Sk8man

Roughly 2.1-2.3 I believe

Signalman and I gave the fish another shot this AM from 6:30 -12N on my boat fishing the north end both sides. Once again lots of marks and bait but we had to work for active fish. We started out with 2 downriggers with sliders 2 leadcores one 5 color and 1 10 color off boards and two wires with spinneys and flies. Early on I thought one of my wires was messed up with a downrigger and when the downrigger was released it had a good bend and then the fish started stripping line so here I was playing "rod hog" with the first fish of the day It put up a good scrap on the downrigger and turned out to be a 30 1/2 inch10 lb laker that took the same blue taped Great lakes 44 that took the laker the other day. He was released to fight another day and seemed none the worse for wear. A while later we caught another laker on the rigger about 3-4 lbs which was released, and then another on the leadcore.5 color off the Walleye board on a green taped Great Lakes 44. We had to make a couple runs and passes up north to get fish to hit but pulled through all kinds of bait and fish along the way on both sides of the lake. We trolled along the high banks area and the grass floating and submerged as well became worse and worse as we trolled south along the east side and it got into everything we had out and lines had to be cleared and reset multiple times so we pulled up and powered north again and reset going from northeast to southwest and Mike was up to bat next and a 4-5 lb rainbow hammered the Sutton 44 with green tape on a slider. We boxed him for my buddy John's smoker. We trolled along for quite some time without anything happening and then went back north and came back through the marked fish and bait on the west side and I switched out a leadcore for a 250 copper down the chute with a taped up Sutton 44 and I no longer turned around from setting the rod in the holder and the drag started screaming on the copper and the fish stayed down so I suspected a laker but when I had it about half the way in it was clearly a rainbow about the same size as the first rainbow and we got a real good look at him when he surfaced and spit the hook. That was about it for the day and we headed in. Only tiny bit of flea action noted but the grass was really bad going south. Beautiful day out there. Good luck to you folks fishing the FLT tournament this weekend and I hope this post helps out in terms of info if the weather doesn't change too drastically. No action on the wires by the way run from 90 ft out to 200 out with green/white combinations>

Hey Jim I have the dual rod holders on mine if you look close in the pic from yesterday. The only advantage to stackers over a slider is that you can make them longer but that also has its disadvantages in terms of tangles and as Lucas pointed out often the release is at the bottom one so the top one may get tangled. I did it for years way back when but now I just use sliders.....much less screwing around and opens options up for running other stuff. I do keep about a dozen pre-rigged sliders rolled up on a small piece of foam noodle though and if I have a tangle with the main line I just cut off the swivels pull the slider line off and throw it away and rig with another off the foam.

Thanks guys...going back at it tomorrow to see if I can figure out the silvers somehow.

Good report. As for the hookup problem.... I switched over nearly all my spoons to SINGLE siwash salmon hooks years ago to decrease that problem and I seldom if ever have hookup difficulties. The other thing is that you have to periodically examine each hook point on your lures for sharpness and sharpen accordingly. It could be the angle the pic was taken of the two lures but the bottom one doesn't look sharp to me. Also the trebles are pretty large which can assist the fish in working two of the hooks against the one that has them hooked with their mouth pressing on them....another reason I favor hardened stainless single hooks as they penetrate easier and deeper in general. Another factor with the leadcore may be the fact that at certain speeds the leadcore may be whipping up and down in the water column in such a way that the fish is having difficulty actually grabbing onto the spoon as it is pulled away from him/her (want to be politically correct ) Rainbows have soft mouthes too so if it happens to be them and they are "lip hooked" they are on briefly then off.

Your "assumption " is the way I'd do it (and is my current setup)

Very nice! I have to admit I'm a bit jealous My in-laws sold their place in Eastham/Orleans last Fall and moved to Clearwater Florida and we had been going there a couple weeks at a time for the past 30 years in style. Guess I''ll have to start saving up now to rent a place ....The Cape is just like home to me and it sure is a blast fishing there. Nice fluke and they are truly great eating and Falmouth is a neat little town too.

First of all congratulations John! Man...you really did up the honeymoon... cool....I'm not sure on the derby details and have never fished that one but I'm sure someone on here will know. Hopefully we'll be able to chat in person at the ramp one of these days soon. Thanks for the "vote of confidence" Best of luck. Les

Yeah Mike John saw the pic Bob did and it scared him straight

It works very well but if the fleas are really bad they will adhere to anything.

I think you three guys got it right in terms of the problem and the solution :lol:

I'll bet we could a little more interesting if we had some of those chicks in the ads

Yeah Mark we had a couple too while out there....hope my gut isn't as bad as that one (sucking in stomach as I say it ) I guess you are right Hop and Kim would probably agree....tough for us old dudes to stay in shape

Paul, He was seated and He looked about 40 ish maybe dark hair and by himself on white sailboat that is about all I remember I was so busy I didn't get a name on his boat or anything but he seemed very amused when he did it.....certainly not "accidental" and it looked as though he launched from German Bros.

Paul I had the same thing exactly happen a couple weeks ago (solo) near German Brothers with boards out and I had waved my arms, yelled etc. to get his attention so he smiles and then turns right at me again. I didn't have an eleven year old in the boat and I took full advantage of the fact and really let him have it verbally including a few hand gestures for good measure....He just laughed and went along his merry way. Probably could have fried and egg on my head

Launched early from the Chamber with my buddy John and had 6 lines trolling by 5:45 AM headed south on west side. 2 riggers with sliders, a 10 core,a 5 core and 2 wires with spinneys. Trolled for about an hour before first fish - laker about 3 lbs on wire rig out120 on green home made fly. Another good hit on same rod half hour later off before could get to rod. About 2 hrs later pulled lines went back north reset with different spoons etc. At about the same spot as last laker another same size on downrigger set at 45 with Great Lakes #44 spoon with dark blue tape. later another hit and gone same lure. Trolled across lake to east side wind calmed a bit trolled south toward Sampson as during the whole troll from north end marked all kinds of bait and fish suspended mostly within 30-60 ft range but couldn't get them to hit no matter how many lure changes or presentations or changes in trolling directions. Finally just as reaching Sampson park downrigger set at 50 peels line and at first I thought it was a good rainbow or landlock but then it dove toward bottom and repeatedly peeled line multiple times...all the while staying down...then I thought maybe a good brown or big laker....the next head shakes and I was thinking laker....sure enough a big fat laker about 9 lbs on the Great Lakes 44 again (released unharmed). All three lakers had pot bellies and have obviously been chowing heavily out there. . The availability of bait is pretty incredible and a lot of the marks we saw in large numbers suspended with and near bait suggested silver fish to me with lakers below. I think it indicated pretty strongly that there is way too much food readily available to the fish out there that it explains to some degree why they won't hit when trolling (i.e. minimal energy expenditure). I took a few representative (and quite usual screenshot examples out there today) so folks can see what I mean. Never had a touch on the cores regardless of lures used or how run (off boards or straight, down chute etc.) ran the 10 color in various ways (number of colors - nothing). John kept the 2 smaller lakers for the smoker. P.S. Very light fleas noted but the grass (several kinds) was terrible out there attached to everything

WTG some great fishing

Nice going and thanks for the report