Pete Collin

Hello All,

Was supposed to work today, got an 11th hour reprieve so I launched in the wee hours by myself.  No time to find a boatmate (sorry Isaac!)

I learned a lesson from my last couple of trips.  You are far better off taking the time to search for good concentrations of fish before you start jigging than to go to where you found them before and hope for the best.  The early hours are often magic, so you tend to get over-eager to bounce a leadhead somewhere rather than prospecting.  This morning was calm enough that I could putt just upwind of a blip and target a single fish that way.  Got 2 like that, but realized that it was a lot of work and if I just looked around I would find a carpet of lakers with my name on it.  Motor along the contour, check the screen.  Motor deep, check the screen.  Motor in shallower, check the screen.  You can catch suprise lakers on a blank screen, but a good bounty of fish can not hide themselves from your sonar.  Friends make fun of me for "watching the TV" too much, but I believe that my graph will show me the way.

It was still pretty early when I found the screen that I was looking for.  Out go the drift bags, the net handle gets extended, I don the posture of John Henry about to drive a rail spike.  I bounced and cranked among the blips......and nothing happened!  What happened next would test the faith of any jigger.  Two different charter boats passed by.  They came close, wanting to chat with me because you see so few jiggers out there.  Both boats hooked up just as they drew abreast.  The second boat hung a double.  "Boy, I bet that's fun when you do catch one!" shouted one of the captains.  Fun indeed.  No idea why trolling would crush when jigging didn't.  I swiTched to a spoon, thinking that would be more like what they were using.  I did catch a few, but wasn't really connecting like I thought I should.  This is where the doubt sets in.  "Should I stow the jigging rod and troll?"  This nagged me for a little while until the strike came that refused to budge off the bottom.  Pump, crank, pump, crank, big surge for the bottom that gives back everything I gained.  Headshakes and thrashes at boatside that confound a one handed net job.  Finally get him in - a 34 incher.  Lovely!  The downriggers can stay where they are.  This is what jigging is all about!

I had a steady pick for the rest of the morning.  It was funny - The wind was perfect for sending me along a contour at just the right speed with 2 bags out.  There were times I went an hour without having to pick up and move.  But while I thought I would only have to go upwind at the same depth, I'd often find the fish weren't where I just left them.  Either the wind shifted ever so subtly, or the whole mass of lakers was roaming around down there and I had to find them.  Either way, I had to make sure I didn't begin drifting until I saw a good screen.

What became exciting as my head count grew, was that the bite got better the longer I stayed there!  I began with changing lures, colors, sizes to try and make those blips show me something.  As noon approached, it got way easier.   You would get a hard strike anytime you put the jig into a group of fish!  All that varying of color, size and presentation.  And when it all comes down to it, when they feel like biting, that's what they do.  On Keuka Lake, land of the 2-4 pound laker, you can rack up big numbers when all those fish decide to bite.  But these Ontario fish - each one is such a tug of war to land.  I have had 40 fish days on Keuka.  I believe I could have gotten 40 fish to bite this morning.  But play and land that many?  Not without some training in the gym!  20 fish seemed like a nice arbitrary goal to hit before I quit for the day.  I carry a clicker counter, and had 13 fish tallied so was well on my way with oodles of lakers still under my hull.  But that 14th fish made me decide to head in despite the bite still being on.

Fish 14 wouldn't come off the bottom.  Didn't like being pressured upward one bit.  Didn't respect my drag.  Shook his head like a crocodile.  I played him with all the hopes and dreams a jigger can have.  I needed to see him.  I could never forgive myself if he broke me off.  Up he came....slowly.  Eventually I saw the knot for the leader.  he was still under the hull.  I readied the net.  Here comes his head, in the hoop he goes, and suddenly it was like I was trying to haul a wet labrador retriever on board.

He was so big and old that he was actually greyed up.. like that same labrador retriever after his eyes go cloudy.  He was so much bigger than every laker that I have ever caught that is was just stunning.  He kicked and wriggled as I brought him to the measuring tape that is decaled to the gunnel.  It used up all the numbers.  Man oh man.  With 10 pound line and a bass rod bought at Wal Mart for 11 dollars, I landed a 40 inch lake trout!

What was the point of continuing after that?  My arms and back didn't need another go, and I already had the day I had dreamed all winter for.  The only thing that would have made it perfect was a picture.  Alas, forgot camera on the passenger seat and the cell phone on the night stand.  With a 3:00AM wakeup buzzer, I'm lucky I remembered to hitch up the trailer!  I'll have to go back with a partner and we can blaze away with flash bulbs.  There's plenty of summer left.

