Legacy

Lure Overload?

Chasing Trout and Salmon on Lake Ontario can be a daunting task and as fishermen, we have a tendency to complicate absolutely everything. Beyond the boat, the tackle, and all of the equipment; the lures that go in the water everyday seem to define us. No one would ever think that they could possibly have too many spoons, plugs, or flies in their arsenal. Could having an excessive amount of lures actually make you less successful?

Some of you may think these words may be spoken a little too easy from a captain who has, admittingly, too much tackle on his boat. Having too many options, may cause us to over think our spread and makes us constantly second guess our lure selections. This confusion that occurs above the water often results in mass confusion under the water. This is a common problem that exists and it can simply be called “lure overload”.

Simply put, lure selection should be made easy by basing it off of past success and rarely ever about emotion. It has never made sense to me to change a lure, which has put fish in the boat all morning, just because it hasn’t taken a fish in the past hour. When fish become negative the worse thing we can do is to take our most productive baits of the day out of the water and start replacing them with unproven soldiers. Confidence in bait selection and in your spread might be the single most important factor to consider, when the bite has slowed and the fish have become inactive.

I’m certainly not against changing unproductive lures or experimenting with new ones. However, during the lull of the day we should remain the most patient, believe in our spread, and stick with what we are confident in. Although we may have been taught otherwise or think otherwise, the best time to experiment with colors or patterns is not when we aren’t catching fish, but when we are. When we are not catching fish, is the ideal time to lock down and keep our most productive lures fishing.

I know we all have been guilty of changing lures too often as the bite slows down. We reset our rods and tirelessly rummage through the tackle box in search for that “magic” spoon; but the decision to do so tends to keep lines out of the water, ultimately resulting in less fish in the boat. The overabundance of choices makes us mix manufacturers, colors, sizes, and designs without taking a minute to think about how they run together as a whole. Big water trolling should always be looked at as a team sport and decisions should not be made about an individual lure, but instead with the entire “team” in mind. It is important to recognize the symbiotic relationship that exists under your boat, because every lure is only as good as the one its next to.

As we all know, the faster we learn patterns, the more successful and consistent fishermen we can become. So if we stored six, seven, or eight lures together because we had previous success collectively fishing them, it would certainly help us on our next trip out. As time goes on, we begin to realize the importance of speed, the location in our spread, and the appropriate depth in the water column, for every one of our lures.

Eventually, we will be able to identify these conditions and confidently fill the voids in our spreads using a stable of “go to” lures in which we have developed from our past victories on the water. Lure selection may be dictated by conditions, species, and time of year, but understanding why we make our decisions will make us all more successful. Knowing the fundamentals and using your past experiences will increase the possibilities of a successful day out on the Lake Ontario.

Chatter on the radio tends to create a lot of unnecessary confusion. Hearing about what’s working (and what’s not) for others, greatly influences our decisions and ultimately also our spreads. No one ever wants to miss the action but trying to duplicate someone else’s success on the water, can create more problems then its worth. Learning how to make subtle changes rather than “crow barring” things into your spread, will prove to be a better approach. The fish will tell you more then your best friend fishing 2.5 miles away; you just have to be willing to listen.

If you ask 10 charter captains what their 10 favorite lures are they would probably give you 10 completely different answers, but the thing they all have in common is presentation. The importance of presentation is often lost in a sea of spoons and flashers, as fishermen tend to place too much emphasis on lure selection. While color and patterns are often looked at first; speed, deployment, and location in the spread, are all things that should be considered, before making the correct lure selection. I would take the “wrong” spoon fished well, over the “right” spoon fished badly any day. Yet people blindly pick lures all the time and then spend the entire day figuring out how to fish them. Trout and salmon fishing on Lake Ontario can be a challenge in itself and making “smart” choices rather than relying on “luck”, will certainly make us more successful.

With all these things considered, it may be tough to take advice on “Lure Overload”, from a charter captain with a thousand spoons on his boat.

