On the Friday May 14th, Perry Poirier went out of Jordon in his boat. we started in 70 FOW in front of the harbour and worked our way out and to the East. For the majority of the morning the sonar showed no fish or baitfish until we reached 130 FOW. Then the odd mark of fish in thedeeper parts of teh water columnand small schools of bait. It wasn't until we reached 200-230 FOW that the picture appeared more promising.
With only a slight ripple on the water and the fog disipated we could see a slick that pointed out a surface temperature break. It was colder water inside (shoreline side)of the slick and warmer outside, as well the water was off coloured where it was a few degrees warmer. The bait was on the colder side and fish were now being marked in the top 50 feet as well as a deep of bait and marks in below 150 feet in 200 FOW. We set for the upper water column, but only managed a single strike on a wire diver flasher Fly on 3 setting out 110 ft.
In preparations for the tournament and the call to reschedule it for the Sunday, I was on the phone for three hours straight talking to the registered captains and notifying the tournament information. In conversation with some, I come to find out the bite had began at the Niagara Bar. No other information on depths or tactics, but it was a good starting point.
Our good friend Ed Barbosa was down from Meaford, Ontario for the weekend to fish with us int he tournament and also one day on the lake. I checked the marine forecast and sure enough the winds would be bad int eh afternoon, but tolerable in the morning. So we made plans to launch from Port Weller and head out to the drop on the outer Niagara Bar.
The moring was overcast and a three foot chop out of the Northwest. I took our time motoring out and set up in 100 feet of water. We set up for our typical above 100 ft sets and concentrated in the top 50 feet. We started trolling and every boat we passed was hooked up and we didn't move a stick with a "TYPICAL" up high rigger, Leadcore and diver sets. It was about 9:00 when we figured out that we needed to go deep- REALLY DEEP to catch those fish.
I put an MC Rocket Blueberry Muffinbehind a Black Double Crushed Glow Green Dot Spin Doctorputting it down 120 feet. It fires not five minutes later.
So I send the other rigger down even deeper at 142 ft using a Mountain Dew SpinDoctor and Hammer Fly and while we just net the first fish that newly set deep rod fires. Now we are saying "we figured this out", If that's not the most wrong thing to say, I don't know what is.
Next move was to set the big 107 and 124 Walker Deeper Divers down a little deeper as well. Sending them out on a 1 1/2 setting out 300 and 325 feet using Flasher/Fly and Flasher/MC Rocket. The MC Rocket # 69 was behing a ProTroll Green Dot behind a 124 black Walker Deeper diver and it took a crushing blow that snapped the rocket clean off. The other diver on braid managed a fish during a doubleheader at 12:00 pm where it was set on a 3 setting and out 200 ft.
We also managed a small rainbow on a Fullcore and a coho on five colour in the early part of the morning. Using spoons. 5 colour had a Northport Nailer Watermelon II but also with a glow Ladderback tape on the face.and the Fullcore had a Dreamweaver Reg. Dave's Salmon Slapper.
The core were set down the chute and had a number of short strikes.
Ended the morning at 12:30 after our last double header. Only managed 5 of 10 hook ups in the boat. The fish we lost were quality fish. This provided us a starting point for tournament morning.
Now, like I said, it was the kiss of death to say "we figured this out" and come tournament day our spot dried up and the three fish we had on, didn't come to the boat. We worked it hard but the picture on the graph didn't look anywhere close to it's picture onSaturday. The water also had gotten colder down in the depths where yesterday we had 42 degrees down 140 we had 40 down that same depth on Sunday.
At 11:00 am we made a last ditch effort andtried our spot we found on Friday but the water had changed and the blue clear water had moved in to that area and we couldn't find that green water patch.
After weighin we later found out the fish had moved down the ledge to the Canada/NY fence. Same patterns would have worked.
In the tournament a number of bigfishwere at the scales including a 27.44 lbs pig. Here are the details of the tournamentboth pictures and results.
http://www.straitlineanglers.com/Feed_The_Fry/2010_Feed_The_Fry_tournament_pictures.htm
results...
http://www.straitlineanglers.com/Feed_The_Fry/2010_Feed_The_Fry_Tournament_Results.htm
The tournament raised $1990 for the Port Dalhousie Pen Imprinting Project. 45 boats and 21 caught fish. The top 11teams caught three fish.
Shane Thombs
www.fintasticsportfishing.com
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