Monday morning quarterback

[CBish]

Just wondering what if 100 or 50 or 25 or even 10 boats had fish the Oak every day last week? Would all the salmon and rainbows on the leaderboard have been from the Oak? No one fished from Monday until Friday, well not no one only 2-3 boats each day. Then salmon show up big over the weekend. Were they there the whole time and no one was fishing there? Or did a couple of big fish just show up on Sunday????

CC

[jimski2]

It's not that there are no salmon there. When the water temperature gets right, the salmon go on the feed. There probably more salmon off other places now, it's just the water temperatures have not turned on their metabloism yet. The Niagara River flume with its warmer Lake Erie waters flowing out turn on the fish there now. Look at the lake surface water temperature map and you will see what is going on now.

[CBish]

OK.............so the first place Salmon and Rainbow did not read the temp map..............I think that it is now 2 years in a row that the big money fish did not come out of Niagara County. I know that very few boats fished out of the Oak, in fact last Saturday (5/3) there were less than 10 several days last week there were only 1 or 2 derby boats -- a very low number for a port that has the potential of delivering a grand prize fish. How many derby fished out of Rochester and points east compared to the # out of Niagara?

CC

Ps. Jimski2, the post is about fishermen not the fish, but thanks for the refresher on Poikiotherm metabolism.

[ray koziatek]

i think you got something there cb with the winning fish outa osweago last year the good fisherman all fished those waters,or it could be that thats called fishing ,sometimes fish are outa temp ,depth or even the wrong end of the lake.im shure the guys who got th 12500.00 check wernt to fussy what port they got the fish from

[chinook]

First off, I'd like to say congrats to the winners. That being the boat of 'This is it' These guys put a lot of time on the water. Next, been saying it for some time now, I'd rather fish where there are very few boats than fishing in a convoy. I know alot who want to follow the crowds. Back in '02 we took a 31 pound king off Golden Hill 5 days ( May 11) after the spring LOC. It was officailly weighed on the LOC scale at Capt. Cove. Point being, we didn't see a boat in sight. So when derby fishing, try and get off by yourself. You may not catch the numbers, but quality sometimes makes up for it. When I get a chance to fish the spring LOC, I'll fish out the the Oak to points west. In closing- the bar is obvious a magnet for targets in the month of May. But as now shown the last 2 springs, it is not the only place to be. Best of luck to all in the summer and fall LOC and congrats to all who did place-Duane

[Yankee Troller]

Yup! Thats why every team who placed in the Orleans Country Pro Am last year ran to the west to find fish. That was 2 weekends from now last year. If the fishing is so good why does Free Spirit, Reel Excitment, Sunrise II, Irish Thunder, and Capt. Jack on Lucky all leave the Oak for the west end of the lake?

You will always have a few stragglers. There was a 25lb'er caught off Sodus the second week of April. Did you also know there was a 33lb'er caugth of Dalhousie yesterday? The Oak has its time when its unstoppable, but thats not right now.

[A-TOM-MIK]

I was hoping the mention of the 33 lber would come out, I heard of that fish also, just waiting for the confirmation somewhere

[chinook]

Yankee, I think I referenced why the charters you mentioned head to the bar. It is a magnet for targets and most of their clientel are looking for salmon. In my opinion however, some get caught up in dates on a calendar, where as there are other variables that come into play. As I'm sure you are well aware. I don't see this king being caught out of the Oak as fluke however. I p.m. you just last year if you remember and mentioned about points west of the Oak towards Shadigees and such esp in the spring. The Oak doesn't get nearly the pressure that the Niagara Co. area gets in the spring. Obviously, the more fishing a particular area, the greater chance there stands for those numbers to look as such. Again congrats for placing.-Duane

[CBish]

Well said Duane, I think we are on the same page.

CC

[reelxite]

I agree that number of fishermen in a specific area has a major effect on the number of fish caught and the possibility of large fish being caught increases. At one time there were hundreds of fishermen fishing off the Oak in the spring derby and a lot of winners came from that area. But you must remember that as a very good friend of mine once said “you can’t shoot and Elk in western NYâ€

[chinook]

Reel Bob, Thanks for your input. Always value it. However you can shoot an elk in Pa Maybe I missed something on the Oak site, but whats the latest with the pen project? Was wanting to make it up to lend some hands on help, but it's been extremely busy at work let alone other outside activities. -Duane