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 

That is very true. Wes

The rules are on the post below on the order form.  Wes

I reached out to several of my LOU friends for some starting points to catch some fish for a coworkers kids. Thanks so much for the help guys. The kids had a great time and each one got a fish. We lost a few as well. Big fish was 10lbs 13 ozs and was caught on a spin-n-glo. Weeds were taking a toll on my fish count. every time a cleared a rod it was loaded with weeds. No fleas. See you

at Bears fall derby!   Wes  ( Quality Time)

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58 Johnson thanks for grabbing us at the dock. As always it is fun to chat. Thanks for posting the results. Hope that job pays well! Good luck with the fall fishing.  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

Took my old buddy Mack out today. He is 93 years young a still can get the job done. Did most of our damage on lakers with grease trap spin-n-glo combo. No big ones but they were healthy hard fighting fish. Highlight of the day was 9 lb salmon. This fish was on the rigger on purple/pink super slim spoon 115 feet down. Jumped 10 or 15 times, wrapped around two wire rods and was making me a nervous wreck. one stab with the net   and it was over. That was the best show I have seen in a long time. Picture does not do this fish justice 

I agree with all above statements.  I think many get hung up on speed and temp. My best day for browns and landlocks was in 72 deg water. Two 8 plus browns, 7 pound landlock, 11pound laker and lost what looked like 10 pound rainbow just out of reach of the net . Do these fish hang at those temps all day long? No, but if bait is in that temp they will zip in and grab a meal. My probe has been  down for several years and I get along just fine. I watch my dipsy rod bend. They want different speeds on different days. One day lakers were smacking at 3.5 mph the next day it was 2.2 on my gps. Keep changing things till you make the rods go. I always say that there is a hundred ways to  catch a lake trout and none of them are wrong. I like a fast troll because I cover more ground . This helps in the location of fish. When I find them I change lures and speed till I get the sweet spot for the day. I have a t-shirt that says " the secret to fishing is fish where the fish are" Half  the fun is the quest!   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

I've stayed in those  cabins 3 times. Not fancy but a dry roof over your head. Every time I ever camped in a tent I would find the only rock or root in the whole campground to  lie on.   Wes

Cowbells and grease traps both have days they shine.  Two weeks ago when the lake was like pea soup  I had 3 sets of cowbells and Gambler rigs down. Last weekend the water was clear I ran 1 grease trap and 1 cowbell and the rest clean spoons and flasher/fly. Cowbells give off a huge vibration which is great in murky water but the grease trap has very little drag and is very speed tolerant. I have talked to several people that have tried grease trap with no luck. I have used them for years and have best luck on 600' copper . 

To adjust gain, Press  Setup, mob, down arrow 3 times and then go back to auto.   This will slow the speed that the unit adjust the motor. I think they call that sea state adjustment . As mentioned, have the tech number ready if this does not work.

I am not a jig guy but many use super braid and a leader to cut down on stretch.  Wes

I am doing a trip on the 13th. Pm me after then. During the derby this weekend I did not catch as many as I did a few weeks ago but still ended with 12 or 15 and they were all big fish. For me I had dry spell between 1:00 and 3:00pm. I noticed the water quality changed several times and when I was in clear water the fishing slowed. Change speed up. If you are searching for fish do a zig zag pattern and keep track of fish caught. If the fish are on the outside of turn you need to speed up. If they are the inside slow down. I started with lures close to bottom with little luck so I moved to deeper water and started catching fish. The fish are always moving so if you are not catching fish move. Two weeks ago I was catching fish 2.8 to 3.5 mph. This weekend I did better at 2.2 to 2.5 mph. Make sure you match your lures with the speed. Cowbells do not work well at 3.5 and spin doctors do not work as well below 2.00 mph. Just keep changing things up. 600' copper with grease trap did best, wire rods were second and riggers did 3 or 4 fish. Wes

Another great day. If these fish get any bigger I'm going to need a bigger fillet knife. It was nice to meet Stan at the launch! ! I also saw Stinger and Hannah Marie.It was another hot day and hot fishing. Had a great time. It almost didn't happen for me. I always test my motors before I go fishing.  Big motor started right up. Kicker didn't want to start and when it did the water pump was not working. Lucky for me the last time I changed the water pump I got a spare. Dropped the lower unit and put it together in pretty short time. Only problem was I should have taken a little more time  When I tested again no water. I missed the tube when I put the lower unit back on. It's dark now and I am working in the rain with a flashlight in my mouth. Bugs were eating me alive but second try was a charm. By the time I was done adjusting the shifter linkage it was 11:30. It was worth the effort. My hunting buddy has only been on the boat one other time. Started out we dropped two fish. Then we had a slammer on the rigger that broke off. He was feeling bad until I examined the line to find the knot slipped. In 40 years of fishing I only remember that happening once. Soon after we started a steady pick of big fish . At one point he a caught a 5lber and he asked me if it was legal. I grinned. First derby and he is spoiled. Nice job to all the winners. Some trophy finger lakes fish for sure.  Wes

I'm not sure why you would run it without the ring. To keep variables down as much as possible I run all mine with mag ring. If you want to fish shallow just don't let as much line out. I will run as many as 3 dipsy's per side. Mag dipsy on 1 setting, middle on 2 setting and high dipsy on 3. Middle and high dipsy are regular size with mag rings. If you run some with and without rings they would be diving at different angles which could cause issues when you turn. I seldom get tangles unless you pick up a big ball of weeds. As Les said those mags will go deep and get the job done.  Wes

 reel doc,  You should be able to catch fish all day long. If it slows as the sun comes up just push out to deeper water. As murky as the water has been it will be pretty dark down 80'.  I do like a chop on the water because it gives the spread better action. Wes

Pap, Do you have a subtroll? I have the tr1 gold and love it but the noise from this unit has caused problems with my subtroll. If you use a fishhawk you should be O.K.    Wes

I got to meet PCPete at the launch Saturday. Always fun to put name with a face.  Wes