Olcott

[cast party]

I'm coming to Olcott from Ohio for four days tomorrow through Saturday. If anyone wants to share information, we would appreciate it. Heard the fleas are bad. I have 30# Berkely Big Game on several reels. Will that be enough to cope? I have 120# braid for downrigger cable and I know from experience that won't cut it in fleas. Was thinking I could snap on what we call poor man's downriggers (like 8 oz. ball sinkers) instead. Any thoughts? Send PM if you want to swap cell numbers. Thanks.

 

Capt. Bob

 

[kurtmckenna]

I'm from Ohio as well.  I was just up there Friday through yesterday.  I have 150# braid on my riggers (big mistake). 30# big game on the rigger rods (didn't matter).  Then 30# power pro on the diver rods and 40# copper on the board rods.  The 4 of us cleaned fleas constantly for 4 days.  If they were in the water more than 15 minutes you would spend at least 15 minutes cleaning them off each rod.  They even stuck to swivels on the copper rods and built up on the 20" 50# between the Spin Doctor and Meat.  I have never seen anything like it.  It's just a light brown nasty slim.

 

Be prepared to clean every rod every 15 minuets.  I don't think there is any other way to do it right now.  The best way to do it is have enough rods to put a new one down when you bring one up.  I had 4 extra diver rods with me and used them, but they built up on the braid pretty quickly.  As soon as you got one clean you pulled one and replaced it.  You can probably get 20 minuets or so on the 30# big game and half hour on the copper if you are not running a swivel.

[whycanteye]

I'm from Ohio as well.  I was just up there Friday through yesterday.  I have 150# braid on my riggers (big mistake). 30# big game on the rigger rods (didn't matter).  Then 30# power pro on the diver rods and 40# copper on the board rods.  The 4 of us cleaned fleas constantly for 4 days.  If they were in the water more than 15 minutes you would spend at least 15 minutes cleaning them off each rod.  They even stuck to swivels on the copper rods and built up on the 20" 50# between the Spin Doctor and Meat.  I have never seen anything like it.  It's just a light brown nasty slim.
 
Be prepared to clean every rod every 15 minuets.  I don't think there is any other way to do it right now.  The best way to do it is have enough rods to put a new one down when you bring one up.  I had 4 extra diver rods with me and used them, but they built up on the braid pretty quickly.  As soon as you got one clean you pulled one and replaced it.  You can probably get 20 minuets or so on the 30# big game and half hour on the copper if you are not running a swivel.

We fished Wed,Thur, Sat & Sun, I could leave my 1/19 diver rod and coppers in for as long as I wanted no problem, my riggers with 30# big game I'd pull every 1/2 hr 45 min and clean them but wasn't a disaster by any means, we pulled more fish than any trip we've ever had in 10 years of fishing lake O. Many many 3 yo's and 9 matures in 4 days it was a lot of hard work but way worth it!

Sent from my XT1585 using Lake Ontario United mobile app

[Matt068]

I usually run 20 lb was bad lost fish clogged up so bad  tied in 120 ft of 40lb and fleas were absent what a difference got this good one on meat but spoons have been good as well what an incredible yr to fish Lake Ontario 

[kurtmckenna]

23 minutes ago, whycanteye said:

We fished Wed,Thur, Sat & Sun, I could leave my 1/19 diver rod and coppers in for as long as I wanted no problem, my riggers with 30# big game I'd pull every 1/2 hr 45 min and clean them but wasn't a disaster by any means, we pulled more fish than any trip we've ever had in 10 years of fishing lake O. Many many 3 yo's and 9 matures in 4 days it was a lot of hard work but way worth it!

Sent from my XT1585 using Lake Ontario United mobile app
 

You did a lot better than we did.  Didn't fish Friday.  Went 2 for 6 on Saturday.  Then a bit better Sunday and Monday, but nothing big 17.5 was biggest.  I fished mainly 60 to 210 FOW west of harbor.  Tons of bait and marks.  I don't have down speed or temp though so I am fishing pretty much blind in that regard. 

 

The fleas were really bad.  I'm sure the braid diver and downrigger line didn't help.  I left the coppers in the longest and they still had a good foot of build up on them from the spin doctor up.  Never took a hit on the 300 coppers, but I fished them anyway.  The braid divers with really long leaders (25+ft) did the best and we religiously pulled them every 15 min and put a fresh one down.  Still broke off 2 due to fleas in the guides and or reel. 

 

I might have been able to get 30 min on the 30# big game, but I didn't chance it due to the braid on the downrigger it's self.  I would just cut the swivel off the mono, pull the fleas off and retie.  I don't have back up mono rods so they had to be sent right back down.  The pulley on the rigger would push most of them down to the shark where you could brush them off somewhat and keep fishing.

 

Ran 2 riggers, 2 coppers and 4 divers and we where busy. 

[Sportcraft 232]

I had 40lb big game spliced on my rigger rods and there were still a lot of a lot of fleas attached to the line. So bad Monday there were fleas on the spoon hooks. Spliced in 30 lb blood run sea flea line today and will see if it is any better this weekend. BTW fishusa has a sale on sea flee line if you are interested.