BlueEye

One quick question guys (those who can access the site via phone) - is the site width taking up the entire screen on your phone (like it should)? Or is there some empty white space to the right? Hopefully I fixed that issue but it tough cause I can't really test it easily.

Thanks for the help!

Chad

By the way I "split" this topic into its own new topic incase you were wondering.

Wow guys - that really looks nice! Thanks for testing out the response there for me. It shows a cool little "Posted from my mobile device" icon as expected. It should be REALLY fast as well as we have stripped out all the images (except for those native to the post itself) and made the mobile site entirely text/css based. Well I hope you enjoy it! Now you can take LOU everywhere you want. Should be really handy to check fishing reports WHILE you are actually out on the water.

Cheers -

Chad

Hey Nitro -

Thanks for the headsup! Funny you mention that cause one of our "top secret" projects now for a while (since May of this year) has been working on code name "MOBILE LOU". This is basically a slimmed down version of the LOU site that only displays if the user is trying to access the site via a mobile device (such as the WinMobile device you described). The idea I had here was to allow for instant fishing reports while live on the water! I have put it up for those with phones to try out and see how they like it. If you could, respond to this message FROM YOUR PHONE using the new LOU Mobile site. You should see the little "mobile live" icon that it displays. Instant Live fishing reports is available to anyone who has a phone. By default the system will recognize that you are browsing the website from a mobile device and display the proper format allowing for instant fishing reports.

Thanks again Nitro!

Chad

Doug -

GREAT fish! Thank you for sharing...... you really take some amazing photos! I can't wait to use some in the LOU slideshow. Keep up the great work.

Chad

Happy Birthday Buddy! You can take the day off from your normal moderator duties on the site

Glad we could help

K.I.S.S. for Shallow Browns

To catch these springtime bruisers, “Keep It Super Stealthyâ€.

By Bill Ruth

To our way of thinking, there are two modes for brown trout success in April’s chill shallows: Stealthy and Super Stealthy.

Our first trip of 2005, my father Jim Ruth and fishing buddy Jay Harmon and I had gotten up before sunrise and discovered a steady northwest wind and rain mixed with snow. We put on our rain gear and rubber boots and headed out of our home port of Fair Haven, New York, finding that Lake Ontario was stained from a sustained week-long rain and subsequent run-off, and a noticeable color line along the shore. In short, we had nearly perfect conditions for banging the beach for browns! We made a hard right as soon as we got out of the chute and set up our program in the dark, targeting water depths just 5 to 10 feet deep. We fished until about 10 a.m. and boated 18 browns, releasing most of them. That day we were in Stealth Mode.

Now fast-forward a year to April 2006. The same three guys head out of the same port. This time, conditions are much different. With the exception of a short rainstorm the day before, it had been clear and sunny with no wind for days. Nary a breeze puffs this morning under a starry sky. It is so cold that we scrape ice off the windshield and watch our step on the icy boat floor. The frigid temps are bearable, but the lake is flat and the colored water we had hoped for is scarce. We make the same hard right turn into wispy fog and shallow water and again set up in darkness. Fishing is tougher, but still we still boat a respectable 12 browns in the less than ideal conditions. That day we were in Super Stealth Mode.

When it comes to browns the stealthier the better. Let’s look at the little things that add up to Keeping It Super Stealthy.

Chances are that you have the makings of a super-stealth spread in your arsenal already. The program includes downriggers, but our primary deployment device is a set of old school, homemade planer boards, a.k.a. skis.

When water clarity is down, we run the big boards out just 50 to 75 feet out. If the water is fairly clear (and boat traffic is light) we run them out 125 feet or father to keep baits as far away from the noise and visual disturbance of the boat as possible.

On Lake Ontario, we can only run two rods apiece, which means six rods with our usual three-man assault team. Two stickbaits go out on each board. My favorites are Junior Thundersticks in orange/silver and black/silver. Second choices are J-9 Rapalas in black/gold, orange/gold/white, and chartreuse/silver.

I like to run the same colors to make my presentation look uniform to the fish. The idea is to mimic a school. In clear water, I’ll often start out with four black/silver Junior T-sticks set way back—as much as 250 feet back—on the boards. In cloudy water, orange or chartreuse work better and shorter leads are fine.

