Olcott 5/31-6/1, Niagara Pro Am

[rdebadts]

I will just start my saying.... wow.

 

We fished the niagara pro am.  Despite a disappointing placement, we had unbelievable fishing.  Good god are there a lot of kings around.

 

Friday-

 

We had scouted east of Olcott Thursay afternoon and the results were good, so our plan was to work the plant 150-250.  We set down in 140 off the tower and trolled ne towards the plant.  We got instant gratification, with fairly large kings on a deep meat program (100-120 rigger), even though our bites on Thursday were on a high spoons program.  

We switched 2 dipseys over to meat and put them deep, and picked away at 10-12 lb fish with a few dandy kings mixed in.  As the day progressed, the hits increased and so did the size, so we kept upgrading.  By the time we were done, we had 44 hits, all on kings- and landed 29.  Our best water was 160-200, but we got fish in as little as 130 and as much as 250.  And to top it all off, the weather was gorgeous.

Here are our "culls"

 

We weighed a 21.6, 18, 17, 16 and 15 lb king, good for 87 lbs and a score of 137 pts.  We had big fish for the day (and entire tourney, Including pros), as well as the biggest am box on either day.  Needless to say, we felt good- especially since there wasn’t a boat within a mile or us alllllllllll day.

 

Our program was pretty basic- a 10 color core with green/uv spoon, 300 copper with green/uv spoon, 100 rigger with meat, 150 and 200 chinook dipseys with meat, and riggers down 30-50 with uv spoons.  Every rig took many hits.  We didn’t go more than 20 minutes all day without a hit.  I’ve never seen anything like it.  We had 2 triples and 7 doubles.  Truly, a day you dream about having.

our "big 5"

 

Saturday- 

We ran right to our waypoints in front of the plant from Friday, and felt VERY good about our situation.  We accidentally set down in 230, a bit deeper than expected (though this turned out to be fortunate).  With the exact same setup, we started with 2 triples and 2 doubles in the first 30 minutes of fishing, mostly on a deep (70-100 down) meat program, all on kings 8-13 lbs.  It was absolute pandemonium... we did miss a decent teenage king due to a shoddy net job (by me), which would come back to haunt us later I think.

 

 

We worked deeper all day, though our best water was 230-250 in front of the plant.  We still caught plenty of 10-12 lb kings, but all of our bigger fish were gone.  By 9 am, we had 5 fish 12-14 lbs, but none of the fish in the upper teens like Friday.  We worked out to 350 (twice), as well as east and west of the plant by about 2 miles.  All of the water was productive, but none yielded our needed upgrades.  We continued to work meat 70-100 down and spoons 30-50 down, though higher stuff did better as the day progressed.   Cutbait did well early, and Stinger green uv spoons did well after 9 am.  We again had a GREAT day- 20 for 35- but couldn’t find our size.  Sadly, I didn’t really enjoy it because I kind of knew we needed an upgrade or two to retain our lead.  I was a nervous wreck all day.

 

As it turns out, our 13 lb average wasn’t enough.  We had a score of 115 for the day, and 251 overall, which was only enough to bring us to 6th place?! We missed 5th, and the money, by less than 1/2 a lb.  It was a big disappointment... but we still cashed about 1g worth of cash and prizes for the big fish of the tourney, so that’s cool.

 

When all was said and done, we ended up ~50/80 (seriously) in 2 days of fishing.  That’s my 2 best days of fishing ever, on consecutive days.  It wasn’t enough to win the am division this time, but I can live with that....

 

As always, I had a blast fishing the west end in the spring.  I’ll be back next year... But for now, it’s back to sodus for the year.  Tight lines and good luck everyone!  Videos are coming- though it is going to take some time to sort through all of the footage.

[Fishnut]

Excellent report. Great job guys.


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[Kwall]

Great report 

[Hachimo]

Thanks for the report and some awesome fishing. Wow 50/80 is impressive dont bet much better then that.  I’m planning on comin up this weekend out of mexico and fishing off the plant 

[rdebadts]

Hachimo, be ready to move. The guys that beat us Saturday were off the bar to in front of Olcott. Our fish from Friday moved like 5 miles overnight it sounds like


The Fishin’ Physician Assistant

[Eyecatcher]

Wonderful to read reports like this.  I never fish that deep mainly because I’ve never tried.  How did you know to present your baits that deep?  Marks on the graph, temps, guessing?  These fish are addictive and I always try to learn from posts like these.  Thank you so much

[Decoy Hound]

Nice going guys!!! Now I’m waiting for another of your awesome videos of the weekend!!!

