John Kelley

Beautiful fish, nicely done!!

Crazy, I was getting 550' at the 30 degree line where I was at. I guess it all depends on the longitude line as well as the lattitude line. Of course my sonar hit the black screen of death from 475' to about 500' for some odd reason, and only the GPS was working. Then it came back fine after the 500' level. Very Twilight zoney!!

Indians in Nortern Quebec love to eat em. They make jewelry out of there gill plates, Resembles pearl.

It is actually their 'ear stones' or otoliths that the jewelry is made of. At the turn of the century they were commercially harvested in the Mississippi river and their ear stones were polished, drilled, and used for buttons. This was before the advent of plastics, of course.

Yeah, it is like they disappeared on Sunday. Must have moved out to even deeper water. Very few marks on my screen, baitfish or fish.

Sorry to hear about your troubles Captain Carl! I have had to dig trebles out of my hand and forearm before, so I can feel your pain, my brother! Good luck going forward, and I will see you out there this weekend!

Good friends, good family, and good fishing, it doesn't get any better than that, Kooter!! Congrats, and great story, man!

I have had no problem in the 6 in flies I have caught my biggest fish of the season on them. I am even trying a 4 inch then a 6 in on top of it this weekend. The alewives I have been seeing in the bellys of the salmon have been HHHHUUUUUUUUUUUge!!!

Exactly, now that is a good idea, and will make a nice 10" fly. I might try that this weekend as well. Yeah, those alewives are monsters alright, 9 to 12 inches I have been seeing !! I have been catching well on the 6" ITO flies as well.

Nicely done, I fish solo most of the time, and it is definitely a challenge to fight the fish, keep the boat away from other boats, and net the fish with one hand, but it is so rewarding when it pays off!!

My dream fishing right there!! Looks like you guys had a fantastic time. Bet you could feel itin the arms and backs the next day. Thanks for sharing that!!

Hmm different boat same water no hookup..?? I know every hour can be a different bite ,but maybe speed,depth of lure,fly length,,,Can ya think of anythime like that ..Or could be the fish don't like the smell of his boat and were just pickin on ya!!

I've fished the oak a few times and yer wasting yer time fishing the flats........................................Unless ya want steelies,browns,kings,cohos,Atlantics ,and lakers out of the same water.

P.S. good lesson Don,t expect fish in a Rookies Boat!

Ouch Ray, I can feel that scathing remark from here!! Glad it is directed at Shawn and not me!!

Nice report John! It was great meeting and fishing with you and Andrew and you summed it up well as to how good we fished together . I still think you should start your own boat rescue/towing service. Check with the Coast Guard about that flashing yellow light for your boat. Yesterday was one of those "humbling" days on Lake O! After all the consistent, awesome fishing we've had, it kinda sucked having all those hit-n-misses and dropped fish yesterday . That's fishin though. Although we didn't get that derby fish we were lookin for, we still had fun and a lot of laughs Unfortunately, I broke the micro SD card in my phone yesterday , so don't have any pics to add - sorry.

Shawn

Yeah, I just kind of expect to tow people in anymore!LOL Bummer about the phone! See you out there this weekend, if I can find a campground, the Cove is booked solid. Might have to try Erie, for those yellow fish, oh the shame!!LOL

Hey, congrats man, I knew you would get your first 20+ very soon. Feels pretty good, doesn't it!! Now you have to shoot for the TYEE with me. I am two pounds away from one!

I think you were looking for this pic of the spread

BTW, how's the finger doin??

That's awesome Andrew, but you still could not get the 2 leadcore rods, for the entire spread!LOL

PS. The finger is doing well, still super glued together. Stitches, smitches!LOL

John,

Great report. We will be up on Thursday afternoon and begin fishing the evening bite - might just have to borrow something from your report. I'm glad you didn't cry - Ray K would call you a "woose".

Haha, yeah I know, he's a tough customer!!LOL Now I have to go correct all of my early morning typos!LOL

That is so awesome, man! When you can't even close the box, you know you had a good day of fishing!

