LongLine

Welcome to the board. Get some lights on the boat; head out real early in the morning; take a left off the channel & troll shallow up towards the old bath-house. There's always some big Browns in there. Tom B. (LongLine)

Fishing Report LongLine Launched @ 5:45 & was surprised to see 3 others had already launched & two were getting ready to go in. Full moon night. Calm, some wind out of the east. Couple small swells out of the NE. Just cool enough to fog the windows & put some dew on the seats. 17 guys on Summerville pier & maybe 6 on Charlotte. Headed straight out & set up in 35 FOW after weaving through about 8 boats. Worked the 40-60 ft range out front. Anyways, 2 Browns right on the surface NK Wonderbread, 1 ft down, 3 times past the propwash, 2 ¾ mph. Not big but nice healthy fish. Cloud cover approaching from the South around 7:00. Lot of screen activity in 42 FOW. Saw some schools of bait right on surface but no predators swirling after them. Looked around & counted 48 boats at the mouth. Funny how the big boats hung around the mouth and most of the little guys went outside. Some went deep. Nice to see that many boats fishing the area again. Guess about 8:00 some of the bigger boats headed offshore. Don’t know who you are but nice rig – Here’s one for your screen saver: Off at 10:00; quite a few trailers in the lot. Probably the most I’ve seen all year. (BTW board with cleat on Soth dock has gone missing so watch your step on the dock) Luck to all, Tom B. (LongLine)

Carpe - Yup, wind & waves will affect it. That's why I try to go down wind or at some angle with the wind. Mine will go around in circles at trolling speed, yet at 30 mph I can take my hands off the wheel with no problem. Figure that one out...??? Boat is 18 ft aluminum & I think 7'8 or something like that. The bungee looped in the big space on the wheel gives you some latitude if you have to adjust course. Tom B. (LongLine)

Outstanding! Tom B. (LongLine)

Every time I catch something, 4-5 ft of the main line gets cut off & things retied. Run the line between your fingers & feel for any roughness - if present then retie. Also look at your knots - if it's "curly" near your knot then retie. (always wet the line when pulling a knot tight) Remember - don't store mono or copoly in the sunlight or anywhere where it can get too warm. Tom B. (LongLine)

Auto-Bungee viewtopic.php?f=12&t=25346 Tom B. (LongLine)

As I haven't found a good gyro-bungee yet, I have both rigg'r wts in the water before a line gets attached. Tom B. (LongLine)

Unfortunately, the "shore fisherman" is a victim of numbers and statistics. i.e.: 1. Due to the timing of the derbies/tourneys, most larger fish are out of casting distance. Month & daytime 2. Somebody (who, IMO, should be horse-whipped - pardon my politics) invented linning & lifting. Tom B. (LongLine)

Ditto above - go with a bracket. Remember if you use (can find) a "glue" that holds, you'll never be able to remove it. Tom B. (LongLine)

Welcome to the board. Just remember that waves on Lake Ontario have shorter period than just about anywhere else. I.E. The waves are closer together and generally steeper. Tom B. (LongLine)

They're predicting quite a bit of rain in the next couple of days as that tropical storm moves slightly on or to the east of us. I wouldn't be surprised if it brings many in close. Tom B. (LongLine)

No question, landing a fish solo is a rush. Flying solo, I advise against trying to net fish at back of boat. Do it on the side, traveling downwind with an autopilot or tied off wheel. Not arguing, but what if you catch a 15 Lb Stlhd & as soon as you gaff him, your 2nd rod gets hit by a 20 Lb Stlhd? Tom B. (LongLine)

