Fishstix

I havent posted anything in awhile so Ill pass some info on.My boats blocked in the barn with kids furniture right now or I would be on the lake myself. Im to lazy to move a bunch of stuff to get my boat out.

On Cayuga Lake usually the best fishing time is the first week of deer season. Fish are usually high. The pike bite is fantastic. Usually a few good brns are mixed in.

I started with seth green rigs yrs ago . They collect dust now . As far as riggers go you just cant beat one fish, one lure , on a rod. Its hard to say why you cant get your riggers going. Could be speed ,lure selection. luck, big swivels , or maybe you just havent put your time in.Some boats just dont catch fish some do. Are your downriggers balls coated?I usually try and get my lures above the fish usually about 5 ft. I dont know if its true or not but they say fish look up to feed.

Down speed is important but if you keep changing direction it will be right at some point. Zig ZAg troll. So you are slowing down the lures on one side of the boat while speeding up the other. I also like short leads usually less than 20ft. rarely over 40ft. 75ft max on the boards.

Awalys look at your lure in the water before you send it down . Is it swimming right? Are all the lures your sending down running the right speed? A lot of guys run small size spoons but I do best on 28 size and larger.

Yea we get skunked from time to time but usually we do OK. My best spread is 2 downriggers,2 wire dipseys. Most fish come off the riggers the best fish come off the wires.

I did not whallop the fish on Cayuga this yr like I usually do . It seems like everything used to work. This yr they seemd to want to hit one lure and one lure only. I would catch them all on one rod and the rest of the stuff would rot in the water.Also what worked one day would not work the next.

Ive got a probe but rarely run it in the fingerlakes. They cost to much when you lose it. If something goes wrong its always the rigger with the probe on it.I dont trust a probe much anyway.Thats a subject for another post sometime.

Just keep trying and paying close attention to little details and your rigger fishing will improve.

Three women. Thats odd.

Launched at the S end. Probably on the water 830 ish, Worked both sides of the lake up as far as Myers.Did not mark the bait of the fish that I expected tp see.There were small pods of bait and the occasional fish deep.120 to 160 range. Did manage to pick up a couple small brns and a couple lakers for the days effort.

Blk n purp alpina diamond was top lure.

As we pulled rods and were taking care of the downriggers I noticed the balls were real warm. I probably should have done a deep temp check. Im thinking with the N wind the warm water got blown to the s end of the lake.Probably should have ran up the lake to find colder water.

I really didnt fish it much this yr. Three times or so as I recall.Did OK most times out. Ill start fishing it weekends starting tomorrow. One thing I did notice on Cayuga and Ontario is my dodger fly bite has died off. I dont know why awalys used to be my hot setups.

The fish on Cayuga seem to be a bit pickier than they used to be. When you find the right color combo they want you can catch them. Unfortunatelyits awalys a one of a kind spoon. You get all your fish on one rod and the rest of the rods rot in the water. I know during the first day of the Salvation army derby black and purple was the hot ticket. 2nd day it would not fire . The hot color combo turned out to be raspberry and copper on the 2nd day.

I seen more bait on cayuga than Ive ever seen. Probably marked more fish than I ever have.

Ive thought about going back to the seth green rigs but they are just to much work. I like the feeling of a nice rainbow or what ever on a regular rod.

Ill be launching on the S end about 8. Ill be on channel 68.

As last yr Ill post some pictures and a report. If I can get my dam camera download program to come up.

As far as the fish not being there, they are there. If you are not marking them they are either on top or tight to the bottom......

Ray What so you do during a hail storm? I usually do what they do in England.

NP when you think you will have that bad boy figured out? I looked at the 3010 s but I dont really think I need a 10 inch screen.I can buy a remanufactured one about the same price as the smaller unit.BTW fishing this weekend?I might be able to make it up Sunday.Ive been real busy lately. Selling my house ,getting ready to build a new one.

Personally I dont use dodger flies for brown trouts.I have my best luck with spoons.

I dont know what water colors you are lookig at over there but if its stained or green water, chartruse is a good color spoon. Copper and orange is my color of choice most of the time with black and silver a close second.

