This past weekend, Julia and I took our ‘Babymoon’ to Olcott, NY to do some salmon fishing and sight seeing Niagra Falls.  Yeah, I know, you are asking the same questions I was 3-4 months ago when my wife said we need to go on a ‘Babymoon’.   Well, you and your wife go on one last vacation together before your first born comes into the world (she’s 7.5 months pregnant now – due date Sept. 27th).  In normal Julia fashion, she just wanted to chill out under the sun and in the boat somewhere.  I suggested we go to Olcott and do some salmon fishing, perhaps see the Falls.  “Done” she says, I was instantly became a huge fan of the term “babymoon”.

So off we went, Starcraft hooked up, downriggers, my new speed and temp prob I purchased for the trip (thanks Mark Botone), wire diver rods, an arsenal of spin docs and spoons, and of course our pup Autumn.  The fishing was a bit of a puzzle as expected, but we dialed it and put the smack down on them.   The key up there was finding bait using my Lowrance Electronics, then using the downrigger prob to put baits in the 44-46 degree temp zone, we found you stay there,  drags will be a screaming before long.   Each day produced limits or near limits of fish, with Julia catching the biggest fish of the trip, and her personal biggest fish ever: a chromer 24lb king.   I have a great pic of her holding the fish sporting her baby bump.  That will be a pic I will surely hold onto forever, and have fun showing the kid someday.

We had a real nice mixed bag of Kings, Steelhead, and Brown Trout.  Most days the 44-46 degree sweet spot was 65-80 down.  However, our last day, we found massive bait balls in 70 feet of water just off the harbor, and cold water only 50 feet down.  We were all by ourselves as most boats had headed off shore at that point.   It turned into 3 hours of drag ripping action, we weren’t always successful at landing them all, but didn’t go much more than 15 minutes with out a screamer hooking up.  Taught me the valuable lesson that you need a refresher on every once in a while: even in unfamilair bodies of water, don’t always follow the locals and crowds, trust in your gut, electronics, and instincts will do you much better sometimes.

It seemed spoons were better for us first thing in the morning, then the spin docs and flies heated up for us around 9-10 o’clock.

One evening we took the short cruise over to the Falls, let me just say, that river and the Niagra Falls are an impressive display of mother natures power.  Wow!  But also, I had no idea how touristy that place was.  Never go there on a beautiful friday night in the summer.  Parking was a pain in the arsh, people just absolutely everywhere, lines out the wazzzoo for anything.  I’m happy we went, but dang, next time it will be on a Tuesday morning.   Hit up a local pizza joint in Lewiston on the way back to the hotel, Vincenzo’s, those New Yorker’s sure do know how to do pizza!

Great weekend with the wife and dog, I have a couple more fishing trips and a big tournament coming up in the next month, then its time for the baby, exciting times!

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