tbromund

Thanks guys, the spring was kind of rough, but this summer has been great. Tim

yeah, we thought it was going to go 25 or so by looking at it also, but it was 23 on the boat scale and that scale has always been within a couple ounces of certified derby scales. Dad's not a big guy. Here is one of him holding a 30 lb for comparison Tim

Dad and I headed out Saturday morning and found a big pack of boats working the inside water so we motored out to 80 fow and set up. We worked the inside for a while and despite a reasonable temp profile (55 deg down 60) and a great picture on the graph with lots of bait and hooks, we couldn't get anything going other than a 3 lb brown out in 150 fow. Radio chatter seemed to suggest that most of the boats were experiencing the same, great screen but not a lot of action so after a couple hours, we pulled lines and ran offshore. Set up at the 28 line and trolled north. We worked the 28-31 lines and had a mix of mostly decent steelhead and a couple shaker kings, with one nice mature king of 23 lbs. By 11:30 the wind, which had shifted to the E-SE had started to build the offshore seas to 2+ out of the east and that started to make the N-S troll a little uncomfortable, so we pulled lines and called it a morning. I wasn't really keeping track but we probably caught 15-16 fish (mostly all released, kept the mature king and a couple bleeder steelies) and lost quite a few more. (Action included 1 triple header, lots of fun with 2 of us on board) Temps were higher offshore, we had 48 deg down 45. The mature king took a white/green dot SD and hammer fly on the wire diver back 140, took a couple shots on a lemon drop DW plug (J-plug style ) on the 160 diver, the rest were on the riggers at 35 and 45 on a variety of green spoons. Dad with the 23 lber Tim

Congrats to Captain Paul Czarnecki on Free Spirit (Tri-State Fishing Charters) for putting his client on the fish of a lifetime out of Oak Orchard Yesterday. 42.8 lbs on his digital boat scale, 41.12 later on a certified scale. Tim

Thanks Rick, Looks like you're tearing em up pretty good yourself this year. Congrats on your 10 place in the Tightlines. Some pretty stiff competition in that one.

Dad and I had my buddy John and his 13 YO daughter Anna out on her first fishing trip for something other than bluegills. She repeatedly upped the biggest fish of her life this morning and we almost completed the Lake Ontario Cycle today, got everything but a coho. We got a Laker, a Steelhead, an Atlantic (our first ever on the boat) kings and browns. We started inside in 50-90 fow in front of the microwave but despite the down temp looking real nice with 47 deg down 50, it quickly became obvious that the weather this past week had moved the fish out from where we had found them last weekend. We only caught and released a small lake trout on the 200 copper on a white/ double pearl glow Becholds and A-Tom-Mik Mirage fly, 3 or 4 skipper kings and a small steelhead, all on the riggers on spoons, NK black/purple and 42 second stingray, so we pointed the boat North. Trolled out to 175 or so, picked up another couple shakers on the riggers and divers so we decided a move was needed. We debated to run offshore or tuck way inside and chase browns. The marine forecast was totally wrong yet again and it started off out of the NW with 1-2,s shifted to the south and calmed down then back to the NW and waves picked up again so we opted to tuck inside. As we got into about 55-60 fow the 10 color core took off and we saw the fish jumping way behind the boat. turned out to be our first ever Atlantic on the boat, a nice female that weighed 14.3 lbs. As I set out a brown program of spoons, when we hit 40 fow and started and east troll, all hell broke loose and we were into browns continuously for the next hour and a half. Riggers at 25 and 35, and wire divers at 70 and 80 on a 2. Purple and silver R&R superlights on both main and slider on the 25 foot rigger and 42 second stingray with NK 42 second on a slider above on the 35 rigger gold spook on one diver and R&R green shad on the other. The south wind very quickly moved warm water inside and we were looking at 76 degrees at 35 down, but the browns didn't care. No idea how many we caught but we were fishing fish more or less continually, with browns up to 13.5 lbs. As we were making a turn to troll west, when we hit 50 fow in mid turn the 35' rigger fired with a screamer and Anna got the biggest fish of her life with a nice 20 lb king. Not sure what he was doing 35 down in 50 fow in 76 deg temps, we must have some fish just beginning to stage so I'm guessing temps will soon be meaningless out ther for the matures. We were mostly trolling with the waves so we were almost to the power plant. Lake quickly built to 2-3+ once it shifted back to the NW so we called it a day at 11:00 and made the fun run in against the waves back to port. Anna's first Brown Trout the 13.5 lber Anna's first King Oh yeah, and where have we seen this before?? started out slow but turned into a pretty nice day for us. Tim

