Your Name / Boat Name: Shep / Dukdog
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TRIP OVERVIEW
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Date(s): Weds thru Saturday 8/1 to 8/4
Time on Water: Lots!!
Weather/Temp: Hot and Humid, lots of sun!!
Wind Speed/Direction: West the first 2 days, South the last 2
Waves: 3 days of too many and 1 day of perfect
Surface Temp: Mid 70's
Down Temp: 42 to 54, Mostly in mid 40s
Location:
LAT/LONG (GPS Cords):
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FISHING RESULTS
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Total Hits: 25
Total Boated: 14
Species Breakdown: 1 Brown, 8 Steelies, 5 Kings
Hot Lure: Kings, Flashers and flies, green on green, Steelies and Browns on spoons, used a lot of UV stuff. 1 big steelie on a flasher fly.
Trolling Speed: 2.0 to 2.5
Down Speed: 1.3 to 2.0
Boat Depth: 100 to 350 ft.
Lure Depth: 65 to 95
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SUMMARY & FURTHER DETAILS
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A fun 4 day trip to Catfish Creek. The Kings were not in the bay yet and so after Wednesday afternoon going 1 for 3 and Thursday morning losing the only fish we hooked, I decided to take our show on the road and hit Fair Haven on Thursday. Pretty Choppy out there in the Westerly winds but we managed to go 3 for 5 for the Afternoon. All were Steelhead but we did hook on King that smashed a flasher fly and put up a wicked 30 seconds of fight before breaking my 30 Power pro and taking my gear with him! He felt really big! I was disappointed.
Friday it was off to Sodus where we launched at the ramp at Warren's Hook Line and Sinker. The ramp is kind of shallow but had plenty of water for my 18 foot Lund.
The guy at Warren's, (maybe Warren???) gave me an update on what had been hot lately and I picked up a few UV selections that he said were working good.
They really worked good with the Moonshine RV stuff and Stinger UV Gators doing some real damage for us.
The waves dropped as the day went on and after starting out at 9 AM, we finished a limit at 4 PM. It should have been much sooner but my buddy lost a nice teener king at the back of the boat.. His inexperience and my too long a leader between the dipsy and the flasher resulted in not being able to get the fish into netting distance. We had the bimini up and I kept telling him to back up and as he did, he had to lower the rod tip get under the bimini.. The King wallowed on it's side about a foot out of reach for probably a minute while we tried to close the gap and as always, he got off and we lost him.
A while later a similar, retrieve and release happened with a corker of a steelhead who threw the hook just as I made my stab with the net. he hung there about 1/2 a second and I made a big poke to get under him and got him 1/2 in the net but not enough!! Another one gone!!
Finally, the Starboard side dipsy takes a wicked hit on a flasher fly and I'm on it. It's big!! We battled for a good 15 minutes or more before she showed herself. When I got it to the boat, it took my buddy 3 tries to net it. Finally it was in the bag and came aboard and I knew I had my new personal best King! It weighed in at 26#, 6oz!! A fine looking fish!
Tom hooked up a 10 pound king and we landed that and finished the day with his first and best ever King.
Saturday, we were off to Sodus again targeting Kings but the wind had come to hard South and the conditions got considerably worse as the day went on. We finally bailed at 2 PM after going 1 for 3.
Now 1 for 3 doesn't sound too great but the 2 we lost were both kings and big ones too boot. The one Tom landed was a fat 20 buck King who's jaw was starting to hook! That was a new personal best for Tom!
When we got back to Catfish creek on Saturday Afternoon, we found that the Kings had moved into Mexico Bay the previous day and the fishing was heating up from about 150 foot of water out. We were all psyched up to make a run out Sunday morning for a few hours before heading home. Unfortunately there were small craft warning posted and winds were predicted to increase during the day. We gave it a try anyway and we ran out about a mile on calm water in what seemed like not so bad winds! I turned the boat around to see what we'd be facing going in if we continued! It was going to suck!! We headed straight back into what was a building chop and 25 mile and hour wind. I can only imagine what it would have been out another few miles.. Ugly!!
Every trip has to have some low lights and this one was no exception! My VHF radio antenna broke in the middle! Toast!
We got a flat on the boat trailer when it clipped the edge of a washout on the concrete exit of a gas station. Bent the rim and we were instantly flat! Ever prepared, we broke out the spare and changed it out. I beat the bend out of the rim and applied a can of Tire Jizzem which rounded up the tire to about 10 pounds. We later topped it off to 55 so I've got a new spare!!
The other pain was a leftover from when my rigger got torn off the boat up in Lake Champlain. When that happened, it cracked the plug receptacle for the downrigger. When I added the new rigger, it initially worked great but after a while, the rigger quit running. I found the crack. Couldn't fix it there so we band aided it and got it functional. I'm back home now and replaced the bad plug with a new one.
There is always something that will piss you off on a trip like this and the last 3 trips it's been the same thing griping me.
Jerks driving along at breakneck speed texting on their damn phones! I saw at least 4 go partially off the road and another half dozen weaving severely.. People are stupid out there!! I'm glad a don't ride motorcycles anymore because with all that texting going on, more people are going to die!! At least I've got a substantial truck wrapped around me!!
Here's the photo lineup of personal bests including my 26# King and my 8 & 1/2# Brown plus Tom's 20 pound King and 11 & 1/2 # Steelhead.
The weapons of choice that were effective for us!
Tom's 20# King, 10# King and 11 & 1/2 # Steelhead
My 26# King and 8 & 1/2 # Brown
Assorted Scenery shots
And a short video..
If you get back out give me a call.