Fishing Report

Your Name / Boat Name: Slammin' SODAK

==============

TRIP OVERVIEW

==============

Date(s):7-13 afternoon through Sunday morning

Time on Water:6 hours friday, 12 hours saturday, 6 hours Sunday

Weather/Temp: Hot and sunny

Wind Speed/Direction: West friday evening and Saturday morning, Northeast saturday evening

Waves:

Surface Temp:

Location:

LAT/LONG (GPS Cords):

===============

FISHING RESULTS

===============

Total Hits: Lost count

Total Boated: Lost count as well

Species Breakdown: Kings and steelhead

Hot Lure: Spoons and Spinnies with flies

Trolling Speed: 2.5-3.0

Down Speed:

Boat Depth: 90-150'

Lure Depth: 80-85' on riggers and 225'-300' on wire dipsies

====================

SUMMARY & FURTHER DETAILS

====================

Got to the Captain's Cove on Friday afternoon, and put the boat in the water and got my room. I had already made plans to meet up the following morning with Shawn(FX) on here, and Andrew(Orangediablo), also from this site. I figured that I would go out Friday evening and do some pre-fishing before meeting with the guys Saturday morning. I got out there on the lake by 4:00 p.m. and started straight out from the breakwall. I setup in 80' FOW and kept trolling out to deeper water. Had a good rip on a Ratchet Jaw spoon off the downrigger at about about 5:15, but I didn't get a good hookset, and the fish unbuttoned after a short fight. Felt like a good fish, too. I didn't have another hit until about 7:35, when I caught a 5 pound steely on the same spoon. I was on the board! Captain Carl had texted me a pic of a beast his clients had caught back around 5:00 , so I was getting pretty jealous at this point! Then my downrigger with a spinny and fly fired off, and I caught my first respectable sized king at just over 15 pounds. That was a chunky female king that was succesfully released. Now I was truly on the board! I switched to all spinnies and flies in glow colors for the evening bite, on 2 downriggers and a wire diver rod. At about 8:00 p.m. my 85' downrigger released hard, and I was into a good fish that decided not to go on a blazing run the other way. No screaming drag, just a downward weight and then he started swimming toward the boat. Very hard to keep up with this fish on the reel, and keep tension on him. He came to the surface way too fast, and was at the rear of the boat with all of his fight still in him. I made the mistake of not bringing in my other lines, and he took full advantage of that. I did notice that this was also a very large fish, and possibly a derby contender. After doing the rod swap under and over rods for about ten minutes, and some dives under the boat, this fish finally had enough of me, and took a dive into my downrigger cable and cut my fly leader right off in about 2 seconds. I wanted to cry, but decided that was not very manly, so I set up another fly instead, put my rod back out, and continued trolling. Right before the sun went down, my wire diver took a major slam, and I was into another good fish. This time I loosened my drag up and let the fish run, while I reeled up the two rigger rods and got them and the cables out of the way! This fish ended up being over the 20 pound mark, and I released him back into the lake. I then called it a night and headed back to the Oak. Upon entering the creek mouth, I noticed a sailboat listing around strangely, and then I heard a voice, so I cut my engine, and a man asked me if I could tow him to the dock. I said sure, and after bumbling around in the dark for a few minutes and hitting my prop on the rocks , we figured out his rope system, and dragged him safely to his dock. Quite the Friday evening, to be sure!!

The next morning I met Shawn and Andrew at the dock by the Black North, and they jumped in, and we were off. Since Shawn was the most experienced local, I let him guide us to some of his spots. He likes to fish east of the mouth by the flats, and the glass house. That is where we trolled all morning. I set up all 4 downriggers, 2 wire divers, and we put two leadcore lines (all 10 colors) out on the boards. First fish to fire was off of one of the leadcore rigs and Andrew pulled in the first King of the day @ 15 pounds. Then we had a slew of Steelhead action on leadcore and wire lines for about an hour, from 5-8 pounds. Most of our bites were coming off of spoons this morning, and the flies were mostly untouched, except for a steelhead on one. Shawn pulled in a nice 20 pound King off of one of the manual riggers that was down about 65' and it hit a carbon-14 spoon. Then I think Andrew caught another 15 pound King off another downrigger, and we lost a nicer fish near the back of the boat that was probably mid twenties. The boys had to be back in to the dock by around noon, so I dropped them off with 3 kings in the box, and one deep hooked steelhead. Andrew wanted the fish, so we gave them to him, after filleting them on my cooler. For three guys who had never met before, or fished together before, I was impressed by how good we fished as a team!! Perfect synchronicity, like a well oiled machine! Only one or two minor line tangles as well, with 8 rods out. Not too shabby!! We boated 3 mid sized kings, a few skippies, and I think around 7 or 8 steelhead. Not the best morning for big fish, but we had fun and plenty of action and laughs.

