flight- thanks for info on trolling speed. And some of those spoons you have mentioned I have never heard of. I will have to look those up. So you say pick all the same spoons to start with and try different speeds. If nothing try different spoons or stick baits? Or how about starting with something like 3 nks and 3 stingers with different speeds and see what happens? As far as running depth, should i be using diver and riggers mostly now? Paul thanks for idea of charter and that would be awesome, just 650 is out of my range to spend.

Out for the first time this season and no fish. Honestly I really suck at fishing and burn a lot of fuel. Don't have a down temp Guage so looking at surface Temps between 45 and 53 out of hughs marina I kept most of my lures close to the surface or with one barrel sinker. few fish i marked were between surface and 20 feet. Was running 6 lines of the boards and just have hooked something. When we came in I noticed most other boats had on divers. Do I need to be deeper? Also what speed to run. Tried from 2 to 3.

Does anyone have success in the spring running a cheater on a shallow running rigger? My thought is that it will run too shallow and be to close to the boat although the prop wash may attract some browns.

I was told by several people that they lost theirs. Thought they said due to some cable twisting. Must be the downrigger cable.

Thanks for the info! Just nervous about loosing a $600 probe!

I am considering buying a fish hawk downrigger temp speed sensor but I have heard many stories of them getting lost due to cable twist and other factors. Is their a way to secure it better so it won't come off?

Why not just run 50lb mono? I have not used wire yet.

Another question on this topic. I have tried using flashers several times and i end up with a mess of tangled line every time. I was using 30 pound between flasher and fly. Is this happening because I need a heavier test line?

When you guys say "paddle" are you referring to a spin doctor or just a large flasher. Also for the line between "paddle" and fly is fluorocarbon needed for salmon? always thought they were not very line shy! Also what are some hot fly paddle color combos?

Thanks everyone for your awesome suggestions. Looks like I will be booking a charter soon. In the meantime will get my rods rigged for browns and steelhead now. Have 30 pound flea flicker on now and will run a fluorocarbon leader of 12 pounds off of that and run spoons and plugs on top. Early season is much easier. How long is reccomended for a leader. I was gonna do a 10 foot leader with a small swivel.

Years ago my father and I had the same results with just our depth finder and spoons. But the last maybe 5 years we have not been catching much. Went with my wife 3 times and she has no interest now because we didn't have a release. This was last summer. People keep telling what to buy but i don't wanna spend lots of money and have the same results. In my mind I keep going back to "we never had this years ago".

I want to catch more kings this summer and have been told all I need is a temp and speed sensor for my downrigger and some atomik flies in basic colors like green and white. What brand of sensor is recommended and what are some other good combinations of flies and spin doctors to use.

Thanks everyone for the great info! Tried it again a couple of weeks ago. Ran 6 lines, 5 riggers one dipsy. Had lines from 40 down to 90. Trolled for 4 hours with nothing. Tried different speeds marked a ton if fish but nothing. Changed spoons several times. Added about 30 foot leaders to my 30lb flea flicker line using 14lb mono with a blood knot as well. I will keep not give up.

It seems like catching trout and salmon on lake ontario was much easier around 10 years ago. We would simply put out some nk mags and slam the salmon. Didnt even have a fish finder. I am trying to get serious again about this type of fishing and it seems like things have changed and its not as easy as it used to be. Anyone have ideas why this is so? Maybe they dont stock as much as they used to. Also some general questions on how to run my lines, currently I have flea flicker and everything tied direct to swivels and no leader (this is how I used to do it but it was 14lb mono, before fleas). Is this wrong? I here a lot of talk about florocarbon leaders, and should I tie my spoons direct and skip the swivel? I also tried running dodgers and flashers with a fly and it doesnt seem to matter what type of swivels I use I always end up with a tangled mess to the point that I have given up using them for now. Any ideas would help, burning up lots of fuel with no fish!