tbromund

I seldom run anything more than 15-20 back, regardless of depth of the presentation. Flashers are almost always 8-10' off the ball, spoons 10-15 most times, only occasionally when targeting browns will I go back to 20+ feet. King fishing, I'll have a high rigger down 45-50 feet with a spoon 10' back and they'll get whacked all day long. Targeting steelhead offshore in the top 40 fow, usually 5-10 off the ball. There's nothing like a big steelie smacking a spoon 5' off the ball and they come straight up so fast you have a big slab of chrome lightning jumping 4' out of the water, 20' behind the boat and it all happens so fast you don't even know what rod it's on. The only thing I run longer is big paddles and meat rigs. Those I'll put back 30-40'. Tim

I see that on occasion on my Raymarine Graph as well. Tim

Thursday July 11 I took my friend Bill and his son Bill Jr (who was in town from Arizona for the week) out for some salmon fishing. Found the lake a little lumpy with 2-3’s out of the NW. Set up in 60 fow in front of the barn and headed offshore on a NE troll. First bite came in 240 on a black and purple NK28 on the 50’ rigger, decent teenage king and Bill Jr’s first salmon ever. That was quickly followed by a nice 8 lb coho on the same spoon. Kind of a slow pick but we managed 9 or 10 bites for the day, including a fat little brown trout that must have gotten lost on the 50’ rigger out in 280 fow. The lake laid down as the day went on. Fleas were horrible and there was a ridiculous east to west current out there. Mostly a spoon bite, NBK stingray took several hits later in the day. Not the kind of action I was hoping to get them into but they were happy. Friday June 12 LOTSA Curt Meddaugh Memorial Prefish Tourney: ugly day out there, with a stiff E/NE wind and 3-4 footers with the occasional rogue 5-6. We actually found that a N-S troll was bearable, so Dad and I worked between 100 and 240 fow between Olcott and Wilson. Not a lot of bites, in fact we were trolling south back to port when a diver started screaming and a good fish ripped off 100+ yards and then spit the hook. Gotta love Michigan Stinger, not only does the paint and tape fall off their spoons if you look at them cross-eyed, but the stack hooks suck as well. That was on a blue dolphin stingray. Moments later the high rigger fired and we put a teenage king in the box, so we decided to make another N-S pass and see if we could pick up a couple more. We made 2 more passes and picked up 2 mature kings to get our 3 fish box for the tournament. Both came on the Mountain Dew SD/green crinkle howie fly on the probe rigger at 80 feet. With the E/NE winds we were watching the cold water move in on the probe as temps got colder at the ball as the day went on and I fully expected the lake to flip from the NE. Saturday June 13 LOTSA Club Tournament Lake laid down to dead flat calm overnight, so the Tournament was on. Today, dad and I had Mac and Gary Melnyk out fishing with us for the Club Tourny. Got rods set and the 50 foot rigger fired with a screamer that shook the spoon after a long run. The old black and purple NK28 again. The lake did not flip, but down temps were much higher in the water column today, we had 42 deg at 60 feet. The lake quickly built to 2-3 footers again. We ended up with 15 or 16 fish for the day, lots of 1 year old kings, a small atlantic, a couple steelhead and a couple nice mature kings. 60 down was the hot depth, the Mountain Dew SD/green krinkle howie was hot on the probe rigger at 60 feet taking a bunch of bites. Once the sun came up I pulled the white glow green dot/hammer off the starboard wire diver and replaced it with a nuclear green SD/Hammer, back 180. It was in the water about 5 minutes when it fires with a major screamer that after a lengthy battle, came to the net at 0930. It was bouncing between 29 and 31 lbs on the boat scale. That fish, six hours later at the Tournament weigh in was 28.95 lbs, good for 1st place in the Club Tournament. All in all, a good three days of fishing despite the rough water. Tim

Scotty

Another super day out there . Dad, Adam and I headed out at 0600 and set down in 50 fow just west of port and started setting lines. Started a little slow for us but quickly caught fire. Picked up a couple fish inside, but kept trolling out to 200+ where we hammered em last week. Nothing at all going on out there so we turned around and worked back into 60 feet and really started hitting the fish. mostly coho and small kings, but a couple teenagers in the mix. Some really nice coho out there this year. 2 color core with a 6" red alderton and blue/green peanut fly and 3 color core with chart/orange tape baby doctor also with blue/green fly were the hottest rigs and were firing pretty much constantly. 5 color core with an R&R Magenta Shad Spoon took several fish. 100' diver took both teenage kings on different Stinger Stingray sized spoons (white glow and 42 Second) Riggers at 40 and 50 took several shots including a really nice steelhead on a Finger Lakes Tackle King of Sting and a nice fat 10+ lb laker on a lemonade double UV SuperSlim on a slider on the 40' rigger. Only missing a brown and atlantic for the Lake O Slam yesterday. ended up with 6 fish in the box, the 2 teenage kings and 4 coho including 2 that beat themselves up so bad we couldn't release em. Lost track of how many we caught but we were closing in on 30 fish for the day. Not much for size, but the action more than made up for it. One of the teenage kings typical screen on the graph in that 60' area nice coho Fun day. Good luck next week to anyone fishing the Niagara Pro Am Tim