Captain Rob Westcott is a licensed charter captain and NYS guide operating out of western New York. www.legacysportfishing.com. He is an avid outdoorsman who enjoys everything from fly tying to duck hunting. He has a lifetime passion for the outdoors, especially fishing. You can contact him at 585-703-969 or e-mail him at [email protected]

Published in Lake Ontario Outdoors magazine

http://www.lakeontariooutdoors.com/stories/news-story/lure-overload/

pretty awesome stuff!

The past couple of weeks we have pounded the shallows in search of staging matures out front. We have targeted 7-15 fow with plugs (red headed silver bullets, green glow, and chart) and also big firetiger Thundersticks off the shallow riggers, 2-3 color cores, and flatlining off the big boards.

Left the dock Saturday and headed west. We shut down and setup around Bald Eagle and trolled west. Great picture in 60-80 fow all day but it took us a little bit to get them figured out. A few shots off spin doctors and flies but for the most part it was a spoon bite. Divers w/ green halo Spin Doctor/ flies 120 & 144. Blood Run 300' copper w/ white double crush Smartfish. 10 color cores and riggers loaded with a mix of spoons. Ended up 12 for 15 w/ some small kings, a few matures and an 11# Brown for our efforts.

Woke up to thunderstorms and high winds on Sunday morning which kept us dockside till about 7. We headed west again today but stopped at Devils nose and setup. We were hoping to find our screen from the day before but we all know how things change overnight. We had a tough time the first half of the morning finding a fishable screen, cold water ,or active fish. It wasnt until 1100 the winds died, the lake layed down and we had some cold water start to roll in. 105 fow was the best screen we found all morning and quickly started to pull mature Kings and steelhead from it. Flasher/fly bite was on today. Green dot SD, Green Halo SD, green/ crush on green Smartfish, and white dbl crush Smartfish all with a mix of flies deployed off Blood Run 300' coppers, 200 & 250 divers, 75' rigger. The only spoon to fire for us was a glow gator stingray off the 90 rigger which fired 4 times. After the worst early morning start of the season were ended up with 10 bites with the big fish of the day 20# and 21# Kings.

My thought on this is the same i feel about divers. My favorite colors are black, black, and black. My belief is that black creates a "stealthier" look to your setup and takes the ball (or diver) more so out of the equation then color or crome. For me, its sole purpose is deployment and not attraction. What i put on the end of that line is to catch fish. Simplifying will give you one less thing you have to worry about and more time making adjustments at the end of your line. Do i think colors have there day? of course they do. im sure everyday you can find a color that works better then black but the time spent searching for the right combo between downrigger ball and bait i feel is wasted fishing time. It seems to be easier to concentrate more on what your feeding them then some magic combo between the two. Start with black, it should always be your mainstay.

30# is fine until you get into bigger lengths of copper (300' +).

With the Sandy Creek Shootout planned for Saturday, I headed down to the boat late in the afternoon on friday to get the boat ready. I wasnt planning on fishing but I was inspired by the amount of activity in Sandy Creek on a friday afternoon. From dockside I saw alot of guys, that were fishing in the tourny, headed out or headed in from prefishing. So we left port and headed out to "spot" check some water. We motored to Devil's Nose and setup in 50fow and trolled north in search of a screen. We found some active fish, a mix of bait, good hooks in 90- 120, and a down temp break in 130 fow and so we knew what our starting spot would be saturday morning. Plan A. We headed north looking for a deeper screen and found it between 180- 240fow. Some fish and zero bait but either way we had a Plan B. We tested a few baits in the process of looking at water and couldnt keep the 300' Blood Run copper with a Spin Doctor and a martini fly in the water.

