TheToadHunter

Running the "go to" stuff seems to change year to year.  What was hot last year may not buy many bites this year.  I have found changing up lures when the bite slows, changing presentations, not getting hung up on what worked last year, and changing speeds helped during slow times.  I have found on somedays too many flashers can be a bad thing when the bite slows.  Take some out of your spread and see if it changes things.  Two years ago during the Sandy Creek Shootout, I was watching the fish streak into the rigger spread and not commit.  I pulled the flashers out of the spread and we started firing rods like crazy.  We ended up upgrading 3 kings in our box in the last hour and a half after I pulled the flashers.  Also pay attention to the graph.  Later in the day, we find more kings deep and out of temp.  

I appreciate the input. And like you said about "go-to's, I found out on Sunday, one specific flasher/SD color made the day. It was a discontinued color I haven't used in several years. And was NEVER a go-to color. This year we've been doing alot of unorthodox stuff when the sun is beating down, but haven't found a pattern that works.

Our normal setup is 2 riggers with spoons, 2 dipsey/FF, and a leadcore rod. If we start taking fish on spoons, we swap the FF with spoons, and vice versa. But we always keep at least one spoon or FF in the spread.

Sunday morning I broke down and tried 15lb fluoro on a downrigger/spoon. Sure enough, 10 minutes later we had a big steelhead skyrocketing behind the boat and broke the line. I immediately switched back to heavier leader. Id prefer fewer hits, quicker fights, and less breakoffs than killing every fish from long fights in warm water. Maybe we would do better with lighter leaders in high sun, but I've never had issues before!?!?

Mike






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Not sure what you're running early, but standard rule of thumb is glows early, then switch to silver/chrome, UVs. Also try stretching your lead back from the ball. As the sun gets higher they can see everything much better

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I usually start with a UV spoon on one rigger, and then a standard or glow finish on another, which is usually a different brand. I swap them out as fish decide which they prefer, but this year, sun = skunk 90% of the time.

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Her Atlantic.

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Thanks for posting a Sodus Report
Did you take awater temp readingdown 50/60 at 140/160?
thanks

No. I'm a minimalist at the moment. I use a navigation chart on one sonar for speed/direction/waypoints and use the other to fish the marks. Fish were spread out from 50'-125'. 50' and 75' had the most active fish for us.


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Last evening we hit the same locations we marked fish in the morning, but after a couple hours and only a few marks we headed in early. No takers.

 

Started in the same area this morning (145-160), but after an hour of seeing few fish and no takers, we headed East with the wind for new water. (Same water depth)

 

Shortly after trolling East with the wind, we started taking hits from steelhead on spoons (50'-60') on the riggers, and mature kings on a dipsey/FF out 200' on a 2 setting.

 

There was one hot rod, spin doctor fly combo, that took hit after hit while the others did nothing for the longest time. Of course, that was the only Spin Doctor in that color, and every other flasher and SD we put out did NOT take a fish. Same rigs, same presentation, but no hits.

 

UV Glow Frog took a few steelhead and landed my 5 year old daughter's first Ontario fish, which was an 11lb Atlantic. The Spin Doctor was clear with a green top edge and silver tape on the back. The fly was olive pearl.

 

Ended up 4/15 in that half mile stretch, passing 3 times.

 

 

 

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Same here. Marked a bunch of fish in the same areas but couldn't draw any more hits.

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Thanks for the only reply!!!

Bad scent was a thought of mine, but I ruled that out because we'll take hits regularly on the same rigs before the sun beats down, then nothing after (without changing anything or touching anything).

I use smelly jelly on my Kwikfish while backtrolling salmon in the rivers, so maybe I'll try something similar on my spoons.


Mike

Some kind of bad scent issue??  cleaning supplies, gasoline, suntan lotion, etc.    Try something on the lures.... Smelly jelly, Pro cure, herring oil....  any bananas on board??

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Generally I do well enough to keep me satisfied while the sun is on the water, but this year I can't catch a break. Just looking for some advice from others on what they do if the fishing is great during low light, but your fish "shut off" when the sun comes up.

