LongLine

run, First - Welcome to the board. Second - gillnet? Rumor has it that the last guy who mentioned participating with those "people" (censors at it again...) was publiclly flogged. Why? - You gotta be kidding. Only "people" (censors at it again...) would enjoy wiping out a population of gamefish and ruining it for sportsmen, with those things. Hopefully your conscience will guide you towards a sportsman's choice. Tom B. (LongLine)

Some days are really tough on Big-O. Just guessing but... Have you tuned your plugs lately? (Make sure they're running true.) Have you tried back-tracking? (troll in opposite direction) Do you zig-zag or are you a "straight" troller? (No comments Ray) Even though you run shallow do you fish deep? (Such as 14 down over 18FOW) Good Luck, Tom B. (LongLine)

Poc - Not sure where you intend to fish. In general get something as wide & as deep as you can afford. Look for plenty of room in the stern & wide gunals (sp) if you're going into rigger fishing. Seating that allows you to easily move around. Car wax (pastes) generally work fine if you're going to be trailering it & not leaving it in the water between fishing trips. Necessary boat equipment: Life jackets, anchor, rope, paddle... Fishing equipment: Fish finder. If your interest is going out on Big-O then I'd suggest looking through the posts & at other guys boats. See the fishing gear they've phto'd. Also find the weather sites & check them religiously if you're ever going to venture out on the Big-O. Tom B. (LongLine)

Jed, I'd work the drop-offs. North End & East side. Watch out for structure. Trolling in the bay is a challenge. Look at the lake posts for what's going on out in the lake. Kings just starting to show up. Tom B. (LongLine)

WTG Stix, Tom B. (LongLine)

Waneck - Welcome, where you coming from? There's a county launch on the North end, west side of channel. Couple marinas around the bay. (East of channel, on west side by bridge & on south end) You name the fish, it's in there. Lots of non-fishing traffic during warm weather. Launch early. Here's a topo on the bay & area. http://www.charts.noaa.gov/OnLineViewer/14804.shtml Play with map & you can see structure. Hot spots all over the place. On the lake side, Durand & Genny to the west, Shipbuilders, Webster, Pultneyville to the east. Smallies generally within 20FOW from Shipbuilders east, Browns will be a little deeper almost anyplace. Good luck, Tom B. (LongLine)

BR - At the state of the lake meeting they said the Goby population was the about same or a little more than the Rainbow smelt population in Big-O and increasing. (Hopefully still a minority compared to alewives) I don't know what the birds were. All I know are gulls, commorants, ducks & geese. They definitely weren't gulls, commorants or geese & there must have been 300 of them scattered around shipbuilders. There were fairly large black ones and those that flap their wings at 90 miles per hour. I agree with the commorant problem. Walrus - Gobies are very digestable. They're carriers of diseases (botulism) which is killing the other wildlife. Tom B. (LongLine)

Neil, One of the guys from the DEC, at the "state of the lake" meeting said the gobies go deep in winter. I imagine that means they can take awful cold water. Also that just about everything is eating them. I take this as to mean we have to do some adjustments to our techniques. I did see a few small dead fish on the bottom off shipbuilders weekend before last. Couldn't ID them though. Definitely greyish-white bellies. There also were a lot of birds in the water, the diving type. Neat to see them dive down & guess where they'll come up. I don't know what "damage" they're doing. Tom B. (LongLine)

Hitting the hooch again huh Stinger? :roll: Here's what Bill Saiff said about them. He also predicted a rise in popularity as the water gets cleaner. http://lakeontariooutdoors.com/archives ... akers.html Tom B. (LongLine)

BD - East of the Mississippi & way North of the Mason Dixon line "we calls dem cowbells." (just playing...but we do refer to them as "cowbells") They should be available all over the place under that name. I know some shops around here have them. Quite popular on the upper lakes. Used mostly for Lake Trout. I'm pretty sure some money fish have been caught on them in past LOC derbies. Here's a popular site for them. http://www.lakemichiganangler.com/store ... Trolls.htm Tom B. (LongLine)

Bruce - That's what I thought too. Manual says all the engine has is a "stator" under the flywheel (alternator stator) and rectifier. (Diode) I put in the new rectifier & same problem. Did the ohm test on stator & it was reading 40-60 Ohms instead of going to infinity. Talked to mechanic at Ras & he basically said all rectifier did was convert AC to DC. I thought outboard stators were really robust beasties and he said they generally are except if you leave the outboard out in the hot sun & direct sunlight for a long time, then the insullation has a tendency to melt over time. Guess I'll park it in the shade from now on. Moto - It was putting out 16.3 - 16.6v at idle yesterday. Solid 17 at some RPM. Tom B. (LongLine)