Saturday morning we left the dock at 445, headed to our water, setup, and trolled it west to Eagle Creek. The screen was almost void of big hooks and bait but we worked what we did have for half the morning. Not till the sun came up did the action improve. Fighting through the dinks on the riggers (loaded with NK mag Spoons), we did managed to put a couple of fish in the box including an 11#+ Steelhead (fish #1) and a couple of small Kings. 140' divers and 300' coppers with SD/fly. The lack of big fish forced us out to look at different and deeper water. 220 fow (fish #2) and 185 fow (fish #3) both put teen Kings in the cooler for us but the choice to pound waypoints proved again to be a mistake. A concistant big fish bite was no where to be found for us. Late morning I made the decision to move back in and drop in the shallow water again for another look. We could maximize our fishing time, hopefully find our screen from the night before, and take advantage of the late morning bite. We managed to find our best screen of the day in 85- 100 fow and pulled a 27# King (fish #4) from that water. Spin Doctor and flies were the ticket for us today. The BR 300' coppers were both pulling gator SD w/ Martini flies. The diver were pulling Captain Valium SDs with Legacy Flies. The riggers took 3 good hits (which I personally dumped) off the riggers off a NK mag green/ glow alewife along with a few Steelhead and alot of dinks. We had 35-40 total hits so the fishing for the most part was great.

The weigh in resulted in Team Legacy in third place (with 70# of fish and 110.5 points) following Team Yankee Troller in 2nd and Team Trout-n-About in 1st.

Team Legacy

Atommic Big Salmon winner 26.9# King

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Anticipating the western blow, we headed west out of port and set up in front of the park inside of 100 fow with hopes to ride the current back home later in the morning. The current was strong out of the west and was a struggle to get speed right all day. The riggers spent the day loaded with spoons and DW ss green halo down 50' was the first to fire and put a 21# king in the boat for us. Next the 300' Blood Run copper dragging a green dot Spinny w/ a Legacy fly starts screaming and puts another low 20s King in the boat. The deep rigger dragging a Stinger stingray along the bottom put a pile of Lake Trout in the boat and kept Hunter busy this morning (resulting in a 1.5 hour nap when we got home). As the morning went on the flasher/fly bite really turned on for us. 150' wire diver w/ a green halo Spinny, 300' copper w/ green halo spinny, 300' copper w/ green dot Spinny, and 160' wire diver w/ a green crush Smartfish all took fish for us this am. Lots of 50 degree water out there with some bait inside of 90 fow. We fished as far west as Devils Nose and ended east of the "can". West of port (where down temp was 5 degrees colder) and 75-85 fow was, by far, the best for us today. Fish were not hooking up real well today, and as a result we dropped 7 fish this morning including 4 good kings.

http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=100000236089564

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Legacy-Sportfishing/168718023744

Left the dock this morning and trolled due north, right out of the pier heads. The plan was to find slowly head offshore and hopefully find a deeper water bite. 2 riggers slowly became 4 riggers, a mix of stickbaits off the boards, and even a 8 color core down the chute. On the way out we boated 1 laker which took a stickbait off the board. After giving it a fair shot for 2+ hours, seeing very few fish, zero bait on the screen, and lots ice cold water we abandoned the deeper water and headed in tight. The inside waters have been very good to us and today wouldnt be any different. The mud plume just in front of the creek seemed to be loaded with fish and gave us some good action including multiple doubles. The second half of the morning produced a couple steelhead, 3 Atlantics, and a half a dozen Browns for us. A mix of sticks off the boards (with pink and chart the 2 best colors) and Blood Run Fluoro loaded with DW ss green halo and green dolphin 6' down on the riggers did all the work.

Is it worth while to use line that is labeled leader material for my leaders or would line that is on a bulk spool that I used for my backer work for leaders as well?

The leader material is just a bit stiffer. Buy the bulk flouro and it will treat you just the same.

With the great fishing the past couple of weeks we headed out Saturday and fished the shallows right out front of the creek. We have been spoiled by incredible fishing lately and this weekend proved to be a tougher bite then what we have had. Best water for us was a mile stretch east of the creek in 10 fow. 10# Blood Run Fluoro pulling a mix of sticks off the boards (black/silver, yellow/silver, chart/ green) and off the riggers a Stinger green dolphin and Dreamweaver SS NBK 6' down all took fish. We boated 1 small King, 1 Coho, and 5 Browns. After spending about 3 hours inside we headed out deeper to look at some different water offshore. We headed north out to 60 fow without finding a fishable screen or moving a rod and called it a day by 10am. As the shallow bite seems to be fading the water offshore seems to be setting up nicely.

