It appears to be a 2004 video. You could see they tried their night-time pattern on Picton Bay, on the weedline to the east or south-east of the pumphouse. My dad and I would see them filming there, as they repeated the mid-90's pattern of casting Fastracs to the weedline. We would see them filming, and you always knew when they caught one because all the movie lights went on.
Meanwhile, my dad and I silently trolled past, and caught way more fish than they did pretty much every time! Trolling at night used to work pretty well back then, a pattern the
cognoscenti learned while watching the old school casting repeatedly to the weedline without catching as many fish as they used to.
Then suddenly the whole fishery changed, and now you seem to catch a lot more in the daytime, and we haven't had much luck at night any more. One night in '96 I caught 19 fish by myself trolling that area, and a few years earlier my dad and I caught 39 - we gave up trying to get Number 40 after a few hours.
You sure don't get the numbers of fish these days like you did back then, although fortunately the size hasn't got any smaller, possibly even a shade bigger on average.
Maybe I should start a post - "Then" vs. "Now" and why. I could offer thousands of hours of observation, but no real "because" answers. Sheesh.
"We got a fish, we marked our waypoint". Well, that should tell the where the fish are for about the next ten minutes.... They describe trolling deep-diving lures down 20-25' over a "deep water slot" of 68'. Well, that really narrows things down - to about a thousand acres! I'm being a wise guy of course - there are very very few "hotspots" of any kind out east of the ferry [although I know a couple - wink!] - for the most part you are just cruisin'. You might hit a school, and knock off two or three fish in ten or fifteen minutes if you're lucky, but by the next pass they will be gone. It's hard to locate and pin down these big open-water hunter-killer fish - they just keep on cruising and so do you. Every now and then you meet.
In my experience, there is a very weak positive correlation between marking fish and catching them. What seems to work is trying everything - every colour, lure, depth, speed and location you can, until something works. If you're really lucky, your "pattern" might work a second or third time. I can probably catch as many fish without a fish finder as with, but I might hang up a few lures on the bottom....
He seems amazed to learn about Fireline! That is a surprise. I thought it was pretty well known by 2004. However the non-stretch fluorocarbon leader is a damn good idea.
One wonders if they will mention snap-on weights, the Merricans' idea that was just catching on about then.
Too funny! So he's promoting his Drift Socks, despite the fact that he has a smaller kicker trolling motor. Why do you need socks if you have a kicker motor? If you want one, you can order them from the Department of Redundancy Department at Lindy.
Actually, what was really funny was how he said, "These socks allow us to slow down and troll at ....." and I'm thinking, Give it to me! Tell me how fast you're trolling! " .... at just the speed we need to be." The bastard! Bwah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!
However the answer to trolling speed is the same answer as where to fish - keep on keepin' on and try different speeds til you find something that works, at least for one fish.
I bet he threw away that smaller "eating size" fish because the slot was still in existence in 04, right?
Uh-oh, he's got one that's pulling down the board, must be a huge one! The wind is just howlin' out of the NW. Brrrrr....... Pshaw, a mere nine-pounder. Hmph.
Did you notice as the video goes on, their speech gets a bit more slurred? Especially Ted's! Too funny! Izumi makes a comment early in the show that he's weaving around in the boat like he's been drinkin'. [Bob Izumi has dropped more g's in his life than a stripper's dropped strings] I would like to state for the record that I have never done such a thing - drinking in the boat and talking about it on line.
No surprises, the fishing turned on a bit just at dark. You can't help but smile at Ted's enthusiasm - here's a pro walleye fisherman who's never caught one bigger than 12 1/2 pounds, a very achievable and catchable weight on a fairly regular basis at Quinte.
Oh my gosh, it's dark, and their voices are so slurred! Gotta be the cold and the wind numbing their lips, right? Too funny!
Hey, they're weighing Ted's fish! What does it weigh, the scale's bouncin' around all over the place.....
What a great video! Grab your coffee [or your beer, depending on if it's before or after Changeover Time] and enjoy. Note: Changeover Time occurs earlier on weekends.
Cheers,
Pete
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