Squam weekend report.

Well Squam continues to be very stingy in giving up Salmon (even runts) but if you are lucky enough to get one it should be a decent fish. Be careful as rocks are showing up in allot of new places and the channel is getting extremely shallow, raise your motor or the Squam Rock Gods will get ya. By the way, we did hear of a yearling Salmon caught in Squam this weekend, from a reliable source and he said it was 12 or 13 inches, super healthy, great growth.

Water temp was mid 70’s, water flat pretty much all 3 days, no wind, etc. most fish were caught from 25 to 40 feet. All fish were caught with Streamers, we hardly use any spoons anymore, big spoon sale coming up, lol..Most fish were caught over 60 to 70 feet of water. Streamers can be trolled at 2.5 to 3.5 mph (or faster) and let you cover more water in the same time period.

Friday running 6 lines, 7 hours we managed one nice Bow, just under 5 lbs (4lbs/15oz) we caught it on an Orange Ghost from Cee Dee Streamers, ran off a G2 Planer Board, 4 colors lead plus 100” of mono out. Several more fish were landed, mostly Bass and smaller Bows.

Saturday was a Bass and Small Bow day with a few huge White Perch thrown in, no Salmon at all. Same water temps and conditions.

Sunday wasn’t much better, but we did land “one” very nice Salmon off Jim’s Rod pumper, again 4 colors lead and 100’ extra mono (about 23/25 feet down) It was caught on the most productive streamer of the weekend “now” called a “Yellow Tag” tied by Paul at Cee Dee. I had ordered 6 Squam’s Big John and several other streamers earlier in the week, but Paul only had 5 Big John’s, in it’s place he sent a “2010” (name given to new patterns that have not earned a name yet) it had a yellow tag and head with a Big John purple feather. I asked about it and he told me he had made a bunch earlier this year and that was the last one, in fact he said he sent me a couple this spring, so I looked and I did have another one. We ran both Yellow Tags all weekend and they caught the majority of the fish with a 6 line spread each of the 3 days. The Yellow Tag is not on Cut2spec web site yet, but he is making them and can take phone orders if you want to try a couple.

Jim’s Rod Pumper, normally as productive as the G2 Board has been quite past few weeks, but it did catch the biggest fish of the weekend, always a good fish catcher. Of all the G2 stuff, the Planer Board has been the most productive and people have found running them off the lanyard supplied as easier than off the planer mast or rigger, I have not tried the lanyard myself.

Fishing is funny, one day it’s all one unit doing the catching the next maybe another, the G2 Ball has been pretty hot lately too, with only two riggers I’m not running the Stackers right now that much in favor of the G2 Balls and longer lines, my 6 line set up is 2 G2 Balls, 2 Rod Pumpers and 2 G2 Planer Boards. Next week as conditions change it might be 6 different set ups, whatever works, lol. When running less than 6 lines I go with whatever is working best that day/week, be prepared for whatever it takes..

Season is getting short now, get out there and get a big one, I hear Winni is still producing plenty of fish of excellent quality, still your best bet for action and quality combined.

That's my report, 1 nice Bow and 1 nice Salmon, 1 fried downrigger, 6 lost streamers, 1 lead core set up, 24 hours on the pond.

Big John

Good report, John. Sorry to hear about the fried rigger. Ouch. Hopefully Cannon can turn that back around to you quickly. If not, tell them to include you on there pro staff and send you a 2011 digi-troll to test against the Squam Gods.

Don't sell all your spoons. Next year the streamers could go silent and spoons will be in favor again. :-)

I know which spoons to keep, too bad they all can't am be trolled over 2.4, etc.

Sent it to Fish307 in NY, Jeff said in and out same day most Cannon repairs, Cannon was 2 week backlog.

It was my own dumb move, should have thought out the consequences better, but made sense at the monent, lol.

Big John

ive had good experiences with Fish307. can you set the drags lighter with the cannons.

Fish 307 is the BEST!!


Salty

last winter i wanted a nils hand auger, all they had was the 8 inch hand auger version that came with the powerhead, they sold me just the auger and handle knowing that nils wouldnt be getting the new auger blades in til this fall. they could have just waited and sold the whole unit as they were getting tough to find. wish they made that auger blade in a ten inch, things incredible, my big jiffies stay at home now

I've dealt with Jeff at Fish307 for quite a few years, good guy, go above and beyond to give customer satisfaction. He once sent me a dozen or more Suttons the wrong size, I called him and he told me to keep them and he sent me out the correct ones, n/c. Good people in my book.

Can do most anything with a Digitrol IV, I just neglected to do it right,lol. First mistake was to set it to stay 30 feet off the bottom, can't do it in 22 feet of water, it just kept trying to come up, if I had the clutch set looser it would have been OK, I think, even with my careless 30 foot setting. All this quick (stupid)thinking was to save me from loosing a 5.00 streamer now and then, now who knows how much it will be to repair it, oh well.

Only problem I ever had with Fish307 was a few times I asked for next day delivery and they didn't do it, Jeff figured it would be here next day with standard ground anyhow because we are close. I called him and told him I appreciated him trying to save me money, but UPS comes here late in the day and I wanted to leave early the next day to the lake. Now if I say NEXT DAY, it's here before I leave and I pay the price.

I like patronizing the local guys and do, but somtimes you need to go elsewhere. I would have sent the rigger to Peter at Cannon, great guy, but he said he had a 2 week back log. Fish307 said they can have it out the same day. I asked Peter what he thought and he said Fish307 is good and to send it there.

Good people everywhere I guess, finding them sometimes aint so easy though.

Big John

I have also gotten some gear from fish 307. Fun place to go walk around!

Thanks for the report John!

Good luck with the rigger!

-Cody

Thanks Cody, I've never been there, but they are very good in a pinch. I have no fear it will be fixed well and maybe back by Friday ????

Big John