Dunkirk, NY Fishing

[NymphO]

Hey nympho, have you caught walleye on meat before?

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Well, since the cat is out of the bag... It's just one of those randoms I throw down there, and it HAS worked. I used mc rockets in a goby-ish pattern with a carbon14 (minion) head, no flasher. Nothing like rolling up to the docks of a walleye tournament with some shiney Twinkies blowing in the wind... In a world of renoski's and worm harnesses, I was alone. Lol.

But that is "thing". Throwing stupid baits out there and loving it when the intended species hits the net. Like Friday, I sent a longA bomber out on a 9 color and it took our biggest king.

If I was targeting Lakers, I'd have a straight gambler program out there though..... Aaaaaaand maybe something stupid too.

[wishinfishin]

Ok . My curiosity was peeked, had to ask.

When I first started fishing the big o , I didnt understand how you were "supposed to do things" with flashers and flies etc . It was all new to me .
But I caught fish on goofy set ups.
Gotta try stuff.



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[ifishy]

It's only goofy till it starts to work

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[GAMBLER]

I have a lot of customers that regularly target Lakers out of Dunkirk and swear by my rigs behind Hammerhead Cowbells. The last guys I talked to said they had to fish the boarder to find good numbers of lakers.


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[Gator]

And didn't you catch some walleye on your rigs last year, just for sh$ts and giggles? 

[GAMBLER]

And didn't you catch some walleye on your rigs last year, just for sh$ts and giggles? 

Yup. They have been putting walleye in the boat for guys all summer. That is why I came out with the worm harness line up!


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[Gator]

You got to come up with a treestand version that we can use on rutting bucks lol! I don't doubt that you could, given you've got them working for everything else.

[Char_Master]

Anyone do any good on Lakers this morning? We just got set up about an hour ago, working the 100-110’ range west of Dunkirk and haven’t had any action yet.

[NymphO]

Anyone do any good on Lakers this morning? We just got set up about an hour ago, working the 100-110’ range west of Dunkirk and haven’t had any action yet.

Stay low and slow and you should find em.

[Char_Master]

I forgot to post our results from a couple weeks ago. We ended up putting 4 Lakers in the boat in 4 hours that Friday, then 11 Lakers and 2 Walleye in 5 hours that Saturday. What a difference one day can make! We caught fish all over the 100-110 FOW zone, from a foot off the bottom to twenty feet off the mud. Spoons, Flatfish, dodgers/spin’n’glows, and Cowbells/Gamblers all took fish. Largest individual was a 36” 23# specimen I caught on Saturday. And, although I’m not huge on Walleye, one of the two bycatch Eyes was 28” 6#, so I’m not complaining!

 

Hoping to fish out of Dunkirk again tomorrow if the lake cooperates.

Edited September 6, 2019 by Char_Master

[NymphO]

I forgot to post our results from a couple weeks ago. We ended up putting 4 Lakers in the boat in 4 hours that Friday, then 11 Lakers and 2 Walleye in 5 hours that Saturday. What a difference one day can make! We caught fish all over the 100-110 FOW zone, from a foot off the bottom to twenty feet off the mud. Spoons, Flatfish, dodgers/spin’n’glows, and Cowbells/Gamblers all took fish. Largest individual was a 36” 23# specimen I caught on Saturday. And, although I’m not huge on Walleye, one of the two bycatch Eyes was 28” 6#, so I’m not complaining!
 
Hoping to fish out of Dunkirk again tomorrow if the lake cooperates.

Nice work !

[Char_Master]

The weather cooperated and we managed to get out again this past Friday for Lakers. Fished from 10:00-4:00, all of the action was from 10:00-2:00. Went 6/7 trolling and 2/6 vertical jigging, which was really a blast! Largest fish was 36” 19-20 pounds. Our best trolling baits were gamblers/cowbells and spoons. Also caught 2 bonus Eyes, one of which ate a dodger and spin’n’glo lol.

 

Hoping to get out one more time this season later this month before putting the boat away.

Edited September 12, 2019 by Char_Master

[orangediablo]

Say one wanted to try and jig for these chickens......how would one go about doing it?

[Gill-T]

Fat healthy fish!  What are they spitting up?

[Char_Master]

3 hours ago, orangediablo said:

Say one wanted to try and jig for these chickens......how would one go about doing it?

Troll around until you find fish concentrated somewhere, then drop 2-4 ounce saltwater jigs on to their heads. Good luck!

 

2 hours ago, Gill-T said:

Fat healthy fish!  What are they spitting up?

Thanks! Every baitfish I’ve seen coughed up this summer has been a Goby.

[RD9]

2 hours ago, Gill-T said:

Fat healthy fish!  What are they spitting up?

Smelt for us, everyone I cleaned out of Dunkirk is completely loaded with 4 to 7 inch smelt. There so disgustingly fat. 

[Gill-T]

Great to hear!

[Char_Master]

4 hours ago, RD9 said:

Smelt for us, everyone I cleaned out of Dunkirk is completely loaded with 4 to 7 inch smelt. There so disgustingly fat. 

I wouldn’t mind seeing the fatty, thiaminase-filled Smelt pop. take a tank in Erie. I’ve only ever filleted three Lakers to eat. Two mainly had Smelt in them, and had absolutely disgusting the meat. The other was loaded with nothing but Gobies and had the best-tasting orange meat I’ve ever eaten, it was better than Walleye.

 

As a trend, I’ve noticed that most fish I fillet/eat that are consuming primarily Emerald Shiners, Round Gobies, or Yellow Perch, tend to taste better than those eating primarily Smelt or Alewives.

Edited September 12, 2019 by Char_Master

[Gill-T]

Keep in mind stomach contents are just a snapshot. Orange meat might be just as likely coming from smelt ingesting invasive blood red mysis down deep as it is from mussel-eating gobies (keratin)

Edited September 12, 2019 by Gill-T

[Char_Master]

1 hour ago, Gill-T said:

Keep in mind stomach contents are just a snapshot. Orange meat might be just as likely coming from smelt ingesting invasive blood red mysis down deep as it is from mussel-eating gobies (keratin)

Very true. There’s no real way to know, that’s just my observations so far. It’s hard to get a good gauge using 3 samples too, lol.

[lineman49]

  We did 20 lakers last Fri. (9/13) & 7 eyes as a bonus.  The week before we did 25 lakers & 8 bonus eyes.  All in 85-110 fow  straight out & west of Dunkirk. All with Gambler rigs, even a few eyes on them. We plan on doing it again this week.

[Char_Master]

Anyone fish out of Dunkirk this past week? Lakers around? We’re fishing there this weekend and I’m hoping that this NE wind doesn’t push all the cold water away. Guess we’ll find out.

[mr 580]

Weather has been crappy this week , but you should find temp break around 75’ down.  So starting in 80 and going out should work.  I have been getting Lakers up in walleye temps on riggers and divers with spoons pretty regularly so you shouldn’t have trouble finding them.  

[Char_Master]

58 minutes ago, mr 580 said:

Weather has been crappy this week , but you should find temp break around 75’ down.  So starting in 80 and going out should work.  I have been getting Lakers up in walleye temps on riggers and divers with spoons pretty regularly so you shouldn’t have trouble finding them.  

Thank you sir!

 

Just got to the harbor now, lake is kicking pretty hard. Sounds like it should calm down pretty well by the morning, though. Gonna be a few more sore-lipped fish out there if I can help it haha.

[mxwarren]

Lakers are off of Northeast all year. Just need to watch the previous days wind head to the colder water. Here are some of the nicer ones we caught this year. Deathtraps outproduced cowbells 11-1 last trip!