Olcott 8/30 - 9/1. LONG

[Storm Warning II]

The Storm made its annual pilgrimmage north in search of the "derby winner" to Olcott, NY. Beautiful lake and weather all weekend was definitely the highlight!

Sat. 8/30:

Plied the inside waters for the early am seeking staging matures. Radio chatter was very slow as well as our morning. Started in 50 fow and worked out to 80 running most in the marks right on the bottom as well as 2 outside divers higher in the column with a mix of spoons and Spin Docs/flies. 5:15 am to 9 am never moved a rod. Turned the good ship north and power trolled out to 460 with 1 knock off and a shaker on a DW 42nd on the 65 rigger. Worked around the "Blue Zone" for an hour or two without marking much other than a few bait balls. Pulled all at 11:30 and motored in.

Headed back out around 4 pm and set up in the 100 fow range with same program as am and found virtually identical screen as the am, with fish prevalent in the bottom 5 feet of water and an occassional target up a little higher. Worked directly out in front of Olcott and slow going. Changed up some flasher/fly combos and spoons (Big thanks to the guy on the radio for the No See Um recommendation). About 5 pm had our 1st good rip in about 95 fow just west of the 18 mile pier heads, fish took on a dark green "oil spill" on white Doc towing a DW No See Um fly braid outside diver on #3, back 200 (parked in warm 62 degree water). Had the fish on for 3 or 4 minutes and a decent run. Fish surfaced 150 feet back or so made another run and "pop", there goes the hook. Reset and made it just a few hundred yards east of the mouth and same rod fires again. Good screamer peelin' off braid at a good clip. Fish got out 300 or so feet of line and we began to regain some. "Big Sexy" (a crew member of the trip) commented the fish felt heavy and shortly thereafter surfaced with the tell tale Shark fin 150 or so behind the boat. Slow tug of war ensued before a good run again and gone. Man! What's up? Reset and went another 1/2 mile or so before turning back on our track. Made it just west of the mouth again and fired the SAME ROD again. Another good rip, Jimmy got the rod and got 3 or 4 good small runs, bye-bye again. YIKES! Quickly reset and made 3 or 4 more small passes with 1 more rip before dark with the same unfortunate results, OUCH, 0/4!

Sun. 9/31:

Headed out to our little sweet water patch before sunrise and set up. Same screen and same spread. Slow going the first couple hours with nothing going on, but stuck with our water. About 8:30 am The SAME ROD fires again. This time "Big Sexy" grabs the rod with the same identical results. WTF?? Let's switch up who's in the hot seat and get this turned around! Swung in a little shallower on an eastbound pass and discovered a VERY nice scum line set up just west of the river heading east towards the Microwave tower. About the time the SAME ROD goes through the scum line, BAM! Hooked up and "Elvis" is on the rod. a good battle ensues and a chunky 16 1/2#er is boxed. Yippee, the boat is starting to smell a little better, a lot less like skunk. Tried tightening drags to a "scary" tightness to see if we could keep them on the hook a little longer. Reset and proceeded east along the line when finally fired another rod on the outside, drop. Fired outside divers again 2 or 3 times with same unfortunate results before changing out very quiet tail gunner to a Kelly green doc w/ white crushed glow and the No See Um on braid diver on "0" back 200. The new gunner hadn't been out 10 minutes and got pounded. Jimmy is into a good one. A 15 or so minute fight results in nice 24#er. Shortly thereafter in the "honey water" the same chute rod fires again and this time "Big Sexy" boats a dark high 18#er. All in all went 3/ 8 on the morning all in the inside waters. Went to work with the hook sharpener during our mid-day break.

Ventured back out around 4 pm again for the afternoon bite and set up on same water just north of 18 mile. Quite a bit of boat traffic and had a hard time locating and fishing the scum line, just couldn't get inside. Finally had an opening in the trolling procession and got south into our pattern. Shortly before the pattern, the inside wire back 200 fires with a pearl on white Spinnie and Purple Mirage A TOM MIK, short fight and off he goes, zzzzzzzzzzt! Poof! Gone again. Got into the water and the outside No See Um rod takes a quick rip, but no hook up. WTF? Never ran above 2.6 at the ball, nothing hooked up below 2.1 and nothing above 2.3 but just can't figure out why we can't keep them buttoned. The crew decided to let me try one and I was happy to jump on an inside wire back 215 with a crushed ice glow on white with an A TOM MIK E chip rigged Green Glow takes off. Short battle yields a CHUNKY 18#er that is just about as broad as he is long. See how it works boys, LOL? Reset and soon outside diver with Mt Dew Doc/Green Glow goes again and this time Jimmy successfully boats a 15# mature with a Boone & Crocket blood sucking sea leech on it that must be on its last legs because the poor King was about as white as I have ever seen one. Dispatched the lamprey in bite sized chunks for most gobies and Eeked out 2 or 3 more passes before dark with one other drive-by on the No See Um outside rig.

