rolmops

I hit the lake around 4pm and trolled west to the Genny over 50 fow with plenty of bait at around 30 feet. Half way to the barge at the dumping ground I hooked into a king using a 6'' storm shad on 5 lengths of leadline.It was maybe a 15 pounder. I felt like experimenting and took out my Cape Cod striper rig which is a 7 foot Penn Black Sabre rod with carboloid guides and a Penn senator 112 loaded with 600 feet 40# stainless single strand wire.I put on a 3 ounce bucktail jig (chartreuse) and going at about 2.5 knots with 300 feet out I started jigging as if fishing for stripers.It must have been about 40 foot down.It got me another king,this one a little bigger,but then everything died. On the way back to the bay there was a lot of bait right on the surface with plenty of big fish along with them but no more takers. All in all a nice afternoon

Today I checked the engine electronics and they checked out fine,I checked fuel delivery and found that the check valve in the fuel line ball had gone bad. After I turned off the engine for a bit to drift fish and tried to start her up again,I could not deliver fuel to the engine at the needed rate.In fact the faulty check valve prevented proper fuel delivery. Oh well,at least it did not cost an arm and a leg.

The original plan was to go to I-bay and maybe sneek out into lake Ontario but with the wind picking up that plan was canned.Instead I went to Owasco Lake and launched from the south end. Things went well and 2 nice lakers went into the cooler (trolling pike minnows).In the meantime the north wind had picked up there as well and it turned quite nasty.While trying to make it back to the south end,my engine conked out(water,muck from the bottom of the tank??) and it was paddle time.It got me to shore about a quarter mile south of a small private ramp.I had to get up to my rear end in the water and drag the boat (19 footer) to that ramp. All in all a cold and nasty adventure,but an adventure none the less.

Which "warmer water"????? It just looks like we have to wait until the next heavy spring rains for some warmer water. I did sneak out into Irondequoit Bay on Sunday and we got 3 nice steelhead and one brown ,all on Howie flies. The steelhead are dropping back out of Irondequoit Creek.

Gobys do not have a swim bladder.They will hardly ever go higher than 12 inches above the bottom and even then they go straight back to the bottom.Trolling with goby like lures does not make a lot of sense.If you want to jig,do it close to structure like rock piles or harbor walls and the like.Never go deeper that 20 feet,beyond that you waste your time. It is amazing how many bass and browns you will catch and how well fed these fish are. The big drawback is that gobys hang out on the bottom exactly where lampreys wait in ambush to get to the fish that we are after.

I prefer the Penn black Sabre rod with carboloid guides.I use it with a Penn Senator 113. The reel has about 150 feet of backing and 600 feet of 40 or 50 pound test single strand wire line.I use 3 and 5 ounce bucktails.In fact it is the exact same setup I use for striped bass in Cape Cod bay.This is a jigging setup.I jig while trolling and the salmon really like it.

The jet skier may have been found ,but Monday night a fisherman fell into the Genny and was swept along with the current.His body has yet to be found.

I have used live sawbellies in Keuka and Seneca lake with great results.The lake trout and the landlocked Atlantic salmon love them.I troll them with leadline at 90 feet down about 10 to 12 colors out with 6 foot fluorocarbon leaders. I wish we could buy live sawbellies in Rochester.

Seeing that I will be going out of the Genny,I am sure that there are absolutely no fish in that area.That is, between six in the morning and 2 in the afternoon. Chances are that they will start biting once I am off the water.