Sweet Caroline

They cut stocking by over 50 %.

50s down 90-100 over 400 plus off Ibay tonight. FISH ON!!! Everything we threw at them got bit.

Nice job Dave and thanks for the tip. Was worth the trip yesterday.

Should still be plenty of browns in the 10-20ft range. Water still cold

Pretty much any port will have good fishing opportunity that time of year. I’ll put a plug in for Rochester. Some of them best brown trout, lake trout, and salmon fishing all within a few miles of the Genny. But seriously, everything is biting at the end of July out of any port.

I was in Naples NY and yes Sutton Spoons is still there. I bought a couple spoons. Six bucks each I think and a Sutton Spoon T-shirt for $5. They still wrap their spoons in tissue paper. Probably never use them but I couldn’t resist.

Been a while since I trib fished so I may be a little out of touch. I trib fished hardcore for 20 plus years though. My personal opinion is that after mid-Nov the majority of trib fisherman are C&R. I believe the attraction to the trib fishery is to catch quantity with some trophy potential. I think more fisherman will come back if they can catch 10 plus fish in a day and maybe keep one as opposed to only catching 5 or less and keeping 3. The majority of people aren’t traveling from other states and spending money to come and catch fish for dinner, especially in the tribs. I guarantee that if somebody comes up and scores 10 fish in a morning with some trophy’s mixed in they are 10 times more likely to come back then if they came up and only caught 2 or 3. Once a fish enters the trib it is very likely to being caught over and over again, therefore any reg that promotes C&R in the tribs makes sense. I remember catching the same brown trout in various holes in the western tribs for two months straight. If I’m catching the same fish multiple times in a season I can only image how many times others have as well. They fought just the same each time and if I wasn’t in the know I would have thought that was the first time the fish was caught. Even if the fish dies at the end of the season (which the jury is out that they actually do) that fish was enjoyed many times by multiple individuals. Once that fish is caught and kept it is enjoyed once and by one person. Sure there will be those that abuse the fishery. No regulation is going to stop that so arguing about it is in vain anyway. Side note. I’m a huge proponent of our brown trout fishery as I think they bring a good benefit to the fishery as a whole. They are a good filler in the trib fishery when steelhead can be sporadic at times. They C&R very well. They are good for the open lake fisherman in that they are accesible year round to the small boat owners and are good for charters to target when younger fisherman are involved or when the salmon bite is off. They also have a balanced diet so they aren’t as susceptible to the boom and bust of any given bait population. They pretty much provide a year round fishery as well. My two cents

Been a while since I’ve changed my dipsey rods. Any recommendations on the glue to use to attach the twili tip on my new dipsey rods? Would super glue work? Thanks for everyone’s help with all my questions.

I’ll be rigging a 5,7, and 10 color set up. I usually run 27lb of whatever brand is available. Haven’t really gave much thought of the brand or considered a different size. Would be interested to hear others preference on brand and size? Also, I’m usually trolling with spoons at 2.5 to 2.8mph. Based on your suggestion, what approximate depth would I achieve at those speeds? I know rule of thumb is 5ft per color at 2.0mph, but what would the depth be at higher speeds and/or different weight cores. Any folks with Fish TD May be able to provide some insight? Thanks in advance

Thanks Rich. How much braid will fit on the 30 with a 5 color?

Anybody know what Saltist would be good for a 5 & 7 color leadcore? Thinking the 40 but would like to hear from somebody that has any experience using these.

Good read. Many, many theories out there. I’ve fished the lake since the late 80s and can testify to a lot of the trends mentioned. I think more than anything, the warm fall trib temps have formed the life traits of our current LO chinooks from when they first were introduced. There used to be huge staging beginning in mid-August with combat pierhead fishing in full force by Labor Day. By the 2nd week in Sept the major push was over. Tribs, including the salmon river, would be absolutely littered with salmon carcasses throughout the month of Sept. All fish that would never pass on their genetics come egg collection at the hatchery in mid October. Many of us can remember what the Genny looked like mid September with the banks littered with rotting salmon. The fish left at the hatchery during egg collection in mid October were those that ran late and most likely didn’t stage for very long. Clearer water could also be a factor in the decreased near shore staging for salmon as well. I also remember good Spring catches of salmon, then vastly slowing down by mid-May, all but non existent in June, slowly picking back up in July, then a blood bath by mid August. I remember catching a 26lb king on June 20th while the DEC was doing their survey at Iron Bay and they said that was the first salmon they had seen out of Rochester that month. Nothing like the 20 plus fish days we experience all season long as of late. The larger staging activity back then could also simply be a factor that there were more mature salmon left in the lake in August because they were not being caught in abundance in June and July like they are now. I believe that increased catch rates now compared to back then is because once the massive bait schools showed up by mid-may in the 80’s/early 90s our lures couldn’t compete. There were more salmon being put in the lake back then so logically there should have been higher catch rates. Sure we are all better fisherman now, but I’m hearing stories of newbies nowadays going out and catching double digit numbers in June. In my opinion there is too much correlation to the decreasing salmon size, higher catch rates , and lower bait abundance being detected by the trawl analysis to come to any other conclusion that the decreasing size of our salmon is being most impacted by decreasing bait populations. As somebody mentioned earlier, Lake Michigan is actually starting to see an increased in the size of their salmon now that they have a better balanced predator/prey dynamic. If genetics and evolution were the major driving force behind reduced salmon size, what we are seeing in Lake Michigan should never be the case. An alternative theory to selective harvesting impacting the age class of maturing salmon, could be that when a population feels environmental stress they tend to mature early, not later. Stress in LO being, reduced bait, therefore it is best to mature early and of a smaller size to insure your genetics stay in the mix. Another perspective regarding the plumpness factor of age two fish that is that it is well known that salmon feed the most in the last year of their life so they can live off their reserves during their spawning period. In the 80's/90s it was common for a 3 yr old 18-22lb salmon in May to gain 10-15lbs by August, with 2-5lbs weight gain attributed to growing eggs in females. That is just not the case anymore. We know more salmon are maturing at age 2 these days, therefore the plumpness of a 2 year salmon could simply be that they are putting the feed bag on to prepare for spawning as they normally do in their last year of life. The growing eggs in the female 2 yr olds can be misintrepted as a healthy, "plump" 2 yr old as well. We are nowhere near what was experienced in Lake Huron with the complete crash of their alewife population. Even the change in life traits aforementioned could not counter the total devastation of the bait population experienced in Huron that produced the emaciated salmon they experienced. Interesting mention of the little impact to size of the Brown trout and Coho salmon. This is most likely because they are more adaptable to different sources of food, Gobies, perch, emeralds, ect. All additional food sources that Chinooks refuse to eat. We should be capitalizing on the almost unlimited abundance of Gobies available and stocking more Browns right now. I also like the idea of introducing more strains, seaforellen mainly, which grow to 20 plus lbs with more regularity. Browns are available pretty much 12 months of the year in either the tribs or lake, are easy to target and stay near shore providing opportunity for the small boat owners, and consume huge amounts of gobies which we happen to have a lot of right now. My two cents.