Gill-T

The derby leader came off the bar drop off.

Dude, you looked like you got fried out there on the water. You have been catching some nice ones this year.

I think you are seeing the result of two years of drought conditions coming to a head. I am sure there was almost zero natural reproduction on the south shore streams the last two years due to poor flows and uber-warm water temps. At the peak of the October run last year the Niagara was 72 degrees! The DEC does not really have any way of accurately determining the natural reproduction of Kings. Steelhead and browns spawn later when temps and flows are better, so they have gotten bigger with more bait around (not as many Kings eating). Good news is this year flows are good. We may be looking at three year King shortage unfortunately.

I am sure you were into the same fish we were charting Friday night. With the NE blow friday rolling cold water in, I figured the fish would move towards the niagara plume. We trolled out of Olcott Friday night late, and did not hit marks until almost to Wilson. Off Wilson the graph lit up with bait and hooks, but the NE winds put a damper on the bite. We tried trolling in the dark but could not move a rod. I always wanted to try night trolling. It is eerie! Thank god for GPS.

What the walleye not biting?

Huge algae or flea bloom on NE/E end of lake Ontario from yesterday's picture. :shock:

Slippery sinker has whole herring.

Angle of the downrigger lines, and seeing your balls on the fishfinder. I know my downspeed is too fast when I stop tracking my downrigger balls above 70'.

There was an article in GLA about deep fishing Kings by Mark Chamura. He was strapping together two weights to get down 200'.

Yes but you guys have had all the cold water to yourselves. Now it is time to give us some.....we are roasting down here!

NE winds will pull in cool water and the big boys will be in tight early in the morning. The bite might not last long esp. if it is a straight east wind, which I stay home. Since you will be there all week and "have to fish" with the east wind on wed and maybe thurs., I would find a good shallow water program early. J-plugs and jointed stickbaits along the bottom. Spin Doctors and Flys along the bottom. When the bite dies in tight, head out to 350-450' for bows and hoe's with an occasional King (spoons mostly).

Mark Muerb aka Lady Bluegill has a couple on the board also.

I put line to the test this weekend. On different rods I ran #20 flea-flicker, #30 flea-flicker and #30 trilene XT. While the wire and braid divers were collecting fleas like crazy as an indicator the fleas were there......none of the downrig lines collected fleas. Flea-flicker works, probably ANY #30 line will work. Now during the east-end pro-am events I ran #25 trilene and had real problems with fleas so it looks like the tipping point on line diameter is 30 Lb. If I had to pick one over the other I like the trilene xt #30 green because it is invisible in green water....the flea-flicker looks like you are trolling with rope.

Somewhere from the Niagara Bar to Olcott.

Ray who? This guy Ray you speak of must make a lot of posts on this site if you don't even include his last name

Another tip on the whole herring rig. I twist on a small piece of monel wire onto the eye of the treble. After inserting the treble, I wrap the wire around the body of the bait then continuing around the shank of the treble and end it with a twist onto itself. The idea is to keep the treble from slipping out, and maintain the proper angle of the hook.

About a decade ago, I remember seeing on the news out of Buffalo a story about a guy running balls out up the Niagara in a cigar boat, when he got picked up by a water spout. The boat went 20' in the air dumping the guy out into some of the scariest water around (near the peace bridge). Luckly someone saw it happen and got the guy out alive.

Check Cabela's, I think they have what you are talking about.

So the format is like the ESLO?

Where do I get information about it.

Yeah, the other coke would be cost prohibitive.....but might juice up the lures........can you imagine a Steelhead on coke?

Soak them in Coke (the soda) overnight. In the morning rub clean....looks like new.

For the Sodus event, we found a nice spot around 515' FOW that we had to ourselves. Plenty of bait, some hooks also. We caught steelhead, but did loose a screamer that was a mature king. I saw enough big hooks on the graph to make me think that is where the majority of east end kings are now.

I was shocked at the Oswego, and Sodus events by the lack of people even trying for Kings. One observation I can say, going back to last year.....there was a lot of bait around the west end of the lake from the second week of June on through the fall. Having a slip on the Niagara the last two years made it was convienient to fish every weekend off the bar. Other than ESLO dates, I had the place to myself and caught Kings every time out. There were times when skippies were so thick you could not get to the big guys, but there was always action. Maybe, with the cleaning waters, the Niagara plume will be a stronger draw going foward. If I was a new charter captain looking where to start up a business......it would be Niagara County.

It depends on the time of year also. Cool nights in August can cause surface temps to drop enough that as the colder water sinks into the warmer layers below......a flip occurs. Mostly on the west end it is a NE or strong E wind that causes the flipping. However, A STRONG south wind will rip the surface layers off inshore and roll the cold water on top. Last summer three kids drown off Olcott getting caught in on of those south wind roll-overs. The kids whom where good swimmers supposedly, where trying to reach the little square island pier and where swept out. I believe one kid made it if memory serves correctly. Strong forces for sure.