Fishing Report Nanticoke - July 4th - watch out for nets

jrr

Well-Known Member
Went out off Nanticoke this morning -- 3 rainbow, 1 walleye, a lot of silver bass. Marked loads from 50ft to 100ft but they hit for us at 90ft. From the radio chatter they are spread out but everyone seems surprised by how many rainbow they are catching! I had a 10lber rip off the release and zip across 3 lines... Tangles!

There are a load of nets out there now. 3-4 boats were dropping nets 50-70 FOW -- one I saw is tight to the outer marker looks like a bottom net, another is due east in 70ft is floating. Neither are easy to see. There are probably a lot more.

I will be out there again tomorrow.
 
Last fall out of Bruce a commercial net was marked with white bleach jugs every 80'. Made it easy to see, and avoid. Means I did not ruin my gear or theirs! Wish this was law! Thanks to the considerate and intelligent commercial guy that day! I appreciate the extra work and inconvenience he went through.
 
Let's set the record straight. There is one (1) commercial fishing tug out of Port Dover fishing pickerel quota with can nets south of Nanticoke Shoal. Marked at regular intervals white Javex jugs set in North /South direction. The other ten (10) vessels seen were smelt trawlers shooting their nets and dragging them across the area for smelt quota. The nets are retrieved on board, fish sorted and NOT left out there like can nets and bottom nets. No problem lot's of room for everyone.
 
image.jpeg

3 nets out there today that I drove around/over. One at 50ft, one at 70 ft, and another further east at 70ft. They are really hard to see if there is more than a ripple and one is really long... The boat dropping the net was a red tug. The other boats trolling for smelt makes a lot sense. Caught 4 rainbow (edit: maybe 3 + a Coho!) today... Lost 3 at the boat. All on the one spoon down there for entertainment -- hammered silver/green NK at 60ft.
 
Last edited:
that sure looks like a coho hen to me...gorging on smelt is another reminder...take a good look at the head and the gill plate and fins... and also the section of skin/scales up on the shoulder...cohos mix in with the pods of rainbows and skamania down here in the west...trust me i know my erie cohos... anyway good job and nice catch! the hens have the best quality of flesh for table fare.

we caught one coho sat. with 2 rainbows east of erieau...if you wanna catch more cohos put a slider right out in the prop wash/wake down to 15 feet...it also works for rainbows...that coho we caught hit a jerry lee in the prop wash...it was a male approx 7 lbs with a lamprey eel attached just below the first dorsal fin..
 
Last edited:
image.jpeg
that looks like a coho hen to me...feedin on smelt...take a good look at the gill plate and fins... and also the section of skin/scales up on the shoulder...cohos mix in with the pods of rainbows down here in the west...good job and nice catch! i caught one coho sat. with 2 rainbows east of erieau

You are likely correct.. The meat a was a lot more red than the rainbow. That would explain it! It swallowed the NK -- last time I had that one in the water was on Lake Huron 15 years ago. We had 4 hits on it today. I gave up on waiting for the walleye ;) These silver fish are a lot more fun.

Before I cut it open:
 
Rainbow has a pure white mouth, salmon black n white, only way I can tell sometimes.
 
Hey @jrr thanks for posting the picture of the full fish...that is absoulutely a coho hen to me...they are absoulutley alot of fun to catch and they are good eating...glad to hear you have a hot NK spoon... what colour combination is it? Nks use to work great on huron for Kincardine king salmon 15 years ago..I like the silver streaks and prokings down here on erie right now...

in my little picture to the left i am struggling to lift 8 erie cohos caught off long point way back in the late 80s....like your fish they just loved gorging on the smelt..we caught 2 erie kings that day for a 2 man limit of erie salmon ..one king was 13lbs and the other was 2olbs..you just don't forget the good days ..that one was in july of 1988
 
Hey @jrr thanks for posting the picture of the full fish...that is absoulutely a coho hen to me...they are absoulutley alot of fun to catch and they are good eating...glad to hear you have a hot NK spoon... what colour combination is it? Nks use to work great on huron for Kincardine king salmon 15 years ago..I like the silver streaks and prokings down here on erie right now...

in my little picture to the left i am struggling to lift 8 erie cohos caught off long point way back in the late 80s....like your fish they just loved gorging on the smelt..we caught 2 erie kings that day for a 2 man limit of erie salmon ..one king was 13lbs and the other was 2olbs..you just don't forget the good days ..that one was in july of 1988

I grew up fishing Huron and Michigan for salmon -- our spoon bags were full of these: http://www.michigansportsman.com/nkspoon.jpg -- now I just have a few left from my dad's old collection. Yesterday we picked up walleye on the planer board with silver/black body baits but nothing on the downriggers. Started playing with tight to the ball and pulled out the old spoons. It is a lot of fun out at 90FOW with them ;)

I have been buying silver streak -- we have some old ones that still work on Erie and monkey puke was getting releases today. Nothing stuck.
 
On the graph are 40ft deep clouds of those things all over 80-100 FOW -- there was one so dense it told me it was 30FT deep for a little bit. Lots out there for them to love.
 
Back
Top
AdBlock Detected

We get it, advertisements are annoying!

Advertising is what keeps Channel 6-8 on the air. To this end, please take a moment to disable your AdBlocker. If you would prefer an ad-free experience, but would still like to help support site operations, please consider making a donation.

I've Disabled AdBlock    No Thanks