Pete Collin

www.pcforestry.com

Nice job!  That is the kind of sonar screen dreams are made of.  I am wondering.... I have been jigging for 6 years and have yet to catch anything but lakers and a few giant smallmouth.  I've had LL salmon bump the jig boatside but their mouths were always too small.

When you hook up with a brown, is it obvious from the hookset that you have a non-laker on?

Pete

http://www.theloop.ca/be-afraid-theres-a-shark-in-lake-ontario-maybe

leadhead.....any port should do.... just get out on the lake and start trolling with sonar......watch for fish on the bottom (lots of marks) sometimes in really deep water. Helps big time to have light to calm winds.....and make sure like Pete says to have good strong tackle, especially the terminal stuff.....I'm a newbie at Lake O deep water jigging, but tough strong terminal stuff is necessary for big lakers even in the fingers.

Jigging is practical up to about 150 feet or so.  I once caught a fish on the bottom in 190 FOW on Canandaigua Lake.  It was a dead calm day.  I wasn't moving, the fish wasn't moving, just wanted to prove it could be done.  My jigging tackle is lighter than you'd think.  7 foot med. heavy rod and 10 pound braid with 10 pound mono leader.  It's the light tackle that makes comparatively sluggish lakers fun.  Sometimes, they suprise you with their strength.  That light line cuts through the water and makes it easier to get down deep.  I'm sure there';s lakers everywhere in Ontario.  I have marked them all the way from west of Devil's Nose to Braddocks.  They do move around, sometimes from day to day.  So the search is part of the technique.  In the Fingers, you can go straight to where you'd expect tehm to be.  not so in ontario.  I like baitcasting reels, some guys use spinning.  It's the drag that matters.  Must be smooth and reliable.

If it is a US made boat there is no duty.  That's all I know.

Sounds like a great day Pete. I was on Cayuga last weekend and got some lakers but not quite the size you were getting. Do you fish jigging spoons at all ?

I use them occasionally.  I have a couple big 2 oz Hopkins spoons that I use when the drift speed is faster than I'd like.  Usually stick to jigs.  They're cheaper, and I like the single hook. You don't pick up mussels with a jig.

I know Cayuga has the reputation of being the big fish Finger Lake.  On LO, a 33 inch laker is merely a good one, and most trips I get a 30 incher or better.  Intoxicating stuff when you are used to them averaging 3 or 4 pounds!

I made some jigs for fingerlakes lakers. Basically a trolling weight with a tube jig over it. Got any pics of jigs you use ib the O?

Sent from my SM-N900V using Lake Ontario United mobile app

No need for a pic.  Just a 1 1/2 oz round head jig.  Any plastic body works.  White is a good bet.  I got together with a buddy and poured several years' worth of jig heads.  We got very high quality hooks.  Most commercially sold jigs have hooks that are junk - soft, easily bent wire, oversized barbs, rust away in the original package.

I saw a guy unloading his boat by himself yesterday morning so asked if he needed any help, low and behold it was Pete! Good job Pete and nice to see you again!

Brett, I'm still impressed with that big boat of yours, and how well your crew did yesterday!  Nice to run into folks from the old Sanders board.

Pete. we used  to have a pacific salmon program  in NH   where they stocked  Coho salmon   we used to jig  these  fish   while   still feeding    with buzz  bombs  I think I still have a bunch in a old tackle box   I gues  ill bring them on my next trip  to the big O

Back in the late '80's I used to visit Twin Mountain, NH at the ski lodge my brother belonged to.  We'd go in the summer and mountain climb, fish, drink, and eat huge meals.  The river there in Twin Mountain had a trout stream.  We'd catch brookies and rainbows.  There were also jillions of coho smolts.  There were signs posted at each access point showing what the smolts looked like.  Looking back, I wondered what those pacific fish were doing there?  What body of water would they have swum to to mature?  Did the state have any success with them?  What were typical sizes of the ones you jigged?  I have lived half my life in New England and never met a coho fisherman.

Pete

Hello All,

Now that the thermockine has set up, I can resume where I left off last year with jigging big lake trout.

