Odie 1

Just got back from fishing Olcott.  We typically fish Lake Erie so quite new to salmon fishing.

Caught several kings and some steelhead.  

Thanks for all the help/tips on LOU.  Everyone was very helpful!  

(Btw...mostly fished about 300 ft and caught most on NBK spoon with one on glow hammer fly with yellow/pearl spin doctor.)

Have used the Picardian also.  Worked well.  DEET doesn't seem effective at all.

I did watch a youtube video where they used a snubber to ball to bottom bounce for lakers.  They sometimes used two snubbers which kept the lure about 2ft off the bottom.  But they didn't mention if it saved them any on lost gear.

Okay.  That would be good.  (Eliminating insulator).  I will see if I can get a few downrigger snubbers delivered Saturday prior to leaving.

Thanks for all the tips. 

I am about out of time to order supplies as leave for lake Sunday.  I do have the Cannon 10stx.

Perhaps can buy one those snubbers at Boat Doctors in Olcott?   If not would doubling up the heavier snubbers used for fishing work?  Or use two of them even.

I may run a snubber between snaps on each side of the insulator also as a backup. It just seems concerning that the probe, weight etc are all being supported by that small piece of plastic.  

Think I have it fixed/correct order now.

But was wondering...how reliable are the plastic insulators at holding probe, ball etc?  Anyone using any backup cable etc in case insulator breaks or are they pretty reliable?

Great.  That is what I was thinking also.  Help get things at least close and then adjust.

Thanks for the help!

Okay.  Thanks for that info.  I was thinking  that would be best method to get started.  Otherwise would just be guessing.

Okay.  That makes sense. I don't need to increase tangle odds.   Plus I won't have the issues with the breakaway chain not fitting the insulator.

Thanks to everyone for the assistance.  

Just rigged up Fishhawk X4D.  Only problem I had is the Breakaway swivel snaps won't fit through holes on my cannon insulator.  Has anyone else had this issue?  So I moved the insulator above the Fishhawk probe.  The ball will still be below the insulator.  From what I read the insulator is mostly for the autostop feature.  Is that correct?

Also, will the fishhawk probe orient itself properly once in the water?  It spun a bit on my downrigger cable/swivels.  I wouldn't want it going backwards.  I suppose temps would be correct but ball speed wouldn't read.  I may be overthinking this but 1st time user of it.

Attached picture showing my insulator above probe.

Thanks!

Hello...Looking for some advice on Fishhawk for 1st time using it.  

Do you lower probe and look for temps or do you lower probe with downrigger rod and let out dipseys etc and then look for good temps as you fish?  Then adjust how much line you have out based on Fishhawk readings?  Wasn't really sure how to begin each day.  Hope that isn't too confusing.

Thanks for any advice.  

Thanks for that advice   I wasn't sure if he did that for light line only the way his book read.  This will be my 1st year out ( next week ) so I will prob incorporate the bands down the road as I gain a little experience.

Okay...Great...I came across them in Dan Keatings books but wasn't quite sure when he used them.  Mostly light line it seemed.  

Thanks for the help.

Okay...thanks for reply.  So when are rubber bands good to use?  Just with clean spoon off rigger?  I have only used my downrigger a few times on Erie.  Had to cancel our lake ontario trip last year so pretty new other than book/internet reading.

Thanks again.

Lookinhg for some advice on rubber bands for releases.  I read some other post where they are used with light line or clean spoons but I wasn't sure if they can also be used with flasher flies?  Or do you need to use 2 or 3 if pulling a flasher or is it better just to make loop with line for flasher fliy set up?  I would prob be using blacks releases.  

Thanks for any advice.

Thanks for those tips...I am going to get cannon rod holders for my dipsey rods but didn't realize they made a dual set for the downriggers.

The plastic on the cannon downriggers is quite tough.  I will use those this year.  Perhaps in the prior post by billbobthorpe the bolt wasn't cranked down fully tight allowing it to slide.  Otherwise I would think the interlocking plastic teeth would be sheared off.

Thanks again for all help/suggestions.

Great...thanks for the information.  I will buy the stainless steel adjustable rod holders for the dipseys.

Just had question on strength of the canon 10 stx rod holders.  I have only used it for walleye on Lake Erie.  The rod holders that came with it are a heavy plastic.  Are these sturdy enough for salmon fishing?  I would be running with clean spoon or flasher fly off downrigger so no dipsey involved.

I like them because they are attached to the downrigger and I can adjust angle etc. 

If they are not tough enough does canon make steel ones that attach to the stx 10? Or do you just not use them and just put rod in holder that isn't attached to downrigger? 

Thanks for any advice....

Hoping to finally fish Lake Ontario this summer after 2 years of only reading about it on LOU or books.

Appreciate that info..8 miles won't be a problem.  I wasn't sure how quickly the lake got that deep.  But that definately helps things.

Thanks again for the info.

Hi there.  Hoping to get some advice from folks that fish out of Olcoty.  New to Salmon fishing and have trip planned for 2nd wk of July 2022 at Olcott.  Usually just fish for walleye out of Erie, Pa but have caught the fever to try Lake Ontario.

How far out do we need to go for some decent July fishing?   Just me and my wife going.  She's good say 5 to 8 miles out but prob won't be thrilled if we had to go say 12 or 15 miles.  I have some maps but in the boat.

We are not real picky.  But planned this as a fishing vacation so hoping we didn't pick the wrong area of the lake.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Also...do you run flies/spoons and meat rigs all at once? I had read meat rigs needed to be trolled slower than flies/ spoons.  

Thanks for all the great replies/info.  I am still looking at gear/rods and reels but yes I think I am going to get the CV 30d reels.  Not sure on the rods yet as still looking at twilly tips vs roller.

As for Olcott...how far off shore would be good fishing?   Is the blue zone a different section of lake or just far offshore?

I normally walleye fish Lake Erie anywhere from 5 to 8 miles out but me and my wife are doing this Olcott trip so she won't be too happy if I tell her its 15 or 20 miles out:).  I have 

maps somewhere (prob in the boat..which is 23 ft WA Sea Fox btw.  Has been good boat for me so far.)

Anyways, just want to make sure we are at least within striking distance of some fish...or if we should cosider other locales.  We aren't very picky but be nice to boat some variety of salmon.

We did ponder taking a charter for our 1st trip up there but thought we would just give it a whirl on our own since we have the boat.  Salmon fishing def is more $ $ indeed and more involved than Lake Erie walleye.

Thanks again...be pretty lost without all this site.  

Oh...one more item..are the trolling flies basically one size/same pound test line all rigged up etc?   Thanks again.  

Hi again...got a few more questions I hadn't thought of since last time.  I received quite a few spoons for Christmas but then was reading alot of folks like flies.  Do you typically run both flies and spoons at the same time?  I will prob have one rigger and 4 or 5 wire divers out.

What are some good flies to pick up as far as colors or names?  

And...prob shoulda asked this prior to booking our vacation...how is fishing out of Olcott mid july typically? Kings/cohos and steelhead around then? One more than the other.

Thanks for any tips!

Appreciate all that data SK8man....I use braid on Lake Erie but we don't seem to have any flea issues.  That plus the fact that so many anglers on this site seem to love wire divers I sorta feel I need to just try them and get a little experience under my belt.

With regards to the fleas....what months do the little buggers tend to be bad?  We are coming up in mid July to the Olcott area.  Wasn't sure if they would be there at that time.