Seneca - slim pickin's!

[vicarious]

Made the trip up from NJ late Thursday night and didn't get onto the water until late Friday morning.  My father and I headed out about 9 or so, had lines in by 9:15 and started a south troll from just North of Sampson.   It was fairly quiet overall, but we had our first action about 10 when our 5 color core started pulling a little drag.  After a very brief fight, we landed a 16" LL.  Returned it safely and trolled another 40 minutes without any action. 

Decided to make a turn back to the north and as soon as we did, our rigger popped with a small laker.   Returned it, reset the rigger and it popped again within 30 seconds.  After 4/5 quick headshakes, the fish was gone....

After another 30 minute quiet period, I decided to drop our dipsey's by 30/40 feet to the 260-280 range.  I 'guaranteed' my father a bite and after doing so, one of the dispey's started taking a little drag and we landed a 4/5 pound laker.

All fish were returned unharmed... the LL came going 2.2 on a water melon spoon, the laker hit 70 down on a white spoon with blue tape going 2.7 at the ball and the final laker hit a reel hooked up fly behind a mountain dew spin dr.

 

I wanted to go out this morning, but when I got up, it was too rough to go alone, so I texted my uncle to see if he wanted to join me.  He called immediately and headed down with my cousin's boyfriend who is in town from Pittsburg and had never been fishing.

We hit the water about 7, headed about 2 miles south of Sampson and setup on a north troll.

We setup 2 dispseys, two riggers and two cores, when Sean (the boyfriend) looked at me and said "now what?"  I said "what do you mean?" and he asked "how long until we catch something????"

Lucky for us, it didn't take too long... after about 30 minutes, the right side dipsey started to throb.  I grabbed it, handed it to Sean and he started to reel it in...  about 3 minutes into the fight, the left dipsey started to throb... I grabbed it and horsed it in to make sure we didn't cross Sean's line.  We both landed our fish, twin 2/3 pound lakers.

We reset lines, trolled another hour when I dropped the dipseys to the 250-280 range, and again, within 10 minutes, we had another hit.  This time, it was my unlce's turn.  He reeled it in and as I netted it, the other dipsey started to pull drag.   We gave the rod back to Sean and he landed the biggest  fish of the day, a 5/6 pound laker.

All fish came on either a white spin dr with Seneca ghost fly or a green spin dr with Reel hooked up fly going about 2.4. 

 

My father just came back from bagging clams at my uncles (fourth of july tradition!!!) and his neighbor came in with 13.3 lb brown....  My father said it was a beautiful fish, but the guy was tight lipped out details.

 

Hopefully I'll be back at it tomorrow morning, but I may try the west side.  With 3 hours of trolling yesterday and 2 today, we marked very few fish, no bait and the few that we caught we all relatively small.

 

Anyway, enjoy the holiday!!!

 

Brad

 

 

Edited July 4, 2015 by vicarious

[lakebound88]

Great job. Memories made and never to be forgotten.

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[vicarious]

Thanks Nick...

Got back on the water for a solo trip at 6:30 Sunday morning.  Wind was coming out of the south west, so I headed over to Dresden to look for calmer waters and more fish.  I found both, but couldn't get anything to hit.

I started with 3 and 5 color cores, plus one rigger, then switched the cores for two dispseys, fished 7-9 and got skunked!

Went back out again this morning with my father and uncle... we hit the water about 7:40 and trolled from our place (Sampson) to Reeders Creek and back.... Called it quits about 11:30. Two riggers, two cores and two dipseys with flasher fly.  Had two strikes on the probe rigger at 45', but no fish and caught 4 little lakers on the flasher fly combos.

Overall, another slow morning and no size to any of the fish that we caught.  Didn't mark much bait and very few actual fish.  The only good news, no fleas!

There were a handful of other boats out both mornings, but I didn't see anyone else pull anything in while I was on the  water.  I have seen two caught from the deck today though.... one before we went out and one right after, so they're out there, just tough to locate!

[vicarious]

What a difference a day makes...

After some friendly advice from one of Seneca's finest captions, my father and I headed back out this morning for another try.

