Sunday evening: 4 pm. – 8:15 pm. 9 for 12. (Shakedown mode).
Monday: 5:45 am. – 12:30 pm. 16 for 22. (Hard Northeast wind later am.)
Tuesday: 6:00 am. – 4:30 pm. 40 for 55.
Wednesday: 5:45 am. – 12:15 pm. 14 for 20.
Thursday: 7:45 – 12:15 3 for 4. (Very rough fishing conditions with a short trip today).
Friday: 6:15 am. – 7:30 pm. 18 for 23. (At noon we were 1 for 2 finished strong in the pm.)
Overall: 100 salmon landed, 2 lake trout, and one Domestic Rainbow with 136 bites.
This was easily our best fishing trip in 30 years that began in Watertown, NY from 1981 – 1990, Oswego 1991 – 2003, and the Bar from 2003 to present.
You don’t catch a gaggle of fish like this without help and our 5 boats on the water drilled it down nicely each day sharing information in real time. Thanks to Lazy C’s, Hey Jude, Instigator, Outfitter and several other boats that fished a few days out there during our 5 day stint. Thanks Don (shayedwinds) for some extra tackle and advice on the phone this week + updating our blood bath thread all week!. And Jim Martino that rushed us the mottle green bee in the mail we received Tuesday. Good timing and response time from Mike's call on Friday to Jim.
Highlights of the programs:
Flasher fly program took 10 salmon between 72 and 95 feet down on the riggers.
Depth of water fished was anywhere from 50 feet of water out to 200 feet of water. Changed daily! Best trolling direction changed daily too!
It was a 90% spoon bite. We switched to magnum spoons on Tuesday and that made a huge difference with much larger fish landed for the rest of the week. The alewifes were huge in these fish were were told. So we matched the hatch!
50% of fish came off dipsies running from 90 feet to 220 feet on the line counters. The rigger bite was typically at 50 feet down for most of our spoon fish. Leads were 40 feet off the rigger. We ran 50 lb Power Pro braid on the dipsy rods. 17 lb Floro on the spoon rods. 30 lb test on the flasher rods.
Speed was 1.9 mph to 2.4 mph. at the probe most of the week. Currents are very tricky and you have to really pay attention to your probe (hit speed) for the day as it changed daily. It was mostly 2.0 at the ball though on average. Ground speed varied a lot on the GPS depending on the day. 2.2 - 2.7.
Water temps started out 50 degrees on the surface to 54 degrees by Friday. Down temps varied about 3-4 degrees cooler at 50 feet down where I ran the probe.
We only had one fish die out of the 103 total fish. We kept the one 21 pound fish for friends. We tried to revive it twice, but it was hooked to bad and was bleeding too much. We tried really hard to keep these fish in the water to help them release well.
The new autopilot was awesome as we used it the entire week.! Ken was incredible as we ran 5 rods half the week and 6 rods the other half with the new three rod rule in effect. The autopilot allowed us to maintain the rods with very little issues.
The trolling beefy bags really helped down wind trolling east with the current to stabilize the boat down wind and maintain our presentation speed last week when needed. 35 gallons of gas burned this week in the Digitroll.
Here are the photos and video.
Video of Ken with a screamer on Fish #38 of 40 for the day on May 8th Tuesday:
Ken with the biggest King of the week at 23 lbs:
A 22 lb major:
Reggie's 9 and 10 lb trophy Atlantics:
Ken with a fine 6 lb. Domestic Rainbow:
A nice shakedown King Sunday night:
Group photo of 3 nice majors over 20 lbs each:
The Digitroll and Instigator at the hotel back yard outside our rooms:
Rear view:
The twin to the Digitroll. Ed and Terry from PA. and the Hey Jude fighting a King off the infamous Red Can in the background:
Reggie dialed in:
Lazy C's (Mike and Rod) with a full crew as they crushed the fish for 8 days on the water:
A hitchhiker:
Luhr Jensen Black Dipsy and Fishhawk X-4 Probe:
Flashers with Atomic Mirage Fly, Howie Fly, and Buck tail flies (cabelas) with Pro-Troll flashers:
Magnum Silver Streaks / Michigan Stingers / Mauler spoons in the middle / Honey bee #3's. These spoons accounted for 90% of the fish:
We call it the Lake O hangover. It takes a few weeks to get back to fishing here. It's tough to get back to cookie fishing.