Finders Keepers

Noticed this AM that Sodus finally called in the fish. I'm sitting in 20th place and I am sure it'll be off the board by the end of the day! I bet you'll need a 30+ to place this year with all the big fish being caught. C'mon people, let's see that 40 lb'er this year!!!

Hey Jim - Glad I could help you get on some decent fish! We didn't get out today, but it is good to have a day off. We'll be out every morning mon - wed (thu and fri are possible if I can find a babysitter). Will you be out this week? If so, we'll give you a shout!

Fishing Report Your Name / Boat Name: Tim Thomas / Finders Keepers ============== TRIP OVERVIEW ============== Date(s): 8-22 Time on Water: 6:00 - 10:30 Weather/Temp: mostly sunny 70's Wind Speed/Direction: south 15 diminishing to light Waves: 2' subsiding to a ripple Surface Temp: 75 Location: Port Bay LAT/LONG (GPS Cords): =============== FISHING RESULTS =============== Total Hits: 5 Total Boated: 4 Species Breakdown: 1 brown, 1 steelhead, 2 kings Hot Lure: Green echip / green fly Trolling Speed: 2.0 - 2.8 Down Speed: ?? Boat Depth: 85 - 250 Lure Depth: 70 ==================== SUMMARY & FURTHER DETAILS ==================== Got on the water at 6am and set up east of Port Bay over 70 fow. had the same picture as previous days with bait/fish hugging the bottom out to 100 fow, but today we had some suspended bait/fish 60 to 80 ft down. Seemed like the temp was around 70 ft down. Soon after setting the rods the port side wire fired and started screaming out line over 100 fow. As soon as I grabbed the rod the 72 ft rigger fired and we were doubled up. As I fought the king, my dad landed a small 3 lb brown and as he was getting the hook out, the 82 ft rigger fired. By the time he got to it the fish was gone. I finally landed the king, a nice 16 lb male. Got set back up and worked the area for an hour or so with no hits and a diminishing screen, so we started working deeper. We continued to wash lures for the next 2.5 hours trying all kinds of spoons and dodger/flies to no avail. we worked out to the 200 fow range and had noticed a particular boat working a specific area the entire time we were heading out and when we made it out to their area we saw them hook up twice in a row. We came up parallel to them and quickly noticed that we were haulin' (at 2.6 on GPS) compared to them and slowed our speed to match theirs (about 1.8 ) heading NE. We still had nothing fire and there wasn't much on the screen, but seeing them hook up meant there were fish in the area. I then remembered reading about the Sushi Flies the Fish Doctor has been using, so I dropped a chartruese echip with an aqua hammer sushi fly to 72 ft just to get something new in the water. It fired within 30 seconds on a good king! After a good 15 minute fight we boated a nice 26.15 lb male. Thinking sushi was the ticket, I switched over to running 3 sushi rigs and one plain, in hopes we could boat some more matures. However, over the next hour we only hooked up with an 8 lb steelhead before we had to pull lines at 10:30. We weighed in the king and should be in 17th place, but it appears Abe's isn't reporting the fish because I know there were 2 kings entered yesterday (25 and 27 lbs) and mine today that have not been posted on the LOC board. Anyone know what the deal is? Fish today came on Green echip/green glow fly, black with green glow ladder nk mup rig, raspberry nk mag, and chartruese echip/aqua hammer sushi, riggers set at 72 and 82, and wires at 340'. It was one of those beautiful days on the lake when you wish you could stay out all day. I'm hoping to get out tomorrow with Woody if the wind doesn't come up tonight...

This is what I see: Tonight Southwest winds 10 to 20 knots becoming south and diminishing to 10 knots or less. A chance of showers. Waves 2 to 4 feet subsiding to 1 to 3 feet. Saturday Southwest winds 10 knots or less becoming west. A chance of showers and thunderstorms in the afternoon. Waves 2 feet or less. Saturday Night West winds 10 knots or less becoming north 5 to 15 knots. A chance of showers. Waves 1 to 3 feet. Looks like a good day on the big pond! Let's hope the kings cooperate!