Hit the water at 7:45 and headed to the west side.  setup about 3 miles north of Dresden on a north troll with the same program as yesterday morning.   We didn't even get all the lines in the water when the 5 color started pulling drag.  My father grabbed it and pulled in a 14" landlock.  it came on the same watermelon spoon as the LL from Friday morning.

Got everything reset and things were quiet for about 30 minutes when the outside dispey started screaming.  I had it set to 175, pick it up, tightened the drag and when the fish was done running, the line counter showed 277.  We pulled the riggers to clear the way and hauled in a 7+ laker.

Reset lines and picked away at a few smaller lakers (2-5 lbs) and continued on a north troll.  All came on the same white spin dr with reel hooked up fly, so I switch out the other dispey for a white with green dot spin dr and white fly.

I dropped the dispseys to around 200 and the same one fired again.  My father pulled in another 4 pounder.  As soon as we tossed the fish back, the other dipsey fired with another 4 pounder.  I no sooner got the fish netted when the rigger parked at 52 feet and 52 degrees started screaming.

After a nice fight,  my father landed an 8 pounder.  With three lines already out of the water, we decided to call it quits around 10:30 or so.

In total, we landed 7 or 8 lakers and 1 ll between 8 and 10:30 with 3 in the 6-8 range... we targeted 2.4-2.6 on the fishhawk and concentrated on 150 to 250 fow.

It was overcast for most of the morning and it seemed like anything white was deadly as soon as the cover burned off at 10.

Picked attached shows what put fish in the boat... the f/f combo on the right was busy all morning and the white and orange spoon caught the largest.

Edited July 7, 2015 by vicarious

[lakebound88]

Good job.

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[Sk8man]

Nice going and thanks for the report

[glenm]

Persistence pays off! Good report.

[BrookTrout]

WTG nice report, glad you got into some bigger fish, sounds like a great morning

[apb]

Good report!

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[vicarious]

Thanks Guys!

Update...

Took Wednesday morning off to focus on my girls and help my father with some painting around the house, but decided to go out after dinner that evening.  My daughter wanted to come, so me, Mayson (6), my niece, Sofia (12) and my father hit the water about 6:40.

I wanted to experiment and look for browns, so we concentrated on 40-60 fow in front of Sampson.

Never did find any browns, but ended up 4/5.  All were smallish (2-4) lakers coming off both dipseys and spoons.

The highlight of the night was actually the 1/5 that we missed...  I was running a orange, gold and white Rapala J-9 (prob 25 years old) off of the three color core.  It started pulling drag around 7 and when I looked, the board was gone!  I picked up the rod, tightened the drag and the board popped up about 50 feet behind where it had been.  Before I could even try to gain any line back, the board disappeared again, so I continued to tighten the drag and the board popped up another 50 feet back.

This is may not be unusual or a big deal for most, but this is our first year running LC. When setting them up, I went to Brewer's to buy backing .  She only had 50 yard spools of power pro, so in my haste to get them in the water before the derby, I made the, now, regrettable decision to only have 50 yards of backing.... you can probably guess how this story ends....

After the board popped up the second time, I looked at my spool and I could clearly see the actual spool in places.  At that point, the fish decided to run AGAIN...  I had no choice but to tighten the drag further at which point, the hook pulled.

When I got the J-9 back in the boat, it still had 3 scales on one of the hooks, so I'm thinking it was a big bow, but I'll never really know... lesson learned  ! 

We were back at the house by 8 and while the girls didn't want to reel in any of the dispseys, they had a great time netting the fish.

 

Thursday morning, I went out with my father and uncle.  The lake was calm, with just a slight ripple when we went out, but whipped up within 20 minutes of setting rods.  We got beat up pretty good.  We fished for about 2 hours in front of Sampson and manage a small laker on the 5 color with the same watermelon spoon and an 8.8 pound laker, that we boxed for my uncle, on a dispey.

 

Friday morning kind of summed up my week in one trip.

My father's neighbor, Tom, bought a boat last year with a electric cannon installed, so he's been asking my father to teach him the basics of how to use it.  We've offered to take him out many times, but were never able to hook up until yesterday.

