bridget

Came up for another weekend of camping and fishing at the Oak. Stopped at Narby's Friday night on the way to Tillmans for dinner. Had to pick up some hot spoons. J-Plugs and Spin Doctors last weekend surprisingly took at back seat to the spoons. Reports were not encouraging. Dinner was awesome. Saturday A.M. started about where we left off last week in about 70 FOW. Screen looked great. Just got the program set up with two J-Plugs, two Spin Doctors and two spoons. Dipsey takes off (220 #3) with a glow Spin Doctor. Coming in a great shape after taking out a lot of line and then off. Got set back up about at the ladders and Bridget see the best screen of the year. Just as she say's it the 275 Copper with spoon goes. Nice Steelhead. We make it down about a mile east to last weeks waypoint and have to turn sharply with the bottom coming up and the 200 #3 Dipsey takes off. Landed a nice 20 lb. king, but had a heck of a mess in view of the hit on the turn. But all is good. Next two hours (as typical) in inside screen kind of evaporates. Not far from the point Bridget entered with the Steelhead episode, just a little deeper, the copper with spoon takes off (300ft). Boated another 20lb. king with the lake coming up some and the sky getting dark. We decide to pull line and motor back west so we could troll with it and back through the way points. After pounding the waves we decide to call a morning. Reports from the other boats coming in the launch were zip. We had to go to a BD party on Sunday so that was a sleep in. Waking up and looking out on the lake, not disappointed. Fishable but didn't look good with a good NE breeze. Monday A.M. set back up in 70 FOW and screen looked not as good as Saturday, but a lot of bait and smaller hooks 30 to 50. Lake was beautiful but after an hour not many boats left inside. Since we have to break camp by 11 decide not to go off shore. Hard to rely on the radio on scan but didn't sound like much going on. We took a nice steelhead in 95 FOW/55 down on DR and spoon. Had one more rip on the 200 Copper, but not on long Pulled the lines at 9:30. Nothing close to last Labor Day weekend or even last weekend, but hey, we got out both days as planned. Two weeks out we go to Black Lake for a week of pan fishing. May hit the Oak of Sodus next weekend. Probably will wrap it up in Canadaigua after Black Lake for some Bows and foliage for a couple of weeks. All and all a good season thus far. We love camping and fishing out of the Oak or Sandy. Sandy was very good earlier in the season. Good luck to all.

