ErieBuck

Weird it seems all cut plugs from every manufacturer are out of stock!!  Strange, maybe they all were made at the same factory in china.  
 

luckily I have a good starter kit 

9 minutes ago, TyeeTanic said:

Staging kings strike out of anger, rather than feeding. They aren't feeding.

Brite colors, erratic lures (like plugs) are what you want to use to trigger them.

 

My biggest, a 35 lb staging king ... was caught when we snagged the bottom, and I was driving the boat in an inward spiral

to try and retrieve as much wire line as possible (salvage the situation) ... we had an angry king hit.  It was all accidental actually,

but then it got me thinking ... if you see some marks, why not just have 2 or 3 rods out to avoid tangles, and do some tight circles around them??

Wow incredible!!  I'm going to remember that story!  

1 hour ago, HB2 said:

First light start close and work out . 

 

J plugs for me #3 and #4 

Glo green or pearl black dot my favorites 

 

After first hour or so silver read head among others 

 

35 to 125 ft leads one rigger 10 ft off bottom ( 7 if you are brave ) and one half way down both same leads to avoid tangles . 

After sun starts to come up try the 35 to  90 ft depth and look for them on  the bottom . 

 

Spoons  and flashers also work but I like my J Plugs . 

Good call on the jplugs!  Will you run divers outside of your rigger Jplugs or is that asking for trouble?   Is afternoon typically a bust unless you run out deep?   Can you run the same in-close program in the evening close to dusk or is it not as productive typically as the AM?    Sorry my old man is old and I need to optimize his nap time 

Hello all!  Me and my dad are going to give the staging kings a try this year.  Heading to Olcott the day after the derby ends Sept 6 as my dad hates boat traffic!   I've done well in the off-shore spring/summer King game, but haven't tried for the stagers.  

I think I know a few things... target approx 80-120 FOW?   Run some bigger paddles w/ meat?   Run baits close to the bottom?  

To have the best chance for success, is it mostly an early morning bite or evening bite in close to shore?   Is it a waste of time fishing during the day in tight for stagers?  Are we better off running offshore during the day? 

Thanks in Advance!

~ErieBuck

I was catching them 50-60ft down just above the thermocline… surface temp on Lake Erie is 75, below thermocline is 45-55.  Most were caught on the riggers and they rocket to the surface to jump right after being hooked.  Maybe I can try squeezing their bellies a bit 

On 1/8/2021 at 4:54 PM, TyeeTanic said:

Boca grip is the way to go... clip them on the lip, make sure the boca grip is tie to the boat using a rope, drop the fish in the water, and carry on resetting your rods. Fish will be ready to go in a few minutes. Very good response rate.

Tyee -- I haven't had much luck with steelhead using this technique -- I watched about 10 of them float away this morning after they seemed to be ready to be released after towing behind the boat..  Not sure why, maybe they go into shock from lactic acid or ascend from the deep water too fast.  It has worked well with kings and lakers.  Any ideas?  

This is really cool, thanks for sharing!  I'm going to have to get one of these.  I've been towing fish behind the boat with a rapala lip grabber tied to a paracord for a couple seasons and it has worked quite well.  Here is a video from this morning, releasing a Lake Trout caught near the bottom, 95 ft. of water.   I've found this works well with Lakers and Kings.  I don't have a lot of success with steelhead.  If anyone has any suggestions for those, I'd appreciate it.  

58

Big Indian Smoke Shop, 597 Milestrip Rd, Irving, NY 14081

Good Luck @nickihoyboy!  I'm Jealous... nothing better than the excitement at the start of a new adventure!   How's the weather looking for you guys?  

Fished the evening of 7/16 north of Wilson in the upper 300s and 400s.  Lots of action all night with rods firing constantly, except the meat because the big kings weren't around.  We caught 15 steelhead, several over 30 inches, a couple dink kings and our first Atlantic salmon which was really cool.   We noticed 45 degree water pretty high in the water column...  40-50 ft down.  We did not mark much bait.   Later that night one of our crew suffered a major health issue and was taken to the hospital -- he is on the mend and doing okay.  

Still managed to get out late morning the following day and decided to head towards the Bar in search of Kings.  We set up near 4 mile creek in 180 FOW, marking huge bait clouds and fish all around, and trolled towards the Bar.  The fish were up high.  Picked up a beautiful big King on the high-diver, Moonshine Mag, Road Toad.  Got another mature on wire w/flasher fly.   Caught only Kings, but many, many dinks.  The wind really started to pick up and my dad got seasick so we had to head in after a few hours of fishing.   The weather report for Mon/Tues/Weds was not good so we decided to head home.  

Disappointing trip, but glad my buddy is doing okay and we still managed to catch some fish in a short period of time.  

You guys that live local are so lucky to be able to fish these waters... someday I hope to leave a boat in the marina on lake o to be able to just drive over and fish whenever.  

On 7/11/2022 at 8:43 PM, hawkeye625 said:

The silver creek res was 4.19 for regular unleaded last weekend. Not sure if they carry ethanol free or not...but I always top off there on my way up...and home.

Sent from my SM-G991U using Lake Ontario United mobile app
 

I ended up filling up at the Big Indian.  $5.15 for premium which they said was ethanol free.   And with a $20 purchase they offered a free joint at their dispensary next door.  lol  

2 hours ago, chowder said:

Big boards are probably worth looking at. I run a shorter core or copper all the way out and a long core next . The other side a different shorter core or copper and then a different longer copper. For instance Starboard :150 copper, 300 copper. Port: 10 color core , 400 copper.  As far as divers go I would recommend considering running inside wire divers with FF combos and outside slide divers with spoons or at least a SD on one side and wire dipsy on the other and let fish decide. As far as the riggers and meat goes , I like to mix there as well - deep rigger w/ deep meat + big paddle then stack spoon over that. Mid rigger with meat and 8” pro troll or spinny then stack a spoon at a different depth above than spoon stacker on deep rigger. Shallow rigger I usually stack 2 different size and color spoons. 

