Full Moon

One other thing about this past weekend was that the moon was full and I don’t really like a full moon when I am fishing. It seems to me that I have more slow days a couple of days each side of the full moon than I do when the moon is not full. 

I usually fillet the fish for my anglers and when I am cleaning fish I quite often check their stomach contents to see what they are feeding on and how much they are feeding. When I am doing this if the stomachs are empty someone usually says boy they must be hungry and I think that is totally opposite from what is really going on. Empty stomachs means to me that the fish are not feeding and the only reason we caught them was because we got our lures right in the fishes face. What I like to see when I am cleaning fish are stomachs stuffed right full, that tells me the bite is on and the fish are actively searching for food.  Of all the fish I cleaned this weekend only one of them had anything in their stomachs and that was one almost totally digested bait fish. I feel extremely fortunate that we did as well as we did this past weekend with the full moon.

  To check out the latest pictures go to my photo gallery at http://gallery.me.com/lucky_dutchman

Transition fishing

Saturday and Sunday I fished with four anglers from Margaretville, NY  who took advantage of my two day summer special. I fish with a lot of guys and gals from the Catskill Mountains and one thing they all have in common is their love of fishing and Kenny, Joe, Bill, and Pudgy all share in this trait. Saturday morning we ran out from Oswego Harbor to 180 feet of water where we started setting up. By the time I got all ten rods out we were in 300 feet of water and a board line with a blue/sliver/ orange belly smithwick went off with a nice 9 pound lake trout. A nice way to start our morning off. We never had a big flurry but we picked away all day long. Some of the fish we caught were rainbows under the 21 inch size limit and we released them as quickly as we could. We also had a couple of king salmon and one of those was over twenty pounds and we also had a couple of bigger rainbows that we kept. The fishing Sunday was pretty much the same as Saturday only we didn’t manage to find a big king to brag about and we caught more rainbows Sunday than we did Saturday. We had two decent days of fishing we didn’t set the fishing world on fire, but we had a great time. Good company and a few fish a winning combination. 

More yellow perch

When the perch fishing is as good as it was last week you just can’t stay away. So last Thursday the fifth of June Jimmy Dence, Bill Nye and I went to Henderson harbor to see if the fish were still there and still biting and yes the fish were still there and still biting. Maybe not as good as last week but still plenty good enough. On this trip the fish were a little shallower than before but still in the same general area. Our best fishing was in fifteen feet of water in front of Association Island and fathead minnows were our best bait. The only thing better than catching perch is eating them. Breaded and fried there is no better tasting fish in freshwater

Last week end in May

Saturday May 30th Jon’s bait and tackle in Texas had a brown trout tournament so George Bemiss, John Angerosa and I decided to enter. We fished a couple of hours and we landed four fish three browns and a Landlocked salmon. My autopilot on the little motor had a breakdown and by nine o’clock the wind started to blow hard and it got considerably colder so we decided to pack it in. Sunday the 31st the wind was gusting up over 30 mph and the waves were between 5 to 8 feet high. This was the third Sunday this month that the wind blew hard hopefully the weather pattern will change sometime soon.   To see more pictures from the last couple of weeks week check my photo gallery at http://gallery.me.com/lucky_dutchman

Yellow Perch fishing

The last full week of the month I didn’t have any lake trips booked but I did have a perch trip booked for Friday the 29th. This trip was with James Harris, Jeff Casey, Ike Johnson, and Harrison Potts four fisherman from Philadelphia, PA . My friend Captain George Bemiss and I used our trailerable boats for this trip. We met the guys in Pulaski and they followed us up to Henderson harbor where we split up into the two boats. It took us a couple of hours and a couple of moves to find the fish but when we did the bite was on. We fished until 1 PM when the guys decided that they had enough fish to take home with them. When we have the time George and I like to fish for perch and it was a lot of fun to introduce great lakes perch fishing to these guys.

Family week end gat a way

After struggling during the week my confidence levels were not very high when the week end rolled around. Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning I fished with Jack and Lori Clark and their grandson Ryan and Saturday afternoon Jack and Lori invited my grandson Dylan to come along with us. Saturday afternoon we decided to fish offshore for salmon and rainbows. We fished from 140 feet of water out to about 240 feet of water and I spread the lures from 40 feet down to as far as 120 feet down. The water temperatures were 48 degrees on the surface and 42 degrees 90 feet down. With the temperatures like these the fish were scattered all the way from the surface to over a 100+ feet down, so I scattered the lures as much as possible. On saturday afternoon we managed to break off a good salmon on a dipsey diver with a dodger and fly rig. We landed a nice salmon off a downrigger with a dodger / fly, dropped a good fish on a 10 color lead core rod with a spoon, and landed a couple of rainbows on spoons running off downriggers. Saturday’s trip was a very successful trip and we all had a great time. Sunday morning we decided to try for brown trout, so we setup west of the harbor on Ford shoals. Sunday we landed 4 nice chunky brown trout and we lost at least that many fish. The last hour or so on Sunday’s trip things slowed down, so we decided to make a pass in the deeper water and try for salmon or rainbows. On that pass we missed a good fish off a rigger and we landed a nice rainbow/steelhead around 7 pounds on 5 colors of lead core with a spoon. After the disappointing week I had it was nice to finish the week with a couple of good days.

Oswego County Tourism

 Thursday the 21st of May I took three young ladies from the Oswego County Tourism office fishing they were Jessica Trump, Jessica’s sister Alycia Trump, and Mary Ellen Barbeau. Jessica writes a blog for the county and I wanted to show these ladies a good time and to also provide Jessica with some material for her blog. It seems like anytime I take someone out fishing and I want to show off I am doomed. We got a later than normal start and as luck would have it about the time, we were setting up, the brown trout were shutting down. All three of the girls managed to catch a fish but two of the fish were under 21 inch rainbows that we released and one small brown that was legal. I am hoping that I will be able to get the girls out again so I can redeem myself. Check out Jessica’s blog at http://outdooradventuresinoswego.blogspot.com/

Oneida Lake walleye fishing

Report for May 18 through 20th. On monday May 18th John Angerosa invited me to fish Oneida lake for walleyes with him. Monday morning the was a frost warning so we decided to leave the dock a little later than usual. I met John at Marion Manor at 6:30 and we launched his boat and started our first drift in 20+ feet of water in front of Oneida creek. We made 3 or 4 drifts and only fished till 9:30. We boated a dozen walleyes and kept six nice fat walleyes to eat and released the rest.  

Our first lake trip for this week was on Wednesday the 20th I fished with Mike Hudock and Henry Mostek  a couple of nice guys from Hellertown, PA. We started our day fishing for Brown trout and later in the day we switched over and fished the deeper water for salmon or rainbows. The best I could do for Mike and Henry  were a couple of brown trout. Try as hard as we could, we could not find any salmon or rainbows in the deeper water.