No luck whatsoever

[Lund20]

Fishing Report

Your Name / Boat Name: Hyde n Seek

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TRIP OVERVIEW

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Date(s):

Time on Water:

Weather/Temp:

Wind Speed/Direction:

Waves:

Surface Temp:

Location:

LAT/LONG (GPS Cords):

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FISHING RESULTS

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Total Hits:

Total Boated:

Species Breakdown:

Hot Lure:

Trolling Speed:

Down Speed:

Boat Depth:

Lure Depth:

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SUMMARY & FURTHER DETAILS

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Guys,

I have all of the equipment, Big Jon downriggers, a Lowrance C25 graph and the new X4 fish Hawk.

I run my downriggers at 50deg, I use all of the lures that I see on this board. I even run twinke rigs with meat. I launch out of Bear Creek and Pultneville. I can't catch anything but a couple of browns and a steelhead. For the life of me I can't figure out what I am doing wrong.

Today I fished out of Pultneyville. Saw several fish on the graph, what did I catch, nothing. I went all the way to Maxwell Creek, nothing. Anybody want to buy a Lund 20 footer with all the gear? I am just about ready to start fishing small mouth bass and give up the salmon.

Dave

[momay4000]

Dave,

Instead of giving you random advice - give us more specifics on how you set up, speed, direction of your troll, depths, etc.

Than I can give you some help which may be a bit more applicable

- Chris

[motheroose]

Don't put all your lures at the same depth. BIG mistake. Fish the bait in the fall not the temp,one on the bottom in skinny water. You will get some big ones. First light

MM

[FISHBANDIT]

Most of us have all ben there I went out for couple hours with the miss and got skunked today as well. Just keep at it its like any thing else to be good at it you need lots of practice ( fishing) to be good at it ( catching). It helps to invite your freinds aka 2 rods it will help with a better spread for more fish.

But if you do sell your equiptment I might be interested in the down speed/temp probe . Just kinding I hear the fish will be biteing tomrrow, if not im sure a day of fishing beats a day of working. Maybe a trip out with a charter might help your game.

[coup]

It's been tough in that area lately so don't feel bad. I was out Fri. and went one for two. Heard many on the radio without a hit.

[flashpoint]

Don't give up man!! With these fish staging and getting ready for spawn they have to be there! I agree with trying different depths and different presentations. Lately anything in green seems to work with the spinnies & protrolls. One day we were hitting them 80 ft down and 110ft the next, but that was a week & half ago. Sure they are in even shallower now! Like the guys have said, get more folks on board so you can widen your spread and experiment with more lines in the water...

Good luck!

There is Salmon filets waiting in them there waters!!

[larry]

If at first you don't succeed try try again, you've already caught the highly elusive tough to land brown and rainbow trout which to a lot of anglers are more difficult to succeed in catching. This time of year is when your chances are increasing when targeting kings in shallow water at the east end of the lake. Last year was very unproductive east with the best salmon fisherman on the lake loosing to those who targeted brown trout in the pro-am, there just weren't any numbers of kings around. If catching kings was easy the satisfaction of the catch would be little but it's not and if you keep at it will you see what I mean. If you really want to be frustrated try musky fishing, average 1000 hrs per fish. Good luck on your quest and keep reading and learning you will eventually put it together and need a bigger boat.

[Lund20]

Dave,

Instead of giving you random advice - give us more specifics on how you set up, speed, direction of your troll, depths, etc.

Than I can give you some help which may be a bit more applicable

- Chris

Chris,

Using a Fish Hawk temp probe allows you to find the so called ideal temp range for the targeted fish, so the depth varies. At the time of this post I believe I was at 95 ft over 120 and a ball speed of 2.8 mph. I used some of the Atomix flies, gr, wht, blu and purple, with various spin doctors and flashers. I used spoons of many different colors, Monkey Puke to Korvorkin. Good Lord man, I have even used twinkie rigs with meat strips. I think my problem is that I fish with a woman (sorry girls). My wife loves to ride in the boat. I think she is a jinks. I know that this a stupid thought, but is the anly one I can come up with.

Maybe I just stink to salmon. I can catch smallmouth on command as well as largemouth and stream trout. I have even gone so far as to check the electrical charge on my downrigger cables. That BTW is .6 Volts. Maybe I should take up something else, like wrestling Grizzly bears. There is gotta be something I am missing.

Thanks for the advise.

Dave

[28' SILVERTON]

My friend , I had a camper at pultneville yaht club. 2 years. afew browns. now and again. I asked a charter cap friend form the oak what i was doing wrong . Being a wise man , reply was go were the fish ® UR WELCOME good luck to ya

[Ray]

Do not give up...with that being said it can be a low one day and then a high the next. Approx. one week ago, I found the bait and the fish wanted to cooperate. See my post...

viewtopic.php?f=14&t=13143

I went out this past Saturday and found the bait and fish via the screen and could not get a strike. I tried everything from spinny and fly to cut bait and spoons. Nothing worked. I washed everything for 5 hours. Not one strike.

I believe the full moon had an effect on the fish.this past week. Brighter nights, in my opinion, means the fish feed more at night and less during the day.

Anyhow, it can be a struggle, so keep at it.

Ray

[goin hungry]

you're sounding exactly like us man - keep at it. We were just saying how you have a bunch of bad days and then when you're about to give up the fish gods through you a bone to keep you addicted

I do agree though, you gotta find the fish, and more will be coming to that area. This weekend it was 100 - 150ft of water, 60 - 120 ft down.