We use Laurvik planer board releases in high vis orange, which makes them easy to see. Our reels are SGA47LCA linecounters from Daiwa to keep track of how much line is out. After the bait is out behind the boat, put a few twists in the line and clip it into the release. Be sure to pull the excess loop all the way down towards the pinch pads. If you don’t, the loop may catch on the alligator clip when a fish hits. If that happens, you’ll probably lose both your lure and your fish. We usually run our first bait out until the release is just above the water. Send the second lure down the tether line to within about 10 feet of the first—any closer and you risk a tangle.

Next, the downriggers receive spoons. My springtime favorites are smaller spoons from companies such as Northern King, R&R, and Dreamweaver. The Mulatto pattern is a proven favorite first thing in the morning. Other favorite patterns of ours are Frogs, Natural Born Killers, Habaneros, and Orange Crush. The two stern riggers go down 5 to 8 feet depending on water depth. Keep an eye on your depth, as you can easily snag a downrigger weight on the bottom. It’s no fun having to pony up for a new Shark weight because you weren’t paying attention. Stretch the spoons 40 to 50 feet back off the riggers. We always have our speed and temp probe in the water to keep track of trolling speed and isolate any big temperature breaks. We try to keep our trolling speed around 2.25-2.5 mph, and look for warmer water. In early April, lake temps can be in the mid to high 30’s. If you find an area of colored-up water with some warmer temps, stay on that piece of water and work it thoroughly. Places where streams dump into the lake are particularly good spots to look when conditions are tough.

To go into full , Super Stealth mode, you must pay attention to the little details. For example, we only run flat-black, ball-bearing swivels in size 1. The silver, chrome, or gloss black swivels just have too much flash. Coastlock style swivels are strong and reliable. Black downrigger weights also minimize visual distraction. Another little trick we do is paint the bottom half of our planer boards black. We keep the top half orange for safety’s sake. Another key part of a stealth presentation is light line. We run Berkley Big Game in 10-pound test. We add a leader of 10-pound test Seaguar Fluorocarbon for even more stealth. A small, flat black swivel attaches the fluorocarbon to the main line.

Some may think we go overboard, but we rig for silent running. We try to keep the noise on the boat to a minimum. We walk softly on the deck, keep our voices down, and keep the stereo off. I’m all about turning the Metallica up when we’re out deep chasing kings that are 100 feet down, but when it’s brown time, we opt for silence. Don’t be afraid to experiment with your presentation. If the stick baits aren’t working, change colors and brands. If that isn’t working, send out a two-color core with a spoon on it. If you don’t have a two-color core, send out a spoon on monofilament and attach a couple of split shot a few feet ahead of the spoon.

There are no hard and fast rules that you have to follow. Try new things, have fun, and go into Stealth or Super Stealth mode to help increase your brown trout take.

GLA

Try that

Hahaha - I love it!

You found the right place Dan! Welcome to the site.

Chad

I enjoyed this video...

Take care of yourself Bob

Great Pics Stan - thanks for sharing!

Welcome to the site Arnaldo! Sweet boat!

Chad

You want to share your videos you took from your digital camera or camcorder with the community huh? No problem - its EASY! This step by step tutorial will walk you through exactly how to post your own videos on Lake Ontario United.

Lets assume that you have taken the video from your camera and downloaded it onto your hard drive. After that, we will use a video hosting service called YOUTUBE to optimize and make sharing your videos a breeze!

Setting up YouTube Account

We need to make our videos available on the Internet. Having them on your personal computer is not good enough so what we are going to do is setup an account with YouTube that will host our videos ONLINE for us!

1.) Visit YouTube.com

2.) Click on Sign Up

3.) Registration Step 1: Fill in a username and password.

4.) Registration Step 2: Fill in your other personal information. Don't worry - none of it will ever be shared.

Uploading Your Video to YouTube

Ok, so that's all for creating an account. Lets now go ahead and try uploading a video.

1.) Visit YouTube.com

2.) Log in if you are not already.

3.) Click on Account > My Videos link at the top right of the site.

4.) You are now ready to upload your video. Select the yellow "UPLOAD" button.

5.) Fill out the information about your video (Step 1) and then Select the video you wish to upload (Step 2). Once the video from your computer has been uploaded you are ready to share it with the rest of the LOU Community!

Sharing Your Video with LOU!

1.) Under "Your Videos" select the PLAY button of the video you want to share. This will take you to the main youtube page of that video.

2.) Copy the URL of that video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhHhXBSu6uI

and put that into the poast.