Tom met us on the dock at 7:15 and we had lines in the water by 7:45 or so.  Started in 60 fow in front of the house and trolled south along Sampson, swinging out to 250 and back.

No action for the first 30-40 minutes, so I switched up the inside rigger and put on a Sutton 41, hammered silver and brass.  Put it about 30 down and within 10 minutes, we had a release and the sound of drag being pulled... I grabbed it, tightened the line and handed it to Tom.  My father and I were trying to coach him on what to do, but after about the third or forth time the fish surfaced, it spit the hook.  It looked like a nice LL, but again, we'll never know.

I put a hammered silver Sutton 31 (I think) on the other rigger and it took a small laker about 20 minutes later.  after that, it was QUIET.

 At 9:15, I suggested we pull lines and head to the west side.

We shot across, just north of the barge, and setup in 150 fow on a north troll.  I looked at the time, 9:45, and told everyone, "we've got 45 minutes to fish...".  (I'd promised to go to Roseland with my wife and the girls)

My father headed into 100 and then back out.  As soon as we hit 140, the fire drill began.  The inside dipsey fired, so I grabbed it, showed Tom how to fight the fish and handed him the rod.  The fish was full of life, pulled hard with a lot of headshakes, and Tom managed to land a 6+ pounder.

Now in 240 fow, before we could even reset that rod, the other dipsey fired.  I asked Tom to lift up the 5 color, so I could go under it, which he did and when I got things straight, I handed him the dipsey rod.  As soon as he took the rod from me, the 5 color pulled a little drag, double maybe???  I pulled it in, took off the board and handed it to my father.  He reeled it in a bit, but didn't feel anything, so I took it back and was going to reset it.  After a few cranks, I felt something pulling back and landed an 18 inch bow on the same watermelon spoon that has been producing all week.  A few minutes later, Tom landed another 6+ pound laker that put up a great fight.

We reset the rods and were in 340 fow when the probe rigger with Sutton 31 in 56 degrees fired.  I grabbed it and landed another 6+ laker.  We headed back towards shore, pulling in a 3ish pound ll off of the outside rigger with Sutton 41 and another laker or two off of the dipseys.

We went about 10 minutes without a hit,  so I asked my father to turn us back to the south so we could run through the same waters again.  As soon as he started the turn to the outside, the outside dispey (on the inside of the turn), with Seneca special spinny and reel hooked up fly, started pulling drag.  I grabbed it and handed it to Tom again.  After a few minutes of bringing it in, he said "this ones not fighting much.  it's the smallest of the day."  After a few more minutes, he landed a 9.12 laker.  The largest of the day!

My father knows that weight well, as he landed a 9.12 laker during the derby, which would have put him in the money for seniors, IF we'd entered.

We were going to throw it back, but after we weighed it, he and my father insisted it go in the box.  that was the last fish. We trolled about 10 more minutes and pulled lines at 10:45.

After a slow start on the east side, we went 9/10, with most fish coming in a 45 minute window on the west side.  All rods/presentations took fish, except for the 3 color, with the dipseys and riggers each taking 2 a piece.  2.2 on the X4 was the magic speed for us.

We're heading back to NJ today, so this may be it for my 2015 fishing season.

As I look back on the week, the dispseys were consistent, as usual.  However, we were able to produce with spoons, which we haven't been able to do in recent years.  The difference... Most of the spoons bites came on spoons that I raided from my uncle's tackle box and are probably 20 or more years old.  Old school got the job done... Suttons, the watermelon spoon (which I think may be an alpena) and another white spoon with blue tape and a blue bead. They seem much thinner than the spoons that I've been buying/running from some of the more contemporary makers over the past few summers, which I can't seem to get to fire. 

All in all a great week and awesome quality time with my family!!!!!

Good luck and be safe on the water.  Thanks for the interest and help this week!!!

Here's a pic of Tom with his 9 pounder...

 

[Sk8man]

Good report and nice laker....looks like a "native" fish with that coloration. have a safe trip back to Jersey

[vicarious]

Thanks Les!  I didn't think to check whether or not it had a fin clipped.