Unless I already know where the fish are, it's a combination of trolling and jigging.  The troll is to locate them before you can catch them properly.  There were piles of bait all along the 100 foot contour.  Enough to conceal any sportfish that may have been among them.  How do they find our lures at all, I wonder?  Trolling yeilded a breakoff that must have been a huge laker.  It actually bent open the split ring!  Gotta upgrade my gear, which up until now was intended only for the Finger Lakes.  I burbled away for hours, wasting all the best early morning light before I found a spot with the kind of dense schools you need for jigging to work.  Once you can lower a jig into a tight pod of a half dozen lake trout, the confidence kicks in.   The strikes began right away at my new hotspot.  They lasted until noon or so, when the expected midday doldrums set in.  The best action was when I got bit on 3 successive drops.  Both biceps actually did get weary by the time I quit with 8 fish landed up to 33 inches and several lost.  That biggest one was a treat.  At first it wouldn't budge off the bottom.  I broght it up to 60 feet from the surface, and had a 10 minute stalemate with it, after which it dove all the way back down to the zebra mussels.  I had a smaller one (the 'small' ones being 25 inches or so) that was being a bit of a boot, so I horsed it in.  I made a grab for the jig, making it wake up and dive all the way back down.  Sea chicken indeed.  Can't imagine how many I would have got had I begun the day there.  Anybody want to come give it another try with me?

I appreciate overlooked treasures - When i have found a heavy concentration of lakers, sonar graph churning out fat blips like a player piano scroll, no other boats around, it's hard to feel anything but blissful.  Blissfully busy.  Because each hookup is a fun wrestle to get the fish in.

Pete Collin

www.pcforestry.com

I like putting a 1 oz snap weight on my lead core. Adds maybe 5 more feet and you won't snag weeds at the surface while you feed line out.

Good Job, Mike!  You're always an excellent boat-host!

I have played around with jigs and spoons in the heavier sizes - 1 1/2 to 2 ounce.  They work rather well.  They are somewhat easier to use, because you can feel the jig easier and therefore light taps will get detected.  They also show up better on the sonar.  Once I jigged with a guy from the Sander's board.  I with one ounce, he with 1 1/2.  He was outfishing me.  I figured out that with his heavier jig, he was getting on the bottom first and would get the first grab!  The 2 oz hopkins spoons are around, I am the king of buying cheap yard sale stuff.  The bigger jigs are not so good on Keuka, where the fish tend to run small.  Unless you are the headhunter sort, only wanting the trophies.

Pete Collin

www.pcforestry.com

Oops. This post was for the Lake Ontario section! I've already been on Keuka with Guff! These fish are three times bigger than those!

Hello All,

Since last year I have been excited to go after the lakers with light tackle again. The flat calm conditions made me decide to give it a go. I went out yesterday afternoon to dark. Now, I rarely get good laker action in the afternoon. But they predict flat calm for today too. So yesterday was for exploration. I found good numbers of bait and bottom blips in 80 to 90 feet of water. The sun will rise in an hour and I will be on top of them! The few that I managed to land we're very fat and gave a good boat side fight. I have to remember one thing. When the lakers are 100 feet down, you really can't set the hook hard enough. When they follow it up to 40 feet then bite, you have to set the hook much more gingerly!

Report to follow - a good one, I hope

Pete

Www.pcforestry.com

Doesn't NYS pay for taxidermy of state record fish?  Thought I heard that once.

he he thats a lot of story to tell how you tried to beat a old man out of a few bucks ,,,probly on SS and fixed income..selling a few things to survive..

 

 

......As said by another cranky, senile old coot who is also trying to sell a bunch of fishing stuff!

I strongly suspect that somebody from these boards will buy that stash.  Tell you what, if any of you do, will you sell me just the rapalas?  That's all I wanted in the first place!

Gambler,

Suddenly I feel like the dimwit!

I didn't want to haggle at all.  I wanted to give him the amount of money I promised for the number of lures he promised.  Anybody who buys standing timber from me will always get the board footage I advertised - and they can check my figures beforehand if they want.  There is embarassment in being caught in a lie.  The guy wasn't that old...maybe 60 or 65.  I just couldn't figure him.  If he had cussed me out, at least we would have been talking.  I'll never learn what was the deal with that guy.

I had a puzzling thing happen today.  It's completely insignificant, but I keep thinking about it.  My wife stopped pretending to listen when I talk about fishing, so I'll tell you guys about it.

I love rapala style stickbaits.  They work today just as good as they did when I first discovered them as a kid.  The design hasn't changed at all, which makes them both a nostalgic thing for me and a small thing I cling to in an ever-changing world.  Back when I was a kid and had no money, I would think "Three dollars for a plug?  Are you kidding me?"  Today I have a house, a career, and a savings account.  And I say,"Eight bucks for a plug?  Are you kidding me?"  I have found that if you keep a sharp eye, you can buy them for $1.50 to $2.50 here and there.  At which time I clean them out.