RR - Oh yeah, that's right! Jolly II - I don't have a probe (yet ) so I just go by what I see on the FF screen, but I will do my best at letting everyone know what's going on out there. I just hope this front going by doesn't mess everything up!!

Fishing Report Your Name / Boat Name: Tim Thomas / Finders Keepers ============== TRIP OVERVIEW ============== Date(s): 8-21 Time on Water: 6:15 - 11:00 Weather/Temp: low 70's cloudy Wind Speed/Direction: SW 10-20 Waves: 1 - 4' Surface Temp: 75 Location: Port Bay and East LAT/LONG (GPS Cords): =============== FISHING RESULTS =============== Total Hits: 9 Total Boated:4 Species Breakdown: 2 browns (6 and 8 lbs), 2 kings (3 and 21 lbs) Hot Lure: Green echip / green glow fly Trolling Speed: 2.4 - 3.0 Down Speed: ?? Boat Depth: 85 early worked out to 200 later Lure Depth: 85 - 120 ==================== SUMMARY & FURTHER DETAILS ==================== Temp seemed to have dropped over our way overnight with the bait and fish hugging the bottom out to 120 fow (yesterday they were suspended around 75 ft). Banged the two browns and missed a teenage king early and figured there must be warm water all the way down to 110 ft (where the second brown came from), so we began sliding out a bit deeper. Had several kings on in the 130 - 165 fow range but couldn't keep them buttoned. I kept pulling up mangled flies - they were somehow wadding up the treble and single hooks on my tournament ties into a tight little wad! It's amazing what they can do sometimes... As the morning prgressed the bait and fish slowly moved out deeper and we ended over 215 fow with a decent screen. We did manage a nice dark female that bounced the scale to 21 lbs - large enough to enter in the LOC but not worth it. We let her go to put on a few more pounds... Fish today came on green echips/green flies and mupped black/green glow tape NK spoons, riggers set at 85, 95, 110 and 120 ft took hits and the wires out 360 and 425 produced. We'll be out tomorrow AM to give it another go. I stopped by Abe's on the way home and there were a few mid 20's kings caught out of Sodus (two 27's and a 25) that came 70 down over 100 fow. I guess the temp may have been a little higher over their way...

Fishing Report Your Name / Boat Name: Tim Thomas / Finders Keepers ============== TRIP OVERVIEW ============== Date(s):8/18 & 8/20 Time on Water: 6:15 - 10:00 am Weather/Temp: Partly sunny / Cloudy Wind Speed/Direction:Southerly 10-20 Waves: 1-2' inside 130, 2-3' deeper Surface Temp: 74 - 76 Location: West of Port Bay to the Silos LAT/LONG (GPS Cords): =============== FISHING RESULTS =============== Total Hits: 8 / 4 Total Boated: 3 / 2 Species Breakdown: 3 kings, 2 steelhead Hot Lure: Green echip / green fly Trolling Speed: 2.4 - 3.0 Down Speed: Boat Depth: 80 - 140 fow Lure Depth: ==================== SUMMARY & FURTHER DETAILS ==================== Tuesday we started west of Port Bay and worked our way east ending in front of the silos. Just a slow pick and ended with a decent 14 lb king. Hits came on Green echip/green fly, black / green glow ladder NK, and raspberry NK Mag. No real good picture anywhere. Today we worked the same waters and started over 65 fow and worked out. Had a great picture most of the morning with bait and fish. The only thing they wanted today was a specific green echip with green crinkle flies on the wires (Woody, you know the one ). First fish was a real nice 8 lb steelhead. Second fish was a good king that ran the wire out to 825 ft, got 'em into 150' when it made another good run and came unbuttoned. Then we had a small shaker on the 72' rigger. At 9:45 the same wire fired again with another good king, and just after getting on the rod we heard thunder to the west as the sky turned black. My dad pulled the lines as I worked the king and we landed a dark 23lb king just before the storm hit. Ended 2 for 4 today. We'll be out every day through Wed next week. Good luck to everyone in the Fall LOC!!

Finders Keepers will be shark hunting for the challenge! Good luck to everyone tomorrow and we'll see you at the weigh-in!

Good point - for turns that would probably be better. Ideally I would like to run all the same wire, however my two SS rigs are perfectly good and I hate to toss good tackle. Maybe I will try to respool the SS wire to have on back-up and go with all camo wires. Hmmmm.....

