Our Labor Day Weekend Get Away

[G-Daddy]

Fishing Report

Your Name / Boat Name: Li'l Bit

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TRIP OVERVIEW

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Date(s):

Time on Water: not much

Weather/Temp: windy/cool

Wind Speed/Direction: blowing

Waves: big

Surface Temp:

Location: Mexico

LAT/LONG (GPS Cords):

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FISHING RESULTS

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Total Hits: 1

Total Boated: 0

Species Breakdown:

Hot Lure:

Trolling Speed:

Down Speed:

Boat Depth:

Lure Depth:

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SUMMARY & FURTHER DETAILS

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We are five guys from southcentral PA, just above the Mason Dixon Line. We all have fished on Lake Ontario – my son Kenny and I did our first charter about 20 years ago out of Port Ontario. More recently, we fished the last couple of years with Billy V and Crazy Yankee. Kenny and I just bought a Sportcraft 252 and wanted to give a try at fishing for ourselves. Kenny was an observer at the Point Breeze Pro Am earlier this summer and has also fished with a couple of guys out of Oak Orchard several times. My brother-in-law Bob as well as son-in-law Kevin and grandson Kody were all up for the trip as well.

We got to Feeder Creek Lodge on Friday evening about 7:30 pm. Air temp was 89°. Checked in, went for supper – then went to Fat Nancy’s. Picked up a couple of Hammer Flies and a couple of spoons that we wanted. What a difference an overnight made with morning temps about 30° cooler.

Got to Mexico Point State Launch on Saturday morning at daybreak. The attendant warned us that there was a small craft advisory that would become a warning later in the day. We thought that perhaps we could get in an hour or two before the waves got too bad. Backed the trailer in and Kenny told me the boat wouldn’t start. Pulled her out – looked for loose wires, etc because she ran flawlessly the previous Saturday on Raystown. I told the guys – This is great, we drive 400 miles to go fishing and the boat won’t run. I found that the hot leads on both batteries had vibrated loose. Tightened them up and nothing. Then I started tracing wires and trying to find something else loose. I told the guys that it had to be something simple and stupid. While fooling around in the parking lot a guy from Massachusetts came over and recommended taking the boat out to Mike’s. We did that, but Mike didn’t open until 8:30. I crawled back into the boat and jumped the solenoid and got a spark but no starter engagement, so I knew electricity was getting that far. Then I started fooling around with the shift/throttle controls. I couldn’t find any loose wires there, so I tried moving the run/stop switch with the key turned over – still nothing. Then I pushed the control lever forward, back to neutral, into reverse and back to neutral. Turned the key and the starter engaged. I closed up the engine box and said “Let’s go fishingâ€. This time we were on the water at 8 am. It was pretty calm near shore with a swell of 2’ with a pretty good interval so we ran out. By the time we got to 50 fow we found 5’ waves. Since it was going to get worse over time, we turned around and came in. Practice with boat retrieval after a nice boat ride.

We visited the Salmon River Fish Hatchery – saw a few fish in the fish ladder. Then we decided to drive down to Lake Oneida to scout it out for a possible walleye fishing trip for Sunday. It rained all Saturday night and was still raining Sunday morning. We looked at the weather radar and it was clear to the south so we headed to Oneida. We put in at 6:30 am at Oneida Shores County Park and ran down lake far enough to find 20 fow. Set out some plugs and trolled for an hour. Loose grass in the water kept fouling our lures, so Kevin got ahold of a guy that guides on the lake. He recommended that we get to mid lake and troll from markers 119 – 125 in 30-35 fow, being sure to keep our lures just above the bottom. We made the run to find another set of 5’ waves. Kenny turned the boat to set up a troll. The wave interval was so short that he would ride up a wave and then stuff the bow in the next wave. Then we would ride up the third wave and stuff the bow in the fourth, and so on. All the while water is running over the hardtop onto the fishing deck. We just packed things up and headed back to the boat ramp and were off the water around 11 am.

Monday morning was much calmer and we were at Mexico Point Launch at 5:45. We launched and ran out to 80 fow to set up a 4 rod spread with two divers pulling spin doctors and flies with the riggers pulling spoons with a free-sliding cheater on each at 60 and 70. Kenny turned the boat west at 110 fow and we trolled towards the power plant. We were in mostly 2’ waves with a few 3 footers thrown in – not too bad. Then my grandson got seasick. We had a long drive ahead of us so we made the one troll, getting a hit on a wire line out 270 on a 2 setting pulling a white spinny with a hammer fly – no hookup and we had a nearly blank screen the entire time. We were back at the launch around 9 am and Kody was fine as soon as his feet hit solid ground.

This was a real learning experience for a bunch of greenhorns. Kenny learned a lot about rough water boat handling, we had a four rod spread out without any tangles in some really strong currents. I got to manage a spread of lures. As we were trolling, our wire lines and downriggers showed there had to be a really strong north to south downcurrent due to the way the lines were angled. We shall return!! We will be concentrating on striper fishing in Raystown and Chesapeake Bay the rest of the season, and will put the boat away in late November.

[Billy V]

Hey Larry,

I'm glad you were able to get out for a little bit and mess around with the new boat. Too bad about the weather this weekend though. Mother nature sure threw a monkey wrench into a lot of Labor Day weekend fishing plans! Tell "King" Kody that we said Hi - we're looking forward to putting him on an even bigger fish next year!

[Big Water]

Things are bad............I think!!! This is my first year at Ontario and I've been waiting all year for late August/early September to roll around and get into the fantastic fishing I hear about. My last two trips were the slowest of the year. I was doing better in May/June. Hopefully things come together before they're all stream-bound. Does the BT and Steelhead bite hold up later in the lake?

[LongLine]

G-Daddy - Sorry to hear you didn't have a great experience. Mother Nature always has a bunch of surprises for us on the lake come 1st of Sept. (i.e those 3 day blows can be horrible) My dad used to tell me the best cure for sea-sickness was to give an oak tree a big ole bear-hug. (Maples will also do) You'll get them next time as you had a couple of great teachers in Billy & Yank.

BW - Steelhead should hold up. Lord knows where the Browns go though.

Tom B.

(LongLine)