quality time

I run them on 600'copper. I do not bounce bottom! Bottom is a good place to catch fish but not with pricey rigs. We like suspended fish of this rig. Many big fish and some days half the fish are on that rig. Mt. dew color has been good.

I'm a big fan of the grease trap. We run a yakima bait wobble glow (peanut) or spin-n-glo. 30 to 36 inches back. Works great on copper ! Wes

I started with a 9.9 Suzuki 2 stroke that burned about 6 to 8 gallons in 10hr trip. My new Honda burns less than 3 gallons in the same time.Much less noise as well. My boat is a 20' trophy that is heavy so 6 to 8 hp should work fine. Wes

Should be fun. I talked with a number of people last year and hope to see them this year to see if any of my info helped. Splitshot are you going to make it this year? Wes Foley

I think some of the people get a text when a new post goes out. I hate the whole social media thing so I do not do that but that might help you be the faster draw!

You can always buy from retail! It is always hard to please everyone. I have baught many things off this site and have lost some as well. Someone has to be first! Negative comments are not good for the site. The idea of the site is for fisherman and women helping others. LOTSA shows and flea markets are great. places to get used goods. We have enough negativity in our world we shouldn't make our fishing forum negative as well!

I think the guide you get with the diver is taylored towards walleye fisherman that do not fish much deeper than 60'. The chart does not go to the depths that we fish. Trout and salmon fisherman are always pushing the limits. Mono will work in the upper water column. If fishing deeper the extra drag of mono will limit the depth you can get to and the stretch will make it hard to trip the diver when you want to bring it in. This drag will also limit the distance the diver will go out to the side of the boat if you are running the diver in directional mode. Wes

We have run them in the spring early summer at all depths. We have been uping the spoon size when we are getting to many shakers. So that being said we would more than likely catch more fish with the smaller spoons. I have caught some big lakers on big spoons.

Try the lake trout like this and you might change your mind about eating them! Start by getting fish on ice as soon as it is landed. Many gill and bleed as well. You must eat these fish fresh. The flesh goes down hill in a hurry and I most often eat them as soon as I am home or the next day. If you freeze these fish you will not get the same results. Place fillets in a ziplock bag with lemon garlic marinade. Marinade for at least 30 minutes 45 is even better. Next I place the fillets in a foil boat pouring the remains of the marinade over the fillets. Add a good sprinkle of raw or brown suger and dill weed if you have some.I put them on the grill and add a few chunks of hickory or apple wood for a nice light smoke . Do not over cook and I don't even flip the fish unless it is a real big fillet. I use charcoal grill but you can put wood chips on a gas grill if you put the wood in foil and put holes in the foil to let the smoke out but keep it from burning. After writing this I might need to get the boat out again! Wes

We have worked hard to refine our catch and release rate and I can tell you faster is not better . A fish brought in to fast from depths as shallow as 30 ft. can have problems with the air bladder. We learned this soon after I got my latest boat. We had several "floaters" untill my wife went with us. She reeled slow and steady on fish as deep as 120' and they went back down like a rocket. Our next best improvement was the Boga or Berkley lip gripper. Keeping the fish out of the net and off the boat floor is a huge improvement! Fighting a fish for a real long time is not good as well . If you fish with 2 lb test this could be a problem but anything over that the fish should be O.K. I would guess we keep about 3 or 4 pound load on the rod.

As Sean said slow and steady, and in the water release is best , if you need to bring the fish in the boat boga grip or Berkley lip gripper. They have worked great for us. netting a fiish removes protective slim and banging and flopping around the bottom of the boat is not good. And the obviouse would be change your target species when you are close to the limit. Dropping your lures deeper will put you in the laker zone and many of the fingers they want you harvest more lakers. They are great on the grill.

It takes many years to grow a lake trout to 12 pounds. The lamprey will target the big fish first since they make better host . They can hitch a ride longer before it kills the host. My guess is we will see and explosion of bait fish in the next few years. The small fish that make it will grow fast because all of the bait and we might even enjoy some better "silver fish "fishing but the lakers will take some time to bounce back. For any good to come out of this they need to keep the lampreys under control. My average weight laker over the last 4 years was between 5 and 6 pounds , This year it was 2 to 3 pounds after mid to late summer. The spring we got many over 8 pounds which we released. I love fishing for lakers and they are one of the few species that are native to the lake. I which that I could have seen the finger lakes before the white man spoiled it. Lake Ontario had landlocks up to 30 pounds and they were gone within 20 years of the white mans clear cutting and dams. Free trade and invasive species go hand and hand.

