I-Bay 8/2 AM and a short PM cruise

[momay4000]

Hello LOU friends,

 

I fished with my great pal Anthony early Saturday morning and we dropped our spread in around 5:45 AM and fished til 9:30 for a relatively short morning fish. Things were good until my audio sensor kept going off intermittently so we had to deal with an intermittent 100 decibel high pitched squeal for almost 4 hours. Oil pressure 40 PSI, temp 165 degrees, perfectly full lower unit oil.....hmmmmmm. The buzzer would only ring for a second or two, then chirp, then ring for a minute, then for 30 minutes, then stop for ten.......so it was driving me nuts but sounded like a short or bad sensor rather than a true alarm.

 

I pulled all sensor wires but the oil pressure one (was afraid to pull it out at sea since I didn't know exactly where it was on the motor) but it wouldn't fix the problem.

 

We decided to stay and fish and we went 3 for 4, with one nice low twenties Chinook, a nice brown that we lost in the prop wash and a ten pound lake trout.

 

We caught all fish on the riggers with spoons, and for the second week in a row, we haven't had a wire FF bite. The fish we lost was a beauty that ripped the 400' copper, only to lose it half way through the battle.

 

Fleas were reasonable, but not terrible. We fished north and east of the bay in 110-130 fow.

 

The following all caught fish:

 

90' rigger free slider NBK

65' rigger Kevorkian DW SS

80' rigger NK 42 second

 

Since I was bummed about the sensor and couldn't get it to make the noise again at the dock, I decided to take the boat back out solo for a few hours in the afternoon and fish close to port for lake trout since storms looked like they were brewing. I confirmed the location of the oil sensor so I was confident in trouble shooting it at sea. As soon as I dropped my first rigger on the bottom, the noise started again and I fixed it instantly by pulling the small wire on the oil pressure alarm. I'm sure there is an electrical short somewhere (or possibly moisture got behind my dash from all the rain the past few days) but I can live without the sensor knowing I'm constantly checking my gauges every few minutes (yes I'm that anal). I wound up catching 7 more lakers in about two hours of solo fishing, and the biggest was around 15 pounds. All were caught on the classic cowbell and Spin n glow setup although I had an incredible rip on a wire thumper with a yellow dodger/green SNG. I had the fish hooked for about 10 minutes but wound up breaking off at the Spin n glow leader.....

 

Good luck to all,

 

Chris

 

[tlombardozzi]

Great report Chris. Hope you figure out the issue, sounds frustrating

[Pike Hunter]

I'm glad the sensors issues wet resolved.

Indeed I turned off my hearing aid so that the high pitch alarm would not bother me all morning. It's nice to be deaf sometimes.

Thanks for the fishing excursion on your boat!

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[minion]

We were out sat mourning as well finished with two kings in the teens and one 23lb

We fished east of ibay in the 200 fow range and couldn't get any spoons to fire for the third week in a row lol. All fish were ff on the dipsys and deep rigger

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[momay4000]

We were out sat mourning as well finished with two kings in the teens and one 23lb

We fished east of ibay in the 200 fow range and couldn't get any spoons to fire for the third week in a row lol. All fish were ff on the dipsys and deep rigger

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Wow - so weird that all of mine were spoons and all of yours FF. What was your surface speed and/or downspeed?

 

Thanks,

 

Chris

[minion]

Down between 2.7-3 with fishhawk

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[tlombardozzi]

What color F/F worked for you?

[minion]

What's your down speed. Maybe they like the spoons a bit slower and ff a bit faster.... ?

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[minion]

White, green and silver or any combo of those colors with and green and hammer type flies. Same as everyone else normally runs I'm sure

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[tlombardozzi]

Yeah, just wondering if a different combo worked.

Thanks for the response.

[minion]

No prob I got a question for you guys. We have had this curse with the left side of the boat it can be running same exact everything and only the right side rods will fire no matter which direction we are trolling the last few weeks I would bet that the right side rods are firing like 20 to 1. !! We can't figure it out , about to just start running 6 rods on one side lol

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[tlombardozzi]

We have that happen time to time but it goes from one side one day to the other side the next, we scratch our heads ourselves sometimes

[dvdegeorge]

Chris glad you got it figured out. I think I saw you right behind us when we left port

[momay4000]

No prob I got a question for you guys. We have had this curse with the left side of the boat it can be running same exact everything and only the right side rods will fire no matter which direction we are trolling the last few weeks I would bet that the right side rods are firing like 20 to 1. !! We can't figure it out , about to just start running 6 rods on one side lol

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Happens all the time on my boat when one side seems hotter than the other. This year, it seems like my non-probe rigger has been better than the one with the probe. Also, I was running a bit slower - 2.2-2.4 Subtroll so maybe that's part of it.