Thats it! Your video will display entirely optimized and hosted by YouTube.

So I leave you with this........

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhHhXBSu6uI

See you on the water (and don't forget to bring your video camera!)

Chad

Guys -

Thanks for the heads up! I got this message from several other members as well. I have banned this user by IP address, email address and username! Hopefully this will no longer be an issue but I will be keeping a close eye on it. Thanks again for letting me know - this is definitely a new kind of spam we have not seen before.

Kind regards -

Chad

Hey guys -

Just wanted to give you a heads up that the new board has a "Birthday" feature (see the bottom of the page) that will display your username when it is your birthday. This information was never available before on the old board, so there is nothing in there for any member yet.

If you want your name to display when it is your birthday, then you need to simply visit your profile and be sure to fill in your birthday information. Here is the link so save ya some time searching:

ucp.php?i=profile&mode=profile_info

Again, this is optional, but a fun little new feature.

Just an FYI -

Thanks,

Chad

Great site. You guys are the best. Is there a way to mark sites read from main page instead of going into eace site? When I use to leave the site and come back the unread forums would be gone, now they seem to still be there. Am I missing something?

Stan.

Stan -

There is a link I added to the home page called "Mark ALL Forums Read". It is located just above the main forum on the right side there. This is a temp fix for the issue you mentioned. I am not sure what direction I am going to go with this yet but for the time being, this is a suitable alternative until we decide if we want to automate this or not.

Thanks -

Chad

Chad, is there a way to background a quoted message in white like it was before? Just a minor thing, but it worked well.

How's that look Bob

Matt -

I found the information below on the some reasoning behind the changes to "Read Tracking" from phpBB2 to phpBB3. While I am not myself sure whether or not I agree the following yet, it does offer more insight. I (like yourself) was accustomed to having all the topics be marked as "read" after I logged out each time. Let me think about this more and I will be interested to hear your (and other's) opinion on the issue.

========

the feature that has most changed how I use phpbb.com is the “Read Tracking†feature. In phpBB2 when you log on your “last visit†information is updated with the current date and time. Then that value combined with some cookie manipulation is used to track which topics you have read during your session. When you log out, all remaining unread posts are marked as read.

phpBB3 offers two very important improvements over phpBB2 in this area. Each post is tracked as to whether you have read it or not. More importantly the marks are not reset when you log out. In my role as a moderator this is very important. I can quickly scan the MOD forums (which I like to read and participate in, but don’t really moderate) and then mark the forum as read. But for the phpBB Discussion forums (which are the main area that I moderate) I read each and every topic. In the past I had to dedicate a large block of time every time I went to the board so as to not skip anything. Now if I get a notification of a topic reply, or just have a few spare minutes, I can go visit the board without losing my place in the “moderation queue†that is to say the unread posts in the phpBB Discussion forums.

And a 'next page' or ' page 1 2 3 4' button or link at the bottom of the page would be convenient, since when you reach the last post on a page you are generally at the bottom, and as it is you have to scroll back up to go to the next page.

There should be one there at the bottom (right under the quick reply). Go to page Previous 1, 2 (or however many other pages are associated with the current topic. Do you see that Matt on your computer? If not, what browser and OS are you running?

Thanks buddy -

Chad

Hey Matt -

How many posts per page doesn't seem to be a setting that the members can control on their end. I can control that setting on the admin side. For the time issue - I am seeing the correct time on my end. Maybe its a daylight savings issue you are having with yours. There is also a way to customize your time display (and location I think) under your profile > board preferences section. Check that out - it might fix your issue.

Thanks again!

Chad

Hey guys -

Thanks for all the great feedback! Stan and Ray - I am looking into both those issues. We did our best in the Alpha and Beta testing to find all the issues but I expected a couple more things would come once you let the masses in. Thanks for bringing this to my attention as I am can not by myself catch 100% of everything. I'll look into both those issues and get back to you with what I find.

Thanks again!

Chad

Try it now Bob - Good Catch!

Take some time to get use to some of the new features and enjoy your stay You should notice a HUGE speed increase for the site as well. Post any questions or comments you may have reguarding the upgraded forum here and I will be more than happy to help.

Enjoy your weekend and enjoy the new LOU!

Thanks again to the Pro Members and moderators who made this possible.

Kind regards -

Chad

Hahah - that is GREAT Mick!