Henderson trench 8/9/13

[Chas0218]

Went out today not expecting to catch anything with the Crap weather but managed 2 browns and 4 hits 2 lost. This was all on the trench so that means the kings shouldn't be far behind.

The first and second picture show the marks I was picking up and the last is 1 of the 2 browns.

Sent from my thinking chair...

[Beyond Upstate]

Hey Chas,

Nice to see you got some actions, temps must be looking good if those browns are around. What time of day did you go out, and did you by any chance get any down temps?

[Chas0218]

Hey Chas,

Nice to see you got some actions, temps must be looking good if those browns are around. What time of day did you go out, and did you by any chance get any down temps?

Sorry forgot that info. I started trolling at 10am and quit at 2pm. Down temps were ok but nothing great. Anything shallower than 100' was reading high 60s. Best temps (56°) were at 90' to 110' over 115fow to 150fow.

Current wasn't too bad I kept my down speed around 2.25 making my ground speed or gps 2 mph traveling towards the northeast and 2.5 mph toward the southwest.

Sent from my thinking chair...

[choo-choo]

Glad you got some hits...better than sitting home . I hope you nail a bunch next time out!

[Beyond Upstate]

Chas,

We're you running up closer to the high rocks on mainland or out towards the wall?

[Little Crappie]

We gotta do some fishin together! I've gotta get out there! Thanks for the report!

[Chas0218]

Chas,

We're you running up closer to the high rocks on mainland or out towards the wall?

I ran from the high rocks out to the middle of the wall then back toward the high rocks. I would have went further down the wall but the wife called me in a little early

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[mediummike]

Would you please tell us what setup you were using on your downriggers.  thank you.

[Chas0218]

Would you please tell us what setup you were using on your downriggers. thank you.

Downriggers and dipsys. I only ruin flasher flys on the dipsys and 1 on the riggers. The other 3 riggers are outfitted with spoons.

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[mediummike]

Thanks Chas. I was up there and just got home. Managed to get out in the trench and trolled in 130 ft 80 and 90 feet down with spindoctor and fly and white flasher with a ladderback spoon and also ran NK cowbells with a glow whirly peanut and the waves and storm were a challenge on Tuesday but we were out there all morning til 1:30. at 2.7 mph on the GPS.  No fish. Nada

[Lew]

Will be working the Trench today. Hopefully will have better luck and put a few in the box. It will be for the 1st time all summer, life is busy!

[karmakaze]

Lew- good luck and let us know how you do. James

[Chas0218]

Will be working the Trench today. Hopefully will have better luck and put a few in the box. It will be for the 1st time all summer, life is busy!

What time I was going to leave my camp shortly.

Sent from my thinking chair...

[Beyond Upstate]

Please do let us know how it goes, will be getting out in the morning and it looks like it will finally be calm enough for my 20' boat to be able to run anywhere. I am planning to head to the lanes, but if good salmon are in the trench or anywhere closer than the lanes, I wouldn't want to head all the way out. I have caught more than my fill of lake trout this season, really hoping to get into some salmon again. Caught several salmon a month ago, been a lot of unexpected down temps since then.

[Lew]

Hit the trench this morning, was some traffic,  we worked more towards the edge of the trench with spoons at 80' and 70'. we were marking fish, but just one taker, a nice Eye. We keep watch but didn't see anyone else hooking up.  It was Great Day anyway fishing with my wife, son & daughter inlaw  and grandsons. Made a run to Sackets and hit the Sackets Harbor Brewing Company for lunch     

[Chas0218]

I was going to hit it this afternoon but there were 5' plus waves on our way out and just stayed at camp. Hopefully tomorrow morning will be better.

Sent from my thinking chair...

[Beyond Upstate]

Went to the lanes, marked a lot of fish in the bottom 30' of 150' of water, had 70 degree water from surface to 110' down. Caught one laker, then headed back to trench hoping for cooler water higher up in the column. Had same temps, and marked a lot of fish. Spent most of the day in 150' of water running gear between 120' and 140'. Caught one small brown, 14 lake trout, and a 32.3 pound king. King was 135' down in 150' of water on a purple spoon.

[Chas0218]

Went to the lanes, marked a lot of fish in the bottom 30' of 150' of water, had 70 degree water from surface to 110' down. Caught one laker, then headed back to trench hoping for cooler water higher up in the column. Had same temps, and marked a lot of fish. Spent most of the day in 150' of water running gear between 120' and 140'. Caught one small brown, 14 lake trout, and a 32.3 pound king. King was 135' down in 150' of water on a purple spoon. ImageUploadedByLake Ontario United1376795662.146819.jpg ImageUploadedByLake Ontario United1376795674.422054.jpg

Pretty sure I saw u you guys. I was the white proline with blue bimini. We stayed at the lanes but didn't boat a fish. Had 1 on the riggers but got off after I handed it to my sister in law and had another that tangled 3 riggers together.

Sent from my thinking chair...

[markdaniel]

We fished the wall, lighthouse to the finger, on Saturday..  Marked plenty of fish in the bottom 20' of water 140 to 160. Not a single release.  Lake was beautiful. Water temp was 70 degrees down to 145.  Did not mark much bait. 

Edited August 18, 2013 by markdaniel

[Chas0218]

Ya the lake flipped from the day before with the heavy west wind.  I dropped my probe to the bottom and I had 72 from top to bottom in 150fow.  We were lucky and got a couple releases but nothing boated. I marked a lot of bait and fish on the bottom but no takers no matter what I threw down.  

 

I managed to get bit off on one of my lines and can't remember what I had on it.  I hate it when I can't remember.