On Sunday morning we were joined by my 8 year old son. The obvious goal of the day was to put some fish on for him to fight, so we followed the plan the has done so well for us this year. We pounded the inside water (10-25 fow) for over 2 hours before we were rewarded our 1st fish of the day. Once again a small section (1/2 mile) of water in front of the creek in 8-9 fow produced all of the fish for us. 10# Blood Run Fluoro pulling a Stinger green dolphin and Dreamweaver SS NBK 6' down off the riggers saw the majority of the action, with each taking 3 browns, and a small black/ silver stick off the boards also took 2 browns.

Succesful turkey opener! Not the bird I was looking for but it certainly tastes the same. Straight from the roost had a few hens pass through the decoys with at least 5 jakes. Very surprised to not see any big toms in the group. Back at it next weekend!

‎4 hour trip on saturday lead to a Lake Ontario super slam boating a King, Laker, Brown, Coho, Steelhead, Atlantic, and a bonus smallmouth. Crazy morning to say the least with 40+ bites and 30+ fish landed. 10 fow and never far too from home (Newmans Point to Cowsucker Creek). DW ss off the riggers and a mix sticks off the boards did all the damage. 2-2.2 gps and trolling direction didnt seem to matter.

Heres a good knot link http://www.animatedknots.com/indexfishing.php

Mother nature put us a little behind schedule this year but finally dropped the boat in the water for the season on friday. Sunday afternoon conditions seemed perfect for a shakedown cruise and of course get a few lines wet. Leaving the pier heads I noticed a big "chocolate milk" plume out of the mouth and as far as the eye can see to the east and alot of fishable green water every where. After a quick boat ride we snuck into 10 fow and setup. Our first fish of the season was on before the line even made it into the release. We spent about 3 hours working a half mile section west of the plume. Solid action off the boards and the stickbaits color or size didnt seem to matter. The riggers were firing with a DW ss nbk and a Stinger black fin. The bite was mostly Browns with 5 Lakers and 4 Cohos mixed in. We landed 23, lost a few in the prop wash, and also had a few knock offs. Couldnt asked for a better shakedown!

i would contact them directly and see what they can do for you. http://www.coppertrollingwire.com/contact-us/

Its nice to have some light line setup at you disposal. Coho, steelhead, and kings are not line shy so i run my heavier line setups on them and sometimes with flouro leaders. Chasing browns with downriggers or flatlining the top 15' of the water column the lighter rigs come out to play.

Its tough to compete with spin and glo set up. There are days though that mag spoons and flasher/ fly combos can do just as well.

Individuallly for the charger and adding a battery switch may not be a bad idea also.

Daiwa Heartland rods are a good pick and the price is good. If your looking for an upgrade Ugly sticks are a great option for both diver rods and copper rods.

25'+/- of 20# fluro or copolymer and I tend to replace the leader once it is under 10'. 25' gives me a little room to retie w/ 12-15' being optimal. There is no doubt shorter leaders take full advantage of the "swaying" action that leadcore has in the water and the "swaying" action is one of the biggest reasons leadcore puts fish in the boat.

Its amazing the stuff you start to collect over the years. I realized that theres a reason some stuff is in the garage and not in the boat, and its simply because i dont use it. The past couple of weeks i put a for sale sign on the stuff and had a "garage sale". Now i just have to figure out what to "reinvest" it in!

Its really a toss up between the fishfinder and the Subtroll and with that being said they are probably the 2 most important pieces of equipment. While there are days that I could live without one of them, and somedays 1 is more valuable then the other, but I cant imagine a day without both.

Im a flasher/fly guy all the way but we had some success pulling DW super slims behind spin doctors last year. 36" leaders of 30# test with good swivels on both ends. Gator spinny pulling a gator SS was probably our best combo but we saw a few other combos work.