I-Bay Sunday 5/19/13 AM

[momay4000]

Fished only a couple of hours yesterday morning with my good buddy Anthony but we could only muster one fish that we were dragging on my port side rigger that we only noticed when we were pulling lines. Since a fish didn't touch the deck, it was my first skunk in 4 years so I was a bit bummed.

 

I was back at it this morning with my good buddy Jason and his brother-in-law for another morning fish. After pondering all day yesterday what I did wrong and reading some great reports from Long Line, Yankee Troller, Bobs Boy, et al, I decided to hit water more east of I-Bay and fish my program a little shallower both in depth of water and presentation.

 

We fished 8 rods - two wire divers (175'-225'), 300' copper, three and five color cores, a surface line with a 5/8 ounce keel sinker and two riggers with sliders. I put the riggers at only 45' and 55' and although they were a bit slow, they still took fish. We fished Spin Dr's on the divers and the copper, but the rest was all a spoon buffet.

 

We finished 6 for 10, with beautiful lake trout hitting lures from the surface to the deeper stuff, along with some great steelhead action. We also lost a 20+ pound king right at the back of the boat after he smoked the 300' copper pulling a kelly green SD with a Green Krinkle Fly. He absolutely crushed the copper, peeled about 300-400 extra of backing but after about a 20 minute fight he broke the fly leader right behind the boat. He was a great fish indeed.

 

The best depth was 100-120 fow and the MVP lure was the surface mono with a 5/8 ounce keel sinker pulling a ruby red spoon. It took both lake trout and steelhead.

 

No wire bites this weekend, but the short lead cores were great today along with the free sliders on the riggers

 

The following lures all had hits and took fish: Kelly green SD with a green krinkle fly, ruby red NK on surface with a keel weight, DW SS Buffalo Bill cheated (had an orange back), DW SS Steelie Dan on three color, Moonshine Carbon 14 standard size on five color core, DW SS UV Mixed Veggie cheated. You can notice a pattern that the top water stuff in chatreuse, orance and red was great today.

 

Good luck to all and be safe,

 

Chris

[reelintense]

Nice report Chris, thanks you for that, as I will be heading out in a bit. At least you didn't snag or loose any equipment, so that is a plus! jason

[tlombardozzi]

we fished the same depth with some of the same colors and only got one steelie to hit. marked a ton of fish, can't understand what we are doing wrong

[LongLine]

WTG Chris.  Funny how Lakers are hitting right below the surface stuff this year.

 

TLomb' - Play with speed.  i.e try just a little bit faster.

 

Tom B.

(LongLine)

[momay4000]

As always gentlemen - thanks for the replies. I only lost one Scotty release (ten bucks) off my planer line today so it was a good day...lol. T-Lom, listen to Tom B. about the speed. If it was you trolling just south of us (we were in the hardtop yellow Trophy), it looked like our speeds we just a little different. You may have seen us lose that nice king that I was fighting b/c it looked like you guys were right next to me when I was standing on my motor cover trying to land it ight behind the boat....

 

Today was a day of "loud" chatreuse, red and orange spoons close to the surface and away from the boat that caught fish. Many of the lakers were trolling 2.4-2.5 speed at the ball on my Subtroll and were right below the surface.

 

Keep at it and good luck - in time I think the chinook are going to be present in the Rochester waters in bigger numbers so the fishing will be even better.

 

I was humbled by Lady O. on Saturday, only to make a few adjustments mainly in the depth of my trolling that made all the difference today.

 

Good luck and keep at it,

 

Chris

[tlombardozzi]

you're probably right, we tried trolling at speeds 2.1-2.3, then bumped up to 2.6, i kept trying different colors, probably should have kept the orange and frog going like my gut was telling me, oh well. so many fish being marked in 20' and up but also 40-60', i feel confused on what depth i should be targeting some times.

thanks for the tips

[tlombardozzi]

you're probably right, we tried trolling at speeds 2.1-2.3, then bumped up to 2.6, i kept trying different colors, probably should have kept the orange and frog going like my gut was telling me, oh well. so many fish being marked in 20' and up but also 40-60', i feel confused on what depth i should be targeting some times.

thanks for the tips

[Pike Hunter]

Talk about a full redemption after a  day of getting skunked!  You should know how easy target I am and you can blame it all on me!

[Hooked on Kings]

Nice work, it's funny how having a bad day makes the wheels turn and you rethink your game plan...... thanks for the report.