I-Bay - 5/11/13 AM.....day to forget

[momay4000]

Well - it's that time of year again for I-Bay reports. After our best season ever last year, we were anxious to get things rolling for our first trip of the year. I fished with my good buddy Anthony (Pike Hunter) and our buddy Barry. With the west wind howling, we decided to set up just a tad west of I-Bay in 100 fow and troll NE for a more comfortable ride. We fished two wire divers, two riggers cheated with spoons, 400' copper and a ten color core. Our first - and only fish - hit in 120 fow on a wire diver 820' out......yes that's right - 820' out!! I actually can't stop laughing when typing this, but Anthony thought the off colored clicker in the index position on the Saltist line counter represented "tenths of a foot" and not a foot, so he let out almost the entire spool of wire! Needless to say, Barry landed a 10# laker on that set-up and after reeling in the fish for 35 minutes, we found ourselves in 200 fow. Absolutely hilarious. For those of you that own Saltist reels I think you know what I'm talking about on the line counter with the different colored "one foot" position.....

 

The waves were certainly building 2-4' out deep, so we decided to troll south until we saw a small CG buoy around 160 fow just north of I-Bay. Not knowing what it meant - or if it was marking a hazard - we kept our distance at least 75 yards away until both my riggers popped, my copper, both wires and even my starboard rigger itself all started taking drag. 20 minutes later, I lost my probe, coated cable, torpedo, 400' copper, one wire, one entire rigger rod, releases, two paddles/flies and a few spoons. I must have caught on the tether to the buoy or something else floating sub-surface, but I called it in to the Coast Guard just in case it was some free floating hazard (although I'm sure someone on this site knows what it represents).

 

We only fished until 8:30 after my fiasco.....but I worked on the boat until 2 PM after two tackle store trips and three trips back and forth to my house and boat to respool my rigger, reels, attach new probe, etc.....

 

I promise to keep up the reports - we will be at again next Sunday. Good luck to all and as always be safe on the water, know your line counters, and watch out for buoys,

 

Chris

[GAMBLER]

Sorry to hear about the mishap.  Atleast the skunk was not thrown in the mix. 

[KilliansRed]

That sucks, 75 yards seems like a good enough distance to keep away to me.

[rolmops]

Ouch! Not a good start.

Let's hope that this trip marks the end of all bad luck  for you this season

How did Anthony get out of having to reel those 820 feet back in??

As for the buoy. This Wednesday I saw the Seth Green dropping some gill nets near Olcot. They may have done the same around here.

It sure sounds like you ended up getting caught in a gill net. Maybe a call to the DEC can clarify the situation and with a bit of luck get you some of your gear back. (The Seth Green is stationed in Cape Vincent)

May all your troubles be behind you.

Cornelis

Edited May 11, 2013 by rolmops

[Sk8man]

Man....when it rains it pours....kinda reminds me of the time I hung up 2 Seth Green rigs (90 lb ss wire) with 12 leaders each on the cables of the barge out in 500 ft of water on Seneca Lake. nearly pulled my 6 or 7 year old son overboard when he instinctlvely grabbed on and tried to help....I throught I was well away from the cables too but I was also fishing very deep   Next time your eyes will probably be bugging out looking for potential disasters after that... Hope you have good luck from here on out...

Edited May 11, 2013 by Sk8man

[LongLine]

Chris - sorry to hear about the gear.  At least you got out & got one nice one. 

 

That's a USGS buoy.  The Guardian put them in a couple/few weeks ago.  There's supposed to be 3 of them off Rochester according to state of Lake meeting this last March.  I forgeot what depths.  I'm thinking 40, 80, 150.  They're real time monitoring the near-shore conditions of the lake.  Temp, currents, chemicals, etc.  These buoys are a first for the Great lakes. (i.e. 1st time ever used on any of the G.L.)  Unfortunately, you're the 1st to lose gear on them....ouch...   

 

Tom B.

(LongLine)

[momay4000]

Cornelis,

 

Thanks for the advice on the fact that it may have been a gill net. We used to fish Ludington, Michigan a ton back in the day and the Native Americans used to have nets all over the place. In fact, a boat was sunk from one of the nets and many Captains lost tackle.

 

I will contact the DEC to see if it could have been a net.

 

Gentlemen - thanks for all the kind words, and yes Brian at least it wasn't a skunk for only a few hours of fishing.

 

Be safe gentlemen and to all the fisherladies out there have a Happy Mother's Day tomorrow,

 

Chris

[momay4000]

Hey Tom,

 

Thanks for the update - yes it was right around 150-160'. Why would the tether/anchor line on the buoy be so long on that darn thing? I was a good 75 yards to the west. To all my fellow mariners - stay clear of those things!! I'll tell you what, I have about 20# of gear hanging off that thing, so don't be surprised if the data coming back is a little skewed....lol.

 

Thanks Tom,

 

Chris

[FX]

Sorry to hear about your mishap Chris, but glad to hear you're back on the water posting reports. I do hope you get some resolve with the lost gear. I would think your payment to the fish Gods is complete for the season and possibly next.

Shawn

[carpedium]

Man, sorry for your losses!

[LongLine]

Chris – I did some research & this is the US Navy recommended way of anchoring a buoy.  I’m sure USGS (being a gov’t agency) uses something like it.  The buoy is attached to a vertical riser which only goes straight down a certain distance.  A “fender†protects gear from rubbing on the riser.  Riser has a link on the bottom of it.  The link has slack spider-like legs going out in different directions. Number of legs and size depend on maximum potential weather/current conditions.  They generally go out a long ways.  Obviously if winds/current push buoy in a certain direction, a couple legs will come up while others settle to bottom.

 

 

Depending on the length of the riser, angle of the legs and the lift due to the buoy being pushed around, I can see how easy it would be to snag on one of them. 

 

Little consolation but H.I.H.

 

Tom B.

(LongLine)

 

 

[momay4000]

Hey Tom,

 

Man - you are truly a wealth of knowledge and your diagram would explain it perfectly. Maybe I can contact the USCG in the fall if/when they pull it up to see if any of my tackle can be recovered. That being said, I'm sure I won't be the only person to lose tackle on this thing.

 

As always - thanks to everyone for the kind words. Everything is fixed and I'm ready to be back at it next weekend.

 

As a word of caution to everyone - I would really steer clear of all of these buoys by at least 500 feet or more based on my experience.

 

Tight lines and good luck to everyone on the water,

 

Chris

[UNREEL]

Sorry to hear about your gear, Chris.  You were not the only boat to snag that 160 buoy on Sat. My buddys boat  "Reptide"  lost an X4 and a weight making a pass about the same distance. On Fri. we were catching kings and rainbows making similar passes around the buoys, but with little wind, and no problems. I'll pass this info to him about the USGS being the culprit. Thanks Longline, for that great explanation.

Kevin

[Pike Hunter]

The diagram from Tom reminded me of a daddy long legs. Having said that it felt as if our boat was attacked by a giant spider!

Kidding aside, the experience of losing trolling gear to the buoy was very heart wrecking. I thought the rigger would be gone during the violent snagging between the rigger cable and rope from that darn buoy. It could have been a lot worse had the cable snapped and sent the pieces flying on board. It could have dismembered one of us on board.

I can attest that Chris has been very calm during the whole ordeal! I cant tell from my deaf ears if he had shouted some ugly words.

Without the coordinates, that buoy is slightly west of the white house on the eastern part of I- Bay.

Stay safe everyone!

Cornellis - I had Barry who was the one that reeled in the whole 800'! Boy was he disappointed

Stay safe everyone!