capt ace

For us it really depends on where the temperature is. When the temps are higher in the water column it would most likely be a spoon on the deepest rigger. When the temps are deeper it would be either an attractor/fly or meat depending on what has been working for us previously.

Thansk Fishy for the reply.

I am doing research for an article I'm going to write about fish coloration, specifically fish with green color pigmentation running down the tops of their backs. I have seen it three times here on Lake Ontario over the years, twice on Lake Trout and once on a very mature brown trout. It is very similar to the green color used on hammertime or livewire spinnies, you know the green painted on edge. I have never seen it on cohos or kings. I was wondering if any of you have ever seen this before either on Lake Michigan or Lake Ontario on fish that you have caught? I have been in conversation with Thirsty Whaler about this phenomenon and to its causes. I would appreciate any feedback you guys could offer.

Lake Ontario fishing with copper set-ups By Capt. Jimmy Samia I was first introduced to copper wire fishing over a decade ago by Capt. Ernie Lanteigne aka Fishdoctor. I was fortunate enough to be invited to join a group of a dozen or so of local captains from the Oswego/Mexico, NY area to make a journey to Lake Michigan to observe and participate in the how to’s of effectively fishing dodger fly presentations. This was my first exposure to fishing dodger and flies. What an experience it was. We got to meet Tim Dawidiuk, the then owner of Howie Flies, and got to tour his facility as well. As a group we got to fish for two days and it was here that I first got to put my hands on and experience fishing with a copper set-up. Believe it or not, we didn’t catch any fish on those copper set-ups in our group. We fished a single copper set-up down the shoot with a dodger fly. Looking back I’m sure glad I didn’t form my opinion on the effectiveness of fishing copper based upon those results. Let’s fast forward to today! Copper can be one of the hottest set-ups when it comes to catching nearly anything that swims in Lake Ontario, especially the salmonids. There have been days when the copper rods have produced the majority of fish that were caught aboard my charter boat. So how do we go about setting up and effectively fishing copper on Lake Ontario? One of the biggest concerns with copper fishing is reel capacity. This has been discussed in the article “Importance of reel capacityâ€. Copper reels have to have adequate line capacity to carry sufficient backing to allow for the notoriously vicious runs that Lake Ontario king salmon are known for. It is common for mature kings to run out over 400ft or more of backing after striking! For this reason we use and highly recommend Fins Spectra Braid as our backing material. It is rated at 50lb test and only has a 10lb test diameter equivalent. By comparison, Power Pro, another popular alternative, has a 50lb rating with a 12lb test equivalent. Speaking from experience I can tell you that the Fins wears like iron. I have backing on my copper reels that are going into over a decade of service. The Fins might be a little pricier but it more than makes up for it in longevity. The copper that we prefer and use exclusively is available from: http://www.atommiktrollingflies.com/ It is 45lb test and has a diameter of .037â€. Atommik has even gone so far as to make available different makes of reels already filled with the right amount of backing and copper for the desired set-ups. This comes in very handy for those of you who don’t have the inclination to do it yourself. A few of the particulars that are common to the majority of the coppers we use include the following: Backings to copper connections are made using Spro power swivels. The backing is tied to the Spro with a double Palomar Knot. Notice I said “DOUBLEâ€!!!!! This knot is also called a Nanofil knot. Copper is connected to the Spro swivel with a Haywire twist. The copper is passed through the Spro swivel twice before it is wrapped back onto itself not once like shown in the picture above.. If you desire, a piece of shrink tubing can be applied over the copper side to dress it up. Be advised though that when a repair has to be made out on the water in rough seas applying shrink tube can be a daunting task. It looks pretty but it is not absolutely necessary to the connection to function properly. Years of running copper have indicated the need to have a swivel between the backing and the copper. It relieves the stress that is inherent in that connection and helps prevent that connection from breaking. The Spro swivel model number is SHSB-03-5 Spro Heavy Swivel. The copper to the leader is connected using an Albright knot. The key is to make sure that you trim it tight. I haven’t seen a difference in this area to warrant the use of a swivel over the Albright knot. When it comes to leader lengths, this is where it can vary. For copper set-ups that are over 350ft in length, our leader lengths are in the 30ft range. For shorter coppers our leader lengths are elongated to around the 50ft length. A lot of this will depend on what we are running for baits and where in the water column they are running. One other important part of the equation is the depth per length of copper let out. We figure on about 22ft/100ft of copper let out. Most of the time we make sure that all of our copper is deployed and fully submerged into the water. There is a theory that the copper partakes in electrolysis which I believe it does. The water acts as an electrolyte solution and allows the copper to shed ions giving off a slight electrical impulse which is said to attract salmon. Whether this “attraction “is a 100% true or not I’m not totally sure, but what I can tell you is that I have had salmon bite seconds after I have let out a little more backing into the water to totally submerge the copper under the water. Contrarily, I have also caught salmon with only partially submerged coppers down the chute, too! As always, we encourage you to ask any questions that you may have about this article as we will be happy to answer them for you. We also encourage you to sign up for our mailing list to receive future articles such as this.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ace-Charters/134117926659711 Sorry I had to put this on my facebook page but my webmaster has taken ill.Scroll down to Rambling thoughts on lake Ontario fishing. Rambling thoughts on Lake Ontario Fishing By Capt. Jimmy Samia As the title suggests, I was looking for a way to put down some of what I think about when I’m thinking about fishing. Recently a few things have been popping into my head over and over again, but they’re not about just one topic. I’ve been rambling! Anyways here’s one for you! The first thought that keeps happening over and over again has to do with lead lengths off of downriggers and how attractors respond to it. It has been commonly proposed by a few leading experts that the farther you let out an attractor from the downrigger (lead length), the larger the diameter of the circle the attractor will rotate around and thus, the slower it will rotate. Hours and hours of watching attractors such a dodgers, pro trolls, slashers, and spindoctors have suggested otherwise. Believe it or not, the exact opposite is true! We used to spend a lot of time running the Walker Strike vision underwater camera. When the camera was run suspended in the water column the apparatus run behind it could only be run about six to eight feet back so that camera could focus on it, pick it up and display it on the TV screen. One day when I wasn’t paying attention to the depth of water I was in I inadvertently ran into shallower water. Guess what happened? The closer I got to the bottom with the camera, the more I could see back with it. I mean I could really see far back with it, like at least fifty to one-hundred feet or so. The camera was picking up the light refection off of the substrate on the lake floor and illuminating everything around it. I could see both of my downriggers and the dodgers that were on them. The dodger with the longer stretch was rotating faster and in a tighter circle than the dodger that was tighter to the ball. How on earth could this be? The general consensus on the internet and leading magazine articles that addressed this issue were saying the exact opposite was true! To make sure that I wasn’t seeing an anomaly, I messed around with the stretches more and more to make sure I was really “seeing what I was seeing”. I ran pro trolls, slashers, spindoctors and the like. Low and behold I was “seeing what I thought I was seeing”. The longer the lead, the faster and tighter the spin the attractor displays. I started to ask myself why the attractors would act this way. After thinking about it I came to the conclusion that the length of the fishing line in front of the attractor was offering resistance as it was being pulled through the water in a circular fashion. The longer the distance between the attractor and the release clip, the more drag the line offers to being rotated around its axis. In other words, the more line that is in front of the attractor, the harder it is for the attractor to move that line in a circular fashion farther from its(the line’s) axis which results in the attractor rotating in a tighter and tighter spin the farther away it is from the downrigger. Plain and simple; longer leads tighter spin! If you would like you can read more of my articles at http://www.acecharters.com/informational_articles.html I just received word from Attomik manufacturing that they now have available a new aftermarket half keel set-up at a very reasonable price to fit Otter boats. As many of you may know we have been using double keel set-ups on our Otter Boats for several years since their acceptance. The double keels offer several advantages over a single (factory) keel especially when pulling long lines such as coppers and lead cores. You can contact Attomik at http://www.atommiktrollingflies.com/ for more information. I only wish this had happened sooner as it would have saved me quite a few bucks!

