quality time

The big fish could be a brown! I'm for keeping it simple and fun.  Wes

Not sure how old the ones you have are but with  mine the motor /gearbox was obsolete. The new ones are scary fast!  Wes

^{My fix was buy new ones}  

Quality Time is in!  Wes

I'm in slip 31!

I think 50 fish for a limit is way to high. 15 panfish makes huge fish fry. Greed is what ruins it for everyone. Manitoba has some great fishing because they are mainly catch and release. Rule in my house is to not keep more fish than you can eat in one meal. How many fish end up in the freezer to only end up in the trash.

Looks like some good pike bait!

_{The answer is no!  Read the regs under baitfish.}

I talked with the DEC a few years back about this topic. The reason I was told no cast nets on the fingers was to protect game fish. It seemed funny to me that in most states gill nets are not legal and cast nets are.

If you look in the regs cast net is not legal in our waters(only allowed on Hudson river below Troy Dam). For some reason a gill net is legal with restrictions on the size of net and the holes in the Finger Lakes.   Wes 

I plan on going to the flea Market. See you then!  Wes

Count me in guys! Not sure who will crew with me but I will find somebody! I still need to get a slip at Sampson if they have any. Wes

Saw 2 in the field today walking on top after the warm spell. That is the first I have seen them in some time. Go get them they should be hungry!

on Flaming Gorge res. they send them down with a 3 pound weight with a welding rod hooked at the top pointing downward at 45 deg The rod is put through the thin part of the mouth and lowered on a rope. A sharp tug upward on the rope releases the fish. This is all well and good if you are dead in the water but not so good for use at trolling speed. My late son and I worked hard at a better ways to release lakers and we found a steady slow retrieve and landing the fish with "Boga style grips" We use the Berkley grip that does not have a scale and is much cheaper. Netting a fish removes slim, they bang around on the deck and is just traumatic. Fish that we release with the grips go down like a rocket ship, no flopping around on the surface like netted fish. Of course if you can leave the fish in the water and release him with pliers at the side of the boat that is even better. The biggest thing I have seen is people reel them in to fast. If they come up slow they can regulate the swim bladder.If you google Flaming Gorge laker you can get some pics of 40 pound lakers. Wes

Ben got one like that ice fishing Owasco that had a 5" plastic grub in its gut. Wes

I have the 9.9 Honda. It gets twice the fuel economy as the 9.9 2 stoke I used before. My boat is 20 trophy. SK8man is spot on. My old motor was regular shaft and the new motor is long shaft. Much better control with long shaft. Like SK8man stated it depends on the water you use it on. Mine will control boat well until you get into 4 footers or bigger. I fish Finger lakes and have only had two days in 2,000 miles of trolling that it was not big enough. If I fished lake "O" more the 15 would help. Honda has a good charge system. The only hiccups I have had were all water in gas related. Funny, they do not run on water!

It means so much all the kind words. His celebration of life was beautiful! This is a tough time with the holidays, his birthday , and his deer not hanging in my tree waiting for me to cut it up. On this Thanks Giving remember how important family is. Have a safe holiday! Wes

Thank you Andy!

Thanks Sean! We have lots of stories but the flasher got him going. I thought the fact that it caught fish was enough to show it off. Lucky for him we lost it. Wes

I would like to thank everyone for the kind words! Wes and Brenda

For anyone who wants to pay respects His wishes were to once again become part of nature. We will be having a celebration of his life November 8 at noon at our camp. We will be scattering his ashes under a tree that we will be planting. you can pm me for directions. For others that would like to honor Ben you could take a Kid or newbie out fishing or just outdoors! That was one thing that he truly loved to do. Wes

A pic with 1dogshy!

I would like to share another story. Ben and I would make many of our flies and lures and he would always get ticked off at me because I would put to many colors in the flies. He would say "Father , How the heck are we suppose to know what color they are hitting on if you make them with 4 colors!" So just to tick him off I made a custom spin doctor. This thing had all the things that would tick him off. To many colors, big eyes, Fancy fins, and A smile that landed it the name "smiling Wes" The first and last day we fished the lure was a day to remember. We had taken a newbie out to show him the ropes. When I pulled the spinny out Ben said that thing looks like something a preschool kid made! We caught fish on it all day and I asked Ben what do you think know! He said you can fish with it just keep the damn thing out of sight when we get back to the launch. The highlight of the day was running 6 rods 5 fired at once and we landed all 5 and they were all over 6lbs.Sadly later that day we broke off the smiling Wes. Ben said "thank God!"

Ben was real big on getting people started in the sport. I hope to do some kind of derby which would encourage taking kids fishing.

Ben put a video on you tube several years back. When I first saw this it brought a tear to my eye and it shows what a positive impact the outdoors can have on kids. Check out "fish through the years." on You Tube Wes