I have heard of others running a 4-wire program and I am looking to give it a try. I will be running two wires with stainless and two with the camo wire. For those of you with experience with running 4 wires, would you run the camo on the outside on a 3 or 3.5 setting and the SS wire down the back on a .5 setting or vice-versa? My thinking is that since the camo wire cuts through the water better due to a smaller diameter, it would be better on the outside. Any thoughts/suggestions? Thanks in advance!

Port Bay has been real good lately 100 to 200 fow and slightly west of the bay. Hughes has been even better (check out Woody's reports).

Here are some pics from our Tuesday PM Kingfest: Woody with the first king (25 lbs): Double on 20 and 24 lb Kings: Stacking kings in the back of the boat: Back at home before the knifes came out: Awesome trip out on the big pond, thanks again Woody for taking me along!!

Finders Keepers : Fishing Report ============== TRIP OVERVIEW ============== Date(s): 7-28-09 Time on Water: (6:00 AM – 9:30 AM) Temp/Weather: (71°F and sunny) Wind Speed/Direction: (S at 15+ MPH becoming light south) Waves: (1-3 Footers, 1' chop) Surface Temp: (67°F) Location: (Port Bay and slightly west) =============== FISHING RESULTS =============== Total Hits: 4 Total Boated: 4 Species Breakdown: 4 Kings Hot Lure: green echip/green fly, rasp nk mag, black/green glow tape mup Trolling Speed: (2.7 mph) Boat Depth: (100 - 180 ft) Lure Depth: (50 - 75 ft) ==================== SUMMARY & FURTHER DETAILS ==================== Just a quick rundown of today's outting. Got on the water at 6am and started setting up over 100 fow just south of the honey hole. As I started setting the second rigger the first fired and I landed a 10 lb king. finished setting the second rigger and went to reset the first when the second rigger fired and I landed a small skip king. Trolled around in search mode for about 2 hours then had the 300' wire get slammed and this thing burned line all the way out to 920'!! After a good 25 minute fight I landed a nice 24 lb'er. Started marking a ton of fish and caught another skip king on the 62' rigger when I had to pull lines and come in. I wish I could have stayed out there awhile longer with the fish showing up on the screen! I'll post pics when I get a chance... 24 lb King: I then accompanied Woody out of Hughes for an evening trip. That was a blast!! I'll let him post all the details, but let's just say we stacked them in the back of the boat!! At one point I was fighting a fish in one hand, trying to set the hook in a second fish with my other hand, and Woody was also fighting a fish!! Again, pics to come... Hoping to get back out on 'em in the AM with Woody again...

I'll be heading out in the AM out of Port Bay, will post how I make out...

That one could have been pushing 40 lbs by the end of the LOC!!

Hey H.M. - I usually go out with Woody. Were you working the same waters as Friday last week?

Hey Nick - We were doing them early on NK black raspberry and black green glow taped mag spoons with the white back. Then it quickly turned to a flasher/fly bite around 9am. Our riggers were set between 45 and 65 ft down. Didn't make it out on Sunday - looks like that may have been a good thing! Are you going to be out any time this week? If so, I'll give you a shout if I'm out...

My unit is the Furuno LS6100 and the filters were "on", so I turned them off and that helped. However, I still lost the weights below 65 ft. pulling lines. I didn't see any other settings to fiddle with, but we were hooking into fish and I may not have gone through all the screens. I think I may just tilt the transducer a bit. I have a second FF mounted on board that we use for shallow depths in the bay, I can always use that one if I need the true depth at any time. I still find it strange that I can't see the weights though. The only other factors I can think of are 1) I have been going by the SOG on the FF and not the new GPS that I am still getting accustomed to (can't get the SOG to display yet) and setting up (I need a set of maps on a flashcard) so I think I may be trucking along a lot faster than the FF says, or 2) I use 11' rods on the riggers and they are angled fairly high (say 60 or 70 degrees off of horizontal versus tipped down towards the back of the boat like I see on a lot of the charter boats) so when I keep them taught perhaps they are pulling up on the weights and creating more swayback. Once I get the GPS all situated I will be able to check the speed.