 

Thanks for the reports - good luck to everyone out there,

 

Chris

[minion]

Lol. Strange again our hot side is the probe side I'm sure it will pass good luck and thanks again for your reports

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[MadPerry]

About your sensor, the sending unit, or oil pressure sensor is a common failure.  The springs within them weaken over time.  The alarm is triggered when the contact is grounded.  That is why removing the wire stops the alarm.  They are an easy and inexpensive replacement but often require a special socket to remove.

 

On the subject of "hot side" of the boat, my probe rigger has been the hot side for me since I got it.  It's always the rigger I target 46 degrees.  And that includes the target depth and cheater.  Flasher/fly on dipsies has been cold for me also, but so has the King bite this summer.  I usually maintain 2.4-2.8 on an x4.

[Missdemeanor]

Heres food for thought on hot sides......I have kept pretty detailed logs about my outings....Alot of time it depends on which side I have a trolling bag out on and which way I turn.....If I run my port motor, the port side bag goes out....If Im fishing an upper 40 ft set up or my sliders are going on the port side, the turbulance from my motor or bag may have somthing to do with it. Same goes for turning.....try to keep track of which side gets hit on turns. That is alos a good indicator as to how fast the fish want a presentation and depth....For instance if my diver on the port side gets hammered on a port turn ( and contunes to get hit ) I can say that on a straight troll, my diver might be running a little too fast and a little shallower. On that type of turn, your bait will drop ( depending on how sharp of a turn you make) and will slow down.....Im always trying to pay attention to small details.....Sometimes its thekey to getting the rest of the spread to go ( somtimes it isn't)....Tight lines

[momay4000]

About your sensor, the sending unit, or oil pressure sensor is a common failure.  The springs within them weaken over time.  The alarm is triggered when the contact is grounded.  That is why removing the wire stops the alarm.  They are an easy and inexpensive replacement but often require a special socket to remove.

 

On the subject of "hot side" of the boat, my probe rigger has been the hot side for me since I got it.  It's always the rigger I target 46 degrees.  And that includes the target depth and cheater.  Flasher/fly on dipsies has been cold for me also, but so has the King bite this summer.  I usually maintain 2.4-2.8 on an x4.

 

Awesome advice bud - thanks for putting me at ease regarding the sensor. It would make sense b/c it was extremely intermittent, then constant, then chirping for a second or two......extremely annoying but you put me at ease!

 

 

Heres food for thought on hot sides......I have kept pretty detailed logs about my outings....Alot of time it depends on which side I have a trolling bag out on and which way I turn.....If I run my port motor, the port side bag goes out....If Im fishing an upper 40 ft set up or my sliders are going on the port side, the turbulance from my motor or bag may have somthing to do with it. Same goes for turning.....try to keep track of which side gets hit on turns. That is alos a good indicator as to how fast the fish want a presentation and depth....For instance if my diver on the port side gets hammered on a port turn ( and contunes to get hit ) I can say that on a straight troll, my diver might be running a little too fast and a little shallower. On that type of turn, your bait will drop ( depending on how sharp of a turn you make) and will slow down.....Im always trying to pay attention to small details.....Sometimes its thekey to getting the rest of the spread to go ( somtimes it isn't)....Tight lines

 

Matt - this is great advice as well. I agree 100% that paying attention to very small subtle details can make all the difference.

 

Tight lines fellas,

 

Chris

[reelintense]

Chris,

Great Report, minus the malfunctioning sensor.  I will agree that I think your down speeds need to be a little higher to get the kings to bite.  Great speed for lakers and occasional kings, but I like 2.7+mph on my probe and also how far back are your divers?  I only ask because I used to not put my standards back more than 275', mostly because I cant stand reeling in all that wire/dipsy, but I have started to go 300-325 and 350'+ and a lot of times my hits are at 325'.  I have no idea why.  And I agree, sometimes it one side of the boat more than another, with no reason why, that I can tell, as I run a straight line (a lot) and don't have bags, so only variable maybe depth and currents that I cant see.  But if it makes any difference to you, I have caught like 3 lakers all summer, as bite has been more steelie and kings!?!!?