Awesome spread!!  What do you do to reset when high, outside board fires?  

5 hours ago, AnglingAddict said:

Caution with the torpedo divers and clipping them onto coppers if you are running coppers on planer boards.  You most likely will have trouble passing a copper over top of a size 1 dipsey.....If you are running the copper down the chute shouldn't have any issues deploying down the chute but caution on turns should be exercised.

Yes great point.  Realized this before trying luckily… didn’t want to risk a mess with limited opportunities on weather shortened trip.  

2 hours ago, Cody191 said:

My opinion is it’s much easier attaching a torpedo to the backer where it connects to your weighted line. You just let out the amount of backer it takes to get the torpedo down to where you want the extra depth.

For example, I have a 200’ ws that goes say 40’. But I want 80’. I attach a musky torpedo on backer at ws connection. Reference torpedo chart for speed and let out enough line to take torpedo to 40’. Now lure should be roughly 80’. It is close as verified by fish hawk TD.

If you attach the torpedo to the leader end of the leadcore you will change the five curve of the lead core. Who knows where it would be. You would probably have to create your own custom dive curve chart through testing.

This way also is stealthier as the torpedo is running 40’ above lure not right in front of it.


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My intuition was to do like you said above but it seems like the "pros" hook it near the leader knot... Russell Gahagan, Pete Alex etc.  

That's a good call using it on leadcore...  do you have a feel for how deep you get when using it on leadcore?  For example, if I clip a 4 oz weight to the leader at the end of a 10 color setup, would I theoretically achieve 90-100 ft (10 color = ~40ft +50ft from the torpedo weight) ?

you guys mess around with torpedo divers at all before?   i.e. clipping a torpedo to say a 300 copper to make it get deeper as an alternative to carrying all the different lengths.  

Interesting, that 80ft range isn’t as productive as 60 or 100

Im tempted to add a 400 copper for my trip….  Have 200/300.  Mid summer will need to get deep for the big boys I think.  Riggers and wire divers will reach but will nice to have some long lines get deep.  Worth it you think or too much hassle with that much line? 

Got it thanks much, I’ll try to 8 inch this trip with the meat

@GAMBLER do you run meat off your divers?  If so what size rotator and leader length?

Thanks Pappy,  I’m always up for learning….There’s so much knowledge out there.  I learn something from everybody I meet, especially the senior captains out there.  Experience is everything.  So many tough guys out there who want to act like they know everything and are afraid to ask questions that make them seem vulnerable.  I have absolutely crushed salmon up there, but realize I’m only an amateur trying to have good time a few times a year… I could easily get humiliated on my next trip… but it won’t be due lack of effort and ignorance!  

Thanks @AnglingAddict good advice!   Good call on the Stingray's... thinner metal, more speed tolerant.   36" is for a 10" spin doc; I use 50"+ for the big 12" paddles.  I shortened them down for this season after not getting bit much on the divers last year running 10" spin doc w/ meat.  BUT Maybe the 36" recommendation I've read about for 10" spin doc is more for flys than meat; however.   Maybe my leader length from dispey to flasher is culprit, I think I ran it about 6-8 ft from dipsey to flasher... I usually don't have a crew experienced with hand lining.  My weighted steel setups can be run at 200 (~40ft) or 300 (~60ft) so I'll clip the board on the appropriate segment depending on the time of day and bite trend -- the 300WS setup was by far the biggest producer of mature kings last year for me in late July running moonshine mags.  

Each trip to Lake O I try to learn and get better.  Last summer, late July, mag spoons were consistently getting bit, particularly on the long lines (300 Weighted steel).  Deep divers were probably second best with spoons but I couldn't get the flasher/fly rigs to fire very much.  My deep rigger with large spin doc and meat rig caught a few nice 20lb+ fish, but I feel I can do better to optimize the overall program.   My rigger w/ spoon caught a lot of dinks.  I don't want to give up on flasher flys because I want to catch larger fish, and I feel my meat rigs should be catching more than they do.  

In optimizing a mixed program like this, what are some of the details you guys pay attention to?

- Will you stay away from the 12" Kingfisher or Pro-Troll paddles for your deep meat rigs given the speed necessary to make the spoons sing?   What is the top speed you feel these are effective?  Perhaps I should stick with only 10" Spin Docs instead, which tend to be more speed tolerant I've read?  

- Will lengthening fly leaders behind the rotator help account for the higher speed and provide a less aggressive, more attractive whip of the fly?    I typically run ~22in behind the 8 inch spin doc.  

My typical program is:

- Deep Rigger: Large Paddle -- 12" pro-troll e chip or KingFisher II with Diabolical or Atomic twinkie meat rig, ~50 inches behind paddle.  I usually run this opposite probe rigger, not sure why lol.  

- Rigger w/ probe:  Spoon w/ cheater

- Wire Deep Diver #1, Mag Dipsey with 10 inch spin Doc and twinkie meat rig, ~36 inch behind.  

- Wire Deep Diver #2, Mag Dipsey with 8 inch Flasher Fly, 22" behind.

- 300 Weighted Steel with inline board, Mag Spoon 

- 300 Weighted Steel with inline board, Mag Spoon

This year depending on lake conditions, I may try to run a high braid diver as well.  Probably safest to run a spoon instead of FF to avoid tangles?  

Anyhow, I'm curious what you guys think...  

Thanks! 

Nice work!!  What leader length on dipsey do you prefer?  

you are correct, 8lbs a gallon, that's a lot of weight.