Shaye D Winds and Limited Out in LO 9/6-9/13

[Shaye D Winds]

Finished the day with another limit. 3 Kings. 3 Cohos.
All in 40-50 feet of water.
Don

[digitroll (ron)]

Have a great trip home today Don. What a week for you and Pete. Looking forward to the summary.

[Shaye D Winds]

Well, what a great week. It was the best week of fishing ever for me in Lake Ontario.

First, thanks to Pete (Limited Out) for having me along on the trip and all past trips. He is a great host on the boat and great fun to fish with. It is always a pleasure.

Also thanks to Mike (Lazycs) for the heads up on what was working during his trip which was just prior to our arrival. That was a great place to start and allowed us to start catching fish immediately.

I am writing this to help the next guy that goes out there to have as much success as we did as well as report just what worked.

I have found research prior to any trip really helps to be on top of things when heading out. I spent several weeks watching the different post boards reading reports and picking out the things that others posted that lead to their successes. Thanks to all that posted and shared their success which really helped us. If you are headed over this year or next it is a good thing to spend some time doing. It gives you an idea of where the fish are and what is working.

First we stopped to get licenses and a general report from the local tackle shop as they are usually right on about what is happening. It was windy and after getting the lake report we decided to pass on Tuesday and start our 7 day licenses on Wednesday thinking we would possibility fish on this Tuesday morning before we left. Off to the Mexico boat launch and drop in the boat, get it to the dock, and set up camp, then another trip to the tackle store.

Wednesday came and the fishing was great. Pete expertly piloted the boat over the fish and using the tips from Mike, the guys at the tackle store, and the postings I had read, we started to catch a few fish. It seemed they were a bit larger this year and full of fight. That was ok with us.

The week went on and as the previous reports tell it we limited out each day except Saturday when I let the last fish of the day jump out of the net. My bad!!!

The week ended with 47 hits and 37 fish boated some of which were released to fight another day.

The Setup:

We fished in anywhere from 40-60 of water in front the Big Salmon River.
Using Pete’s fishhawk probe we discovered that temperature was only down about 25 feet. 46 degrees. Wow! Using this information we set up riggers at 25-30-35 feet down. Using the new fishhawk TD I was able to figure out the depth the wire was running and the temperature. Those tools worked great and are a must for finding the “zone” fast.
We used all flasher and flies and never put a spoon or J plug in the water. We ran a five rod program with three rigger and two wire rods. Flasher/flies were run about 15-20 feet behind the ball with the center rigger run the highest and back 30-40 feet.

Flasher/fly combinations were:

Early morning/Late in the day
Port wire: 50-95 feet of wire. Dipsy set on 3 setting. White glow/ mountain dew flasher with a custom fly. A glow howie fly under a crusher howie. Yes two skirts. 3 green glow beads and a 21” lead from the head of the fly to the end on the clip. (I set all flies this length)
Port rigger: White glow/ light blue foil flasher with a glow blue atomic fly. Down 30 feet
Center rigger: (My favorite) Green flasher/ howie green crinkle fly with black beads. Down 25 feet.
Starboard rigger: White glow enticer flasher/green/ mountain dew tape with an atomic glow hammer fly. Set 35 down.
Starboard wire. 60-105 feet. Dipsy set on 3 setting. Green flasher/ Crinkle green fly with black beads.
Note: Flashers are echip flashers except the enticer which does not have the chip but does run a little different.

Mid morning to late afternoon. (Sunny)

Port Wire: 85-115 feet of wire. Dipsy on 3 setting. A silver flasher with chartreuse/mountain dew tape (PIGPEN) run with an atomic sweet pea fly.
Port rigger: A silver flasher with chartreuse/dark green tape with a pole dancer fly. (By BW) Run 30-35 Feet
Center rigger: continue to run the mornings green flasher with the green fly or change to an orange flasher with a glow orange fly by atomic. The orange is a good Coho fly and it did work. Run 25-30 feet
Starboard rigger: A silver flasher with chartreuse /dark green tape with a hammer fly. Run 35-40 feet.
Starboard wire: 95-125 feet of wire. Dipsy on 3 setting. A sliver flasher with chartreuse/dark green tape with a sweet pea fly.

This set up is what we were running for several days in the 40-60 foot of water. We fished in temperature and usually the bottom rigger or longest wire was near the bottom. If anyone is interested I could post pictures of a few of these rigs.

Also equally important is boat presentation. Pete was great at controlling the boat and the correct speed and sometime when fish were checking out the offerings making the right speed adjustment to get them to strike. Hit the throttle just a bit of pull back the aloe the offerings to drop. It worked many time to trigger a strike. Thanks Pete.

I hope this post helps anyone going out there this year or next to be successful. We only fish there one week a year but were lucky enough to have had a great week with the help of several folks.
Thanks all.

Don

9/22/11

Some additional notes:

The water temp was around 46 degrees 25 feet down in 40-50 feet of water.
Most kings were within 15 feet of the bottom during the day but were sometimes found higher up early morning and late evening.
If you fish earlier in the season out in deeper you could run the same set up program just deeper where the fish and temp are.

Don

[Reelax]

Great, very informative post Don... Glad to hear your trip out was so successfull! I loved the pics as they rolled in all week long...

[4cs]

Don

What a great week of fishing for you two and thanks for the daily updates it was a must read. Now that is what I call a Fishing Report !!!!!!

Pat

[digitroll (ron)]

Awesome summary Don! Just and incredible week for you guys and having a plan and doing research pays dividends! Welcome back!

[lazycs]

way cool Don, congrats to you both, these are the kind of trips that keep you going back every, but you might wanna consider a spring trip out west, next september is to long of a wait...LOL!
Mike

[bumpnrun]

Am going am going,am going next year,god willing.Great post don and what a week,I read the post twice so far, about the way you rigged things up to fish.NOW ive got something to talk to mike ,and rod,about the fishing there and set ups this winter when were ice fishing.BUMP.

[Shaye D Winds]

Thanks Guys.

Bump, You got to get out there, it is geat fun and the fishig is excellant.

I know you all like pictures so here are a few more. I will also post a couple cool ones from my phone.

[Matt]

Wow, awesome report, thanks for sharing I loved it!

[raz]

Thanks Don.
Great stuff for everyone to enjoy.
Glad your trip was a success!

[drachma]

Hey Don,

What a great trip. Yesss! please post pictures of the setups.

Michael

[champlain fisher]

Great post on the rigs you guys ran - very useful info there. Alot of those combos work yearly and would be a good base set-up to have for fishing out there. I was out there for a few days as well and don't overlook double glow green /white J-Plugs early in the morning.

[Shaye D Winds]

drachma,
I will post pictures of the rigs when I get chance to dig them out.

Champlainfisher,

You are right that many things work year after year. The green flasher with that green howie fly ahs been a great producer for many years. I think it may be the black beads that I have found that make it work well.

Don

[digitroll (ron)]

Nice photos Don. hmmm 8 more months.