Sweet Caroline

Boat needs to go before winter. Haven't had the time to put as much energy in to selling this summer as I would have liked. Nonetheless, I really don't want to have to winterize, insure, etc before this winter. Both engines run great and the boat itself is in great condition. $2999 OBO.

80-100 FOW

Is it just me or do the stagers this year seem exceptionally stubborn? I have never had so many nice marks on bottom without a taker. Tried long leads/short leads, fast/slow, spoons/flies/cut-bait/J-plugs and nothing. I’m a big believer of not leaving fish to find fish but in this case it seems to make sense to venture offshore a bit to find more active fish. Not sure if anybody has been able to get these fish to turn on with any consistency? 

Price Reduced

Hi Tim,

I'm looking at catch rates over the past 25 years or so. They have been highest on average for salmon in the past 10 years.

I have a 23ft Sea Ray. Go to the classified section here.

I use them on my copper/lead core rigs. Instead of adding more copper/lead core to achieve greater depths just use one of these. i.e turn a 5 color into a 10 color, 300 copper into a 400 copper.

Little off topic but still interesting. A while back the Power Mill Hatchery received a handful of kings for show at the hatchery. Those fish lived to be five-six+ years old. Also interesting is steelhead and browns kept there for show could grow to be 12-14lbs, but the Kings never made it past 5 or 6 lbs.

Don’t want to get into a “point/ counter-point†discussion here but fish maturing early is yet another indication that the environment could be stressed i.e less bait. There is a belief that salmon are maturing early because they are healthy, but there are many case studies out there that would disagree.  It has been studied in other natural populations that early maturity could be a result of a population being stressed (i.e less bait, more competition, change in environment, etc, etc). To insure that a population can be sustained, many individuals in that population will start reproducing early. Over time, if the conditions persist, natural selection can change the overall average age of the breeding population. Good, lively discussion and all good points. I’m really not trying to be a naysayer in all this, but I think the DEC is making the right call. Again, not much downside if they are incorrect, but the potential for massive downside if they do nothing.

I've heard that, but at the hatchery did they used to take eggs from only the largest fish or 4 yr olds and now they take eggs from all the fish, maybe? Not disagreeing that being selective in the egg take could help but I’m highly speculative that that is the main culprit. Avg size decline, higher catch rates, and what the DEC is finding in their trawls is enough evidence for me that there is a bait issue. If stocking rates are lowered what is the worst that could happen? Maybe we have a couple years of lower catches. Certainly better than crashing the fishery to the point of no return like Huron and possibly Michigan. I have two young boys that I would like to have this same great salmon fishery when they are my age.

When I mention average size decline it is in reference to a slow and steady decline that we have seen over the last 10-15-20 years.  Reviewing the top fish in the leader boards of the LOC and Great Ontario Salmon Hunt paints a pretty clear picture. I’m certainly not complaining about the size of the 25-30lb fish that we are still getting with regularity now, just pointing out that the 35-40lb fish are rare nowadays compared to 10-15-20 years ago. Generally this is an indication of a decline in prey abundance and the higher catch rates only reinforce that assumption.

 

The adjusting of stocking numbers to balance the predator prey relationship is an ideal approach...but the state has no idea how much bait there really is so it's junk science imo. I personally do not trust a word I hear from the DEC...they sell us BS at every opportunity just to shut us up

I hear ya, but again, DEC findings aside, logic would tell me that higher catch rates and decreasing salmon size are not indicative of higher bait populations. We may see higher concentrations of bait in the more productive areas of the lake but overall abundance is most likely down.

Forget the science, logic would tell me if catch rates are increasing and size is decreasing that the bait population is not what it used to be. Although nice, regularly going out and catching 10-20 silvers in a morning is not indicative of a healthy system. Natural reproduction is a wild card in LO, but in reality is probably the only sure fire way to keep a healthy predator/prey balance in a perfect world. Stocking the same number of predators year after year regardless of conditions and prey abundance is anything but natural. Lower stocking numbers does not necessarily equate to lower catch rates if the predator prey relationship is in balance. Honestly, I like the approach the DEC is taking in trying maintain a trophy fishery. Following the prey hatch makes perfect sense to me…as long as they actually increase when the hatch is good.

