quality time

Taking Ben's Grandma out Friday. 600 copper is a great way to tire the crew out so you don't have to fish as long Your suppose to have tired arms at the end of the day fishing. We don't catch as many fish as alot of these guys so copper lets us feel that burn like we had a 50 fish day. We are just busting Hal. He was a good student as we explained to him we can show you basics and you have to develope your own program. We all have something to learn from each other. The first year or so on LOU I sat back and read all the post. It has been very helpful to us. We are still learning but are able to help new people to the sport out. It does feel good to see those people go out on their own after some basic lessons and catch some nice fish. Hals recent Rainbow was a true trophy. See you all at the LOU all. Wes

I second what Sean said. This year we have been doing a little better with our dowriggers but last year we caught 80% of our lakers on wire/ dipsy rigs. We also run four dipsy rigs when we have enough people onboard. I think the change this year has been weeds fouling our dipsy setups. Riggers are better in weeds but they have been getting fouled as well. We had so many fleas on our downrigger wire last weekend that my subtroll stopped working. Weeds and fleas make for alot of clearing lines. There is a learning curve with wire and it will break at the slightest kink but still worth while. Wes

Well earned win Aaron and his crew are always working hard. Not many people on the water before him or stay out as late. They always make things happen. Also good to see the website up and running. Best of luck with your charter business Great job Brad. If you guys don't post a pic soon these guys are going to be P.O.ed That was one pig of a laker. Wes

Was that your same unit you got back or did they swap it. If that is another unit you might want to check to see if you have a bad plug wire or other electrical problem causing the issues. If you can find an old AM radio you will pick up the static from a bad plug wire. I would check ripple on your dc voltage. Take a voltmeter and check on DC volts with the motor running That should be 12.5 to 14.5 volts. To check ripple set the meter to AC Volts. Once you get that reading call the factory to see how much AC ripple you can have for that unit. Ripple does not hurt for lights, pumps, motors but can raise heck with electronics. Wes

That bow would have been nice next weekend for the derby. Don't feel bad about the fish I.D. I have seen old timers fighting over that's a landlock no thats a brown. If It's over 18" Its good to go. DEC has some Fish I.D. on thier website that I have found helpfull. It tells feature like tail fork, jaw length types of spots number of rays in fins ect. When they are all silver in the lake they can be tough to tell apart. Congrats on another Cayuga lake trophy. Hope to see you at the derby. Quality time will be sporting a new Blue canvas. Stoutner might have a hard time telling us apart from the other trophys without the duct taped top Wes

Sean that duck is going to be hunting that Parker down for more donuts. You just need to train her to dive down and remove all the fleas off the lines to get another one Wes

Are you keeping all the waypoints on the gps? That might be worth the money alone

Glad you are O.K. Stupid runs rampant amoung the pleasure boaters. Blow boats are even worse. Normaly I run into that bull at the south end. I was fishing out of a kayak a few years back on Skinny about 30' from shore. This 22+ ski boat kept pulling a tube within 50 feet of me. After a few runs I had enough and looked in my tackle box for the biggest lure I had which was a #11 rapala. The next time the boat came by I waited untill the driver made I contact and I fired that rapala right at the boat. The boat swerved and did not come back. Good thing because I think I had how much to lead the boat down. Boaters are responsible for any damage from their wake. Get the numbers next time and call it in. Wes

Wow! Trophy of a lifetime. That fish must have been 30 years old. Just think how big she will be in 5 more years! It takes a great sportsman to release a fish like that. Congrats!