Dad and I hit the lake this morning to find overcast skies and almost dead flat conditions. There were a bunch of boats working inside so we set down in about 50 fow, just west of port and set lines as we hit a 300 deg NW troll. Played around in there for a while and had an ok picture, but didn't move a rod and didn't see anyone else hook up so we pointed it north. First fish hit in 210 fow, mountain dew spinny with green crinkle fly on the 80' rigger, which turned out to be small king (6-7 lbs). After that we started hitting fish regularly between 210 and 230 fow mostly on a west troll. That rigger took 2 more shots and as we were starting to make a turn to the north to make another pass through that area, the other rigger took a shot 160 down with a meat rig running an MC Rocket fake bait. a As we were fighting that fish (nice king) we ended up on a NNE troll and ended up tripling up while dad was fighting that fish. After that chaos calmed down I was starting to reset lines and the 160 rigger fired again along with the 270 diver and 5 color lead core for our 2nd triple within a half hour. All 6 fish were landed which is pretty good considering there was just the 2 of us. By that time we were out in 315 fow so we turned to had back in to that area and hooked up again. finally got back in that 210-230 fow zone and ended up the day doubling up twice more. Put our 6th fish in the box at 10:30 and called it a morning. Ended up 13/15 for the morning, lots of smaller kings but enough nice ones to make it interesting. All 6 rods took fish, 3 color core, 5 color core, 125 diver 270 diver and riggers at 80 and 160. mountain dew spinny/green crinkle down 80 took for shots early when it was overcast, nuclear green/hammer later when the sun came out, white lightning hot spot flasher with a green glow head and MC Rocket (BS24) down 160, green dot spinny/hammer on the 270 diver, white glow stinger stingray on the 125 diver, silver with green/yellow tape pirate 55 on 5 color core, chart/orange tape mini doctor/bluegreen coho fly on 3 color all took fish. Beautiful morning a few of the better fish Good morning on the water Tim

Well, it's easy to see who in this thread has a vested interest in wind power. Anyone wanna bet danthebuilder builds windmills for a living. You certainly hit all the cliche' pro wind talking points in your rant, but I still have never heard a good reason for destroying our lakes to put these eyesores IN them. Put em on land wherever you want, but keep the pinwheels the heck out of my Great Lakes. Does anyone really believe there isn't going to be a large buffer zone around the pinwheel field that will be off limits, both for security and to protect the boats from flying shrapnel when a gearbox blows up? Again, not so mush against wind, despite it's horrendous inefficiency , but pay the farmers rent and keep em on land, NOT in the lake, EVER. Tim

Gene, you should be able to get that directly from Moor. http://www.moorelectronics.com/partsinfo/partsinfo.html Tim

Did you try directly from Moor? http://www.moorelectronics.com/ Tim

and then come late morning it's 4 alarm fire drill time again.

HSUS is an anti hunting organization and an enemy of sportsmen everywhere.

I also responded to your post over on LOU. The key to fishing browns in the summer is you find where the top of the thermocline meets the bottom (50-55 deg). That is the outer limit of the water you want to fish, fishing inside of that. For instance, if 55 deg is at 60 feet down, then the area you want to fish is 60 feet of water and shallower, concentrate on areas with some sort of bottom structure, even subtle bits of structure, will hold concentrations of browns. I've had great days on brown trout in mid summer, mid day, fishing in 35-50 feet of water. It's almost entirely a spoon bite. I've caught incidental browns on flasher/flys, but leave them in the boat when I'm targeting browns. They are a bit spookier than kings, so a little longer leads on riggers (30-40'), 3-5 color lead cores on boards, divers on 3-3.5 setting, out 80-150 feet all work well. A bit slower troll as well, typically 1.8 - 2.2 at the ball. Generally within 15 feet of the bottom, but fish the marks. If there is bait and hooks in that nearshore zone, they are probably brownies. some big Lake Ontario mid summer, shallow water browns over the past couple years: 17lb mid afternoon, 40-45 fow 13.5 lb late morning 35 fow typical mid summer cookie cutter, same day as the 13.5 above 14.5 lb, 3rd of a triple header of browns in 38 fow, mid afternoon. Tim

