Oak report 7-2 and morning of 7-3

[John Kelley]

Fishing Report

Your Name / Boat Name:

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TRIP OVERVIEW

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Date(s):

Time on Water: 5:30 a.m. to noon and 2:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. monday and 5:30 a.m. to

Weather/Temp: Sunny and hot

Wind Speed/Direction: NW and SW

Waves: 1 footers

Surface Temp: 65-72

Location: Straight out from breakwall

LAT/LONG (GPS Cords):

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FISHING RESULTS

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Total Hits: 22

Total Boated:12

Species Breakdown: Kings, steelheads and 1 coho

Hot Lure: Green gator SD, 1/2 black 1/2 chrome SD with the green herringbone down the middle, Green glow frog SD, and white SD with the green spots, and 42 second Atommik flies and white crinkle(pearl/glow) flies.

Trolling Speed: 2.5-3.1

Down Speed:

Boat Depth:98-145'

Lure Depth: 80'-90' down on cables and 225'-300' on wire dipsy rods, with #1 dipsy's on 3 & 0 settings

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SUMMARY & FURTHER DETAILS

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Well, I had a pretty productive couple of days for the last two days, despite all of the missed fish!LOL I had actually been fishing since saturday, but all I could manage saturday and sunday, were tons of steelhead in the 3-5 pound range. I learned a valuable lesson over those two days, and that is to trust your guts, and listen to the advice of boat captains, instead of following the crowds!! Yankee Troller had told me that there were nice fish to be had in the 100-150' range, but instead of following his advice I thought I should be concentrating in deeper water, since I saw most of the boats zipping way out there on the weekend. I was trying to find the fish in anywhere from 175' to 315 feet of water, and did find many steelhead, although none with any size. I did not pull my head out of my rear end until Monday morning, while I was talking to the captain of the Buck a Roo, or Bucaroo, (forgive me on the spelling), and he told me that they had been getting some nice mature kings in 100' to 130' with cables down 80', when I remembered what Yankee troller had told me on this forum. I must give out a thanks to both of these boat captains!! I started out of the harbor and began setting up my rods in 80' of water, and put out my wire diver rod first to 225' with a green glow frog SD and black and green fly. By the time that one was out, I was in 95' and set out my first downrigger rod at 80' down with a green gator SD and 42 second fly. I was just starting to let the line out on the second down rigger rod when I saw my other rigger rod fire off. It was not an especially violent rip off of the release, so I was not expecting a very big fish, and was thinking to myself, " Oh here we go again with the steelhead!!!" As soon as I set the hook, however, that changed in a big hurry, as the fish immediately did a 90 degree turn, and began screaming line off of my reel. I had to do the over and under exchange through rods and finally got the fish in the clear, and the fight was on. I finally landed the nice, fat hen King, and it went almost 24 pounds on my digital scale, my biggest King yet!!Yay. It was only about 10 minutes later as I finally get all of my rods out, and was starting on my trolling run again, that the same rod fired off again, and I was into another nice fish. This one looked very similar to the first one, and read about a pound lighter, but was an inch longer, @ 38". Best start to morning I have ever had, but then things started to go sideways!! It was only about 7:30 by this point, and I am thinking that "hey, all I need is one more fish, and I can call it a morning" I kept trolling in the same circle of out to 130' and in to 95-100'. Oh yeah, I was not reading many big fish arcs at all near the bottom, but was reading all kinds of bait schools down there. I was reading all kinds of marks in the 50-60' range, however. After about an hour or so of trolling, and many peeks into the box, to look at my two nice fish, my other downrigger rod fires off, and fires off hard. This fish is soon on the surface and jumping out of the water, but really pulling drag and fighting hard, so I am thinking big steelhead, but he shook after a short fight. I reset and keep trolling and the same rod fires off really hard again, only this time the fish just freight trains out a bunch of line, and is making a beeline towards Canada. Strongest fish I have had on until this point, and makes those twenty pounders feel