2010 Episode Synopsis
by Charlie Wray
Episode 197: Florida Bass and Flatfish Salmon
Today, the Mercury Marine destination takes us down to the Orlando area in Florida, and then back up to the shores of Lake Ontario. First, Charlie and wife Terri load up the Ram for a road trip south. The lakes are frozen hard at home, but the draw of a sunny warm place to fish is hard to ignore. Little did they expect, that morning temperatures in central Florida were at the freezing mark, and everyone was scrambling for the warm clothes that they started the trip in back home. If you thought cold front Bass were tough, imagine the normally warm temperatures in Florida hit with a shocking cold snap, this is about as bad as a cold front can be!
When faced with tough conditions, live bait can be the way to go and everyone had Shiner fishing first in mind. To make matters even worse, the wind and temps have stopped the bait catchers from netting Shiners, and there wasn’t a decent sized Shiner within 50 miles, now on to the next problem. Water levels on the chosen lakes are low and our good friend and legendary Bass fisherman, Carrol Hagood mentions that his vehicle will not be able to get the boat in or out. Good thing we had our hitch with us. After only a few minutes, we had the Ram 2500 diesel 4X4 attached to the trailer and the boat was in the water with no worry about getting it out. Finally, at least we are in the water now.
Forget fast moving baits today, this is going to be finesse fishing at its finest to tempt even a few hits, and tube baits fit the bill perfectly. In Florida, the chance of getting a monster Bass is always a possibility, and you need to be prepared if the chance presents itself. Mustad Ultrapoint Big Mouth – Tube Bait hooks #38104NP-BN not only have an extra wide bend, but extra strong, perfect for the bulky plastics and potentially large fish. To put everything in our favour, leaders of invisible Seaguar Fluorocarbon in 20 lb test are used, and connected to 30 lb test Tuf-Line XP. This way, we have an abrasion resistant, invisible presentation with the Seaguar, and the no stretch hook setting and sensitive feel of the Tuf-Line XP. Charlie is also using the new Okuma low profile Cayenne and Serrano baitcasting reels. Powerful gearing, smooth casting and silky smooth drag, Okuma has this one bang on. These reels are small and comfortable and packed full of performance.
By the end of the day, more fish were caught than expected including one pushing the 10 lb mark, even Carroll didn’t expect the hits to be detected so well by Terri and Charlie, but the Seaguar leader to Tuf-Line XP main line is a wonderful combination and hits were obvious, and helped make the most out of a bad situation. What also was obvious, without the Ram 4X4, we weren’t even getting the boat in the water. It always helps to be prepared.
For the second part of the show, Charlie is out in his new Crestliner 2150 Sportfish SST. This is the largest of the smooth running Crestliner boats and beautiful to fish from, especially powered by the whisper quiet Mercury 250 hp Verado. Family fun, or fishing, this boat has the conversion stern bench seat that fold down in seconds to a large casting deck, obviously the casting deck is the way you will see it 99% of the time in Charlie’s boat www.crestliner.com
Once again we are faces with tough conditions and the Salmon bite that was on, now has the fish with lockjaw. It is standard practise to change from body baits to spoons, and maybe try some flashers in the Spring, but all techniques have been scratching a big zero for most anglers, and many very good anglers at that.
Far too many folks hesitate to slow down and are accustomed to trolling at faster speeds, but just like Bass fishing, when slow, in your face presentations are a must, so can slow presentations work for Salmon, only you can’t rest you lure on the bottom of the lake in front of their nose. Instead, Charlie pulls out the classic Flatfish. This lure has incredible action at a slow speed and dances and teases the fish into crushing it!! After experiencing some incredible success and some larger than average Spring Lake Ontario Salmon, Charlie changes up the hooks on the U20 size. Instead of staying with the standard treble hooks that come with this lure, Charlie replaces the back treble with a 1/0 Mustad Ultrapoint Siwash hook #10829 BLN, and the belly hook is replaced with a 4 X strong Mustad Kingfish treble #3592BLN. Now this lure is Salmon ready!!!
Another part of this finesse Salmon technique is the use of Seaguar Fluorcarbon Abrazx main line. Downsizing lures also calls for a downsize in line size. It’s not that the line is more visible with the thicker diameters, since it is Seaguar, it is invisible no matter what pound test, but in this situation, 15 lb test Seaguar Abrazx allows the Flatfish to dance more and allows the Flatfish action to remain as unrestricted as possible. Remember, the thicker the diameter of the line, the more resistance it has to a lures action from side to side. In addition to being invisible, this Seaguar Abrazx is very abrasion resistant, so no additional leaders are needed, and you can tie direct. The abrasion resistant qualities of Abrazx not only come through to help you at the end with the fish, but after using this line, it is wonderful to notice that there is no wear at all from the release clips.
Speaking of release clips, Charlie likes to keep them fairly snug letting the release clip do most of the hook setting. But with this slow and tempting presentation, while the Flatfish gets crushed in an, “I am eating this free meal because it isn’t swimming away very fast manner”, the hits are not the rod bending, screaming drag Salmon hits. The hits are an inactive, bounce the rod a few times hits. Take it upon yourself to jump up, crank down and hit the fish hard. Even after this, the Salmon often remains just a heavy weight, and few annoyed type of headshakes, and then the inactive Salmon wakes up and acts like a Salmon. The hit and initial response from the Salmon will make you feel like you did indeed fool and inactive Salmon into taking your bait, definitely not the aggressive Salmon that would have chased down your faster presentation. Not the usual technique, but this works.
With hits so light and the fish not moving away from the cannonball, it helps to have a fast downrigger like the Cannon Mag 20. The ball is up and out of the way quickly, and with your hands full with a Salmon that is just starting to wake up, the ball stops at the water level automatically, how perfect is that. Also, with the Cannon track system and adjustable Cannon rod holders, you can place your rods in the best position to react quickly and set the hook fast.
Trolling slow and quiet helps when you have a smaller motor like the Mercury 9.9 Pro Kicker. When the winds can be pushing you close to the speed you need to troll, it is nice to have a motor that only adds a little more push to accomplish the 1.5 – 1.7 mph needed. When it’s time to troll back into the wind, time to fire up the quiet slow trolling Mercury Verado for a little more boat control. As with anytime you are on the water, attention to detail is important, even when it is keeping a perfect trolling speed, into the wind or with it, and if using both motors to your advantage helps, do what is needed to keep your speeds correct, don’t get lazy. Trolling slow has other advantages as well. The Salmon are spooked less by the wire downrigger lines and a fish finder like the Humminbird 1197 c gives you incredible detail and marks exactly the depth your fish are sulking. The GPS feature makes it easy to keep track of a few lunkers staying in the same areas. Even in the Spring this can be as deep as 90 feet and downriggers are a must for proper presentations. While lead lengths are usually fairly tight to the release clip, there are times when exact distances are required, this is when reels like the Okuma Clarion and Catalina line counters are worth their weight in gold, once you find that perfect lead distance, you can repeat it perfectly every time.
Some of the Okuma reels like the Clarion and Catalina actually have a TSC ( Tension Spool Control ) knob on the side. This red knob is more than spool control. This is actually an independent spool setting when the reel is in free spool. This allows you to adjust your reel to have resistance while in free spool and lowering your baits, just like the tension you want by having your thumb on the spool, and when you engage the reel, it automatically goes back to your original drag setting you want to fight the fish. Once you use this, you will fall in love with it. For all your fishing and outdoor needs, check out SAIL –The Outdoors Superstores at www.sail.ca
Continue to Episode 198
Go Back