I have a 2000 15hp honda 4 stroke if you are interested?

Warm water = fish. Find 70+ on surface and go from there. Probably will be offshore in 400+ ft. The warm water just doesn't go away. Fishing can actually be better after a NE blow as it will concentrate fish offshore. Ride sucks, but fishing can be excellent. W/NW can change things back in a hurry. Only reason to cancel a trip is if weather forecast is calling for small craft advisory which can be totally inaccurate and change 10 times up until a day or two before the trip. So if you can't cancel the day before just plan on going and make the best of it. Sounds like there are plenty of salmon out there. You'll get-em!

If you are finding cold water inside keep going. I fished there many of times after a blow and the middle of the lake can be on fire when that happens. All the fish get concentrated offshore, 400+ ft.

 

So I just thought of this. Remember at the state of the lake meetings where the Canadian biologist said that the Kings are all unevenly distributed with a lot in one area and very few in another area… Why wouldn't that be the case with alewife as well?

You are correct, it is probably true with Alewife as well. Could help explain why many fisherman, especially in the west end, are consistently seeing so much bait. There probably is more bait in the more productive areas than ever before and that could simply because the remainder of the lake has become less productive. Still have to stand by the fact that decreasing salmon size and higher catch rates do not equal more bait. When the lake was growing 35+ salmon consistently you would never hear of reports of catch rates like we are having now in the middle of the summer. Early Spring or Fall, maybe, but never consistently in the middle of the summer like we have now. Best thing that can happen is to have a couple consecutive years of warm winters to keep alewife production and survival optimum.

Honda 4 stroke. I have a 15 hp and can run all day with 4 electric downriggers, fishhawk, GPS, Fishfinder, etc with no problem. In fact there has been a few times that when the batteries have been dead in the morning and I would manually start the kicker. I would use it to get out of the channel and by the time I reached the end of the pier it had charged the battery enough to start the main engine.

Still available. Seasons not over yet. Make an offer.

Turn the boat. This will cause one side to pull away from the fish and the other to drop in to the fish's face. Normally the fast side will trigger strikes. I will often hear people say that the "fish hit when I turned" . There is a reason for that. Think of it when you shake a toy in front of a cat. The cat only strikes when you pull the toy away. Especially on calm days I will sometimes do figures eights to get the rods popping. Old trick I learned from Dave Agness (King Davy) when I was slipped next to him in Wilson.

Are those Seeforellen? We need those back

Has anybody had any experience using their service dept for boat repairs?

Thanks in advance

DR

Needs to go, make an offer

I getting mixed reviews on these.

Does anybody know if these are strong enough for wire dipseys?

https://www.bigjon.com/product/triple-pedestal-mount-multi-axis-rod-holder-silver

https://www.bigjon.com/product/triple-pedestal-mount-multi-set-rod-holders-silver

and what the difference is between the two?

Thanks

Thank you to you and your father Sarah. I have been fishing the ESLO and now the LOC for many years. Lake Ontario salmon fishing and the LOC derby are practically synonymous with each other in my book. One suggestion may be to reduce the number of payouts from 20 to 10 and add that money back in to the top 10.  I understand the reason for 20 places is to probably provide more participation and share the winnings with more folks but I don't think anybody is too excited about a $50 or $100 payment. Just a suggestion.

I just can't get enthused about a lake trout division. Canada has lakes that produce many and much larger lake trout than LO and I don't see people flocking to that fishery. I do agree however that having the division would help take more of them out of the lake which I'm all for:) Regardless of what you do you won't hear complaints from me so long as you keep the derby going.