Sodus May 5 Shakedown The Good, The Bad & The Ugly Between Projects at Work and at Home, sorry to say we just got to our shakedown voyage on Sunday. Almost made it out the weekend before but decided to do a little extra on waxing up the boat and getting things ship shape. The lack of glowing reports fishing wise helped make that decision. Was up in the air about where to go until late Saturday Night. Was thinking of pre-fishing North End of Seneca prior to derby, but the calm lake conditions and a chance at a king or two made our decision Sodus. When our campers ready next week, we will probably do most of our big lake fishing at Sandy and the Oak. The fishing seems more consistent there. Sandy has a lot of structure off Devils Nose and deep water is closer to shore. We fish Sodus or Hughes these days mainly because it is closer to home and a short trip, not to say those ports can offer some great fishing as well. Being the shakedown adventure we didn’t get an early start. Got to the Point about 6:45 and surprised to see only two trailers in the lot by the Coast Guard station and no boats making their way out of the channel. Not a good sign on a beautiful weekend morning. The Good Lake was perfect for a shakedown if not fishing with just a ripple. Didn’t see a boat in less than 60 FOW, but not surprised at that with the clear water. Engine and Electronics happy to say were working fine and started setting lines at about 50 FOW straight out of the chute. No bait but a few scattered hooks. Set up four Downriggers, a Dipsey and a Copper(when a started to mount my planner board mast at launch, Bridget wasn’t overly keen on “fooling†with boards today, so I put it back in the truck – bad move?). Just got the last line in at 100 FOW and the DR at 80 ft went off. Put a laker in the box and thought we off to a decent day? Got set back up and took over the helm. The Bad Marked essentially nothing out to 160 FOW so turned it around and headed back in. Got back in about 120 FOW and started seeing a few scatterd marks, but again no bait. We zig zagged west from about 95 to 130, but not much on the screen and no hits. Not much chatter on the radio (more on this) but didn’t sound like much activity out deeper and by the looks of it many of the boats out deeper were heading back in. Got to about just west of Maxwell and turned it back East. No concentration of boats anywhere, at least to be seen. Eventually got two rips on the Dipsey, but nothing there. Easy to say now, but should have keep going North (probably would have if we had the boards), or perhaps even gave the bay a try for browns. Decided at about 11 to pack it in and call it a day. Very disappointing we didn’t get a chance this year for early season browns and coho in close, love to start off that way with good action on the shore line, kind of a right of spring. Hopefully next year will be ready sooner. We used to start off Gina in mid March, but that I guess is history? Many seasons however the Brown Trout Fishing at Sodus in the channel and bay has been great in May and early June. Probably at about 9:30 should have gave that a shot, but that’s the always the interesting thing about this fishing, you have to be ready to make decisions. Three and a half hours of fishing in an area catching one fish is a bad move, no ways about it. The Ugly I started fishing the big lake in the mid 1970’s and was member of the Sodus Point Deep Trollers. We had some good times back in the day with everyone on the CB Radio and we did a lot talking about fishing and joking around, but no profanity. In the last few years, even with the VHF on scan, the chatter seems to be get less and less (I think now many of the regulars text and talk on the cell). Very disturbing Sunday to hear on the VHF, “reports†like “we are fxxxing hammering them†and “ you should see the size of the fxxxing fishâ€. Nice for the wife or grandkids to hear isn’t it. Was encouraging however to hear some other boats telling the moron to clean up his act. Speaking about ugly, when I checked one of the high (30 ft) Down Rigger lines I found it tangled with the 300 foot copper. I probably could have voiced some expletives, but didn’t. Note to self – don’t run long DR leads with a copper down the chute, even on a calm day. The Good Again? Back “in the day†we would get some hot fishing from the Ice Out until the end of April and things would shut down for weeks. After that the Steelhead fishing would pick up offshore on the scum lines along with BT in the bay and then off the points. Last year it didn’t seem to drop off with the King bite at 150 to 250 FOW. But last year was different. Sure the fish are somewhere out there, just need to find them. Good fishing.

Tom. Nice Report. Took the camper in today to get it "summerized". Going yto try it in the A.M.. Not sure where yet. Mike

We are new to the forum as well but appreciate so much the tips and reports. We bounce around between the big lake and different Finger Lakes, so nice for diversity, but as we know things change so fast, hard to keep track, which is why the reports are so useful.....thanks everyone Two weeks ago we camped and fished Sandy Creek on the big lake, last week Cayuga (Deans Cove). The fishing there was great. The two of us ran 3 DR 2 Dipseys and one Copper. We limted out by 10 (with throw backs) with very large LT, but amazingly with 10 hits, 8 were from the one wire (300ft). One on the DR and one on the Dipsey (both times while hooked up on the wire). Thought about changing the program to browns and LL, but the with the heat decided to call it a day. The Dipsey was with SD Fly, others all spoons. Best action was about 200 fow, 60 to 70 down. I think if we moved in closer and fished higher in the water column we may have got some browns and LL, but I'm guessing? First time we fished Cayuga this yeAR. I just started last year with the Lead Core and Copper, but from what I have seen on the big lake and the FL, Lead Core, Copper and Dipsey's for outfish the DRs by far. I wish I had swapped onE of DR for lead core, but with all of the action never did. THanks everyone for the reports.

Was up in air about fishing Sodus or prefishing Seneca before the derby. With what looked to be the poorest reports seen this year for Ontario, decided on Seneca. Launhed at Geneva and headed to the Pump House. Fished 2 DR, 2 Dipsey, 1 Copper and a Board for the two of us. First Laker was 40 down just south of the Pump House. Turned around and took two in a row on the copper down the chute 225 back. Had one going on wire dipsey and it didn't trip, just throbed. Made a big mistake of giving a jerk to trip and broke the wire (kink?). No problem tripping on prior trip at Sodus with the Kings. Was a jerk to do that! Took another Laker 60 down on the DR. Trolled another hour with nothing. Much bait just off high banks but no takers. Packed it in just after 10. Fished between 50 and 100 fow. All and all an enjoyable day to be out. Hope next weekend brings the same. Not much seen as far as fish taken or radio reports. Only saw one fish on the surface and no hit on the one top line. Will run Lead Cores off the boards I think next time.