idn713

Yah I fully understand that. I will tell you to jump in full throttle. It is so much fun and honestly, one of the easier types of hunting to go out and do with pretty consistent action. Plus it seems like the last type of hunting where people will happily give you permission. I am about 3 real seasons in and it is quickly becoming one of my favorite types of hunting. If you have any questions about a thermal scope, send me a message. I did an insane amount of research and I'm on my second scope lol. There are a lot of gimmicks out there and one of the biggest things you need to worry about is base magnification.

You will want a thermal optic as well. The scanner gets you in half the game, but if you consistently want yotes, you want to stay dark. Foxes don’t mind the red or IR lights near as much.

Gotta love November! Hunting in Irondequoit for the deer reduction program through the Irondequoit PD. Was hunting off Seneca Park Ave (just loaded with bucks) and I saw an absolute slammer (out of range, along with a couple of other nice bucks that I passed on November 4th. I texted my buddy Manny about one of the decent ones I passed and he was like “you should have shot that one”. So with those words ringing in my head I got back in there on Nov 7 and sure enough that buck presented me a chance at 19 yards around 8 AM, put an arrow in him and filled my archery tag! Always wild to shoot a decent buck right in the middle of Rochester, I do love hunting the city sometimes! Attached is the picture of when I passed him and then obviously when we wasn’t so lucky lol.

Jason Eve on Union Street outside of Spencerport. He is between Whittier and Stony Pt Road.

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.