I still think they (salmon) may displaying weird / spawn behavior and may not be suspending and feeding normally as they were earlier in the month. Seems like everyone has experienced the same thing. Since I'm sitting, leg up, not fishing, its perhaps a little easier for me to "see" that something is indeed going on. Has anyone tried shallow trolling (2-3 colors, 10-20-ft on riggers) near the mouths of streams, rivers that the salmon may be stacking near?
I too wondered if some spawning behavior might explain the slowdown in the salmon bite. I was lucky enough to catch two nice salmon early on Sun which I kept to smoke for my visiting guest to take home with him. Both of these salmon had empty stomachs as a contrast to last month when every salmon had a dozen or more smelt/perch fry in their stomachs. The laker that I kept on Sun was full of smelt, at least 10 or 12 in its stomach but the salmon were empty. Seems like feeding behavior has changed in the last month, but I can't explain why.
I also wondered if the salmon had changed their location in the lake, to "stage" a spawning run up some of the inlets to the lake. So, when the wind picked up on Sun am, I trolled around Wolfeboro Bay for about 2hrs. Marked no bait clouds, rare larger fish and only caught a nice smallmouth bass at 40ft on the rigger. Thus, if the salmon are lined up at the inlets, I couldn't find them. Just my observations from Sunday's morning of fishing.
It may be a little early for the spawn. The tribs aren't running, which signals the fish to congregate around the mouths and move up into them. As many of you know, there are areas in Winni where the bows and salmon congregate in ridiculous numbers to go through the spawning motions. But, if my memory correctly serves me, this happens in October and November. It may happen now until then, but I know for a fact that I witness it in late October- November. So, I don't really have an answer why it's so slow, but I got a few nice salmon in front of the mouth of the Bearcamp River in Ossipee Lake this past weekend. I would try up the water column a bit.
we gave shallow trolling a shot last weekend. 3 colors off each board and # 6 sinking fly lines straight back. we did catch some small fish out in front of the songo on sebago, but we did better out in open deep 200 foot water down 45 to 50 feet deep. the males really look good right now and look ready for the spawn, but we didnt catch much near the river. mergansers were catching smelt there, so i know the smelt are up on the flats in the morning right now. maybe a good hard rain for a few days will pull them up, but we didnt find them.
