Olcott: 8/30-9/1 am. LONG

[Storm Warning II]

The Storm made its annual pilgrimmage north in search of the "derby winner" to Olcott, NY. Beautiful lake and weather all weekend was definitely the highlight!

Sat. 8/30:

Plied the inside waters for the early am seeking staging matures. Radio chatter was very slow as well as our morning. Started in 50 fow and worked out to 80 running most in the marks right on the bottom as well as 2 outside divers higher in the column with a mix of spoons and Spin Docs/flies. 5:15 am to 9 am never moved a rod. Turned the good ship north and power trolled out to 460 with 1 knock off and a shaker on a DW 42nd on the 65 rigger. Worked around the "Blue Zone" for an hour or two without marking much other than a few bait balls. Pulled all at 11:30 and motored in.

Headed back out around 4 pm and set up in the 100 fow range with same program as am and found virtually identical screen as the am, with fish prevalent in the bottom 5 feet of water and an occassional target up a little higher. Worked directly out in front of Olcott and slow going. Changed up some flasher/fly combos and spoons (Big thanks to the guy on the radio for the No See Um recommendation). About 5 pm had our 1st good rip in about 95 fow just west of the 18 mile pier heads, fish took on a dark green "oil spill" on white Doc towing a DW No See Um fly braid outside diver on #3, back 200 (parked in warm 62 degree water). Had the fish on for 3 or 4 minutes and a decent run. Fish surfaced 150 feet back or so made another run and "pop", there goes the hook. Reset and made it just a few hundred yards east of the mouth and same rod fires again. Good screamer peelin' off braid at a good clip. Fish got out 300 or so feet of line and we began to regain some. "Big Sexy" (a crew member of the trip) commented the fish felt heavy and shortly thereafter surfaced with the tell tale Shark fin 150 or so behind the boat. Slow tug of war ensued before a good run again and gone. Man! What's up? Reset and went another 1/2 mile or so before turning back on our track. Made it just west of the mouth again and fired the SAME ROD again. Another good rip, Jimmy got the rod and got 3 or 4 good small runs, bye-bye again. YIKES! Quickly reset and made 3 or 4 more small passes with 1 more rip before dark with the same unfortunate results, OUCH, 0/4.

Sun. 9/31:

Headed out to our little sweet water patch before sunrise and set up. Same screen and same spread. Slow going the first couple hours with nothing going on, but stuck with our water. About 8:30 am The SAME ROD fires again. This time "Big Sexy" grabs the rod with the same identical results. WTF?? Let's switch up who's in the hot seat and get this turned around! Swung in a little shallower on an eastbound pass and discovered a VERY nice scum line set up just west of the river heading east towards the Microwave tower. About the time the SAME ROD goes through the scum line, BAM! Hooked up and "Elvis" is on the rod. a good battle ensues and a chunky 16 1/2#er is boxed. Yippee, the boat is starting to smell a little better, a lot less like skunk. Tried tightening drags to a "scary" tightness to see if we could keep them on the hook a little longer. Reset and proceeded east along the line when finally fired another rod on the outside, drop. Fired outside divers again 2 or 3 times with same unfortunate results before changing out very quiet tail gunner to a Kelly green doc w/ white crushed glow and the No See Um on braid diver on "0" back 200. The new gunner hadn't been out 10 minutes and got pounded. Jimmy is into a good one. A 15 or so minute fight results in nice 24#er. Shortly thereafter in the "honey water" the same chute rod fires again and this time "Big Sexy" boats a dark high 18#er. All in all went 3/ 8 on the morning all in the inside waters. Went to work with the hook sharpener during our mid-day break.

Ventured back out around 4 pm again for the afternoon bite and set up on same water just north of 18 mile. Quite a bit of boat traffic and had a hard time locating and fishing the scum line, just couldn't get inside. Finally had an opening in the trolling procession and got south into our pattern. Shortly before the pattern, the inside wire back 200 fires with a pearl on white Spinnie and Purple Mirage A TOM MIK, short fight and off he goes, zzzzzzzzzzt! Poof! Gone again. Got into the water and the outside No See Um rod takes a quick rip, but no hook up. WTF? Never ran above 2.6 at the ball, nothing hooked up below 2.1 and nothing above 2.3 but just can't figure out why we can't keep them buttoned. The crew decided to let me try one and I was happy to jump on an inside wire back 215 with a crushed ice glow on white with an A TOM MIK E chip rigged Green Glow takes off. Short battle yields a CHUNKY 18#er that is just about as broad as he is long. See how it works boys, LOL? Reset and soon outside diver with Mt Dew Doc/Green Glow goes again and this time Jimmy successfully boats a 15# mature with a Boone & Crocket blood sucking sea leech on it that must be on its last legs because the poor King was about as white as I have ever seen one. Dispatched the lamprey in bite sized chunks for most gobies and Eeked out 2 or 3 more passes before dark with one other drive-by on the No See Um outside rig.

9/1: Headed out for the morning fish and our sweet water was quiet! No scum line, no bait, no hooks. Where did they go? Hadn't really been east of the Microwave yet, so we decided to try further east. Worked that direction and got just about in front of the tower when the Green Glow A TOM MIK wire rod fires with a GOOD rip, zzzzzt, zzzzzzt, zzzzzzzt and look around to see 2 of 3 crew members catching some Zs themselves, as well as diligently mapping the back sides of their eye lids! I guess one too many celebratory cold ones with fellow anglers and the Double Play boys at the Time Out will do that. Fortunately I give a quick "...wire, wire, wire" and Jimmy awakes from his slumber and is able to clear the cockpit in a single bound just in time to grab the wire and feel the angry King come loose. Continued further east to the Plant and worked some green water for another hour resulting in 1 shaker on the Mt. Dew/Green Glow outside and called 'er quits for another year.

One of these days I will figure out how to keep these bony mouthed fall Kings on the hook. Suggestions are greatly appreciated!

[Priority1]

Storm, Thanks for the detailed report.

[GLF]

My landing percent had went down when we have big fish on. I am still loosing some, but not as many. One thing I did was start to watch people fighting the fish. I was suprised when I watched some of them thumb the spool, or thumb the line against the rod handle. You would think an expierenced salmon fisherman would not do that.....but it happens.

I cured these problems when I threatend to get the dikes out and remove their thumb.