Down Rigging, Out with Werner

Yesterday I again had the privilege again to learn from one of the honest amazing guides on Lake O.

I was out with a customer of mine and a manufacturer rep with Werner for a chartered trip.

I learned so much.
First off you if you’re out with other people even those you have been out with before bring some non drowsy gravol. My customer and good friend Luis had that queasy feeling.

We headed out of the marina with such light winds there wasn’t even enough to call it a breeze. To our surprise we headed into a steady two foot chop with some bigger rollers that would upset the boat on occasion. That was just the beginning of the adversity we were going to face.

Werner took it easy and we headed out to our intended ground. We were chasing a good tip on a pack of fish.

The weather and currents made it so tough to set gear and keep it running true. Werner made a call to only run four rods so we could keep everything managed. It was a great call.
We found decent water temps down 65’ about 53-55 f. Not ideal but good.

Just before 7:30 we hooked up a big King. My friend Cory was on the rod for a minute or two and another rod went. Sweet a double.
The second came unpinned sadly but we still had a BIG fish on.
The big fish just wouldn’t stop peeling line. It took 1000’ of line out. Poor Cory was losing the battle and his arm was as killing him. This was his first King so Werner had to assist him a ton. We all badly wanted to see this fish. Cory gave it a Valiant effort. After 30 mins of an epic battle the fish came unpinned 100’ from the boat.
We all were so disappointed but what do you do? You complain and start fishing again that’s what you do. 😂

The first lesson of bringing gravol then became apparent. My friend Luis lost his battle with his rolling stomach. He did everything he could to chum up the fish for us for the following 2/3 hours. He was a trooper and never asked to go in even once.

Second lesson of the day came as the short morning bite stopped all together.
Werner was marking fish way up high way out of temp. He started running gear shallower and after a good long haul we had another BIG fish on. All of us decided Cory was getting his first King so Cory was back at it again. This was another drag ripping fish. We had to put the boat into a right hand turn to help Cory bring this fish to the boat but he persevered with one minor rest break in the middle of the fight. This one hit the deck. A great fish 39.5” long about 26lbs.

In the end we managed to go 6/10. The conditions we super tough with waves we didn’t expect, water temps still high and fish out of temp range. Not to mention a sea sick companion and heat that hit 35 Celsius. Despite all that none of can wait to go back and do it again.

Thank you Werner for a amazing outing that has become a annual trip.

Great report, Disco!

Which port did you fish out of? How many FOW?

Man, we've all felt that disappointment with the big king getting off >100 feet from the boat after fighting for so long.

Sometimes she goes, sometimes she doesn't go, because that's the way she goes.

I run out of Port Dalhousie for over 20 years now.....we were in 80-115 fow. I will be adding some more pics and information shortly

So guys , thanks for coming out again and it was a blast as usual and way to hang in there

It did get flatter as the day went on but the heat was insane

I'm going to talk a bit about fishing in adverse conditions and thinking outside the box to get into fish......does it always work, not necessarily but you have to try.This year is quite unusual in terms of finding ideal water temps as we have heat waves and then cold spells...

So you can find the preferred temps, but they are way down there and change almost daily. add currents to that and it can be challenging for correct presentations

for myself, I reduce my spread rather than increase it and put faith into what I believe will generate hits...yesterday that was meat rigs in the morning and spoons after 10 am or so. flies were not working for me

Although most of the fish we marked all day were relatively deep, we got zero hits on those, but we got multi hits out of temp range as in 67 degrees or higher. fish were on the surface smashing bait at 77.6 degrees.

so I ran 2 riggers and 2 wire dipseys, cause there are still fleas

the pic shows active fish, with bait hugging near bottom, but we also saw suspended bait and that's where we got hits

the foregoing pic shows some active salmon and that's what you should target, the bigger numbers were hugging the bottom but these are inactive fish for the most part, so I rarely bother with them

the hits we had yesterday were not smashers as is often the case when running cutbait. so you wind up getting a number of hits but no serious hookups...when they are on the feed, they will smash it, so I put my releases to a mimimum of 17 pounds, and I wait till the rigger releases as they may mouth it multible times

I never ever do a hookset when a rod fires....it's on or it's not

same applies to wire dipseys mag. set at 1.5 and back 130-160

almost forgot to mention that my leads are never more than 20 feet behind the ball especially if i see fish coming up to have a look, when that happens and I don't get a hit, I will shorten to 7-10 feet

AS the morning goes on and it gets very bright and the bite slows on meat, I will switch to 50 % spoons with a 15 foot lead a free slider cheater line.....that paid off with multi hits with fish hitting at 33 feet down 68 degrees

so, to end this, don't always get caught up in all the science of temps etc...fish where you mark active fish, try a variety of proven colors and by all means have sharp hooks.

be patient when you hook up on a big boy, it's not a race, enjoy that fight and they will peel out over 1000 feet quite often...........


It's exciting


if you lose it, you just go for another one...just keep on fishing and do your best and learn from mistakes I do always

Keep notes, patterns emerge over time and you can go out with confidence...get out there the fishing will be getting better over the next month or more

oh, did I mention ankle biters

what I do is bring socks and spray them and then put them on..works for me

So much great information here, thanks!

I was planning to get down to Whitby this weekend, but it looks like the storms are rolling in, so might just scrap that idea and get out the weekend after this coming one and just go out to fish 3rd years and bows.

your welcome........I like to help as I was helped when I first started

and for sure..even when the matures are done, which on my side won't happen for at least another month,,,,,,,the 2 and 3 year olds and bows and coho provide great action

Wow, great report and great fishing trip!
Thanks for the info and details!
Awesome pics too. I always like the fishfinder pics showing what's happening under the surface.

Good report disco......seems like you boys had lots of fun out there.....I am out there tomorrow evening....3 to 8pm....will post pics on the other thread.

Arnie

I envy y'all. I was supposed to tow the boat down for the weekend, but the storms rolled in so said 'nah.' Maybe the weather will turn again.

Awesome report,pictures and detailed info. Looks like a fun day out and good on your buddy for hanging in there despite the seasickness.