Sometimes the fish just don’t cooperate. Don’t worry about other’s speed. Find your best speed. Check your lure action with rod tip about a foot below surface and with at least 10 ft of line out. (Don’t run 30 Lb line to a spoon – tie on a 15#max leader) If you’re seeing bait balls at 100 ft then zigzag you path from 95 to about 120. Zigzag is very important as your lures speed up/ slow down & work more to the outside of them. Observe which way you’re going if you get a hit. Speed up or slow down according to the side of the hit. Things I’d try with the rigg’rs: 1 If fish seen at 50 down then let out 65 ft of cable on one & stack a line 15 ft up. Run a flasher/ dodger on the high one and a matching clean spoon on the bottom about 15-20 ft longer. If nothing happens in 15-20 minutes then raise 5 ft. Another 15-20 minutes, then lower it 10 ft. Move it around. It's very easy to fish below the fish on Big-O. 2 If you see streaks on your FF then shorten your leads. Don’t be afraid to run the short one 5 ft off the ball. 3. Reverse the positions of the flasher/dodger & clean spoon. (top vs bottom) 4. Pop the clean spoon & let it come up to the surface by itself every once in a while. (Make sure your release is set so you can do this without breaking your rod) 5. If you’re using a dodger, shorten the lead to about 14â€. Dodgers & flashers are different animals. 6. Change your direction of troll. If for an hour you’re going E-W then take an hour & go N-S. Straight line trolling is best when in a pack but often best to get away from them and do your thing. Don’t get in rut thinking that “this is what’s working for him, so it must work for meâ€. Sometimes it will, most of the time it won’t. You may have missed one detail. What works out west may not work to the east. Remember, the Capt on a charter usually drives & directs, whereas the 1st mate has to earn his money. i.e. experiment. Other things – sticky sharp hooks, always keep a constant amount of bend in your rod and if the first is swimming to the port side, have the driver turn slightly to starboard. (Never turn into a fish) H.I.H. & good luck. Tom B. (LongLine)

John The rule has been in every derby/tourney on the lake since day one. Sad that people, in order to satisfy their competitive streak, cheat. That’s not to say that most soloists aren’t a lot more honest, law-abiding sportsmen with watchful weather-eyes, you’ll ever meet. Cheating is not really the issue, as some “teams†have cheated. Some boats even with non-fishing observers have broken rules – some have been DQ’d (Hopefully all of them) They used to required polygph tests of all prize winners & had big fish examined by trained biologists, however this places a tremendous burden on the organizers. In addition there are many other rules that could DQ a fish/fisherman where having an "observer" may help to keep things totally up & up, in the eyes of other competitors, such as the time, and location of catch, as well as manner, etc. The thing to think about is that soloists (like myself) usually have smaller rigs. The derbies/tourneys attract partici[pants from all over – not just the locals that are familiar with the open water. It’s rare to find a soloist from Pa, Ma, NJ or the southern tier cruising around in a 25+ ft fully equipped lake boat. Usually we’re strictly recreational fishermen and have smaller boats. This time of year, as we all know, the weather out there can turn, within minutes. The competition “mentality†of “Ah, 10 more minutes†could land a small rig in a lot of trouble in the event of bad weather & being out too deep chasing the elusive winning fish. The “observer†may offer a “sanity check†leading to their well-being. No derby/tourney wants the negative publicity of misfortune to anyone’s family during their contest. (Neither do our fellow fishermen). That’s not to say that having 4 guys in a 12 ft rowboat is all that smart, but chances are good that 1 of the four will realize that their boat is a little small to be way out there & speak up in time. (FWIW, IMO, some 10 meter boats shouldn’t be allowed out of their slips, regardless of the weather) Bottom line – Congrats on the Brown. Don’t let the soloist rule deter your joy of fishing. Tom B. (LongLine)

To protect the fish: 1. Fish won't survive. 2. It's hard to tell if a fish is 1" under legal size while it's still in the water. 3. It's not really needed - Fish aren't that big 4. Many fish are visible in the streams & get lifted. What damage would A$$ho[es do with gaffs? Tom B. (LongLine)

