idn713

Got out this morning to explore some offshore water and hopefully get on some chewing kings. Got setup in 430 fow and immediately nailed a 7-8 lb king. After that I really wanted to make a run and started heading for 500+, but along the way my graph started acting funky along the military exercise zone. So I spent a good 2.5 hours screwing with my graph trying to dial my settings back in after an accidental hard reset (such a stupid morning). Feeling frustrated and defeated I chugged back into 115 after dealing with my graph. Immediately picked off a laker and a nice steelhead. Feeling encouraged I began to work the laker pods but took the opportunity to jig any high mark. The high marks were snappy and they resulted in an additional Atlantic, small king, and a dropped species that I will assume was another steelhead. I picked up another laker to end the day and packed it up! Once again, jigging to silver fish really is the deal. They bite quick and readily, finding them is actually most of the battle. The stupid Lake Ontario Lakers are actually proving to be the hardest of the species to actually get to commit considering the numbers of them out there and how many lookers you get! Ended the day 6/7. All fish came on the spoon that must not be named until a later date 😉

57 degree water started down 83. It’s a wall of 71 degree water until about 75ft down.

Made a quick trip each morning with Manny. We expected garbage after the big blow and that’s exactly what we found. Kings are scattered to the wind and not around like they were a week before. They will return but this made for a tough outings. 8/14 ground out two lakers and missed two more. 8/15 nailed a beauty brown, a nice laker and sniped just about the only king we marked! Still getting it done in really tough conditions!

Smashfest this morning

You mentioned something about not wanting to troll. Yah I feel that with every fiber in my bones! Once you have a mature king blast a jig on bass tackle, you don't really want to do anything else. And Manny and I seemed to stumble onto something fun, everyone else is quickly refining it! Like you and Tommy!

Oh yea baby! You sure that aint a forty pounda?

Nice work out there!

Decent bite this morning. Had to work to find them but once we located the willing wolf packs we sniped the active fish. My brother went 3/5 with the Lake O salmon slam, and I went 4/7 with three kings and laker. Not bad as the screens were not super full of fish all morning.

I gotta watch my back with the numbers you put up!

No, this is the first year I am giving it an effort. I’m sure it works quite well on stagers. That’s how the majority of people in Michigan jig them, is when they stage off the harbors.

With these pelagic fish they want flutter and unpredictable. They never hit on a straight retrieve but they absolutely hit on a fast pop up. So as long as it’s a sharp pop one way or another, they will smack it.

I would say its pretty snappy

Hi Joel, They are the 2oz EJ Jigs from mission lures. You can buy them online or at Sportsmans Warehouse. Pretty much any heavy jigging spoon would work though.

Hahah I never doubt that. When you are out, you are on fish. Jig em sometimes!

lol, dream screen

So far I’ve preferred to not spot lock. Slow the drift with bags to cover more water and then use a heavy jig to stay verticalish. The major key is finding the depth zone you want, once you find fish, they bite pretty easy. Unless the wind is absolutely dead, staying vertical is kind of a pipe dream. Up to this point the kings haven’t minded a slight line angle but once the angle gets too great, you can tell the jig isn’t falling right and they lose interest.

It’s a ton of fun

Welp, went out solo this morning to make up for my abysmal landing rate with Manny yesterday. Started today trying to get on some fish and I found them in the depths that had been working but they were incredibly negative. Wanted nothing to do with the jig early on and I wondered if they were full from feeding in the full moon all night. Kept at it for the next hour and after the sun got up it was game on. I went 7-10 on kings with some absolute studs that weighed in at 19 and 23 lbs. The fights were fantastic and they were blasting the jig hard. I was darn near wore out toward the end of the trip! Bass tackle just doesn’t wear the kings out like the trolling gear does! I also tagged an additional three lakers for a solid morning of 10 fish boated and 13 hooked. A much better landing ratio!

This was me on the boat this morning with how many fish I lost.

They definitely get into them on the west coast and I think you are right. Whether if it’s a single or a treble I believe upsizing is the key. Basically give them something that will really stick them with minimal effort.

Got out with a buddy this morning for a quick jig trip. The scouting today revealed stacked bait inside 80 and very deep temp (55° down 90) as a result of the water shift the salmon seemed scattered and marks were hard to come by. Managed one king on jig down 30 over 120, another one took my jig and got away with it lol. Had an additional fish take two shots but no hookup on him. My buddy had one light swipe but no real opportunity. Most marks we saw were in 120 ish and then in 160. But again, screen just let us know that jigging was gonna be tougher today as we never really found them. Called it a morning at 8:40am. It’s become clear that jigging just flat out works. Kings readily and hungrily look to take the vertical jig when you find them. In fact I would wager they are easier to get to bite than these lazy Lake Ontario Lakers. Really the two challenges are hooking them well and finding fish to jig to. Otherwise, it’s very effective at enticing bites. In 5 jigging outings we have landed 10 kings, 3 Lakers, 1 coho and 1 steelhead. In that same time span we have done well over 30 bites. Exciting to dial this in and make it a workable strategy!

Great work!!

I spot lock over some fish, mostly when there are multiple marks on a bait ball. Otherwise I drift jig to cover water and find marks. I’m not motoring to marks, I’m motoring to certain depths and then drifting. Based on the drift activity, I decide what depths to work. I am very much NOT blind jigging. My eyes are one my electronics the whole time and I mark almost every fish I hook. As far as hooks go, I believe I need to upsize as the hooks that typically come with these jigging spoons run small. I think with the fluttering fall, and smaller hook, the kings just don’t get pinned really well a lot of the time.

Welp back at it again, and man I gotta figure out a different hook for these jigs. I got rocked by 7-8 kings today and dumped every single one a few seconds after hookup. Frustrating to say the least but very encouraging to know that I can pretty regularly manufacture bites jigging! Last night in a very relaxed jigging effort I went 4-5 on kings so maybe I was just due for a goofy morning. In any case I went 3-11 on my hookups. Managed a gorgeous fat coho and two bonus Lakers. Jigging Ontario is so darn fun!

I am not sure it matters as much as getting it in front of the right fish but we have used a variety of jigs. The ones that have worked so far are the real image bass pro spoons in 2 oz and the mission tackle EJ jigs in 2 oz. We are sticking with 2 oz as of now in order to maintain vertical as best as possible given the current and drift.