Sodus May 5 Shakedown

[bridget]

Sodus May 5 Shakedown

The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

Between Projects at Work and at Home, sorry to say we just got to our shakedown voyage on Sunday. Almost made it out the weekend before but decided to do a little extra on waxing up the boat and getting things ship shape. The lack of glowing reports fishing wise helped make that decision. Was up in the air about where to go until late Saturday Night. Was thinking of pre-fishing North End of Seneca prior to derby, but the calm lake conditions and a chance at a king or two made our decision Sodus. When our campers ready next week, we will probably do most of our big lake fishing at Sandy and the Oak.  The fishing seems more consistent there. Sandy has a lot of structure off Devils Nose and deep water is closer to shore. We fish Sodus or Hughes these days mainly because it is closer to home and a short trip, not to say those ports can offer some great fishing as well.

Being the shakedown adventure we didn’t get an early start. Got to the Point about 6:45 and surprised to see only two trailers in the lot by the Coast Guard station and no boats making their way out of the channel. Not a good sign on a beautiful weekend morning.

The Good

Lake was perfect for a shakedown if not fishing with just a ripple. Didn’t see a boat in less than 60 FOW, but not surprised at that with the clear water. Engine and Electronics happy to say were working fine and started setting lines at about 50 FOW straight out of the chute. No bait but a few scattered hooks. Set up four Downriggers, a Dipsey and a Copper(when a started to mount my planner board mast at launch, Bridget wasn’t overly keen on “fooling†with boards today, so I put it back in the truck – bad move?). Just got the last line in at 100 FOW and the DR at 80 ft went off. Put a laker in the box and thought we off to a decent day? Got set back up and took over the helm.

The Bad

Marked essentially nothing out to 160 FOW so turned it around and headed back in. Got back in about 120 FOW and started seeing a few scatterd marks, but again no bait. We zig zagged west from about 95 to 130, but not much on the screen and no hits. Not much chatter on the radio (more on this) but didn’t sound like much activity out deeper and by the looks of it many of the boats out deeper were heading back in. Got to about just west of Maxwell and turned it back East. No concentration of boats anywhere, at least to be seen. Eventually got two rips on the Dipsey, but nothing there. Easy to say now, but should have keep going North (probably would have if we had the boards), or perhaps even gave the bay a try for browns. Decided at about 11 to pack it in and call it a day.

Very disappointing we didn’t get a chance this year for early season browns and coho in close, love to start off that way with good action on the shore line, kind of a right of spring. Hopefully next year will be ready sooner. We used to start off Gina in mid March, but that I guess is history? Many seasons however the Brown Trout Fishing at Sodus in the channel and bay has been great in May and early June. Probably at about 9:30 should have gave that a shot, but that’s the always the interesting thing about this fishing, you have to be ready to make decisions. Three and a half hours of fishing in an area catching one fish is a bad move, no ways about it.

The Ugly

I started fishing the big lake in the mid 1970’s and was member of the Sodus Point Deep Trollers. We had some good times back in the day with everyone on the CB Radio and we did a lot talking about fishing and joking around, but no profanity. In the last few years, even with the VHF on scan, the chatter seems to be get less and less (I think now many of the regulars text and talk on the cell). Very disturbing Sunday to hear on the VHF, “reports†like “we are fxxxing hammering them†and “ you should see the size of the fxxxing fishâ€. Nice for the wife or grandkids to hear isn’t it. Was encouraging however to hear some other boats telling the moron to clean up his act.

Speaking about ugly, when I checked one of the high (30 ft) Down Rigger lines I found it tangled with the 300 foot copper. I probably could have voiced some expletives, but didn’t. Note to self – don’t run long DR leads with a copper down the chute, even on a calm day.

 

The Good Again?

Back “in the day†we would get some hot fishing from the Ice Out until the end of April and things would shut down for weeks. After that the Steelhead fishing would pick up offshore on the scum lines along with BT in the bay and then off the points.

Last year it didn’t seem to drop off with the King bite at 150 to 250 FOW. But last year was different.

Sure the fish are somewhere out there, just need to find them.

Good fishing.

 

 

[Zebedee]

bridget,

 

good report. Fishing last weekend was tough as the south winds have moved what little warm water there was off shore.

 

Woulda/Shoulda

If you had brought the boards, you probably would have picked a few lakers.

If you'd had gone a little farther north you might have found a few kings, but fish were not "concentrated" anywhere that I have heard.

 

Thanks for the report...Maybe I'll see ya on Seneca for the Laker derby.

 

-Jason