Fishing Report LongLine Launched early again, was 1st at the launch. Launch light still out. A couple fish swirling in the river. Small swells out of the east. Starlit night. No one on the piers. Cruised around a bit then headed out to 85 FOW to set up. About 5:30, a little wind out of the south. This pic about 1 1/2 hr after the 1st lure in the water. (shoreline pics didn’t come out) Worked basically 95-135 FOW back down & around to Russell. Lot of bait in the 100 Ft range. Everything on the bottom though. This is about as high as anything i saw. Temp basically with 95 ft of cable out. Definitely cooler off Russell than the Genny at that depth. Anyways, ran into a 6 Lb rainbow at 85 over 105FOW on a Wonderbrd dodger w/ Opti fly, up close & personal. But the highlight was finally catching a decent salmon off of Russell, especially on my new “snoopy†rod. (8'6 HeartLands) No way a contender but a fun fish on 10 Lb line. Now that's the way to hook a fish! He’d definitely seen some warm water. Hit a Wonderbrd NK over 115ft with 110 ft of cable out. Downspeed on both about 2.5. Pulled lines at 10. About a dozen trailers in the lot. Water has gone down a bit in the river, but still no problem to launch/retrieve. Luck to all, Tom B. (LongLine)

WTG Myles. Tom B. (LongLine)

If I was to fish from a rowboat then the only lures I'd take with me are Flatfish - especially silver (U20, X5 & bigger). Don't forget to have some lights on the boat. We'd hate to see you end up as a statistic. Tom B. (LongLine)

12# mono or copoly requires no leader w/ a spoon on the rigg'r. Straight 30# will kill a spoon. Try putting a spoon about 10-15 behind and below your F/F. You'll be surprised. Remember the aluminum spoons work at slower speeds than the heavier ones. Also, in general, wide spoons slow, narrow spoons fast. Tom B. (LongLine)

Gale warning up for tomorrow. 9-12 out of the North East. http://weather.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/fmtbltn ... loz043.txt Well, the South is sending us one of their little storms, The West sent us a little earthquake earlier as well as a wildfire last year, and the Midwest sent us a tornado the other day. I vote we return the gifts & send them all a little taste of snow this winter.....like about 6 freekin ft. If NW sends us a volocano....... Actually, Wall Street should be forced to take a week off - regardless of the weather! Tom B. (LongLine)

Nitro – I don’t know what you got but I got a couple of rods, great reel, a new license, a bunch of line, a horde of hooks, an assortment of hardware, a new rigg’r cable and a selection of hard (for me) to find spoons. Got the bugs washed off the windshield & had just enough left for a soggy McDouble. Even got a good start on next year’s splurge, as I got 7 steelhead quarters in change and they went right into the peanut butter jar. Mark – Glad to see you finally have a “big boy†rod. Set your sights a little bit higher - I dream about the boat that caught that one. Tom B. (LongLine)

JayVee's - $57 S&R - $48 Capt's Cove - $97 (great deal on 320GT2) Narby's - $24 Dick's - $9 BE - $62 Wallet's hungover & somewhat drained but one heck of a party... Support your local tackle shops Tom B. (LongLine)

The "absolute" numerical speed is not that important. What you should do is troll for a while, when you catch a fish look at what speed you are moving at. Then repeat it. If you're seeing fish on the FF & not catching anything, then change your speed and note what it is by whatever means you have. Best way to determine where the fish want it is to gradually zig-zag & see which side of the boat gets the hit. Inboard side then go slower, outboard side then speed up. GPS, surface paddle wheel and down speed will never match if they're all individually factory calibrated correctly, given their inherent error margins & the fact that you're trolling. GPS is determined by triangulation and depends upon which satellites your picking up. It's also affected by height above the surface. It's really not as accurate as people think at slow speeds. Paddle wheel is affect by the drag of water behind your boat. (troll thru seaweed & watch the weeds get "sucked" in towards you transom) Down speed is affected by the currents & inclination (angle) of the probe. Also if the current hits the probe from the wheel side or non-wheel side. As to the warm water right now, you may want to speed it up a little as fish metabolism is higher in warmer water. H.I.H. Tom B. (LongLine)

Happy Birthday Miss D. Tom B. (LongLine)

Welcome to the site. I run an 18 ft Bluefin out of the Genny. Pick you days & always keep an eye on the weather. The bigger fish should start showing up near shore any day now, especially early & late. Tom B. (LongLine)