http://www.acecharters.com/phpform/index_article_flasher_fly.php Here's some of my thoughts on fishing attractor fly combinations for Lake Ontario king salmon. I would apprecite any feedback that you may want to share.

We have been using Otter Boats for as long as I can remember on the eastern end of Lake Ontario.We pull coppers with them most of the time with lentghs as long as 700-800 ft at times. I only have had two problems over the years. One, they are a pain in the neck to store as they do not break down. Secondly, due to operater error, or more like lack of maintence, we had a rudder fall completely off of the board because of loose screws. The board came ripping across the back of the boat and took out a bunch of lines when it did. This was way back in time before we began using the double rudders. (Another good case for running double rudders). When combat fishing season arrives, we switch over to inline church walleye boards because it is a lot easier to choke them in so that they don't get run over by other boats. And typically that time of the year we don't fish as deep.

I think the key to fishing flies successfuly day in and day out has more to do with temperature location in the water column and where your fly presentation is located in it more than anything else. When the temps are down in the 80ft depths or more, most fish are feeding in relatively low light and are keying in on fly baits using their lateral line. When the temps are higher up in the water column like 60ft or higher, the fish are feeding ,more based upon sight than vibration picked up by their lateral lines. But here is one of the keys to getting good results when fishing flies above 60ft. If you can dial in your fly presentations to run in the midst of the thermocline, you can obtain the same results as fishing in low light as seen down 80ft or more. Friends of guys who scuba dive have said that the visibility in the thermocline intersect can be very poor at times. The fish that are "called" into your spread with attractor/fly presentations via their lateral line commit to the bite as they would in deeper water when they can't see the presentation as well as in clearer water. If your flasher/fly presenation is able to be fully seen by the fish they will not commit as often with a visual triggered bite. It is my belief that this is why spoons can outfish flasher/flys higher in the water column. They are fished with lighter line and "look" more like a natural bait than a flasher/fly set-up would being "wide out in the open" to be visually seen by the fish.

I have been a Charter Capt. for over ten years with a near coastal OUPV. I own and operate Ace Charters, www.acecharters.com, and fish for Striped bass in the Hudson River and King Salmon out of the eastern end of Lake Ontario. Last year we participated in the Lake Ontario Pro-Ams and did very well for our first time. Our team Cortland Machine/Attomik finished 4th in Niagra, 8th In Orleans, 2nd in the Best of the West, and 7th overall lake wide in the Pro division. I have had articles published in the "Boating on the Hudson" magazine for the last several years in regards to Striper Fishing. I have also been fortunate enough to featured on two different TV shows which have been aired on the Sportsman's Channel, those being "NY Outdoors TV" and the "Outdoors with Bob Coker" programs. Some of my Pro staff positions include Attomik Trolling Flies, Shark downrigger Weights, Ledgendary Products, Full Rut Outdoors,and Outdoors with Bob Coker. I also have the privilege of being on several Capt's programs including Big Jon, Northern King spoons,and Dreamweaver. Capt. Jimmy Samia www.acecharters.com