8/14-8/15 Aboard Hard Knox
Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2018 8:01 am
Day 1
As a birthday present to myself and my buddy steve, we chartered Hard Knox for a 2 day adventure on the big lake. We had been hearing reports of great fishing all summer out there and were excited to get on some kings. But as always happens in my life, nature had other plans for us. We arrived in Oswego monday night and the forecast for tuesday was for light winds and scattered thunderstorms, with waves 1 foot or less. Eric and I chatted and we would be launching at 5am. I awoke to a text from him at 4am saying it was pouring and blowing hard, and that we should sleep till 6 and reassess. 6am rolled around and the wind had let up a little and the rain had died down. I said to eric I am ok getting tossed around a little and getting wet, after all the fish are already wet.
We got to the dock and loaded the boat up, and headed out from the harbor. I drew short straw and was the lucky person to be facing backwards going into the waves, which for my first time on big water was not pleasant. Eric had told us at the dock that the kings were spread out and most were being caught in the 400-600fow range, but that he had found some active browns in shallow the night before, so we would start with that. He got gear set and we had our first release. Based I grabbed the rod and pulled in a nice 4-5 lb brown. We trolled in that area landing and missing several more releases, but the weather kept fighting us. It would pour for a few minutes and let up and then pour again. Out deep we could see some big boats, but the storms out there looked sketchy, including funnel clouds forming. At around 11am we had a release, and i was up, it felt different from the other releases, in that I couldnt just crank it to the boat. It had some heft, feeling almost like the big lakers on champlain, but when we got it to the boat, it was an 8lb golden colored brown trout. One of the prettiest browns I have seen. We kept at it and picked up 2 small (SMALL) kings and some more browns, and then the weather seemed to let off. the forecast showed a 4-5 hour break in storms and stable wind (stable at what was already 12-15kts from the north) We decided it would be a good time to eat lunch, clean what we had caught and try to get some intel at the docks.
We ate lunch and cleaned our fish, and chatted with one of the big boats, they had landed 4 kings on a 6 hour charter most our in 600, but one in 150-200. With the sky bright we headed back out, this time we were going to chase the kings and hoped to get out deep. We headed out of the harbor, and the waves had built a little on our lunch. We started to cruise out, the ride was quite rough with 3 footers with some mixed in 5's. We got out to 250, and I was feeling a little uncomfortable with the conditions, and proposed that we try for some kings in that area as we were seeing some marks, and the other boat had gotten a nice one in 150. We set up gear, and as we were doing that heard a rumble of thunder. Looked off to the east and there was some really dark clouds over the nuke plant. On the radar it looked like a doozy, but it was moving slow, but full of lightning. with that coming we decided to troll towards the harbor which was about 2.5 miles away. As we trolled the storm put on what from anywhere but a boat would have been a great lightning show.We got to the harbor as the storm was closing in having hidden the nuke plant in rain and fog. Our tally for the day was 8 fish landed, and another half dozenish releases that were missed.
Steve and I headed back to the hotel, and then out to the restaurant Bar that we had found the night before (3.50 capt and cokes? What!!!) Hit the hay early in preparation for day 2, with a forecast of partly sunny and light winds early building to strong west winds in the afternoon, we were optimistic we would get out for kings before it blew too hard.
Day 2 will be coming soon.
As a birthday present to myself and my buddy steve, we chartered Hard Knox for a 2 day adventure on the big lake. We had been hearing reports of great fishing all summer out there and were excited to get on some kings. But as always happens in my life, nature had other plans for us. We arrived in Oswego monday night and the forecast for tuesday was for light winds and scattered thunderstorms, with waves 1 foot or less. Eric and I chatted and we would be launching at 5am. I awoke to a text from him at 4am saying it was pouring and blowing hard, and that we should sleep till 6 and reassess. 6am rolled around and the wind had let up a little and the rain had died down. I said to eric I am ok getting tossed around a little and getting wet, after all the fish are already wet.
We got to the dock and loaded the boat up, and headed out from the harbor. I drew short straw and was the lucky person to be facing backwards going into the waves, which for my first time on big water was not pleasant. Eric had told us at the dock that the kings were spread out and most were being caught in the 400-600fow range, but that he had found some active browns in shallow the night before, so we would start with that. He got gear set and we had our first release. Based I grabbed the rod and pulled in a nice 4-5 lb brown. We trolled in that area landing and missing several more releases, but the weather kept fighting us. It would pour for a few minutes and let up and then pour again. Out deep we could see some big boats, but the storms out there looked sketchy, including funnel clouds forming. At around 11am we had a release, and i was up, it felt different from the other releases, in that I couldnt just crank it to the boat. It had some heft, feeling almost like the big lakers on champlain, but when we got it to the boat, it was an 8lb golden colored brown trout. One of the prettiest browns I have seen. We kept at it and picked up 2 small (SMALL) kings and some more browns, and then the weather seemed to let off. the forecast showed a 4-5 hour break in storms and stable wind (stable at what was already 12-15kts from the north) We decided it would be a good time to eat lunch, clean what we had caught and try to get some intel at the docks.
We ate lunch and cleaned our fish, and chatted with one of the big boats, they had landed 4 kings on a 6 hour charter most our in 600, but one in 150-200. With the sky bright we headed back out, this time we were going to chase the kings and hoped to get out deep. We headed out of the harbor, and the waves had built a little on our lunch. We started to cruise out, the ride was quite rough with 3 footers with some mixed in 5's. We got out to 250, and I was feeling a little uncomfortable with the conditions, and proposed that we try for some kings in that area as we were seeing some marks, and the other boat had gotten a nice one in 150. We set up gear, and as we were doing that heard a rumble of thunder. Looked off to the east and there was some really dark clouds over the nuke plant. On the radar it looked like a doozy, but it was moving slow, but full of lightning. with that coming we decided to troll towards the harbor which was about 2.5 miles away. As we trolled the storm put on what from anywhere but a boat would have been a great lightning show.We got to the harbor as the storm was closing in having hidden the nuke plant in rain and fog. Our tally for the day was 8 fish landed, and another half dozenish releases that were missed.
Steve and I headed back to the hotel, and then out to the restaurant Bar that we had found the night before (3.50 capt and cokes? What!!!) Hit the hay early in preparation for day 2, with a forecast of partly sunny and light winds early building to strong west winds in the afternoon, we were optimistic we would get out for kings before it blew too hard.
Day 2 will be coming soon.