For those of you planning on coming in from out of town for Pete Alex and Tom Allen's Salmon School on Saturday Feb 23 and/or the LOTSA Expo on Sunday Feb 24 (or both), We have attempted to secure some sort of Show Special Rate at the local Hotels. Amazingly enough, none of them were willing to make any kind of real deals with us. You would think they’d be falling all over themselves to fill rooms in Lockport NY in late February, but it is what it is. There are 3 hotels nearby: Comfort Inn, Holiday Inn and the Lockport Inn and Suites. All are available to book rooms through Travel Sites such as www.travelocity.com or www.orbitz.com. All three of the local hotels’ rates are fairly close on both of those sites ($75.00-$86.00) and all are approximately 5 minutes or so from the Venue. Quite honestly, It looks like you’ll get a better rate going through one of those sites than dealing with the hotels directly.

For those of you planning on coming in from out of town for Pete Alex and Tom Allen's Salmon School on Saturday Feb 23 and/or the LOTSA Expo on Sunday Feb 24 (or both), We have attempted to secure some sort of Show Special Rate at the local Hotels. Amazingly enough, none of them were willing to make any kind of real deals with us. You would think they’d be falling all over themselves to fill rooms in Lockport NY in late February, but it is what it is. There are 3 hotels nearby: Comfort Inn, Holiday Inn and the Lockport Inn and Suites. All are available to book rooms through Travel Sites such as www.travelocity.com or www.orbitz.com. All three of the local hotels’ rates are fairly close on both of those sites ($75.00-$86.00) and all are approximately 5 minutes or so from the Venue. Quite honestly, It looks like you’ll get a better rate going through one of those sites than dealing with the hotels directly.

We are please to announce that our 2013 Pete Alex/Tom Allen Salmon School has reached it's 100 seat capacity and is officially sold out. Thanks to all for the interest.

Hi Dave, sounds very similar in application to the "Pike Ball Rig" I had in a Basics and Beyond a couple years ago. That application was for copper down the chute, but we have also used if for many years for a tail gunner with a stickbait when trolling the shoreline for browns in the spring. I really like Church's setup. Tim

Unfortunately, We have just learned that Scotty Richardson (Hammer) has a conflict and will not be available to instruct at our Salmon School. Pete Alex and Tom Allen have been working at structuring the class over the past two months around the topics/questions submitted by the attendees. It's developing into another very detailed Lake Ontario based class (thanks Bob Cinelli and Vince Pierleoni for the detailed class the last two years) diving into the details that make both Pete and Tom so successful fishing Lake Ontario. The class is currently about 70% full so if you are planning on attending please don't wait too long to sign up as it will sell out soon as it does every year. We would also like your topics/questions soon to make sure they get incorporated into the class material. We apologize for the "Hammer" conflict and still plan on covering the area of running bait successfully in your spread that He was slated to cover in the class.

LOTSA is excited to announce the addition of Scotty Richardson, better known on Lake Ontario as "Hammer" to compliment Pete Alex and Tom Allen as the instructors for our Salmon School on February 23rd. Scotty brings a tremendous amount of experience from both the Canadian and the US sides of the Lake on King fishing. He is going to focus on how he successfully incorporates the use of bait into his spread for Kings throughout the year. also a correction to the post above the address is 4487 Lake Ave, not 4485. Thanks, Tim

Dave, Do they work on serrated blades as well or only on smooth edged knives? I've been looking for a good knife sharpening system. Thanks, Tim

On Sunday February 24, 2013 from 08:30am-3:00pm the Lake Ontario Trout and Salmon Association will be hosting our 7th annual Fishing Expo and Flea Market. The Expo will be at the Cornell Cooperative Extension, 4H Building in Lockport, NY. 4485 Lake Ave (Rte 78), Lockport, NY 14094, approx 2 miles north of Lockport. The Expo will feature an exhibit hall full of Charter Captains, Fishing Equipment and Tackle Manufacturers, Tackle Shops, etc., selling both new and used tackle at Show Special Prices. Tables are filling up quickly this year and we already have several New Exhibitors. In addition to the great deals going on in the main hall, over in the seminar room, we will again be conducting a Lake Ontario Trout/Salmon Fishing Basics/Beginners Clinic in the Morning, which will be tailored to those beginners looking to get started fishing LO. In the afternoon, we will once again be sponsoring a Kids Fishing Clinic, designed towards getting kids and their parents started fishing. Both classes are free of charge as part of your Expo Admission, however for the Kids Class, Pre-Registration is required. Admission will be a $5.00 donation at the door. As in years past, all admission money collected will be donated to help fund Pen Rearing. Please visit the LOTSA Website http://www.lotsa.org for more information.

