Spiny fleas

[MrKato]

I fished out of Braddock Bay Thursday (7/7) morning from about 730-11am.  Fished 80-200 ft of water.  Marked lots of bait and lots of fish and had a couple of releases but nothing in the boat.  But the reason for this posting is that I never so the spiny fleas so bad.   When pulling in my lines they were covered with spiny fleas and sometimes had 3-4 feet of fleas piled up on the line.  Never seen it this bad.  I am sure that is why I never hooked up on any fish even though the graph indicated that there were plenty of fish there.  Wonder if anyone who fished that morning off of Braddock Bay experienced similar issues with the flea buildup on their lines.   The only line that never had buildup was the lead core line I was running.   I run fluorocarbon leaders on my lines and the fleas would seem to buildup/stop at the junction of the fluorocarbon and monofilament knot.  Does anyone have any suggestions on how to prevent/minimize the spiny flea buildup?  Will the northeast winds this coming weekend and 3-5 ft waves reduce the fleas?  Looking for any advice. Thanks. - Mr Kato

[TyeeTanic]

What lb and type lines are you running?

[MrKato]

Running 17 pound mono and then 10-12 pound fluorocarbon leaders

[Bobber_Down]

You gotta go bigger than 17 lb. 30lb is best if using mono. they will still grab your line just not as thick as you decribed

[Bustersit]

I had the same issue last night. It was as bad as I’ve ever seen it for sure.  I run 20lb and it’s usually not bad. 
 

[J.D.]

If you're all spooled up with 17lb. test, add 150ft. of 30 lb. mono to that, then the fluro. leader.  Discard the 30lb. when the fleas die off. .... easier and cheaper than re-spooling all your reels.  Most of us use Trilene Big Game 30lb. clear.

[BreakingBass]

I had the same yesterday out of I-Bay on my 25 and 30 lb mono.  Not feet of them but 3-4" clumps that had to be peeled off with my fingers.  Usually I can reel some up to the rod tip and tap/swish them off in the water.  Not yesterday.  

[whaler1]

When you reel in your line, and it’s on the surface, lower your rod tip to the water and rip up. 85% of them will come off. 

[ifishy]

When you reel in your line, and it’s on the surface, lower your rod tip to the water and rip up. 85% of them will come off. 

X2


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[Fat Trout]

It has been a long time since fleas came on the scene.   17 and 20# mainlines don't work (mid june till early august) at least for downriggers.  Perhaps 20# bloodrun does better, I'm not sure.  i have been running 30 # flea flicker (cortland) for years.  On my brown rods(downrigger) I have a segment of that and 10# (whatever) after the part that hits the rigger clip.  I have had no real problems for years.  I'm sure 30# anything would do the same.  I run braid divers and also have no real problems.  Yes I get some fleas on all but you can either reel through it or slap your rod tip to diminish.  I'm just adding my comment to say it has been years (decades) since 17# and even 20# regular mono became a problem on downriggers.  It is what it is. Late June through early august are always this issue.  When its at its worst you have to check lines a little more often.  30 min at worst for me and thats really more of a "hey let my try something else" anyway.  No offense to those asking....its just kind of a reality. I don't even think of it anymore since I adapted accordingly.  

Edited July 9, 2022 by Fat Trout

[Bad Habit]

Fat Trout, where are you getting Cortland Flea Flicker. We used to use that years ago and it worked great but haven't been able to find it in MANY years. I would love to get my hands on it again.  I found an old thread in the LOU that said they stopped manufacturing it in 2014

 

 

Edited July 9, 2022 by Bad Habit

[Fat Trout]

18 minutes ago, Bad Habit said:

Fat Trout, where are you getting Cortland Flea Flicker. We used to use that years ago and it worked great but haven't been able to find it in MANY years. I would love to get my hands on it again.  I found an old thread in the LOU that said they stopped manufacturing it in 2014

 

 

I probably should have mentioned that.  I got lucky in 2015 or 16 and found a 3600 yd spool on closeout and bought it immediately having used it for years and finding out it was discontinued.   I have been living off of it since.....being heavy I don't change it off until removing worn sections with nicks take a reel spool low.  It will be a sad day when its gone (soon) and I'll probably move to 30# blood run at that point.  Flea flicker wasn't a great line for a # of reasons but serves its purpose and I understand the 30# blood run is pretty decent too.  

Edited July 9, 2022 by Fat Trout

[Ric66]

I fished out of Sandy and even had them caked on my dipsy wire rods. Never seen them so bad. I have flea flicker line that I bought years ago but I don't use it. I believe blood run makes a sea flea line??? Yeah, agree. Flea flicker line wasn't great- tended to get twisted.

[signalman]

Try putting 40lb on the flea.s don,t stick to that and of course a flour leader.

