FLEAS

[battlehammer]

. Found a nice pile of fleas down deep off Wilson in 350'. Hooked 2 screamers in first hour-90' on rigger. Rod eye jammed up During both fights- lost both when they ran at us while eye was jammed. My bad was still running 20#. Quit after a hour- spooling on 30# now

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[lt119]

30 didn't help me today lost one to fleas and lost a spoon beating them off with 30#out of olcott ...still managed 4 nice kings and a nice coho...fleas r horrible....

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[fishfearme]

They were pretty bad out of oak orchard. Fishing was very slow.

[Sea-IV]

It's pretty much all over cause out of Rochester yesterday they were Nast also. Have to clear lines every 15 minutes. It's amazing how in 1 week they just exploded but what I did start doing was using a fluorocarbon leader and they don't seem to stick to it, the mono is another story.

[cedarswamp]

Has anyone tried spraying them with Bleach or Isoprophyl Alcohol or anything that may kill them on contact! Not sure what might work but if we (Fishermen) can kill some of them it sure would be nice to keep them at bay. They seem to get worse every year.

[PolarBear]

That's not even bad ,,,, I seen them up the line 10 feet long and looking like bull rope ..... But I know they suck and are a pain in the butt though ..... Hopefully they don't get any worse .... Good luck out there things are getting better SLOWLY

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[Jeremy Goodison]

Try this if your bored. I read on a post somewhere that Velcro does a decent job pulling off the fleas. I have a paint stick (the five gallon size) and took the largest Velcro home depot offered (sticky back). When I bring the wire in I slap it on the water and smack the butt of the rod. That will usually get half, then I'll take this and run it down the line. Doesn't a decent job " breaking" them up . I've done it on the rigger rods in desperation buy usually get nervous with anything running on the mono.

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[Jeremy Goodison]

And it whoops the black flies.

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[lt119]

This is what I do

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[Jeremy Goodison]

Great minds think a like lol

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[Steve.e]

I use a 2.5ft stainless steel rod to clear them off. Keep good tension on the line and slide the rod up and down the line on top side. they pretty much fall right off. can be done with a fish on . As the line comes in with the fleas, another person works the steel rod , it works pretty good.

[lt119]

It's fun as hell 2

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[KilliansRed]

Fished wilson today, lost all fish due to fleas. I must of had a pound stuck to my one line, they even stuck to my downrigger wire.

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[ReelPower]

That must have been either battlehammer or killians I spoke to at the Wilson State Park ramp. Thanks for the info I'll be out of Wilson all week if you need a report, docked at the boathouse historic vehicle qualifying Trophy Hardtop.

[KilliansRed]

If we talked while i was going to my truck it was me haha, ill be out this week too if the lake cooperates.

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[cedarswamp]

I use a 2.5ft stainless steel rod to clear them off. Keep good tension on the line and slide the rod up and down the line on top side. they pretty much fall right off. can be done with a fish on . As the line comes in with the fleas, another person works the steel rod , it works pretty good.

 

Why does this work? Maybe post a pic of Stainless rod used! I don't get this! 

[skipper19]

Saturday. Even got on 200 lb rigger cable and jammed snap swivels.

Helps if the fish are biting and ya gotta bring lines in more often. Lol!

I think they even chase off fish where too heavy infested. Steelhead had them stuck on their gills! That's gotta be a bit ch! Like the LA basin on a clm summer day..pooey!

[TyeeTanic]

Fleas are also bad on north shore, but doesn't sound like as bad as you guys have it.

Our wirelines had 2 ft sections of fleas just ahead of the dipsey.

 

Didn't get any on the 30 lb mono.

[MikeyP]

They were bad in Oswego on Friday and Saturday and possibly worse towards Mexico and off the plant. It seemed the more west we trolled the less there were which I attribute to the cooler water that we encountered the further west we trolled. The 30lb Trilene wasn't doing a good job of keeping them off.  We'll have to switch to the Sea Flee line the next time out although we can't do anything with the wire lines except to just deal with it.

[Steve.e]

Cadarawamp, I use stainless so it doesn't rust, and stays smooth so it won't damage wire and seems to be Ok with mono. . Putting the pressure on the line with the rod cuts through enough of the fleas and they drop off. The rod is ~  1/8 - 1/4 in diam. Not sure, haven't measured and probably doesn't matter. Can use any length I imagine, longer would be good to reach out or up if a fish is on. I cleared 2 ft of fleas off a wire in about 8 sec. 

[NickR]

Blood run flea flicker? Lol I only get a few at the knots..

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[Sk8man]

The Blood Run Sea Flee is  very good but when the fleas are real thick (as they were yesterday) they do adhere even to that but in lesser amounts than say wire etc. Interestingly they didn't cling at all to the 27 lb 10 color lead core I had out.

[MadPerry]

The Blood Run Sea Flee is very good but when the fleas are real thick (as they were yesterday) they do adhere even to that but in lesser amounts than say wire etc. Interestingly they didn't cling at all to the 27 lb 10 color lead core I had out.

I had the same results with my 27lb core. Thought it strange they weren't clinging to it. 30lb big game had none except knots/swivels. Wire dipsies loaded up quick. Even some on chinook divers. Nevermind the single braid dipsy rig I used. Had to pull it.

I was on the south end of cayuga last week. Caught a bunch of fish, but I thought they were worse there.

Edited July 28, 2015 by MadPerry

[NickR]

We had no problems all weekend with cortland and and blood run. Just 5' of junk on the wires but the Twilly tips cut them off

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[cedarswamp]

Cadarawamp, I use stainless so it doesn't rust, and stays smooth so it won't damage wire and seems to be Ok with mono. . Putting the pressure on the line with the rod cuts through enough of the fleas and they drop off. The rod is ~  1/8 - 1/4 in diam. Not sure, haven't measured and probably doesn't matter. Can use any length I imagine, longer would be good to reach out or up if a fish is on. I cleared 2 ft of fleas off a wire in about 8 sec. 

 

 

Thanks Steve.e gonna try it