The launch at the river was closed today. They’re working on concrete below water level. As all four were closed off, headed to I-Bay. Another beautiful day on the water. Sunny with a very slight Easterly wind. Worked 6-12 up past shipbuilders and after getting snagged several times, headed out a little deeper. Lot of birds again at 40FOW. This time there was some bait there also and a few marks near the bottom. 39 F at 29 ft down. Unfortunately no takers. Zero, zilch, nada. Channel at the turn is about 6Ft deep approximately 25 ft off the rocks along the west side. Engine is definitely overcharging. Guess I’ll try to convince myself that’s a legitimate excuse for “skunk city.â€

Bought a new rectifier & a voltmeter. Battery, connections, cables are fine. Found out how to check some components. Old rectifier was shot and unfortunately stator is shot. Just ordered a new one. Hopefully it'll arrive by weekend. Maybe I can use this as an excuse for getting skunked??? I.E. excesive charge in an aluminum boat????? :roll: Tom B. (LongLine)

Joe, We did. We went on further working a little deeper. Hope you didn't damage anything. Report is further down the list. In short we did the same as you. Got to just find the secret for this weather, there was some pockets of awful cold water just below the surface in some areas there. Tom B. (LongLine)

Walrusb - “Americans don’t speak English.â€

Any outboard electrical charging experts out there? The voltmeter on my fishfinder says I’m charging at 16.5 to 17 volts. Last year it read a solid 13.5-14 volts. It’s a 1984, 75Hp Evinrude. I installed a fully charged dual purpose 650 battery this year. I can’t find in the manual what it should be charging at. I did a continuity check with ohmmeter on rectifier and it seems to check out okay. I.e. resistance in one direction only – all leads to ground. Although resistance wasn’t infinite, it was fairly high. Possible it’s breaking down and smart to replace it anyways? Any ideas? Tom B. (LongLine)

Hey Landshark - Tom B. (LongLine)

Gene - How about a variation of that name: "Nut N Butnet", or "Nuting Butnet". Or other B'Ball names: "Full court fisherman", "1/2 court fisherman", "Hoops & Nets", Hoopfull Fisherman", "Fishing Foul", "4 quarter fisherman", "Fish & Dunk", "Fish n Dribble", "3 Point Fisherman" , "Fish dribbler", "Dribbling Fishman", "Dunk & Dribble", "Dribble n Dunk"... Tom B. (LongLine)

Stix - You did better than a lot of guys did. Myself included. That's a big laker. Was it porky or skinny? Tom B. (LongLine)

Well, I’m wearing it for the 1st time in the new season..... Guess I better hit Wegman’s for some tomato juice. Launched around 6:15 at the Genny with my son. Met Reel Drag at the launch. (Nice meeting you Joe. Hope you did better than we did. Liked the shirt – Semper Fi) Went west 15-40FOW past Long Pond & then back again. Lots of birds & branches in the water but no sign of fish. Oh well, beautiful day on the water. Sunny, Slight ENE wind. Surface mid to high 40’s. 39F generally down 15. Tom B. (LongLine)

Out of the Genny, 8 is probably most popular. Some chatter on 2 thru 7, then 68-71 for the scramblers. Occassionally some on 72 but not many. Tom B. (LongLine)

Welcome Pat. Just keep your eyes on the board & ask away. Lot of guys here from I-Bay & Genny fish that way. I-Bay can be very good when the lake starts "churning." Tom B. (LongLine)

Looney, Go to this site. http://www.glerl.noaa.gov/res/glcfs/ Click on section for the lake you want. Once your on that page, just click on "nowcast" or "forecast" and you can get all the charts. (currents, temps, transects, profile) Tom B. (LongLine)

Dropped the wife off at the airport & then launched at the river around 10:30. North 2 lanes at the launch blocked off & water’s higher than last spring. 7 trailers in lot. Bright & sunny, couple wispy clouds, very slight S breeze. River surface 51F, mud basically straight out & East. Green water off Russell & in close. Worked 10-30 FOW. Surfaces 41-47F. 1 small stlhd off board in 17 FOW right at 12:00 noon. (Storm Firetiger) Couple boats out deep but didn't hear anyone hitting much. Uncranked my unitroll with the probe on it a little too far. Oh, well, something to do tonight. Boy that felt good to be on the water. :!: I don’t believe I was able to get my first sunburn of the year. Off at 3:00. Tom B. (LongLine)

GB - I bought my rigg'rs & Sub-T from them. Very fast delivery. (that sounds like a great price) Tom B. (LongLine)