[chinook35]

There are two different species of flea. The spiny water flea and the fishhook flea. The fish hooks are the hardest to get off your line. They are tenacious. They also smell worse than the spinys  

 

Spiny and fishhook waterfleas prefer large, deep, clear lakes, but can also be found in shallower waters. Spiny waterfleas move to deeper, cooler waters during the day and swim towards the water surface at night to feed, while fishhook waterfleas stay near the surface. 
 

this is a problem for us fisher people,  we fish deep for the salmonids , so we are in spiny flea territory , but our lines cut through the top layers and into fishhook territory. Hate the critters 

Edited July 9, 2022 by chinook35

[MrKato]

Thanks to everyone for your replies.  Will give the 30 pound mono a try and hope that improves things or at least reduces the buildup

[invasahata]

On 7/8/2022 at 9:30 AM, MrKato said:

I fished out of Braddock Bay Thursday (7/7) morning from about 730-11am.  Fished 80-200 ft of water.  Marked lots of bait and lots of fish and had a couple of releases but nothing in the boat.  But the reason for this posting is that I never so the spiny fleas so bad.   When pulling in my lines they were covered with spiny fleas and sometimes had 3-4 feet of fleas piled up on the line.  Never seen it this bad.  I am sure that is why I never hooked up on any fish even though the graph indicated that there were plenty of fish there.  Wonder if anyone who fished that morning off of Braddock Bay experienced similar issues with the flea buildup on their lines.   The only line that never had buildup was the lead core line I was running.   I run fluorocarbon leaders on my lines and the fleas would seem to buildup/stop at the junction of the fluorocarbon and monofilament knot.  Does anyone have any suggestions on how to prevent/minimize the spiny flea buildup?  Will the northeast winds this coming weekend and 3-5 ft waves reduce the fleas?  Looking for any advice. Thanks. - Mr Kato

I fish Braddocks regularly and agree they are a bigger issue. I am not getting any buildup from my flasher and dipsy to my lure though. Like one poster said cleaning up during regular lure checks is the added inconvenience. I have not considered that they may contribute to a lower catch rate though. It is very satisfying to strip them off the wire though. I broke my own record and collected at least four feet of them above one dipsy. Be sure to flick them off the boat otherwise they attract those darn biting flies. 

[Fat Trout]

1 hour ago, MrKato said:

Thanks to everyone for your replies.  Will give the 30 pound mono a try and hope that improves things or at least reduces the buildup

I mentioned it in another post but if you have it, try spraying reel magic on the line too.   The stuff works great for extending casts with light line for spinning applications.  It adds a slickness to the line which I think would help.  The slickness is why the blood run flea line works (aside from diameter of 30# too)

 

https://www.basspro.com/shop/en/blakemore-real-magic-lubricant?ds_e=MICROSOFT&ds_c=BPS|Shopping|Standard|Fishing|General|NAud|TopPerf|NMT&msclkid=06f4b2e66f2b1aa8a031d02fd98e2bb8&gclid=06f4b2e66f2b1aa8a031d02fd98e2bb8&gclsrc=3p.ds

 

[Mako]

I put a split shot a rod length from the lure. All the fleas stack up on the split shot and the lure stays clean. 

Still have a mess to clean when checking things but all clean when fish comes to net. Been all spoons from me, good luck.

[Aiden G]

We went out last year on July 5th and fished 150-200 fow in Olcott and picked up non stop fleas. We went out July 4th this year from 300-500 fow and picked up absolutely no fleas. Also had a killer day!!

[Steve.e]

If you have a few people on the boat, as you wind in your line, have someone with a smooth metal rod of some type rub the top of the line as the fleas come to the rod and they fall right off pretty much with just a couple few swipes. Works good for me on all types of line.

[HB2]

You can get the cheapest 30 or 40 they make . It's bigger diameter and is better flea wise IMO . Did it for years . Never had an issue with it . 

[TyeeTanic]

On 7/8/2022 at 2:55 PM, Bobber_Down said:

You gotta go bigger than 17 lb. 30lb is best if using mono. they will still grab your line just not as thick as you decribed

Agreed, 30 pound mono is what we used. Braid is useless, although I heard guys saying the 100 lb braid works ... line diameter is thick enough to make it hard for fleas to hold on ... haven't tried that myself though.

[Hillside]

I was fishing out of Sodus Sunday and we picked up clumps of fleas on one of our mag spoon's treble hook (all three hook bends).  They are VMC hooks, size 1/0 (wonder what the diameter is of the hooks).  The fleas are bad this year.  It was only down 20 minutes.

[Great_Laker]

What we are currently seeing is likely Cercopagis pengoi (Fishhook water flee) and its spike in production is pretty much the whole month of July. It should start to decrease in the beginning of August. The larger of the water flees Bythotrephes longimanus (Spiny water flee) doesn't pop until the end of August and these don't usually gunk up lines and downriggers as much because they can be flicked off easier while reeling in. Either way, they are both a pain to fish around but they are a major source of prey for alewife. More zooplankton = fatter forage fish