Oak report from 7-5 through 7-7

[John Kelley]

Fishing Report

Your Name / Boat Name: Slammin' SODAK

==============

TRIP OVERVIEW

==============

Date(s): 7-5 through 7-7

Time on Water:5 to 6 hours in the mornings and the same in the evenings

Weather/Temp: Hot and sunny, with a storm thrown in for good measure

Wind Speed/Direction:

Waves:

Surface Temp:

Location:

LAT/LONG (GPS Cords):

===============

FISHING RESULTS

===============

Total Hits: Lost count, but lots

Total Boated:Lost count of that as well, but lots

Species Breakdown:Kings, steelheads, 1 brown, 1 nice Atlantic

Hot Lure: Any SD and fly combination in the magic green, black, silver and white combinations.

Trolling Speed: 2.5-3.1

Down Speed:

Boat Depth: 95'-175'

Lure Depth: 80 and 85' on riggers and 225' and 300' on wire divers

====================

SUMMARY & FURTHER DETAILS

====================

I was already pretty pumped up about the salmon fishing, after having a very good couple of days on Monday and Tuesday. I arrived at the Captain's Cove about noon on Thursday, got my room, put my boat in the water, dropped my trailer, and bought altogether too much tackle once again at the Cove!!LOL I think I started fishing about 2:30 or 3:00 p.m. and soon had my first couple of steelhead in the boat, including a nice 8 pounder on the downriggers. Since I had so much luch with SD's and flies earlier in the week, I put three out this afternoon, two on downriggers, and one on a wire diver set out to 225'. The downriggers fired first on the 2 steelhead, and then I had a couple of "drive by's" on the wire diver. One of my riggers fired off next, and the fish felt sort of heavy, but was not really pulling out any drag. Then it came to the surface and started jumping. It looked like an oddball steelhead, but I was not sure. When I got the fish about 20 feet from the back of the boat, I could see its large spots, and goofy little head, and could tell that it must be an Atlantic, even though I had only seen pictures of them. It was alright, and had nice X markings on its sides too. It was just over 30 inches, so I guesstimate it at about 10 pounds. I took some pics and released the fish. Then I caught a 10 pound king with a fresh and still bleeding lamprey wound on it. I wonder if the creep dropped off during the fight to the boat? Anyways, I took some pics of that, because I don't see that every day! By now it was getting towards dusk and I had switched to 2 diver rods and one rigger rod at 80' down. I was heading right at the light house in about 130' when my downrigger popped hard, and the drag started screaming away. Big fish, and it felt big for about 10 minutes, before it shook the hooks! I was very sad about that, but I didn't have time to cry, because just then my 225' wire diver rod started jumping like an epileptic having a seizure, and the drag started screaming out wire. I jumped all over that fish, and lightened up the drag even more, not wanting this fish to pull off as well. I took it easy fighting the beast, and let it go whenever it needed to run. Took me awhile to get the shark to the net, but it was well worth it, at 42" long and over 26 pounds! I was very happyabout that outcome, and quickly boxed the male king. I kept trolling was soon rewarded with a double header on my rigger and 225' dipsy on 10 and 12 pound fish that were both released. Then I decided I had enough fun for one night, and should call it an evening. It was already too late to get my fish officially weighed, but I was hoping to get my pic taken with him. When I got back to the Cove, the shop was locked up and the place was dark. I did see one other truck parked a couple doors down from my room, though, so I knocked on the door. When it opened, I asked the man inside if he would mind taking my picture with my fish. He was very friendly, and told me to bring it into his room where the lighting was better, and we could get some nice pics. It turns out that this man was Captain Tim Marshall (Whiskey Runner), and we swapped fishing stories well into the night. He told me the fish looked like a very nice specimen, with a big head, and good coloring, and helped convince me to get it mounted.

Earlier that night, while I was still fishing, I got a call from Michelle from the Cove, and she told me there was a guy that came into the store from North Carolina, and was looking to go fishing on a smaller boat with a regular guy. She asked me if I might be interested in taking him fishing, and I told her yes. Pretty soon this guy named Steve called me up and we decided that I would pick him up by the lighthouse boat ramp at 5:30 the following morning. So, I did pick up Steve at 5:30 a.m. on Friday morning, and we proceeded out to the lake. I never did get Steve's last name, but we started to setup in about 85' and I asked Steve to drive us straight north while I set up all of the rods. Steve told me had never caught any salmon, but had caught plenty of catfish up to about 45 pounds. I told him to expect a much more exciting fight than a catfish! I had decided to just start out with 2 rigger rods and two diver rods, 80 and 85' on the riggers and 225' and 300' on the wire divers. Pretty soon the 225' diver rod starts screaming, and I handded the rod to Steve. 15 minutes later he had his first salmon ever at 16 pounds, in the box. He was pretty excited, and said he never caught a fish that fought that hard before. We ended up catching a bunch more fish, including a nice 11 pound 7 ounce steelhead, that Steve entered into the derby, an 18 and 21 pound king, a small Brown trout, and released several kings in the 10-15 pound range. A very succesful day, and Steve went home very happy. I however, got scolded by Michelle and Paul at the Captain's Cove for not charging Steve for "at least gas money"!!LOL

