quality time

It's a good perch if you can use the boga grips on him!

Ben and I took Tom that I work with and his two friends fishing on the north end of Cayuga. Day started foggy and calm. Lake was like glass all day. Hit all our normal spots and marked very few fish. First fish of the day was a fat brown. Trolled for some time with little action so we got the copper out. It was not hot action but we did start picking some fish. The guys seemed to have a great time. Ran 11 rods most the morning and only had one tangle that was my fault because I let the dypsy out on the wrong side. Guys did a great job on the rods and did not complain about reeling the copper. We ended with 7 fish and those guys should be starting the charcoal as I write this.

Kevin and his brown minus 3 lampreys

One of Tom's lakers

Jim with a laker taken on 600" copper.

Kevin with a laker that was caught on 300' copper that put up one heck of a fight. I thought for sure it was a salmon or rainbow!

Count Quality time in!

Good job to Kaden for first place youth and everyone else that placed. Some nicebrowns this year!

Ralph, glad you could make it. We had a lucky day. Fishing gods were on our side for a change. Had a problem with the auto pilot that we just got but it turned out to be a tuning issue. Heading into stiff wind and the auto pilot spun the boat in a sharp turn almost completing a 360 before I got controll of it. Turned the boat back around and did not have any tangles in the 9 rod spread. That is a lucky day. When the port lines were across the starboard rods it could have sent them out of the rod holders. Hope you and your dad can do it again! Wes

Q.Time is in!

Last minute opening on quality time. Must be in derby. I live an hour away so if I do not get any calls I'm going back to bed and will drive over for weigh in in the afternoon Wes

Nice job Kade Bobber we run 4 dypsys all the time. The only time we tangle is if we have bad currents and weeds foul the dypsy or I let them out to fast. See you at weigh -in! Wes

Fished with two crews today. Ben and Copper Liz Had to work 3rd shift so the joined me in the afternoon. We got around 30 fish but no pigs. I fished with co-worker and is dad in the morning And had a great time. 2 triples 4 doubles many 6 to 7 lbers . We had one double that one fish 10' down the other was off rigger 120 down. We did better in the morning. When the wind died down so did the bite. Good luck on day two!

Are you going to be ready for lake trout derby? Hope to see the new ride. What are we looking for?

That hurts We love that derby!

Make sure you run lures that will run at the same speed. Cowbells,suttons.are slow lures, Spin doctors, nk,stinger,dw spoons are fast troll. We always start with several colors to find which one is better for that day. Keep changing untill you find what works. Bait can be key and they are on the move. Watch water color, temp change, wind, sun. We will start in shallow water at first light and move deeper as the sun gets higher in the sky. As you troll change things. You can troll for hrs. with no fish and increase speed by .2 mph and start catching fish. Wes

Thanks, I'm going to play it safe and wait for first light or I might start trolling right out the chute.

What equipment do you have? We do well on dipsys and copper, spoons on riggers , spinny/fly on dipsy. peanut on copper.

We got fish two weeks ago in debris. Just do not like running down the lake in the stuff. I will watch wind next few days.

You would like that We will be banging that 600' copper off the logs!

I see the lake is close to level. Wondering about debris. I normaly launch at dark 30 but might have to wait if we have junk in the water! Wes

Nice!

Sean, Did you put any fish on the leader board. Last I looked they had some real big fish for this time of year. Also heard people were fishing very deep. Wes

I was thinking about posting a cricket chirping sound track. Getting close to derby time Many of the guys are up fishing lake "O" I have only been on the water twice with the big boat and one time with the kayak. It seems like we do not have enough time in the day to get all the stuff done. Our work just cut our hours and put us on work share. I will have more time but less money so I will have to make the trips count! Derby time is what we wait for all year. I hope we land a big one for one of these things. Every season we have had slammers on that just came off half way up. It's funny because the ones that get off are the ones you remember.

I've got a german shorthair that I have been wanting to get on the boat. I get limited trips on the water and just worried if things go bad I drive a couple hrs. for nothing. He loves fish and sets and begs for a taste. I even got a pfd for him. The thing that worries me is that he would freak out when we crank the big motor up. And he is a big dog over 90lbs getting in and out of the boat might be scary. Wes

Thats one brave dog! You should put a cape on him. Looks like underdog. You just need to teach him how to dock the boat so you can secure the lines on the dock

Dbutts I should add that what I said is more for the new guys. It was not that long ago that a 6 fish day would be a great day. We heard people talking of 40 and 50 fish days and thought it was bull but we listened and learned over the last few years and our catch rate is much higher. These new guys need to listen to the right guys to learn to catch these fish. I started trolling trolling around 1980 and did what all the old timers did 1.2mph with cowbells dragging the ball on the bottom. I never caught fish as big as we do now. It was all rigger fishing then . Things have changed and you have to change with the times. Thanks to all the guys and gals that have helped me get out of that cowbell rut. Thanks LOU and we will see you on the lake. P.S. The best way to pump info from these guys is give them a few beers. We sit back and enjoy all the info that flows out their mouths when they have had a few . Green tea for me that way I can remember what they said

I enjoy helping others and that is what the forum is about but I also try to encourage people to be good stewards of the fishery. People I work with can not believe that I release many of the big pigs that I have pics of. I always hope that big laker will end up on the hook of a young kid or someone new to fishing. We try to keep only badly or gill hooked fish. Ben and I love derby fishing and it always pains me to harvest a big fish but I always call the weigh station to make sure I don't kill a fish that is not going to make the board. Heck we released 2 fish last year that would have maid the board at the Red Cross derby but we had a fish on the board already. I think we will fish north this year. If we are lucky enough to get a laker on the board might head south for silver fish. Wes

You will be fine. I have been out last two weekends at long point with my trophy and two weeks ago it was real low last week was much better and with the rain this week we should be almost normal by derby time.