kind of puny!LOL I fought this beast for a solid tweny minutes, and got it to within maybe 150 feet from the boat. It was just going back and forth near the surface, and I could see it flashing in the morning sun, but could not move it any closer to the boat. Then the line went limp and I wanted to cry!! The fish had twisted up the fly leader so badly that it broke the hook right off, but the fly came back, so at least I didn't lose everything! I think that might have been a derby fish contender! Oh well. Then I started getting some texts from a friend of mine in Dansville, who has never been salmon fishing, but really loves to fish, so I told her to come on up, as the big fish were biting today, and I headed back to the Captain's Cove to meet her. I stopped off at the DEC fish survey boat on the way in, to have my fish officially weighed and taped, and they also took some scale samples. The big one was 23.5 pounds and 37 inches long, and the other one was 22.5 pounds and 38 inches long. The fisheries boys also told me that they thought these two fish were only 3 year olds, which really blew my mind!! The one fish had a large lamprey scar, which means they can survive lamprey attacks, and that makes me feel good. Anyway, I digress, I met my friend Heather at the Captains Cove just after I finshed cutting up my morning fish, and we headed back out to the lake at around 2 p.m. Man is it ever nice having someone else in the boat with you, after being so used to fishing all alone. Just being able to use both arms on the net is a Huge advantage, let me tell you!! Besides that, I can make the other person reel in all of the fish!!LOL Okay, so Heather has never been salmon fishing and she loves to fish, but usually just shore fishes, and catches fish up to about 2-3 pounds, so I try to explain to her how much power these fish really have, but that is something a person just has to experience to understand. I told her that just one 10 pound King will convince her, and turn her into a salmon freak! As we motored out of the breakwater, I noticed the wind had picked up a little more than the morning, but was still very manageable, and Heather did not seem to mind a little chop on the water. I setup the same as the morning but put two diver rods out, and 3 downriggers down. 4 SD and flies and one spoon. Our first hit was on the 225' wire line and fly, but it was a pop and drop. About an hour later the same diver rod fires off hard, throbbing and jumping, so I jumped up and set the hook, and the wire began screaming off the reel. I handed the rod to Heather and told her, "it's a good one"! This was one of the most rewarding sights I have seen in my years of fishing. I had her get up on the rear deck of my boat to fight the fish, and the fish almost yanked her into the water on a couple of different occasions, but she regained her footing both times, and kept ahold of the rod. I coached her on how to pump the rod up, and reel down to the fish without giving him any slack. She started to complain about how her arms were starting to ache, but would not give up, or hand me the rod for a break. I knew it was near twenty pounds when it got close to the boat, and when we netted it, it weighed just over twenty pounds. Then we had two monsters hit at almost the same time, and she tried to set the hook into the first one, but it just ran twenty or so feet off the reel and threw the hook, and I slammed the hooks into the second one, but it took off into my wire line and broke me off before I could even think about!!! Those big guys are mean customers, and I lost a prized Green gator Spin Doctor!! We then caught a 17 pounder, a nine pound coho, and a couple of so-so steelhead, but I definitely made another salmon fishing convert for life!! The next morning I trolled around for a few hours and caught an 18 pound male with a hooked beak, a 13 pound hen, and a steelhead, and called it a trip. I should be back in the next couple of days though, possibly tomorrow. Gotta get that 30 pounder!!!

[Captain Carl Bish]

John,

Great report. The best fishing of the year is yet to come, the kings will multiply in number over the next 3 weeks!!!

[John Kelley]

Thanks Captain Carl, and the people at the Captain's Cove have nothing but good things to say about you! Maybe you could give me some tips on the Browns, as I would not mind tangling with some of those fatties as well! Thanks again, probably see you in the next couple of days in the "creek".

[FX]

Great report John!! Congrats on the success

Shawn

[John Kelley]

Thanks Shawn, I hope to be back up there again tomorrow, trying for a big hog!!

[Team Game Face]

good stuff man!!