olcott salmoniods.......
Well, we decided to take a break from the connie eyes and head up to lake o. Don't worry be back to connie on Saturday. Ha! We put in at 5:00 a.m. on Saturday. I have been ready real good mixed bag fishing in the big water 400-500 f.o.w. range, so we put the afterburners on and made the run north. The fish out there are definitely in pockets. We would go through a pod and would be wam, bam, thank you mam! Boy those steelies are are freakn tackle busters out in that big water. They are a blast. Those new yorkers call them "shakers." We caught several steelies and a few kohos, yummy!
We didn't get any kings out deep but we had a lot of fun though, the biggest steelie was 28 inches.
So when I went in to filet my box of fish my my lake Erie walleye mind was blown.......this was my only my 2nd lake o trip.
When I saw all those guys with boxes of mature kings, it was mesurising!!!! They ranged from 15-30 lbs. What beasts from the deep.
So I knew what we were gonna be doing on sunday mornig, kings! We found out they were in tight, 65-120 f.o.w. they are staging for there fall run.
We stopped at the local bait store in the morning for paddles and herring cut bait strips. What a weird set up. These freakn paddles looked like the bottom half of a cricket bat, the were hug! We lowered the first paddle and Herring strip on the riggers to 60 f.o.w. I told the crew to loosen there drags.......ya you know what comes next. Before we could get the second rod in, WHAM!!!!!!! A monster smashed our 30 dollar set up. My cousin could hardly get the riggers rod out of the road holder. We weren't ready, and the drag wasnt set. We lost the entire set up. F!
We didn't move a rod for 4 hrs. Noon came and it was time to head back to the burgh. Next time!
It has taken me 3 long and expense years to understand and get rigged for Erie eyes. Lake o is whole different ball game. It's giving me night mares! I don't even wanna start this, I'm afraid once I get that first mature I may not have a choices.
Oh boy!