Fleas, Flies, Salad and Shakers Olcott 8\3 to 8\5

[albig]

I am an X- Charter Captain from Lake Erie and have not fished the Great Lakes in over 12 years. Bought a small boat in July and fished for walleye two days after the boat arrived from E-bay. Decided to try my luck out of Olcott last weekend. My crew used to fish with me years ago, although we have remained in touch we have gone our separate ways. Reunited we headed out to engage in battle with the large lure crushers we missed so much.

When did these God Awful Fleas show up? Wow these things make it hard to fish! What is the secret to get these things off the lines?

Fished in tight one evening and got ankle beat by the largest swarm of flies I have ever seen. Completely covered my outboard motor, I was concerned that they might fly away with it. Also their was enough weeds and garbage on the top to make a splendid salad topped with shakers for the added touch. Needless to say the inside waters 70 to 130 fow were unproductive for us. Not the case for the outside waters 500 plus.

After telling my crew that we would be fishing close to shore we headed out over 15 miles north from the ramp. We ended up with 8 majors and close to 40 fish for the weekend. All majors were caught on stingers in a frog or purple pattern. Three came on sliders before 9:00am around 25 feet. Best depths were 55 to 47 with all the steelhead coming off the sliders. Beyond the 32 line was best. Also we were the only boat working this pocket of fish. Sunday morning before we left was our best day. Four Majors and two three year olds (No Shakers) and a good number of steelhead. Dipsey out 95 to 130 with SD and green flies caught some fish also. All fish were released except for two witch gilled themselves.

I have hopefully included some Pics.

[Charley Tuna]

Hi Albig,

Nice report. Sorry about the fleas. I use 30 pound ANDE for the vertical portion of my downrigger lines to combat them and 30 pound braided wire on my dipsy lines. This pretty much solves the problem for me. I also keep a can of bug spray with DEET for those times when the biting fleas are bad. They seem to really love ankle meat and can bite though socks.

[LongLine]

Welcome back to the "big" waters. Fleas been around couple/few years. Only one of the many invasives we now have to contend with. Larger vertical line helps a lot.

Tom B.

(LongLine)

[albig]

Thanks for the advise! I am only running 17lbs line for my vertical. One more question. How do I post Pics on this site?

[Splitshot115]

Albig,

Go to the fishing pictures part of the board, step by step instructions are

posted there.

Splitshot115

[albig]

Thanks Splishot115, I think it worked.

Albig