Traveling Circus

I saw some Browns get smoked in Pittsburgh yesterday.............ugh.

The lake creel survey guys didn't stop me this year either, but I don't know that they weren't working some other ports....... and this year with covid concerns, I don't blame them. Perhaps their efforts were scaled back to minimize their exposure to the disease. Rightfully so.

I think anyone using the resource is a stakeholder. Private fishermen, captains, business owners........ all have an interest in the management of the fishery. Collectively, private fishermen has got to be the largest group of stakeholders. Being a private fisherman, I'm happy to have "private fisherman" interests represented by other private fishermen. Every year, we go through this creek / lake thing. It's almost as bad as national politics. Almost...............

I agree, they only fight like 1/2 a freight train, but 1/2 a freight train is still a lot of fun. And there's just something about seeing that float drop and knowing what's chewing on the other end. To me, the float drop is the drug.

Great pics..... favorite is the boys in the rain.

Tonight out of Sandy, Kings were sitting in 60 - 80 fow. One spot I checked was 48 F down 70 in 70. I boated 2 matures, and both were on a wire diver out 180 pulling a Dolphin SD and fly.... both dark.... both males. Strong S wind tonight.

The Sandy webcam under the "Maps" tab of this site is wonderful for evaluating the current lake conditions and making a decision about going out.

Out of Sandy on Wednesday and Friday evenings, there were rosie bellied kings laying in 80 - 110 fow. Rubber meat behind a white SD put the most in the boat. Temp was pretty much 80 - 90 down. I'm hoping they won't go far with the blow...…we got a nice brown on the rubber meat 5 feet off the bottom in 90 also.

They do get big numbers of them on Erie..... I fished a day south of a "line" of them where we counted 12 spouts on the line. We were afraid to pass through the line to deeper water on the north side. In the '92 incident, I remember for some time (30 minutes?) before being hit, noticing that we were in a strange wave pattern. Waves were approaching us from directly opposing directions even though the apparent wind was only from one direction..... I'm thinking that the wind approaches those "lines" from opposing directions and rises strongly at the line. Very weird.

In '92, we got "hit" by one when trolling in late August in front of Sandy Creek, Monroe County. We were in a 19'Starcraft Islander. I heard guys off Braddocks on the radio saying..... "there's another spout dropping down off Sandy", but I couldn't see it forming, as we were right under it. In front of us, you could see the wave tops being ripped off the surface by the wind, and the area was maybe 100 feet in diameter. The area was approaching the boat, and I really didn't know what to do, or where to turn..... I mean, whaddaya do? Riggers out. Divers out. You're kinda committed to endure it. The wind went from 15 to 60 mph immediately. Guys hats were blown off, loose "stuff" in the boat blew everywhere. Coats and shirts were just whipped like mad. I gave the boat a little throttle to keep control, and all the riggers popped....And the whipped water went off the back of the boat, and just drifted away...… We looked at each other like WTF was that about! Packed up our "stuff" and called it a day.

Mostly flasher/fly bite for us. We did 3 fish on 7 hookups...… 45 - 60 down over 70 - 90 fow. We had 50F about 50 down for the most part...… temp seemed to come up as depth came up. I did see one charter captain move in for browns, but other than him, we were the shallowest boat all day.

No Bill, but 150 - 180 would be a good place to take a look. Went 6 for 8 out of Sandy tonight solo...… Checked inside first, and the temp was 73 on the bottom in 75, so no BT temps...… 150 - 180 fow was very good, 85 - 100 down. 52 F down 95......just about even on spoons and spinny/flys. riggers and divers both took hits & fish. Current was very manageable. fished for 2 1/2 hours, so it was a fun and busy night. hardly any fleas.

Nice report..... love the flag.

Man that looks like fun...........

My advice to the OP is to research chirp before you dismiss it. Like Rick says, If you do any perch fishing or jigging, you will appreciate the detail. I haven't found the reduced cone angle at 50 kHz to be a game changer while trolling, and at 200 kHz it's even less.

What's the problem with chirp? And can't you select a singular frequency to use instead of using the entire transducer spectrum?

Nice report, and great job on the tow............... Excellent karma is headed your way.

The Garmin Echomap 93 and 94 chirp series have performed well for me. Garmin is reasonably priced and very easy to use. Like you, I fish Erie and Ontario, and mainly troll. I don't know about Garmin customer service, as I've never had issues. I use sideview and downview occasionally, but most of the time I rely on the chirp mode............. Been a Garmin fan for years.