I went back to the Cove for awhile, dumped our fish heads at their cleaning station, re-grouped, made a trip to Albion for some supplies, and was back on the water by 4:00 p.m for the evening bite. Saw Captain Carl on the Salmo Salar on the way out, and he told me the wind had changed, and was picking up from the Northeast. I told him thanks, and headed out of the Chute and to the west a little. I put out my two riggers and one diver rod, and trolled in circles from 95' to 135' until I started seeing fish in about the 105' to 120' area. Diver rod started thumping hard in 105' fow with a nice screamer on. I tried to get the other rods out of the way as best I could on this fish, and eventually netted a nice 23.5 pound male at around 5:30 p.m. Switched to all flies by about 6:00 p.m., all glow colors. 6:30 p.m. my 80' downrigger fired off with white and green dot spinny and pearl colored fly. Fish wrapped in my other two lines before I could clear them, but I still almost got it to the net. It threw the hook back at me about 4' out from the net. Looked to be between 15-18 pounds. Got all set back up and kept trolling. About 8:00 p.m. my 85' rigger fired off on a real screamer! This fish ripped off 300' of line in a couple of seconds, and I knew I had a good one on! After a long fight, during which I got my other two lines out of the way again, I netted a nice 28 pound male, my biggest yet. I was so beat after that guy, that I decided to call it a night!

Shawn FX asked me if I wanted to fish out of his boat Sunday, so I agreed to do that. We met up at the dock at just after 5, and headed out in his Penn Yan. Boat is really set up nice for fishing. Well, to make a long story shorter, we had one of those "Can't seem to hook anything" days!! We had several releases and fires, but only managed to boat one 22 pound king and a 6 or 7 pound brown. We said goodbye around noon, and headed our separate ways. All in all, a very succesful and fun filled weekend for me!! Met a couple of really great guys, and good anglers, caught some big fish, and had some laughs. Can't ask more from Lake Ontario, for sure!!

Awesome report again Carl, I will be up there tonight, hopefully for the evening bite, but certainly for tomorrow and Sunday!!

Wow, mister Bfuller, you need to start selling those at Captain's Cove and Narby's!!! I will bet they sell out in no time!!! Great looking spoons!!

I finally got sick of dealing with the inline boards for those reasons, and switched to the mast style boards instead. Much less of a headache in my my opinion!

Do any of you guys recommend mono over braided or wire line when using a dipsy?

Absolutely, and positively NOT!! Wire is the way to go, but like has been stated earlier, it takes a little learning, but nothing like experimenting and learning as you go, right?

mark wiffy still not up to par so i couldnt abandon her......i always run rigger, dypsy programs but on the riggers i run them back 125 to 150 ft seem to do well with long leads ..problem is i get mostly bigger fish... always tossed back the under 4lbs size after eatin some 17 to 25 in fish im gonna be tossin back anything over 4 lbs....oh well live and learn..

Yeah Ray, I thought everyone knew that the 2 & 3 pounders are the best eaters!! Of course, I grew up in walleye country!!LOL

Great hook resistance. But heavy.

Yeah, they are great if you are netting someone else's fish, but are hard to do one handed, because they are so heavy. I love mine when I am trolling crankbaits, because the lures do not become a mess in the net once the fish is landed. I have landed salmon up to 15 pounds in mine as well, as they do stretch to accomodate bigger fish. Should be just fine on the Finger Lakes.

Blood knot.

Good luck and be prepared for an addiction like no other. These salmon are NOT the walleyes you're used to catching.

Paul

716-390-0085

Have to agree 100% with Paul on that, and I used to be a huge walleye guy! Wait until you feel the pull of these salmon they call "Kings", and you will never be the same again!!!LOL

You don't need florocarbon for flashers, you could run bailing wire to the flashers and they will hit it -- flashers and flys are not a stealth program.

Exactly, and these fish are not squeamish little walleyes!LOL