Mooching/drifting

[FishinHank]

Why is it you never see many guys mooching/drifting for kings on ontario? I bet it would work really good. We mooch with 6-8oz banana weights with a small flasher and fly with herring about 5-6ft away from the weight. We slay the silvers and I have caught kings with it also. I used to drift sawbellies on Cayuga and we did well on browns and landlocks.

[BullGator]

Only mooching I ever did was borrowing money and food from my parents back in the day.........

What is this mooching/drifting you speak of?

[FishinHank]

I mooched with a 9ft medium action rod with a bunch of 60lb powerpro on a medium sized baitcaster with a levelwind. All you do is either troll very slowly or drift with the wind/current. Put a 4-8oz banana weight on your line and run a small flasher with a hoochie and a chunk of herring. The scent of the herring gets into the water and the kings will track them down, and the flasher will get their attention. They make specialty mooching rods/reels but I haven't ever tried using them.

We would drop them down and let them sit at different depths until we found the fish on either the sounder or picking them up. The hits are pretty spectacular, your reel will usually just start screaming.

When I drifted on Cayuga we would run a #3 or #4 split shot about 4ft above a sawbelly hooked through the back. I used to use a 9wt fly rod with a spinning reel with 8lb mono, keep your bail open and put a small rock or something on the line to keep it from going out too far. Throw the sawbelly out, set up your line and sit and drift with the wind. The sawbelly will swim around in a circle and the fish can see them from a long ways of because they are flashing pretty good.

[BullGator]

Thanks for the insight. Interesting!

[jonboat]

I asked about that last year - didn't hear much about it other than some guys use mooching rods for trolling.

I would think it would work great - especially with the currents the lake has. Head out on a day with a little breeze, drop your rig, then sit back and relax until your reel starts screaming.

[Blue Knight]

Now here's a couple of the best mooching reels. After using these Islanders I'd rather never have to use a level wind again!

[FishinHank]

It is pretty fun. I have caught mostly coho mooching but I don't see why it wouldn't work well for kings too.

[John Kelley]

The west coast saltwater boys mooch for salmon on the Pacific all summer long! I am sure it would work on the Great Lakes too. I know some guys on Lake Michigan that jig fish for Kings at the Harbor mouths with 1/4 ounce jigheads and gulp minnows, and they do well also. It would just take some time to build up the confidence in doing it, I think. Might be something to try on a day when nothing else seems to be working!

[rail bird]

I asked a guy at a bait shop once why people did not use sawbellies as bait on Ontario. He said that due to the lack of structure it's a lot tougher to figgure out a place to start. You are not covering the ground you can trolling. The fish on Ontario move pretty far pretty fast on some days so it might be tough to stay on them. It certainly should work like it does in other places but in the long run it might be less effective.

[stan]

Being a West Coast salt water guy, sorry to say there is really no structure to speak of holding Kings. Is what they do ( the Kings ) is what we call laying in the mud.

They head to bottom and hold, heck you will even see there bellies rubbed red/pink from laying in the bottom. Most of these fish you will not even see on most fishfinders like a Lowerance or Humminbird, But those with a Furuno will have no problems seeing these fish down 320' to 450' in the mud.

Some of our biggest Fish all come from mooching and for Kings in the mud is about the only way your going to get them up.

What I have noticed over the years is different places have different methods of fishing and have their heads wrapped around it's the only way. You get guys in Washington that will not try the way the guys in Calif fish and the guys in Oregon do the same.

Try and get a west coast guy to pull a steel line diver, Copper line rods or even use down riggers, most will look at you like your have just used some great drugs.

Best advise I could give anyone, is KEEP an open mind when it comes to fishing. Give it a try and you just might be weighting in a state record fish.

[FishinHank]

You hit the nail on the head Stan.

[chowder]

This what I'm talking about.

[adamg]

I will set out two or three of my downrigger rods on the windward side with a 3 way swivel, 2' dropper line to a 2oz lead sinker, then a flatfish or kwickfish when I am fishing solo and want to take a break and eat a sandwich. It is awesome when the drag starts screaming when you least expect it and there's no engine noise. If its a faster drift I'll go up to a 4 oz weight. I never see anyone else doing this out there and don't know why.

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