Dan1

Trolling in January lol nice. Awesome job on the tank brown as well as the catch and release.

Sounds like the red barn area was hot. I had pretty much the same luck as jpiatkowski on Saturday. Dropped a BIG steelhead in 175 FOW out front, several short strikes and only boated one teenage king with a lamprey attached to it. Seems like olcott is very hit or miss this year.

Yeah everything inside 120 was a lot of trash and current, had to clear lines regularly. Maybe I'll head out east if I go this weekend. Gotta try to avoid the crowds too.

Also, were you trolling at 1.5 mph or 2.3?

Sounds like a pretty good day, nice report. I like that spin doc and fly setup. Was this report from the weekend or today?

Headed west and dropped rigs in around 200 FOW. That area was decent a few days ago, but things changed up a bit. Water seemed kinda dead so we headed north for a while. Boated a smaller steelie in 260 FOW. 50 down on the rigger pulling a seasick waddler. Next fish, another steelie, was in 300 FOW. 40 down on the rigger pulling a spoon I made. A little while later, the diver went off and we boated a small king. Pro troll FF setup. Everything cooled off after 10:30 so we headed south in search mode. Picked up a decent steelie on a 10 color in 175 FOW. We checked out the inside water and marked a ton of bait and hooks. I figured they were browns but not totally sure. I was hoping the lake would be fairly set up by now and I wished we could have gotten into some big kings, but a four fish day isn't too bad. It seems to me that things are still a bit scattered and the water needs a little time to improve. Let me know what your thoughts are on how the lake is setting up, quality of fishing, etc. Feel free to post any comments or additional reports. Tight lines!

One variable is not in the realm of anyone's control. We as thinking, scientific, data collection beings, will never be able to count on repeatability of one thing...another beings brain. The fish. You can have it all perfect on 100 boats, and 100 other boats not so perfect. The results still depend on the fish. The fish is mostly creature of habit, thinks slightly, reacts mostly. How it reacts is based upon a lot of variables not related to speed, depth, direction, temperature or type of lure on what deployment. We capitalize on most of the habits to increase our odds. Kind of like playing roulette on a table with a biased wheel. The ball falls on a known number more often than not, and it wins most of the time...until the wheel is moved to a different table on another day. Another brain has changed the winning program, like the fish do. A lot about a fish action is related to the masses of its kind it swims with. Either laying out of temp reacting to nothing or opposite reaction spectrum, a feeding frenzy brought on by its piers like a riot. Even half the boats doing everything wrong except scaring fish...another science on avoidance..will be marginally successful when the feed bag is on. Getting a negative fish to react has as much to do with a fisherman's persistence as it does having data and presentations. Having the will to find that roulette wheel and bring the known data to win again.

Some days you will use that data and find that win of fish other days we will find that school and the bias is not there, but persistent trying will one day pay again using what we know, but you still will never really know without data, its communication with others,(THANKS Yankee Rick and others like him)....and persistence. In the end, the uncontrolled variable is a fishes brain that controls our success. 15000 dollars electronic equipment or not.

I like data, so I feel better having as much as I can afford to help me win, sometimes it doesn't, and sometimes something rookie wins. That's what makes this fishing so fun on so many levels that anyone can play and win on their own level. Down speed?., if you don't have it, don't worry, at some point your lure is right and you are at a close speed, AND....the fish will be in a frenzy right where you are.

Mark

This basically sums it all up in my opinion. Well said, Mark.

As if the addiction to fishing wasn't enough. Now I'll be addicted to tying the rigs that catch said fish lol. Thanks for the info guys, eventually I'll post some pics of the fish I catch (with any luck) on some hand tied flies. Tight lines!

I've been thinking about tying my own flies to run behind SDs or ProTrolls. Just wondering what your thoughts were for the guys who tie their own. Also was wondering what kind of hardware or terminal tackle you'd use. Not totally sure where to start. I'm guessing it wouldn't save a ton of money but I think it'd be something fun to try.

I'd go with the president. In my experience it has been very durable and has a smooth drag, very affordable as well.

Tom Brady is eager to put his hands on some balls no matter what size/shape they are.

I'm out right now, got out a little late probably 9 or so. Boated one small king on a spoon of the rigger, a diver with an SD took a shot but no one home. 50-120 FOW

I'm honestly shocked that more people didn't say 42 second.

I bought the torpedoes and they had almost zero blow back. However I had to switch back to the sharks because my downrigger motors couldn't handle the weight. I think I might upgrade the motors.

I also was hitting sub 40 degree water when I was out. Seems like it's still scattered out there. The odd weather has thrown things off in my opinion, but I have no doubts that the big kings are there as shorelunch mentioned. It'll just take time to find them. Hopefully I'll be out this weekend, I'll post a report if I can. Tight lines!

Dropped one on the lead in 160. Just dropped another in 400. Spoon bite 80 down.

Currently out of olcott and seems a little different than a few days ago. Just wondering if anyone's out.

I'm no expert but I'd run flys at the ball and cheated spoons

I was out this morning, four kings around 12-15 and a small steely. Mix of spoons/FF. 330-450 FOW

Yup that sounds like my luck lol. At least you're getting into some big ones! Tight lines man!

Nice steel, LOC fish?

I'm headed out tomorrow for a midday fish I'll try and report. Hoping to get into some mature kings shallow but we'll see how it goes.

Jared015- what kind of CNC do you have?

Biggtymer33 - did that guy mess up some mounts or something? Just curious in case I finally get one mounted one of these days.

Yeah I just picked up some 30 lb power pro and I have some 30 lb mono layin around so I'll give it a shot hopefully this week. I appreciate the advice.