quality time

We were fishing 80' to 110' deep. Les I had a few lakers with smelt in the guts last year as well. I hope they bounce back. It should help reproduction rates.

Have not had time to post about Bear's derby a few weeks ago. We got a fair number of fish but none the size we needed.. It was fun to play in the waves. Of interest to me was the fact that one of the fish I kept to eat had 4 smelt and a goby in its gut. Anyone else see the smelt returning? Wes

I have tried different methods over the years. I found reeling the fish slow and steady gives the fish time to release air from the air bladder. Next if you can remove the hook without bringing the fish in the boat works best. My second method if the fish is for a derby would be Boga style grips. I have a 100 quart cooler full of water. I keep ice in the water to keep the water cool. Do not use bagged ice because it has chlorine in it. I have well water but if you only have city water at home keep some plastic jugs with frozen water in them. Do not fill them all the way as it will break the jug. I will often put fish in the cooler to rest before I release them. I have kept fish during derbies all day weighed them in and released them with no harm. They take off like rocket ships after a rest. The biggest damage I have seen on fish were fish that are netted. It removes protective slim, and they bang around on the bottom of the boat. The less you touch them the better. I always keep a fish to eat and I watch for any fish that are gill hooked. These fish bleed out in short order. I saw an article by one of the people that was tagging the fish. He marked in his records one fish that was caught on a hot day and floated on top after the release. He thought that was for sure going to die but it was caught a couple years later. Bottom line is we will always have some mortality but if we handle them with respect and care many will make it. Of concern to me is that I have caught 3 Lakers in the last year that had plastic worms in their guts. They can not pass the plastic. Wes

I apologize for making fun of the weather when so many people are getting flooded. I pray you are all safe When I left Cayuga it was just starting to rain hard. In Cortland County we did not get the rain that the rest of the state got. When I got home and watched the news I was in shocked . Wes

600' copper almost always takes half the fish. I always try to have able bodies to reel in the copper. I seldom reel in fish so it doesn't hurt my arms at all I have had some savage hits this year on my high dipsy with Super Slim spoons like 3 days @ sea or nascar. The bad part is I have broke off a bunch of these big fish. I have broke off more fish this year than I have in 40 years of fishing. Using 15 pound leader which seems like it should be more than enough. I am going to take some time and test my leader for break strength and put the scale on the dipsys to check trip weight. The only other thing I could try is put on a 50' mono leader and use a slide diver so I have some stretch and give. I tried snubbers but my strike numbers went down. I have my drags set light enough that they slip when I make a turn. Big fish seem to be the problem. I'll have to start targeting smaller fish I guess! Wes

Slow day for me. I might have been spoiled from all the great fishing over the last few months. I am going to blame it on the front. 600' copper with grease trap and spin-n-glo did best. High dipsy, #3 setting 150' to 185 back got us a nice brown and we lost 2 good ones. We had a nice double on big lakers in the middle across from the power plant. Did a couple lakers in front of power plant. As we trolled back we got that nice brown and a couple short salmon in front of T-falls. As always the bite picks up when it is time to go home! Total legal fish 8 lakers and 1 brown. Riggers never fired all day. Wes

Sounds like fun. I will post how I did! Wes

Thanks Guys! Wes

Got the day off Monday and was looking for a weed report. I fished the north end so far this year and was thinking about fishing T-Falls to power plant. Any side better than the other for weeds? If the lake got as much rain as we did T-Falls should have a mud line. Thanks! Wes