Yankee Troller

Here is a link to the broadcast, which starts at 8 PM ET. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knt8IoaXtJk

We beat up the Oneida Lake Walleye population this morning! Prior to the trip I asked them their preferred fishing presentation, and they asked to troll. So that's what we set up for. We trolled 16-18' most of the morning trying to keep our baits in that 10-12' range. It was almost impossible to keep 8 rods in. Our furthest two boards on each side pulled Bay Rat Short Shallows back 100' on 20lb braid. The two inside boards on each side pulled Deep Husky Jerk 10's and #9 Flicker Minnows back 45' on 10lb mono. Our best colors imitated Perch. For the last couple of hours we slid out into deeper water looking for some bigger fish. We targeted 30+' of water and grabbed a couple nice Walleye, and a stud 4.7lb Smallmouth Bass. The deep water program was 85' back on the braid rods, and 85' back on the mono rods with 2oz drop weights. #9 Flicker Minnows on one side, and #10 Deep Husky Jerks on the other. That's it for a few weeks! If weather allows we'll try to get out in early December if anyone's interested.

I honestly didn't pay attention, and we set-up as it was getting light out. So that makes it tough. I generally put half and half out and see what fires.

Paul and Tom met us this morning at Oneida Shores for their annual Fall Walleye charter. Being regulars we knew they preferred to troll, so that's what we were set up to do. Our first few trolls targeted 15-16' of water right outside of the weeds. We made four trolls in that depth range on two different spots. On our fifth troll we looked at deeper water (30'), but only grabbed one keeper Walleye and a big Perch. The sixth troll we went back to the area we did our first and second troll though, but we slid out into that 17-18' of water range. All of our trolls took fish! Today, we pulled stickbaits, and with the help of the precision trolling app we were able to put various baits in the zones we wanted. We ran 8 Offshore inline boards on each troll. The two furthest boards on each side were loaded with 20lb braid, and they fired all day 100' back with Bay Rat Short Shallows in Perch, Jail Bird, Toxic Frog, Can't Afford It, and Blue Tiger. The two inside boards were 10lb mono rods pulling #9 Flicker Minnows and Deep Scatter Husky Jerk back 40-45'. Our best colors in those offerings were Perch, Black/Silver, and Purpledecent

Your post made me chuckle, BUT I doubt they are "working on it." If they are, I'd love to hear about these studies at our lake meetings over graphs of declining fish size. It would offer some hope like the increase in baitfish studies have over the last few years.

Here's my set-up. Both are 10" screens. On the Trojan we ran 4 Humminbirds networked together. On the network they shared a SI/DI transducer, an Airmar 50/200 transducer, and a MEGA Live transducer. .

He's running two different brands on his transom, so to answer your question no. However, he has two 'birds at the helm which are sharing a SI/DI and Airmar 50/200 transducer with the 'bird in the back.

A lot of boats out there with Chinook Rudders. They were night and day on the Trojan. The new Tiara will be getting them as well.

9-10" is what I sell the most for transom screens. Unless funds are endless I always push guys to purchase a pair of 9" screens for their helm vs one 12". It's the same money.

I attend every meeting that is open to the public. I've never heard of a study or experiment by the state to figure this out. Wouldn't you like to know where the top GOSD and LOC fish each year were bred? Whatever got those fish to be the biggest in the lake is something we should concentrate on. Since you've been around since the beginning you should know we've had both. Why not have good fishing with good size fish?

When they did the tagging study pen were bigger at age 0-2, but at age 3 is when everything evened out.

If you talk to the big name charter captains on the lake (ones who sit on the lake board) they say we never had a baitfish crash/problem. I don't agree with their views, and I think our baitfish population took a massive hit with those two year classes. I don't think there is a need to assume year classes in this world with the science and technology we have. If the DEC really wants to understand these Salmon and Trout they need to step up and do more. We all want answers. There's no reason to wait a year to see what age a fish is.

We can all guess that fish are 1, 2, or 3 years old on a boat, but were they 2yr olds we were catching? Only labs with samples off of fish can identify that. Here's a thought. How about some of that data the DEC takes samples at each tournament. No tourney team is trying to bring in 1 and 2 year old fish. You have the best guys out there targeting the best fish. You bring up a great point, and I bet money there are no projects or research being done on this. One of the most lucrative fisheries in NYS and no one is curious why size is declining. Are we not taking the right genes at the hatchery? Is it diet related? Is constant inbreeding causing this? With all the colleges in NYS we couldn't get one involved in trying to figure this out?

Doesn't matter if you catch jacks in the tribs or not. They are there and the DEC WILL use them. You hope all you want to get back to bigger Salmon, but I provided you with almost 20yrs of data. If you can't see a declining size with that I don't know how else to show it. There's no reason we can't have great fishing and big fish.

Are you 100% sure about this? I'm not asking to close down every trib. I just want something done to the one that services this WHOLE fishery. You don't think the bigger fish yanked out of the system (most times illegally) prior to getting to the hatchery hasn't affected the gene pool at all? It's not about egg take quota. It's about breeding the biggest fish in the system with each other. You can get 100 charter boat captains on here and 95% will tell you this season was amazing. Me, the last two seasons have been embarrassing with the smallest size Salmon ever in the system. Here's some LOC history for the 10th place Salmon over the years. So, what have we done in recent years? We've cut stocking becasue of baitfish shortages, yet the DEC is willing to increase stocking in 2024 becasue of good looking baitfish assessments. However, our Salmon are the smallest ever? Don't you think if there was this surplus of GOOD bait in the lake our Salmon would be gorging? MEDIAN Fall 2023 27.05 2022 27.15 2021 29.03 2020 28.04 2019 29.12 2018 2017 30.08 2016 32.01 2015 29.02 2014 30.04 2013 33.04 2012 32.09 2011 32.04 2010 34.06 2009 31.15 2005 30.01 I sure hope this is not the case, but they are also the ones that tell us sperm from jacks is really potent and performs well. I am 100% against the use of sperm from jacks to feed this system.

There is a reason why egg take is done at a specific time. It's temperature related to produce the best eye up. Boats in front of a river, in my opinion, do very little to hurt what is running the river. Those fish have to bite to be caught in open water. There's no way to troll over to the largest fish and catch it out of the system like you can do fishing the river.