[FleetTracker]

Boy was this weekend disappointing - not a single fish boated... my first skunk this year (wife not impressed and extremely bored all weekend).  I only get up on the weekends as it's a 2+ hour drive for us from home to our camp in sackets harbor.  The weather was great this weekend, with low wind, especially on Sunday.  Allowed little boats like mine to venture past the lighthouse quite a ways without concern.  I guess the high W winds earlier in the week really messed things up out there.  There were lots of boats... from inside fishing the wall on stoney to a few miles out in the trench.  Marks were consistently on bottom 20ft from 120-160fow.  I tried everything... multiple spoons, spinny/fly combos, flasher/fly combos, meat, and even cowbells for a little bit.  I had 5 releases all weekend putting 7 hours in on saturday and 5 on sunday.  two on a spinny/fly, one on the meat rig, and 2 on spoons.  screamer on a purple NK mag spoon for about 10sec... then gone.  Had another on for about a minute in 160fow, 145 down on the same purple spoon.  It was small, and didn't fight much, bet couldn't ID the fish before it threw the hook.  That was the excitement for the weekend - didn't last long.

 

I know weekends like this make the sport what it is and you'll have that from time to time, but it sure was demoralizing to me, as I've always boated something on every trip this year.  I guess some blame could be laid on the conditions of the lake... but I can't help but think I'm doing something wrong.  I've heard quite a few reports of guys catching a few salmon this weekend... I'm glad someone is!

 

I hope next weekend goes better... or else I may have to resort to other styles of fishing for perch or smallmouth or something to keep the wife entertained and coming each week.  I have 7 guys and another boat coming up for labor day weekend too, and they're expecting to catch some fish.  I sure hope the 'man trip' doesn't end up like this past weekend... might be making more beer runs than trips out on the lake. haha

 

Where are the walleye?  I haven't heard anyone talk about them in months around henderson... do they come back in the bay this time of year?  Where are the good perch spots.. she'd love to catch fish after fish like that... we're just very new to the area and figuring things out each weekend.  Any help or guidance would be appreciated!

[Chas0218]

As of late the perch fishing has been less than stellar, the only thing you could try are smallies and they aren't the best. Walleye are near grenadier island and they are extremely hard to come by almost as hard as the salmon.

[Beyond Upstate]

It baffles me that we had such different outcomes apparently doing the same thing. We managed 15 of our 16 fish in the trench from the wall out around the finger working the bottom 30' of 150' of water, the closer to bottom the better and best action from 10:00 until 1:00. 2 came on the dipsy, and the other 14 on two manual downriggers (my arm is sore). Ran flasher flies in greens and whites with a lot of action on both, then switched to spoons hoping to find something the salmon wanted instead of all the lakers. Caught several more lakers and then the king and didn't drop another lure. We were happy to call it a day when we finally boated a king after weeding through lakers all day. Do you guys have X4D, and are you sure you were getting your lures down close to the bottom? My downriggers had 150' and 160' of cable out to stay 125' and 135' ish down at 2.1 to 2.5mph with 13# torpedo weights. Hopefully your luck changes, and hopefully the kings get aggressive as well as cooler water moving in higher up in the column. I couldn't believe the amount of action on the screens all day, and was interesting to see how the active zone compressed down closer to the bottom through mid day, as expected. I suppose we would have been smarter to continue fishing when we finally got salmon action, maybe the afternoon/evening bite was going to be hot, but it had been a long busy day.

[Beyond Upstate]

I would also add that of the 14 fish off riggers, probably 11 or so were from the one running slightly deeper, made a big difference whether or not you ran slightly above the thermo or in it on Saturday. 160' to 170' of cable out on the riggers with a 13# weight over 150' of water low 2 mph's.

[dawg]

It baffles me that we had such different outcomes apparently doing the same thing. We managed 15 of our 16 fish in the trench from the wall out around the finger working the bottom 30' of 150' of water, the closer to bottom the better and best action from 10:00 until 1:00. 2 came on the dipsy, and the other 14 on two manual downriggers (my arm is sore). Ran flasher flies in greens and whites with a lot of action on both, then switched to spoons hoping to find something the salmon wanted instead of all the lakers. Caught several more lakers and then the king and didn't drop another lure. We were happy to call it a day when we finally boated a king after weeding through lakers all day. Do you guys have X4D, and are you sure you were getting your lures down close to the bottom? My downriggers had 150' and 160' of cable out to stay 125' and 135' ish down at 2.1 to 2.5mph with 13# torpedo weights. Hopefully your luck changes, and hopefully the kings get aggressive as well as cooler water moving in higher up in the column. I couldn't believe the amount of action on the screens all day, and was interesting to see how the active zone compressed down closer to the bottom through mid day, as expected. I suppose we would have been smarter to continue fishing when we finally got salmon action, maybe the afternoon/evening bite was going to be hot, but it had been a long busy day.

You hit the nail on the head. After fishing the Trench/Finger Sun to Yesterday the trick is being close to bottom with out touching and losing equipment. There are a ton of fish staged there right now. I too was running 15-20 ft over water depth on my riggers. Trouble was though I had the mrs so checking rods did not happen often enough with the end result of finding Zebra muscles that were dragged for who knows how long. Was 2.1-2-5 GPS or Ball speed? I was running 2.2 ball but noticed I was trolling faster than most others. We ended up with 3kings 1 laker on sun. 2 lakers on mon 1 king yesterday in 3 hours. A dozen boats or better yesterday fishing Perch just SE of Snowshoe bay. Headed back up tonight