Earlier that afternoon, when Steve and I came in to register his 'bow in the derby, I met a cool guy named Tim, who turned out to be another charter boat Captain, and we had a pretty good discussion on fishing, and exchanged numbers as well. Turns out he is staying at the Cove as well. The next morning I was all set to pick up a guy named Don, that I had taken out fishing a couple of weekends ago, but he became a no-show at the dock. One thing I will not tolerate is someone that says they will be somewhere at a specified time, and then does not show up, so off to the lake I went by myself, and Don is no longer welcome to fish with me in my boat. Anyways, I digress. So I was actually the very first boat on the lake on Saturday morning, that I could see, anyways, and was setting up just after 5:30 a.m. Tim was not far behind me and setup just to the west of me about five minutes later, and then the rest of the fleet started making the water pretty rough around me with their big boat waves!!LOL Good thing I was already trolling by that point. I was having a very slow start this morning, and was watching other boats land fish all around me. Tim already had a triple header for his clients, and I was kind of jealous. Then I decided that maybe I should switch to a couple of spoons, since the spinnies and flies were not working for me. I put a moonshine ratchet jaw on one, and a moonshine crab face on the other downrigger, and dropped them to 80 and 85. Almost immediately the crab face spoon produced a skipper king that I released very easily. About 5 minutes later the ratchet jaw spoon takes off and the drag starts to scream hard. I was in some heavy boat traffic and trying to drive the boat and get this 23 pounder to the net. Not the easiest task in the world. I finally got the big girl into the boat, weighed her quick, and tried to revive her, to no avail, so I threw her into the box. Then I texted To Tim that I had a 23 pound fish that I could give to his clients if they did not box out. That's when I started to notice the sky getting pretty nasty and the wind change from the west to the north pretty abruptly. I also noticed that I was getting closer to Tim's boat than I should have been with his stern facing me, so I turned out sharply to avoid tangling iunto his wire lines. He then called me and asked me if that was me, and I apologized for coming so close to him. He said "no problem" and that he was dead in the water. He asked me if I would help, and of course I was already starting to pull lines. It seemed like an eternity while I worked my lines and downriggers up, and I felt bad that it was taking me so long to get over to his stricken boat. When I finally got there, Tim said he could not even get his downrigger balls up, because he had no juice left at all. I carry jumper cables, and we hooked our batteries together, and soon Tim got all of his downriggers up. While he was doing this, I asked his clients if they wanted another salmon, and they said they would take it, so I transferred my fish to their cooler. One more fish I didn't have to clean!!Yay Then Tim tried his engine, but it would not fire, so I pulled them to the dock next to the Black North. I was very envious of all of the other boats racing for the breakwater, especially when the lightening started to crack around us, but I knew that 5 people were counting on me to get them safely back to the harbor. As soon as we got to the dock, and Tim slingshotted his boat safely to the pier, the storm died and it was over, like it just had to prove a point or something!!LOL I waved to Tim's party, and headed up the Creek to the Cove to get some dry clothes on, as I was very soaked!

Then Ben Diltz, the friendly little 18 year old kid that works at the Captain's Cove took my big fish and me to his buddy the taxidermist's house and we dropped my fish off. I asked Ben what his plans were for the evening, and he said he didn't have any, so I asked him if he wanted to go fishing. He replied that he would, and so off we went. We passed Captain Carl Bish on the way toward the lake, and Ben asked him what had been working. He replied that any white paddle and fly, and geezer spoons, or something like that, and we thanked him as we motored past. Then we passed Tim at the public dock by the lighthouse, and he said he was going back out as well, and that he fixed his problems, new belt and replaced his battery. We decided to look for fish shallow and work our way out deeper. We ended up catching 5 fish, including Ben's 20 pound king, almost 10 pound steelhead, and a few smaller steelheads and a skippy king. All in all, I think I had the best week of fishing of my 44 year life. I am in love with Lake Ontario!!!!

[Mortigan]

Sounds like you've got your priorities straight, John. You're making a lot of friends as well.

[motoman]

sounds like you had a blast !

[tcon]

Great story John with a happy ending! A very successful outing in more ways than one.

Tom

[Captain Carl Bish]

Great report!

Thanks for draggin Tim in, he's too nice a guy to be adrift for very long.

You have to look long and hard for better big game fishing than right here on the southern shore of LO!!

[Kooter469]

Awesome job dude sounds like a blast man and thank you for the great report