[Gill-T]

The pattern on this class of fish was noticeable last year also. Deep marks early then lifting as the day goes on. There is deep bait coming in and high bait on the surface. 

[wishinfishin]

Always great ,informative reports.
Good luck in sodus.

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[rdebadts]

Wonderful to read reports like this.  I never fish that deep mainly because I’ve never tried.  How did you know to present your baits that deep?  Marks on the graph, temps, guessing?  These fish are addictive and I always try to learn from posts like these.  Thank you so much

I kept seeing low marks, so I threw some cutbait down there. The water was cold... it was my probe rigger so I can tell you it was 40 degrees.


The Fishin’ Physician Assistant

[Eyecatcher]

Awesome.  Thank you guys so much.  

[Finders Keepers]

Well done and great report! Congrats on the big fish - best we could do was 18's. Looking forward to seeing you guys doing the doubles and triples - what a great few days of fishing!! We'll see you down at the east end - good luck the rest of the season!!

[KevinFarrell]

Triples on kings had to be hilarous.  Talk about mayhem.  We were wondering if having a fish on excites the other fish to hit.   Do the odds of another hit increase when you're fighting one already?

 

[rdebadts]

Kings hit in bunches, but I can’t say I know why. Perhaps they are competitive, or just get excited. Not sure. Triples are certainly NOT typical for kings... but we will often catch a bunch (3-5) in a short period of time, say an hour, then have a long period without a bite


The Fishin’ Physician Assistant

[Silver Fox]

That's the exact thing I've been seeing all spring also.

Kings hit in bunches, but I can’t say I know why. Perhaps they are competitive, or just get excited. Not sure. Triples are certainly NOT typical for kings... but we will often catch a bunch (3-5) in a short period of time, say an hour, then have a long period without a bite


The Fishin’ Physician Assistant

Silverfoxcharters.net

[Bozeman Bob]

Nice report . To the best of my knowledge the Pro's are not allowed to cull there fish ,so whatever they catch that is legal in size goes in the box . Many of the Pro's were in by 9-10 am because of limiting out so quickly.That may be a reason why you landed the biggest fish vs the Pro's not having the option of culling there catch. Please don't take this the wrong way ,you did a fantastic job out there ,just wanted people to know there are different rules for each division. Maybe next year fish the Pro division and see how you fair against them straight up. Again nice report and congrats on the big fish !

Edited June 4, 2019 by Bozeman Bob

[rdebadts]

Nice report . To the best of my knowledge the Pro's are not allowed to cull there fish ,so whatever they catch that is legal in size goes in the box . Many of the Pro's were in by 9-10 am because of limiting out so quickly.That may be a reason why you landed the biggest fish vs the Pro's not having the option of culling there catch. Please don't take this the wrong way ,you did a fantastic job out there ,just wanted people to know there are different rules for each division. Maybe next year fish the Pro division and see how you fair against them straight up. Again nice report and congrats on the big fish !

Lol, it’s a separate award for pros and ams, I was just saying it was biggest fish overall. I actually had several pro boats say at the awards that ams should qualify for biggest fish overall with pros. Your point is well taken, but it is a separate award...


The Fishin’ Physician Assistant

[Bozeman Bob]

Glad you didn't take it the wrong way ! I heard through the grapevine that one Pro team got DQ'd and another got by on the skin of there teeth as there were questions about there storage of fish as well. 

[rdebadts]

Yeah, tony actually dq’d himself. One of his guys tossed back a legal fish and he reported it himself. That poor guy had an awful weekend. Honest, good guy though


The Fishin’ Physician Assistant

[NymphO]

Yeah, tony actually dq’d himself. One of his guys tossed back a legal fish and he reported it himself. That poor guy had an awful weekend. Honest, good guy though


The Fishin’ Physician Assistant

That's honesty right there. Good to know it still exists even in competition !

[wilderness953]

great stuff

 

[s072784]

Great report, thx!

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