 

Frustration is starting to kick in. As of late, I've seen too many fish come to my riggers, follow, and not take. Even my go-to dipsy set-ups aren't taking hits. Tried varying my leads from the rigger balls between 10'-35', switching spoon colors (greens, blue, blacks, whites, UV, glow,etc), switching spoon brands (DW and MS), standards and mags, direction of troll, stop/go if I have followers and no takes..etc.. The only thing I haven't done is drop from 20lb fluoro to 15lb and extend the length between my ball and spoon.

 

What gives????

 

 

Mike

 

 

 

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Another late start around 6:30. Dropped the first rigger at 80' in 137' FOW and within a minute lost our first king on a UV Green Gator. Quickly lowered the other rigger with a glow frog and within a minute had our second king on. Thought we were going to pound them, but the fish had other plans. Soaked gear for 2 1/2 hours without a hit before we went back to where we started and had a screamer on a dipsey/FF out 150'. After taking 300' of line it chewed through the leader. [emoji17]

 

I overheard a charter boat at the docks say they hooked into 17, so people are obviously on some fish and doing better than us!

 

 

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Started fishing around 6:45 and ended at 11:30. Worked 150'-165' FOW even though most boats were out deeper again. Caught 2 steelhead and 3 kings before the sun came out and then we couldn't get a hit. The two biggest kings (15-16lbs) were down 50' on a UV Green Gator spoon, the other 3 fish took FF down 75' and 100'. Lost a couple more after a few headshakes.

 

Maybe next weekend I'll head out deeper if the wind cooperates long enough.

 

 

 

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Quite a few boats out this morning, and it looked like most were hitting 150-220' of water. We did OK, not great, in the 155'-165' range. Steelhead and small kings, 115' down on spoons. Nothing on FF.

 

We started fishing high (10'-30' down) but after seeing all the marks down at 105-135 we lowered the gear and found chrome.

 

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Fished Sodus Bay in the morning for a couple hours because the Lake was too rough and then headed to Cayuga. It was the first time for us launching out of Dean's Cove and it produced well. 40'-200' FOW, fish all over the water column, and quite frankly too many lake trout [emoji51]. Purple Nuclear SD/black purple fly behind a dipsey became obnoxious. 50'-150' out, didn't matter. We pulled that rod after 15 fish or so. Flatlined several stickbaits behind a board to no avail. One landlock around 20" 30' down on a purple/silver spoon.

 

I love lake trout, but after 30+ 20"-24" fish, it's more work than fun, lol.

 

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We rolled into town around 4pm and managed to fish from 5-9 and had 40’+ water out of the chute to ourselves. Upon setting up in 130’ of water on the marks from last weekend, the spin doctors and flies started firing, and we also took some hits on spoons as well. No giants came to the boat, but we did manage a 23lb male. White/Mtn dew SD and olive/white flies were still top gun.

 

Coming through the chute around 9:45pm we saw blue lights start flashing and a boat slowly turning toward us. We hear “Have you ever been boarded by the U.S. Coast Guard?”. My reply was “No, but I think I’m going to be!”

 

They never boarded us, but gave a very polite and courteous safety inspection. I’d assume it went better than average because I double up on life jackets, sound devices, flares, and extinguishers etc.... The officials answered a few questions of mine, we talked for a bit, and went on our way.

 

Side note and FYI - I never carried an anchor on my boat before (on Ontario) until someone on this forum said it was USCG required. So I threw in a 20lb anchor with 300’ of line attached . The four officers that night said an anchor was NOT required, and they never heard of it before. I think I’ll still keep it on!

 

Sunday was a blow out for my boat, so we hit Seneca on the way home and were disappointed as always.

 

 

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What model and size flashers are you using? The last time I was out, my 10” spin doctors were crushing fish, but the 8” with the same rig and fly action (adjust the leader lengths), didn’t take a hit.

Flasher Flies always do great on my boat, and outfish my spoons hands down. I’ve also had a lot more experience with flasher flies versus spoons.

White/Mtn Dew Spindoctors anytime. Darker greens/blues in low light and brighter colors during high sun is usually a good rule of thumb, but any color combo could be hot at any time.

Length between my Diver and spin doctor is 10-13’, spin doctor to fly is 24”-36”. I will add two teasers between the spin doctor and fly as well. Behind a downrigger ball, I will run them 15’-30’ back. Every distance will catch fish, so find the distance you have confidence.

As much as flasher/spin doctor color matters on many days, so does the fly color. You can never go wrong with olive/white, but chartreuse/white, light blue/white, and dark green/dark blue take the majority of my fish.