I found a guy on Craigslist with oodles of stickbaits for sale, some rapala and some other brands.  He wanted about $3.50 apiece for them.  He lives about an hour away from me.  I called his number and was greeted by an older gentleman with a thick southern drawl.  He seemed affable, if somewhat dim.  I proposed that, if I bought 100 dollars worth, would he be willing to drivedrive to some halfway point between us?  He countered that he would sell me 100 lures for $2.50 apiece, and drive halfway.  It seemed like a good deal, if maybe a little excessive on my part.  Then again, I could fulfill my rapala needs for a lifetime, or maybe share them with some friends.  So we set up a time.  I am a businessman, and like to be exact.  "So you're going to bring 100 lures, the ones in the picture, and I will bring $250, right?"  He said yes.  And I was off to our rendez-vous.

A car showed up at the designated time, and the old man got out with plastic boxes full of lures.  I saw that they were indeed the ones in the picture.  And I began counting.  "There's close to 100 in there," the man drawled.  I came up with 92.  Ninety two lures is not 100.  I was clearly time to renegotiate.  At my suggestion he come down on price, the old man, without a word, packed up his boxes and got in his car.  I've seen the song and dance.  I knocked on the window.  "C'mon, let's talk turkey."  He rolled down the window, said he didn't have to take that from me or anybody else.  The money didn't mean enough to him to put up with that. 

"I can sell these anytime!" 

"You can sell them right now.  I have money in my pocket."

We didn't argue for very long.  He actually did drive away.

My first thought was that, despite a bit of a drive out to meet him, the old southern guy saved me 250 dollars that I probably didn't need to spend.  But I was utterly flummoxed.  I made no insult that I could detect.  You show up to the bargaining table with less than you promised and you'd better be ready to renegotiate.  He probably could have talked me up to $250 if he stuck around.  The lures were clearly worth it.  But I caught him in a lie and I wasn't going to let it go unchallenged.  He had time and gas money invested in meeting me.  Who cares if he likes me or not?  He could have made the sale!

I am a Craigslist veteran and actually have had a good time of it.  Whether it's fishing stuff or woodshop equipment, you meet guys with similar interests and you will often meet a stranger and have a nice little visit in the end, showing off woodworking projects or telling fishing stories.  I get the feeling that the old guy wasn't even a fisherman, just one of those gypsies who buy and sell stuff like you see at the auctions and flea markets.  Otherwise he would have talked more fishing when I was on the phone with him.  But if he was just a wheeler/dealer, why wouldn't he bargain with me?  Like I mentioned, he struck me as a bit dense upstairs.  But it's amazing how smart some guys suddenly become when you reach for your wallet.  Just to break off and leave at the first sign of my displeasure was bizarre. 

Anyway, I probably just advertized his lures to all you guys.  Remind him to thank me if one of you wind up buying them.  Just be sure to count them first.

Pete Collin

www.pcforestry.com

Hello All,

In northern Maine, apparently hook-and-line fishing for smelt has gotten popular.  My cousin was describing handlining with bits of worm, then switching to smelt eyeballs for bait after you begin catching them.  I love eating smelt, and haven't had any in years.  Seems like a worthwhile experiment to take my kayak over there, with a portable fishfinder to locate schools, drop a line in and see what happens.

Doubt if i will be competing with many of you, so I was wondering if anybody could suggest a part of the lake where I might find bait schools in the summertime?  I've only been on Hemlock a few times and have never really fished it.  It's a little bit too big to paddle all over until I find smelt.  just looking to narrow the search down.

Thanks in advance.

Pete Collin
 

www.pcforestry,.com

I was thinking that the weekend fishing fleet would stand a better chance of finding something than the entire Coast Guard.

We should never forget how dangerous it can be out there.  The news report said that his cell phone was left in the truck.  Bad move.  Aside from all the required gear (fire extinguisher, flares, horn, life vests), a cell phone and charger, compass, bucket for bailing, GPS, emergency raingear, and a kicker motor can all make the difference between an annoyance and an international search and rescue.

Even something like a drift sock could keep your bow pointed into the waves if you found yourself without power.

There's a guy who launched out of Wilson harbor with his 16 footer and has been missing for 2 days now.  I really wish conditions were better for a search.  It's possible he's still alive, that his motor conked out and he's adrift out there.  But finding him is going to be tough in this rain and he is pretty exposed to the elements until he's found.

Wish my wife hadn't heard the story.  My boat is the same size as his and she worries.