The reason we use wire and not braid is the fleas, If the lake that you fish does not have fleas you can use braid. The fleas stick to braid real bad. Mono has to much give. When you are ready to get the equipment send me a pm and I can help with how to spool up and all that good stuff. The best thing you can do is ride along to learn how to use the rods. It is not hard but you can screw things up if not done right. I always enjoy taking newbies out and you are welcome to ride along to learn some tricks of the trade. Wes

I run the mag dipsy and standard dipsy. The mag will go over 120" deep which you need to do at many times of the year. Never fished the lakes you are going to targeting so not sure how deep you need to go. Last 4 years 80% of my fish have come off dipsy rods but I fish mostly for lakers. Do not need to go as deep for bows or browns. Wes

Dipsy wire rod might be cheapest way for controlled depth trolling. I got used rod setups for 35 bucks each from a charter captain. They upgrade often and you can find some deals. Watch the LOU classifieds or go to one of the flea markets in the spring.Pulling copper by hand has worked for over 100 years. This requires some sort of device to keep the wire stored. They used converted Victrola boxs in the day. Wes

Welcome, Hope we can help you. Wes

It is normal to see lampreys in the spring. We would see lampreys on one out of 5 or 10 fish and it would depend on what part of the lake you fished. This year we had lampreys on 1 out of 3 and many would have 2 or 3 on a fish. By mid or late summer we would see very few. This year we are seeing lampreys bigger than I have ever seen on the fingers and they are attaching to everything. Downrigger balls,spin doctors, mag spoons, lower unit , bottom of the boat. It is a shame that that the many large lakers that I have carefully released over the last few years are going to die a slow death by the hands of an invasive fish that the DEC decided not to treat this year. They made the comment that they felt the lake could withstand the extra mortality from not treating this year. I understand that flood waters prevented the trapping of some lampreys but control lies in treatment. One lamprey can lay 100,000 eggs so thinking you can control them with traps is fool hardy. Fisherman pump alot of money into the economy and you will see many move to other lakes.

The last two derbys that payed 5 places did not get enough fish to fill them. Weight on lakers was way down compared to other years.

We did well this spring and summer as well. 20 to 40 fish a day . Late summer and fall were tough to catch enough for a meal.

Holy cow! That is a nice bass. I forgot to mention that the lampreys chewed paint off my lower unit. It was nice to get out. Wes

With the lures that we run 2.2 to 2.8. You want to change up and down to see what they want on any day. Take note if you catch fish on a turn. Your inside lures will be slower and out side will be faster. If you run cowbells and old style flutter spoons 1.5 to 1.8. I like the faster trolling speed because we cover more ground in a day. Fish are always moving and the more ground you cover the better chance you will find them. Wes

Bayliner Trophy, We had 3 guys fishing so ran 9 rod spread. We did not catch anyything on the riggers or sliders. We did the 600" copper and 12 color lead on inline board, 300" copper down the chute 4 dipsys 2 high dipsys had spoons and the deep ones had spinny/fly. We did not have any fish on spinny/fly combo which normaly take most of our lakers. All spoon bite and we put medium size spoons down trying to not catch short salmon. The other thing that we had was it would look like we had a shaker on the high dipsys but it would not trip or have a fish on. We think the lampreys were grabbing the dipsy.

Had the day off from work so made a trip to Cayuga. Fishing was slow, Started at 6:30 am and did not get a fish for several hours. We worked south end then headed north getting first laker above yatch club. T-falls produced two more and fish were 3 pound range. Did a few laps around that point then headed back south. We did get 10 or 12 short salmon. 12 color leadcore and 600' copper caught most fish. Every time we looked at the back of out boat we had lampreys on the big motor. One was close to 3 foot long. at one point we had 3 on the back of the boat and the motor. Since other post had fish on the downrigger ball I am wondering if the are going from the electical charge of the ion control downrigger or the boat ground at the motor. I worry the damage from this year class lamprey will take years to recover from. Wes

Oct. / Nov. for best colors.Browns also!