6:00 am we departed from Port Weller’s St Catharine’s Marina and headed out to the Niagara Bar’s ledge at Four Mile Point. We stayed close to shore to see if the alewife were still in shallow and to much of our surprise they were still think inside 40 FOW. Surface temperatures were consistent around 56’F. We angled out to the drop off on the Niagara bar but continued to scan for bait. Balls of bait were numerous all the way out and we decided to drop down off plan in 60 FOW just as the ledge showed on the screen. Right away the picture on the graph looked promising.
We set two rods stacked on one rigger 60 ft down we ran a reg. sized Dreamweaver’s Dave’s Salmon Slapper 60 ft back and the top rod running 40 feet down and 50 feet back with NK 28 Orange crush. I set the other rigger with a Spin Doctor Mountain Dew with a Atommik Tournament Big Fin (B-Fly) and had it back 10 feet and down 100. I went to set the first diver rod and was stopped when the rigger fired with the Dave’s Salmon Slapper taking a coho at 4 lbs.
Almost got all eight rods in when the slide diver set 60 feet back and 120 feet out on a 5 setting with a Glow Frog Yeck 88 finds a 9 lbs Rainbow all over the surface.
Wire diver using a Black 124 Walker Deeper Diver on 1 ½ setting and out 400 ft pulling a Black/double crushed glow green dot Spin Doctor and MC Rocket #69 with Green dots in a Clear Rhys Davis Cutbait Head, takes a head shaking thrashing that was evident even 400 feet behind the boat. Before the assumed big king had a chance to turn and make it’s run the hooks pulled out. Time to target deep kings as well.
The Orange crush on the stacker clip on the higher set rigger goes off and short into the fight the fish comes off.
On the other side of he boat we set on braid a Kelly Green Tiger 124 Walker Deeper Diver on 1 ½ setting and out 380 ft with a Spin Doctor in White with Crushed glow tape and Mountain Dew Tape on either side and pulling a MC Rocket plain #69. Sliding snell rig with a leader length of 60” of 30 lbs test Seagar and set with the bend in the rocket to roll at just a little faster then 1 revolution per second. The down speed was consistent at 2.0 mph and temp was around 40’F to 42’F. After about a half an hour after it was set, the diver rod gets hit. 12 lb Chinook comes to the boat. One hour later the same set takes a 13 lbs Chinook.
Slide Diver with the glow frog Yeck 88 set 60/120 went off a short time later and the fish comes un-pinned in the middle of it coming to the boat.
Full Core with four ounces of lead snap weight was used at the leader end to maximize depth and then clipped on an inline board and set 100 feet out to the side of the boat. The board gets heavy and very slowly pulls back. A small Chinook of about 3 lbs comes on a NK 28 Green/Black/silver.
Fish were taking minnows close to the surface and it was decided to try a Baby Red Spin Doctor with a small Howie Fly in white. Two ounces of lead snap weight set 50 feet from the flasher and then let out another 50 feet and clipped to the board. The board was set out about 50 feet out to the side of the boat inside the Fullcore board mentioned above. 10 minutes later the board is jerked back and a rainbow at four pounds is all over the surface behind the board. Boated and in the box it goes.
At the end of the trip at 12:30 pm We began pulling rods when the Slide diver takes another shot, but the hooks pulled out again and that fish was left to grow bigger.
Final count was 6 for 9 (one coho, one small shaker Chinook, 2 Rainbows, and 2 three year old low teen Chinooks) All three Chinooks had the adipose fin clipped.
Many of the boats struggled and the deep pattern was a slow bite for those that were looking for a derby winner.
Shane Thombs
www.fintasticsportfishing.com