I had an old Fish Hawk 840 and the numbers jumped around so much I had no confidence in the data I was receiving, plus I was replacing the 9v prove battery every trip, so I yanked it off and replaced it with a Depth Raider. Far Far superior unit IMO. Easy to read display from the back of the boat and stable numbers, plus I use 1 probe battery a season. I really haven't found the coated cable to be much of an issue. I replaced the coated cable on my probe rigger with a 300' spool this spring. The old coated cable I took off, was the original cable that came with my DR 6 years ago. I've had the probe down as deep as 160' and never lost signal. I also don't have much problem with the coating getting chewed up. I think that issue may depend on the riggers you have, some of the front pulleys at the end of the boom are harder on the cable than others. My Scotty riggers don't damage the cable at all. From what I hear, FH fixed all the issues I hated about the 840 with the new X4, but quite honestly, my previous experience left such a bad taste in my mouth that I'll never own another FH product again. For years they were just about the only game in town and they would have been perfectly happy putting out the same POS forever if they wouldn't have lost so much market share to competitors superior products (both the Subtroll and Depth Raider) that they HAD to upgrade their unit. Besides, I really don't want to drill any more new holes below the waterline to mount another transducer to receive the Fish Hawk signal. i just got all the old holes filled in and sealed a couple years ago when I had the bottom epoxy barrier coated and bottom painted. I'd rather deal with some really negligible coated cable issues. Don't let the coated cable scare you away from the other units, it is not nearly the horror story some make it out to be. Tim

Try these 15.5 lb torpedos from Atommik. I have had them down over 200' without issue. They track great and really minimize blowback. http://www.atommiktrollingflies.com/ttw.htm Tim

Thanks guys, We had some unsettled weather just before they arrived and then after not hooking a single king on the first day, I was starting to get worried. Trout are fun enough, but they came up to catch kings. Luckily, everything was back to normal on Friday. Tim

Had my Uncle, Cousin and their friend Marvin come in to town from Ohio to do some salmon fishing with us, so I took a few day off work and we fished Thursday, Friday and Saturday Morning. 7-21-11: Strong W/SW winds on Thursday morning with 2s building to 2-4s and then laying down in the afternoon. started inside in front of the red barn in 60 fow and trolled WNW, lots of steelhead in there but we couldn't find any kings that wanted to play. Temps were still high in the inside water and we had 42-44 deg down 40 feet in the morning. Watched the temp profile change and temp get pushed down as the day progressed with that strong SW wind. Later in the morning with still no kings other than a couple skips we decided to head way inside and try for some browns, found the motherlode in 35 fow in front of the microwave and took a dozen brown in about an hour and a half including our boat's best brown ever of around 17 lbs, another in the 12-13 lb class and the rest mostly typical 6-8 lb cookie cutter footballs. All released except one bleeder that we had to box. Ended the with 20+ trout (between the steelies and the browns) boated, but no kings. Here's a pick of the big brown, sorry about the so so quality, taken on an older cell phone: 7-22-11: Friday was nice and flat and the Kings were active again. Temps were much deeper, but we fished the marks on the graph and the kings were feeding high and a little out of temp. high 50's to mid 60's) It was totally a spoon bite on riggers on Friday with the riggers parked at 40 and 50 feet. Old School NK Black and Purple continues to be a fish taker for us this season, particularly 1st thing in the morning, but once the sun came up, our better fish came on a 42 second stingray and had a big screamer on a NK 42 second that came unbuttoned 150 yds or so into it's initial run. Ended up with a 22 and a 24 in the box along with a bleeder steelhead and another bleeder brown. Fished til 12:30 and ended up the day again with over 20 bites. 7/23/11: Saturday was going to be a short day for us anyways. The marine forecast when last checked on friday evening called for light SW winds and waves 1 ft or less, but they were already 20 mph out of the NW with 2 footers and building. so I ran out to 50 fow in front of the microwave and we did an east troll with the waves. Fished 50-90 fow and again found active feeding fish up high. We fished one east pass till we reached the power plant, and in 2.5 hrs boated a dozen+ fish including 1 19 lb king and a couple 15-16 lb teenagers along with a number of skips and 2 browns. Unlike friday, all rigs were active and all six rods, both riggers (40 and 50 down),both wire divers (120 and 140 on a 2 setting), the 200 copper and 5 color core all took fish. NK Black and Purple again on the 50' diver took several shots as did the 42 second stingray on the 40' rigger, but the most action came on a white/green dot SD/Atommik Hammer Fly 120 back on the wire diver took the most shots. Albino Gator SD/White Ghost Siggs on the 200 copper took several shots as well. All in all, fishing continues to be stellar out of Olcott. Oh yeah, and ahhh, where have we seen THIS before Tim

