King of the hill - Olcott?

[john1947]

Many end the fishing after the derby 

Move on to deer goose etc  plenty of good quality of delicious  salmon  left who wants to deer hunt 70deg weather

[buckhunter9]

It’s not the end of the season that I’m speaking of. It’s been the whole season. As well as the last seasons in general. There’s really no more for me to say.  More fish West than East. Proof is on the boards. Thanks for the discussion. 

[Gator]

I know that I've felt spoiled the past five years with how good the fishing has been. It's unfortunate that it seems like there's always something making it more difficult to get after them as much as I'd like - low water, high water, life in general - and this summer, I fished the least I have in twenty years. Maybe six trips? But they were all quality outings, with one in particular that I will remember for a long time. 

 

It's interesting to go back through the forum and to read some of the older threads to get a sense as to how the current situation evolved. Yankee isn't wrong about the West end being perceived as a dead zone after mid-August more years. But it's always been the place to be from May-July, and yes there is awesome offshore fishing for those willing to run later in the season. And Buckhunter has it right in that the East end doesn't seem to be seeing the fish it normally would in the late summer. One common theme is that the bait has been much more concentrated the past few years. Boom or bust. Maybe this is the new normal. But I doubt it. I think that the fluctuations we see occur on a scale of years, and that the pendulum will swing back. 

[chinook35]

Until you break down lol...

Can you say CG. Always available on16. Been towed in by them and no charge


Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United

[Reel Chaos]

I currently fish out of Fair Haven and this whole season was a struggle. To make it worse my campground was purchased by a corporation mid August, who then doubled my seasonal rate and let us now September 1. Money due September 30.  So I decided that the price is to high and just purchased a place in Lyndonville at Green Harbor Campground.  So West end will be my new battle grounds next season.

[buckhunter9]

That’s too bad. Hope it works out for you. There’s no doubt fish are more West. Also it’s ironic that charter captains were filling their coolers with Lakers rather than salmon for their clients. As well as charter captains cancelling clients due to poor fishing. 

[killntime]

On 9/9/2021 at 7:12 AM, Wth said:

I believe a lot has to do with who bought tickets. I know that stalker caught the top salmon at 32 but he also the week before cleaned a pair of 34's and a 35 but the clients were not in the derby. I believe there were winning fish caught out of every port but not entered in the derby. 

You can add us to that group. We took a family vacation in Olcott mid August and  we caught 3 kings that would of made the top 20.  Our biggest was 29.6. We are walleye fishermen from PA that just got lucky and had a good week. The fish did seem a little bigger this year.
 

what a battle that 29 pounder gave us! Had so much fun, coming for two weeks next year. 

Good times,

killnTime 

 

 

[Gill-T]

On a Brad’s artificial ta boot!  Nice fish. 

[Kotaztrafy]

On 9/8/2021 at 11:57 AM, GAMBLER said:

Its gotta be global warming.......

It's called Climate Change. Used to be called The Coming Ice Age then they changed it to Global Warming. Now it's Climate Change. Who can argue that the climate changes?  

[buckhunter9]

Ha ha. It’s called why mess up a good thing. Why did the DEC or whoever think it was a great idea to decrease the stockings? And whatever else they decided to do.  There is no way anybody can tell me it is good as it used to be. Where are the 40 pounders. It was nothing to catch 22-25 pounders consistently. 32 lbs for a derby winner is nice but no where close to the 36 or so that used to consistently win.  Just frustrated like many others including charter captains. 

[Kotaztrafy]

20 minutes ago, buckhunter9 said:

Ha ha. It’s called why mess up a good thing. Why did the DEC or whoever think it was a great idea to decrease the stockings? And whatever else they decided to do.  There is no way anybody can tell me it is good as it used to be. Where are the 40 pounders. It was nothing to catch 22-25 pounders consistently. 32 lbs for a derby winner is nice but no where close to the 36 or so that used to consistently win.  Just frustrated like many others including charter captains. 

They actually gave a reason. It's been a while but i think they said they had to reduce the Salmon to let the Alewives populate so the Salmon had something to eat when they do stock again. I could be wrong. whatever it was, was controversial. hehe

[john1947]

Maybe what we need is a new invasive bait fish, one that floiroshs in clear water feeds on mussels. Lol

[Kotaztrafy]

Oh, They reduced the stocking again in 2020. I didn't know that.
https://www.dec.ny.gov/docs/fish_marine_pdf/2020lostockinganglerinfo.pdf

[Gill-T]

The stocking cuts last year after a second mild winter in a row was short sighted. 

[NyFallGuy]

 

On 9/8/2021 at 12:49 PM, Low Baller said:

I don't spend enough time to give scientific data, but I can say that the average length to weight of stagers in Mexico have decreased in the last 12 yrs. Based again on a handful of personal catches and comparisons to others . The one male king we boated last weekend was 39" - 26.9 lbs with a 24 1/2" girth. Fattest king I've ever caught in that size bracket. 

Less fish more bait? I have no idea. He had all of his fins, natural spawn? Curious. 

 

Still new to identifying these beasts.  The last king I caught, I seemed to think it looked to have more fins but didn't give it 

much more thought, as it was the largest I had ever caught.  Niagara bar.