[rustyrat]

TOOO FAST!!!! 2.8 at the ball. 2.0 to 2.2 for the fall fish at the ball or even slower sometimes. fish 2 lines in the 60 degree water just above the thermocline and the rest in the cold water. Most of my hits last week came out of temp just above the 50degree water.

RR

[kingslamon22]

long leaders, light line, troll slow. just cause they eat alot dont mean they come easy. dont giveup. you prolly wont have awsome catching untill you pay your dues like the rest of us. be patient. work at it. Take a charter. find your own program that works for you not what works for other people. most wont hit the lake without green flashers and flys. i dont even have green flashers anymore. they dont even work on my boat. took me 5 years pulling them to find out green dont like my boat. everyone says use green though. so what works for the next guy wont always work for you. good luck. been there.

[kingslamon22]

long leaders, light line, troll slow. just cause they eat alot dont mean they come easy. dont giveup. you prolly wont have awsome catching untill you pay your dues like the rest of us. be patient. work at it. Take a charter. find your own program that works for you not what works for other people. most wont hit the lake without green flashers and flys. i dont even have green flashers anymore. they dont even work on my boat. took me 5 years pulling them to find out green dont like my boat. everyone says use green though. so what works for the next guy wont always work for you. good luck. been there.

[Baby Blue]

Here's what we've found to work and might be of help (two man setup). Trolling speed varies but as a general rule we usually troll 2.1-2.3 or 2.4-2.5 (at the ball) depending on what works that day. I usually run two spin doc's off dipsys one of which is almost always a 42 second combo and always on a #2 setting. I found the dark green/glow to be a consistant spinner also. Then we run 2 riggers with spoons. purple thunder, spooks, black magic, gators, or any green/glow. Our leads are usually only 15-20' off the ball but again experiment to see what works that day. Always stagger your spread in various depths. I will only run everything at the same depth is things really get firing on depth.

funny thing on the colors though. The 42 second spoon (not spin doc) is a popular favorite but not for my boat for some reason.

I do have a small box with a light and I charge up the glow spoons in it at first light.

Hope it helps a bit.

BB.

[mtboxess]

I agree with all the info these guys are giving you. Here's a little something to add. On your riggers with spoons always run cheaters. Even for salmon!!! This year we decided to give it a try and caught fish totally out of temperature. The more lures in the water the better your chances. We all feel like idiots washing lures on some days but that one day you whack'em makes up for all those slow days. Just keep changing everything that you can think of all the time.

Perserverance baby!!!

Dion

[Tim Bromund]

I would agree with what many are saying on here, don't get discouraged, sometimes it just happens. I've been at this game for quite a while now and I still remember one utterly miserable day during the fall LOC in 2002. we dropped the boat in at 6:30 am and finally put it back on the trailer at 9:30 pm, logged 97 miles on the graph's trip meter and never moved a rod all day, not even a false release. Right at dusk the screen absolutely lit up with bait and hooks but we still couldn't buy a bite. Those days suck, but everyone has them occasionally.

I also agree with rustyrat, 2.8 downspeed is WAY too fast for salmon, especially this time of year. That's a good steelhead speed, but you wont see many salmon bites burning along that fast. I'm usually 1.8-2.2 for kings most of the year. Bear in mind that that is with a Depth Raider, which I understand pretty consistently reads slower than the X4 at the same actual speed, so it may not be as bad as it seems, but I would suggest slowing down to 2.5 MAX on the X4 and see what happens. Don't be afraid to slow right down and keep your lures slowly waving in front of their faces as long as possible this time of year. They're really not eating any more at this point so you have to aggravate them into striking.

Tim

[momay4000]

Sorry it took me a while to get back to you,

I agree with the boys above, if I could give you a few words of advice it would be - Find the fish first. Look for temperature structure (vertical breaks in the Spring, horizontal thermocline in the summer), bait pods, even structure changes on the bottom. No matter what you do or how hard you try, if there ain't any fish, you're not going to catch anything. Once you find fish, adjust your speed and direction of your troll putting out your best "go-to" lures first. If you don't get any hits, then change your lures. I rarely change my lures until I'm absolutely sure that it's not my speed, troll direction, or depth first.

Here's some other pointers:

1.) You're way too fast for salmon at a downspeed of 2.8 mph. I'm usually around 2.0-2.5 mph unless I'm interested in steelhead, then I speed up. My guess is your spoons might be spinning at that speed instead of looking like a wounded baitfish.

2.) Use free slider cheaters on your riggers - they caught the majority of our fish this year on the riggers, including our biggest salmon

3.) Find a good down temp. 42-48 degrees, then move up

4.) Fish your screen - if fish are at 50' down in 68 degree water, put something on top of them. who cares that it's 68 degree water, if there's fish there, then they're hungry and looking for a meal b/c they ain't there to enjoy the sunshine and get cooked.

5.) Use green, green and more green spoons, but throw something high up in orange, red or yellow

6.) Use your wire Dipsy's - read the posts for good starting points on depths. Fish 'em with Spinny'Fly combos typically 20-24" leads between the end of the flasher and the start of the fly, and typically flashers in white and/or green

7.) Keep it simple and have fun.

We've all had our days and I've learned more from all of these guys this year alone than I could ever learn from any books or DVD's.

Good luck!

- Chris

[oldtimer]

Dave - Still going through the learning process myself, and like the guys say, we just need to put in our time and fair share of "washing lures" days. Reading the advice on this board and implementing the recommendations will get us there over time. Eventually the new tricks will become old habits - and besides, that Lund of yours is too pretty to let go so soon - have seen you at Bear Creek! Hang in there.

Pat

[ray koziatek]

here are some tips from some of the top charters over the years....

http://www.attheoak.com/tips.html