We fished the LOTSA Curt Meddaugh Memorial Prefish Tournament and LOTSA Club Salmon Tournament on Friday and Saturday and Fishing fcontinues to be out of this world out of Olcott. East and NE winds didn't quite cause an upwelling, but it brought the down temp inshore up high. we had low 70's on the surface and 40-44 deg down 45-50 feet both days, with temp getting a little deeper as you headed offshore. Best fishing was in 100-200 fow, mostly in the top 50 feet. Spoons and flasher flies were both going off regularly so there really didn't seem to be a preference for one over the other. We landed 20+ on Friday and over 30 on Saturday. I couldn't even begin to tall you now many bites we had. Doubled up repeatedly both days and had 1 triple on Sat. The highlight of the weekend was a 29 lb king that hit an NBK stingray first thing Saturday morning as we were letting the starboard wire diver creep out (1st rod out) and the fish hit as it was creeping out with maybe 70' of wire out and took the line counter over 550 on it's initial run. That fish is currently sitting in 9th place on the LOC leaderboard and also took 2nd place in the LOTSA Tourny. Lots of steelhead in tight in that pocket of cold water. Colors: lots of green and chrome and mirage type flasher/fly combos, green and purple spoons, dalmatian spinny/hammer fly on a 200 copper went repeatedly both days. Riggers were at 45 and 35 and took a ton of shots. fleas were pretty bad in there both days. At the LOC Weigh Station nice king from Friday Oh yeah, and ah, where have we seen THIS before Fun time to be on the lake. Tim

hit the lake about 6:00 to find it a bit rougher than I was expecting. Dad and I motored out to about 80 fow and started setting lines on a NW troll. Old School NK28 Black and Purple took a decent king on the 65' rigger before all the rods were set and then didn't move another rod for an hour and a half, come to find we were dragging a tiny skippie on the probe rigger that didn't even bounce the rod even with the long tethered scotty release. it looked like lots of boats were hooking up in that inside water (<150) but we weren't doing much, so I decided to troll north. We found a nice bunch of fish between 250 and 300 fow and ended up 12-17 with one more decent king in the box and releasing a bunch of 7-10 lb teenagers and one nice steelie. riggers were hot at 75 and 85 feet, 85' rigger with a glow wonderbread protroll and atommik hammer fly and the 75 foot probe rigger with an Atommik Shocker SD and a matching Big Weenie fly. Sorry, don't know what BW it was, I got it at the LOTSA Expo last year and didn't have a name on the baggie, it was green/chart with some rubber/latex in the skirt and matches the Shocker SD perfectly. Chrome/Green SD with a mirage fly on the 180' diver took several shots late. Decent Day in fairly rough, close wavelength seas. 1st fish of the day on the NK B/P And Where have we seen THIS before Tim

I reported them, but there wasn't really a good option to choose from in the menus, so I chose the "credible threat of violence" option under the violence or harmful behavior category. If facebook can take down the wonderful "Girls and their Fish" group, they can certainly take down this pack of loonies. Tim

Steeliebob, not in that whackball facebook group, I seriously doubt there are any hunters in there. Tim

good, hope that foolishness gets shelved indefinitely. Tim

By the way, the Oh Baby team just got the same treatment yesterday heading over to the Whitby King Of The Lake Tournament. Cost them $1000 or have their boat confiscated. If this doesn't get resolved quickly I would expect to see a lot less US boat participation in Canadian Tournaments. IMO, the Canadian Customs Agency appears to be shaking US boats down like a two bit gangster hitting businesses for "Protection Money". Tim

Reading some of the comments on that page, I wonder what planet those people are from. It doesn't appear to be from Earth. No one could possibly be that disconnected from the natural order of things.... Could they?

those people are completely whacked!!!

Yes they are slow to retrieve, but the drags on them are superb. Super smooth and a great option for setting up a light line rod. With the slow retrieve it is darn near impossible to horse a fish in. When I started in this trolling game back in the mid 90's all I ever ran for my riggers were Penn 209's with 12 lb line and landed many a 30 lb king with them. FWIW for about the same money, you can get a Shimano Triton TR200G which is what I am currently using on my riggers. Awesome reels for about $69. They are the same reel as the charter special just with a star drag instead of the lever drag. Tim

I agree with the majority here, I have never liked bridge boats as a trolling platform. One major consideration if you do get one is if it is a single or dual station. You really do not want your ONLY option for driving the boat to be up on the bridge, you'll want a dual station boat with a set of controls down in the salon. Tim

1 200' copper - 45 lb 1 300' copper - 45 lb 1 400' copper - 45 lb 1 10 color core 1 5 color core 1 3 color core 1 2 color core 2 wire diver 2 power pro diver 2 mono diver 6 rigger 1 wire thumper rod Bear in mind that I'm fishing in Lake Ontario in NY where we can only run 2 rods per person. Tim

Interesting, I've see the exact opposite between my wive vs braid divers, wire bites almost always end up in the boat and lots and lots of hit and runs with no hookup on the PP divers. I also get a LOT more bites on the wire divers. To each his own I guess. I sort of agree about copper but it certainly is effective. I believe the appropriate saying is this: The best thing about copper is it catches fish, the worst thing about copper is it catches fish Tim

Scotty....Scotty....Scotty Tim

Here it is with sound right from Deryk's photobucket account. just not the same without the screaming drags http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y40/nflboy07/?action=view&current=bigdproductions.mp4 yes that's Lake Ontario Tim

And they want to dredge up the contaminated bottom sediment to install those stupid inefficient pinwheels, crikey!!! Tim