I wonder about the high water this year. The lake was pretty murky. It also seems that we have had alot of south winds. Wes

Aaron, Are you running four wire rods yet? Got the Dodge fixed should see you all on Owasco! Wes

Did she troll that binky? Looks like a good color to catch the big ones Wes

Justin, Check for water in the gas. Huge problem with ethanol in gas. We had water problems with a kicker motor on Ben's boat. The aux tank had 1/2 of water in the bottom. He was using that tank almost every weekend. The ethanol bonds with the water and once it absorbs enough water it falls to the bottom. Once you have seperation the only thing you can do is drain the fuel. I had a small engine guy tell me that 80% of his work is gas related. I have a water seperater filter and have pulled samples from my tank to check for water. I put gas stablizer in with each fill up but if you already have water seperation nothing you can add will remove it. Wes

We didn't have good luck with the fish but we had good luck with the boat. We were trolling along when we heard a BUMP! looked at each other and said what the heck was that. Then a plastic 55 gallon drum came up behind the boat. It didn't even trip any of the rigger lines. The thing was full of water so was floating at or just below the surface. Then later in the day we had a rigger up that has our Sub troll probe on it . This probe was just replaced and had only been used 2 days when the rigger cable breaks. I'm setting in the front of the boat all bummed out wonder how to tell the wife I need to buy another probe , ball and releases. We trolled for 1/2 an hour when Ben notices the probe readout is still working. He goes to the back of the boat and pulls in the cable retriever in to find that the rope tangled with the roemer release and the ball and probe were still hooked to the cable. As soon as he pulled it in the boat it fell off. Hope to see you guys soon. My new canvas job got pushed back a week but we should be sporting a Navy blue canvas by the next derby Wes P.S. That blue should look much better than the duct tape grey we had last weekend.

Tough fishing. I think most of the guys are in a coma like state. I just came out of one.We were lucky to do a fish an hour. We lost one good fish this weekend. on for 5 minutes , 2 nice runs zero line retrieved started to move made one head shake and was gone. Thats the luck. The 5 lbrs never come off. Meet a bunch of the guys and had a great time. Had some bad storms last night. Looking forward to the next derby! Wes

Quality time will be in slip #12. Do they have a fish cleaning station at the park?

On a sad note the smilen Wes spin doctor was laid to rest at the bottom of Cayuga lake. You would think with a sacrifice that large to fish gods we would have done better at the B and B derby

I'm still not sure that Ben did not cut the thing off when I was not looking I have an idea for an even better Smilen Wes. More colors ,doll eyes with eye lashes and maybe even lipstick. Hope I can have it done in time for the lake trout derby. Wes

Count Quality Time in. We just got a slip for Friday,Sat, Sun. slip #12 We would like to meet all you guys Friday to chat. After the derby starts we will most likely be on the water 18 or 20 hrs a day if the lake is calm at night. Wes

Thanks for reply! I have mono then braid. The spool was rotating.

I tried my new Diawa Accudepth plus reels leadcore set up this weekend for the first time. The drags were set to tight to strip line from reel so I adjusted them and started fishing. We had a strike ,I reeled down on the slack and the reel started to slip as though it was in freespool. Lost that fish, adjusted drag and it happened again. It was pouring rain that day and I was wondering if water got on the drag washers. Should you do some sort of drag washer break in? I have been running 47 lc's with no problem. Thanks for any help! Wes

Ben brought the cooler hoping for one for supper. After sveral hours with no fish we thought we brought the skunk with us. Started at Sheldrake ,water temp 41 worked our way to Deans cove and we picked up a laker. The temp was 48 in that area. Marked lots of fish deep 175 to 300 foot deep. They didn't seem to like this front. We always have lots of reasons that we don't catch fish Lots of crap in the water. It seemed like more than a few weeks ago. Wes

It was no more dangerous than boating on the south end of the lake when all the pleasure boats are out. We did not go over 5mph all day in respect of property owners on the lake . Mother nature was making much bigger waves than we were.

At last the smilin Wes spinny is out of the closet. Made this as a joke to tick the kid off and it worked He would let me run it but I would have to hide it when we came back to the launch It seems like even fish like a smile. As you can see in our pics we have been using a fish grip (like boga grip without scale) We get a quick measurement for angler diary, pic and release in less than a minute. I love watching those big girls swimming away to fight another day. Wes

Sean, My new Honda kicker is on the way. Yamaha made the choice a little easier for me. Wes

2.2 to 2.4 mph