Rochester Spring Browns 4/15/12
Went to Rochester this past weekend for a Spring Browns charter on Sunday 4/15.
Left the dock shortly after 6 AM and headed East out of Shumway Marine on the lower Genesee River. The Captain set up his otter boards setting out 4 lines on each side with an assortment of stick baits 100' to 125' back. The two downriggers were set 5-7 feet down 50' back with spoons. We began working from Irondequoit Bay East past Shipbuilders Creek trying to stay in areas that had a little stain to the water.
The first two passes we had four hits in the vicinity of Shipbuilders, boating two small Browns in the 2-3 lbs range while dropping the other two after a brief engagement. The Captain felt that one of the fish may have been a King salmon due to the line being bit through.
On two of our passes heading West past Shipbuilders we stuck and boated one Brown that was 11 lbs plus and a King 9 lbs, both on the downriggers. The King was taken in approximately 20' of water. A short time later we boated a small Atlantic (16") which was quickly released. Later in the morning we boated three more Browns in the 2-5 lbs range and a small Coho approximately 4 lbs.
I released the three small Browns that I boated but kept the Coho as it was bleeding badly from being deeply hooked. My fishing buddies kept everything that they boated except for the undersized Atlantic. We did not hook a fish after 11:00 AM and the rain began to fall a shortime later.
For the day we boated 6 Browns, a King, Coho and Atlantic. The fishing was a slow pick and I would rate the trip as fair. Hope to have some photos at a future point in time.