9/1: Headed out for the morning fish and our sweet water was quiet! No scum line, no bait, no hooks. Where did they go? Hadn't really been east of the Microwave yet, so we decided to try further east. Worked that direction and got just about in front of the tower when the Green Glow A TOM MIK wire rod fires with a GOOD rip, zzzzzt, zzzzzzt, zzzzzzzt and look around to see 2 of 3 crew members catching some Zs themselves, as well as diligently mapping the back sides of their eye lids! I guess one too many celebratory cold ones with fellow anglers and the Double Play boys at the Time Out will do that. Fortunately I give a quick "...wire, wire, wire" and Jimmy awakes from his slumber and is able to clear the cockpit in a single bound just in time to grab the wire and feel the angry King come loose. Continued further east to the Plant and worked some green water for another hour resulting in 1 shaker on the Mt. Dew/Green Glow outside and called 'er quits for another year.

One of these days I will figure out how to keep these bony mouthed fall Kings on the hook. Suggestions are greatly appreciated!

[Limitman]

I heard you guys out there getting those fish. It was slow for us all weekend. The No See Um tip might have been us if it was Saturday cause I was bored and I was talking on the radio. We went 8 for 9 with kings and 8 steelies out deep. All kings came on a wire dipsy with the no see um fly 200 back. We fished pretty much from the microwave to the red barn. Our best spot was the red barn 70-100 fow. We got four nice kings out of there the biggest was 25. The flies when I buy them new I change the hooks to mustad hooks, don't know if that helps or not but we only lost one at the boat. Oh yeah the 25 pounder came in 100fow 70 down on the downrigger with a spook nk28. That was out only spoon bite for a king. Well we are back in Ohio for fall walleye action.

Mark

[Storm Warning II]

Thanks for the tip on the No See Um. It must have been you because yes, it was Saturday afternoon, I think you said all 3 fish you pulled that day were on it.

It was HOT Saturday afternoon and Sunday am.

[Tim Bromund]

SW,

did you try calling me on the radio sunday? I thought I heard someone calling FishStyx, but it was a real weak signal (we were way offshore) and I had the radio on scan and missed what channel the call came on. Sorry I didn't respond if that was you.

We had a pretty good day offshore, sounds like that was a better decision than joining the pack and pounding those inside waters for not a lot of action.

Tim

[Diversion]

SW, I believe that I passed you on the 190 when you were heading south, back to PA. I was heading north back from my deer camp. Sounds like you guys had a good time.

[Storm Warning II]

Very possible Diversion. We missed Coomer Rd for I think the 5th or 6th time in trips to Olcott and ended up just going down to Y-town for the heck of it to fill up and get some pizza for the ride home then shooting south on 190.

Do you guys in NY have a VERY early deer season now? You mention deer camp and we noticed 2 or 3 vehicles towing 4-wheelers and tree stands on our way north. I know that South Carolina comes in at the end of August, but I didn't think NY came in that early.

[Diversion]

Not that I know of, the southern zone where I am, Alleghany County, bow season opens Oct 18th this year. Those trucks you saw were probably doing what I was, just some preseason work and scouting. I saw a ton of ATVs on trailers both heading to and from camp, most likely because of the holiday weekend.

[Chromeslayer]

Matt good meeting u!! to bad the fishing was on the slow side.. i never made it out monday... 4 days straight of fishing was enough for me... ill be back at it thursday again

[Storm Warning II]

Very nice meeting you too Jeremy. I look forward to many more fish conversations. I appreciate your candor and reports and look forward to salmon collaborations in the future.

Good luck fishing!

Back to 'eyes and steelies for the Storm until the Niagara Pro Am next spring.

[Limitman]

Yup that was us. We did end up pulling another for a big grand total of four. I like helping each other out. Some people won't help at all but for me I'm an out of towner and anytime I can get help it's saves time and gas and thats big in this day an age. Hey if any of you ever fish Erie down here by Cleveland or Lorain look me up I'll help ya out.

Mark

[Storm Warning II]

Thanks Limitman.

The offer holds true if you are ever over the Conneaut way or cross the border into Pennsylvania. We spend most of our time fishing out of Conneaut and sometimes Ashtabula, but venture into PA waters quite often. Our nearshore steelie trolling bite will start to really get hot as we move into the fall months. The most prolific trolling opportunities begin in mid October, peaking in early November, and can continue into late November. If you want some help getting into some hot trout action, let me know and we can help you out with the where and when. It is not uncommon to hook up as many as 50 times in a good morning.