As Part of our 2013 LOTSA Salmon Spectacular Weekend, on Saturday, February 23, 2013, the day before our Expo and Flea Market, The Lake Ontario Trout & Salmon Association is proud to sponsor two of the finest and most successful fisherman on Lake Ontario, Captain Pete Alex of Vision Quest Sportfishing and Tom Allen of A-Tom-Mik Manufacturing, for a full day Salmon Fishing Clinic. Captain Pete and Tom have consistently won or highly placed in many Tournaments, all over Lake Ontario, on both the New York and Ontario Sides of the Lake. As guys that are like most of us, Pete and Tom are NOT full time Lake Ontario Charter Captains and can offer a unique perspective on the challenges of getting to a strange port and successfully locating and getting on the fish as needed to successfully fish tournaments, based on only a day or two of Pre-Fishing, similar to the challenges all of us recreational weekend warriors face as we fish the numerous Derbies and Tournaments, or just travel to the hot fishing ports around the lake as the season progresses. Pete and Tom are sure to bring you an outstanding and informative presentation, specifically geared towards being successful on OUR lake, regardless of the port you fish out of. The Seminar will be at the Cornell Cooperative Extension, 4H Building in Lockport, NY. 4485 Lake Ave (Rte 78), Lockport, NY 14094, approx 2 miles north of Lockport. The cost of the School is $70.00 and will include lunch and a Goodie Bag full of effective Lake Ontario Tackle. Seating is limited to the first 100 registrants and is first come first serve, so this Seminar is bound to sell out quickly. For more information and Seminar Registrations got tour website www.lotsa.org

Esthetics aside, we haven't been very good to the lakes in the past, just imagine the environmental damage that will be caused to the lakes from stirring up all of that horribly contaminated sediment on the lake beds that is now encapsulated by many layers of clean sediment, just to get those monstrosities anchored into the bedrock of the lake floor. That is a basket of excrement best left undisturbed, IMO. Tim

On Thursday October 11th at 7pm the Lake Ontario Trout & Salmon Association (LOTSA) will be sponsoring a presentation on Lake Ontario water levels. David Klein Senior Field Representative for the Nature Conservancy of Central & Western New York, will present a 30 minute slide show outlining the important facts about the proposed regulations that could affect the water levels in Lake Ontario. These regulations have created much controversy and discussion among all of the constituents who are affected by water levels in Lake Ontario. South Shore property owners, recreational boaters, fisherman, marinas and towns all are affected along with the Major groups such as shipping and hydro power. Since these new regulations will affect us as fisherman and those that use the marina facilities along the south shore of Lake Ontario we encourage you to attend, listen and voice your comments. We look forward to a very active discussion." LOTSA is a group of mainly weekend recreational fishermen who are dedicated to the enhancement of the Lake Ontario Sport-Fishery including the pen rearing project at Olcott. Each meeting also features a sharing of information the current fishing conditions. So come join us and become more successful at fishing Lake Ontario! The meeting will be held at the Cornell Cooperative Extension, 4487 Lake Avenue (Route 78 two miles north of Lockport), Lockport, NY 14094. The Seminar is open to the public and free of charge. See WWW.LOTSA.ORG for any questions.

Had lots of boat problems and didn't get in the water til July and only made it out 5 times all summer, but Dad and I gave it one last shot out of Olcott this morning. Lots of boat traffic in tight and we played around in there for an hour or so without seeing much on the screen and not many nets moving, so we pointed it north and found a much better picture between 150 and 230 fow with decent temp profile, lots of bait pods and quite a few hooks, but not a lot of activity on the rods. Temp was 48 deg down 70. Ended up 1 for 1, coming on a white green dot SD and Big Weenie Spook fly on a wire diver back 210. Not a huge fish, maybe 15-16 lbs, but it was a mature hen king full of eggs (AKA egg wagon ) Hopefully have a better season next year. This was our best fish this year, 27 lb King (Chinook) Salmon caught on July 13 and another nice one that day, 21 lbs Tim

But hey, Flo looks good putting that boat on plane in the no wake zone at the marina in the Progressive commercial..... Not. Tim