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Congrats on your success.  Small boat man, like me.  How were the fleas there?

Thank you.

I will definitely miss fishing the lake with her, but a safer boat for the children is necessary at this point. Fleas weren’t too bad, and only had a couple times they needed to be cleared while fighting a fish. Sunday on Cayuga....now that was a different story 🤮


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The wife and I had our baby last Monday, so she told me to go fishing and buy a larger boat for the family.

 

We started in 30’ as I explained to my buddy how to set up the rods and riggers. After 2 hours, we had 5 rods out. lol.

 

Saw many bait balls from 50-140’, but 100-130 had the majority of salmon. We marked/caught fish from 40’-90’. All FF except one steelhead on a 300’ core pulling a Dreamweaver spoon. Had several releases on other spoons, but never kept a hook in. The salmon were only 12-15lbs, and pulled 15’ of line at most. Highly disappointing fights for my buddy who never caught one before.

 

Ran back into town for food and checked out some local boats before getting back out on the lake around 5:45.

 

We tried for Browns until 7ish before running out to the schools of salmon we found earlier in 100-130’. FF bite was still on fire. Not a touch on the spoons. Managed a few decent fish, and broke a few off before it became too dark. I was happy he finally experienced a fish screaming out 400’ of line.

 

The coolest part of the day was during a mid morning break, a school of alewives swarmed the boat and hung around for half and hour. The school stretched from a few feet below the surface down to about 30’ on the sonar. Once in awhile, you could see what appeared to be 5-6lb steelhead coming from below and chasing them. Absolutely amazing! It reminded me of Blues chasing schools of menhaden.

 

Mike

 

 

 

 

 

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Thanks for taking the time to write up a great and detailed report!

Excellent post!


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thats crazy!!

Anyone throw live baits to it for Mahi?


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Good stuff buddy!!


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Would you be willing to expand on the canning?

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As with most foods, proper preparation from the start. For canning fish, immediately after landing them, bleed them out. When dragging fish during the bleed-out process, shake the rope to keep the blood flowing out the gills. Depending on the species and laws, we will fillet them on the boat or just place them on ice.

IMHO, the most important part in processing any fish is to cut out all of the dark lateral line meat. Usually, a simple V cut along the entire line does the trick. If you fillet the meat off too close to the skin, the entire skin side of the fillet may be covered in dark meat. Take it off. Sacrifice a little meat to save the rest.

After that, it’s stupid easy. Cut the fillets into 1/2” - 1 1/2” cubes, pack them into canning jars with the DRY seasoning of choice, and pressure can them for about 90 minutes. That’s it.

Old Bay, Dill and Lemon Pepper are our favorites. We layer the fish/seasonings, but shaking the cubes and seasoning in a bag works too (like pork chops).

If your job of clearing the lateral line meat was up to par, there won’t be a fish taste like canned tuna 🤮 , and you won’t have to buy canned tuna ever again.




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Are the cayuga lakers good eating?

20” laker in a grill fish basket, excellent.

Can them with Old Bay and you darn near have MD blue crabs.

And of course, smoking them is excellent too.

If you head to the beach, laker bellies are the best shark bait I’ve found [emoji1305].



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Have been fishing Seneca lake with little to no success for lakers and I’m not equipped for salmon. Can anyone point me in a direction for lakers? Where do they typically hang out around the sodus area. thanks in advance!!

The laker fishing out of Sodus in late March through early May is usually good. I never specifically targeted them from June on, but have only caught one 14” in the last 6 years (using the same setups through the same areas).

I agree with the other guy about Cayuga. You can catch as many lakers as you want, and they are generally not too picky. Plenty of big boys around too! Launch out of Taughannock and head whatever direction you like. I prefer straight down the middle in 300’+ for the bigger fish, but tend to get the bigger bows and lls around the 150’ drops.


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Nice slobs!


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Nice job on the lakers,Did you find any good king waters yet?Last year the kings came early to sodus,hope they return this year also.

Nobody was criticizing on this post, only correcting. Stand up guys in my opinion.

John, all the high marks we saw on the sonar were good fish, but didn’t bite. Though, the two biggest lakers we caught were up high too, so who knows what the marks were. We never had any lines in the top 20’, and never fished in less than 40’. Surface temps varied between 36.5 and 39.5.

Mike


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