Sodus 6/19-6/20

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Another slow weekend out of Sodus...

Friday we got out around 5:30pm and started in shallow for browns... that lasted ohhhh about 15 mins before I put my king spread down... I just don't like brown fishing The water was setup very weird this past weekend. 30-50fow was warm on the surface but 42deg was down only 30-40 feet. I slid out to 150fow and 42deg fell down to 60-70 feet. In the 100-120fow range I was marking schools of bait with very large marks in them. I must have found a large school of bait/fish because when I moved more than 1/4 mile in any direction the screen still had bait, but no fish. I tried everything to get the fish to go, but no luck, never moved a rod.

Saturday morning we headed back to the same spot. We put the center rigger down with a large green flasher and fly 18" behind and counted to 10 and had a steelie on. It was only about 23" but it was hooked deep and when it hit the deck... good god, I think I could put someone through a wood chipper and have less blood. It got EVERYWHERE. I kept the steelie out of spite It was slow again and I was no longer marking fish, just bait bait and more bait, bait everywhere in the 100-120 fow range. I trolled through it all morning and only managed a small king (3 lbs). Then I said what the hell and slid out. The down temp kept rising until I had 43 deg down 70 feet in 170fow. That's when I watched the 180' dipsey with a mt.dew flasher, mt.dew fly get smashed. It's been a while since I've seen a dipsey get hit that hard and scream out as much line and as fast as it did. I was a bit worried I was going to get spooled and instead of doing the smart thing (slowing the boat down), I did the stupid thing, tightened the drag... snap. I'm pretty sure that king had to be in twenties if not higher. We were catching kings in wilson about 20lbs and they didn't pull nearly as hard. First day of the derby and we already missed a board fish We trolled around for a while longer, but we had a hard cutoff of 11am and with another hour of rain and no bites, we happily headed in.

Surface temp was up a bit Friday, just to be lowered again by the rain on Saturday. But at least the bait is starting to show up. I'm out in San Diego this week and weekend so no report next week. Well, maybe a tuna report, but no salmon. Good luck to everyone out there, and for God's sake someone get a salmon on the derby board. I missed my shot and I usually only get one a year ha!

Nick