Yeah it's been nice fishing the last few days under 70 ft rather than 130+ like the last couple weeks!! (especially with manual riggers!! )

Finders Keepers : Fishing Report ============== TRIP OVERVIEW ============== Date(s): 7-25-09 Time on Water: 6:25 AM – 12:00 PM Temp/Weather: 70°F sunny turning overcast Wind Speed/Direction: South at 15-20 MPH subsiding to <10 Waves: 1-3 Footers then 1 ft chop Surface Temp: 67°F Location: Port Bay and slightly west =============== FISHING RESULTS =============== Total Hits: 8 Total Boated: 2 Species Breakdown: 2 Kings Hot Lure: Silver Prism echip/watermelon fly Trolling Speed: 2.7 mph Boat Depth: 130 - 200 ft Lure Depth: 35 - 65 ft ==================== SUMMARY & FURTHER DETAILS ==================== Got a bit of a late start due to a bass fishing tourny being run at our launch! I think we were 9th in line to hit the ramp. Anyway, finally got on the water at 6:25 and set-up over 80 fow in front of Port Bay. We marked a few fish around 50 ft down and continued to troll out deeper. It wasn't long before we had the first release on the 52 ft rigger over 130 fow on an NK Black Raspberry Mag, but no hook-up. We turned around and went back through the waypoint and the same rigger fired over 130 fow. We landed a real nice 20 lb king (and 2 lb lamprey) and my buddy Colin (2nd timer on the big pond) was very happy! Set back up and headed back through our waypoint and hooked up again on the 62 ft rigger with a mupped Black/Green Glow Ladderback NK. This king was at the surface within seconds and soared completely out of the air right behind the boat!! This fish was BIG (I would easily say 25+ lbs). When the fish hit the water it took off like a rocket screaming across the surface all the way out to 250 ft, followed by two more leaps out of the air!! What a show! Colin continued to fight this monster all the way back to within 50 ft of the boat (I had all lines clear for the landing of this beast) when it made a mad dash right towards the boat. When Colin caught up the fish was gone... What a fight though!! We set back up and the fish had disappeared, so went into search mode and found them again 2 hours later a bit west when our 175 ft wire took off screaming over 140 fow with a silver prism echip pulling a watermelon fly. It ran out to 575 ft and shook free. Another good fish lost! As soon as that rod got reset it fired again and we boated a nice 16 lb king. Over the next hour we hooked up two more times on the same rod and once on the 65 ft rigger with a UV Green Echip/NBK Fly, but unfortunately we couldn't keep any of them buttoned!! I would say it could be the hooks, but those flies were brand new out of the box and lazer sharp. After 10:30 the fish shut off for us and we called it a day at 12:00 with a 2 for 8 record. A great day on the water, two good fish in the box, and some great memories and visions of the "Monster that got away" that also gave us a great show! Here is Colin with his fish: The 20 lb'er: Both fish back at home: I'm hoping to get out a couple times this coming week as long as the weather holds and tornadoes aren't touching down like today!!

Nice fishing Tank! Let's hope this great fishing lasts all summer!!

Thanks for taking me out Woody! If you want to head out in my boat next week, let me know! Also, the next time that we're going to stack the kings like cord wood, I'll grab my cooler!

I don't recall the exact model, but it is a Furuno unit similar to the LS4100 (dual freq, black & white screen). I will have to check the filtering for surface and down signal. I generally set the frequency gain as high as I can without getting a lot of scatter on the screen. The transducer is set so that it is flat with the bottom of the boat, as the instructions suggested. I will check the model and settings tomorrow when I'm out and see if that works.

I have tried using the 50 kHz and I still lose the weights off the chart. Last time out I was running the weights with 85 and 95 ft of cable out with one line attached to each and I couldn't see them on either frequency...

I use 15lb sharks with standard non-coated cable (no probe yet) and if trolling at 2.7 on the surface, I lose the sharks at 60 ft with nothing attached to them. I typically never see my rigger weights when trolling deeper than 50 ft, but on other boats I have seen them mark the weights down to 100+ ft. Is this because they have the transducer tipped back instead of level? I have thought about doing that...