In the sprimg time you can catch them so close to shore their backs are out of the water.

When they move deeper we usually catch them near the bottom. Say 30 to 80 feet of water.

Well after much checking and resurch Ive decided on a Garmin 3206c.About twice what I wanted to spend but Ive got all winter to find a reasonable one on ebay.The reason I went with this unit is you can overlay radar on your gps screen. Yes Ill be able to tell where I am on the water as well as all the boats around me right on my gps screen . That will be cool.It will show rain in real time in a different color right on my GPS.Yea I know Ive got to buy a radar antenna but thats next on the list.If anyone out there has any experience with one of these let me know...

Just my type of thinking but I think the older ones are better than the newer ones.

I fished Lake Ontario and all I caught was a tin foil hat.

I guess next yr Im going to have to start keeping track of fish caught.

I had my best yr on LO ever. Some days when the "bite was on" we caught to many fish. Probably should have left them alone on those days.

Those 20lb kings fought like the devil. The Cohos were all over . rainbow bloodbaths,and my best brn trout day was 45 fish.

Im our area of the lake this fall the kings were in the brn trout water . We would fish for brns but usually ended up with kings.

IMO the steady action more than made up for size.

It could be a simple answer like "numbers are up and size is down"

How much money? A three way split might not be to bad.

I need a couple of the 8inch reels for my Big Jon electrics. I think the center hole is 1/2 inch if someone has a couple we can get more critical on the measurements.

I have not seen them in Yrs. Ive got a few.

You may want to try Abes in Sodus Point. He has a lot of older used stuff bagged up ,sorted and hanging on the wall.

Just got a phone call from postman. He rented a cabin at Toungannock .I said good luck because I dont rhink you can fit under the walking bridge.Does anyone know the height of the bridge?

Question 2 There used to be a place about half way up the lake on the west shore where you could dock and go in and get some food and adult bexerage is the place still open?

Splitshot Thats a good question. I was going to launch at Treman,but with Meyers being a weighstation Its probably where we will launch.Not that I plan on catching anything big but IF I did . Ya know actually Im overdue .

YT you should have looked me up at Hughes.

My fly bite has been so bad this yr Ive been thinking about putting all my fly [and meat] stuff in a yard sale. I caught some fish on flies this yr but I never had a day when they really rocked.

I will definately be in this derby. Postman from up at Hughes will be in it also. Ill be launching from the S end he will be launching from the N end. We will probably be on channel 68.Still trying to figure out where to fish and what to run.

That would be great if he brought the sighnup forms. Ill talk to seadog ,He's pretty luckey dont know if I want him in the derby.

Been doing Quite well with the Fishlander spoons. The yellow frog has been good also. This one is the shark. Its a glow back. Been good last several weeks.

I know I gotta get going on photo stuff. I cant get my camera to download into the computer.

LL good to hear from you.

My last boat was a trophy. It was a solid boat for the money. I put a 115 4stroke on it {honda} made it to heavy in the back. Two people in the back to net a fish and the water would run in thru the scuppers.This problem always made me a little nervous. It also had a tendency to Rock and roll when the water was rough.Quality wise for the money probably best buy out there.I like a glass boat. It had strong gunnels to mount downriggers. Not much storage.

One man can still handle a trophy boat Mine was a 20ft. trailered nice also.

Split shot thanks for the info on this derby. Im getting ready for a change of scenery.I think wildman will want to get in this one also.Ill spread the word up at camp this weekend.Is Bears bait shop open Fri nites?

Cold water... Nuff said there. Had to ride around Sat till I found a warm pocket. As soon as I did the rods fire . Hits on every thing I had down Fishlander sharks,grapedot watermellon,dalmation hammer fly.I want it back,and good ole wonderbread. Had one over 30 but it was to late to enter, 7thirty when it hit the net. Found the fish in 80 FOW. I didnt get on the water till 2 in the afternoon.I drove over fish to go find fish.....

Sunday headed to the same waypoint. Plucked 4 salmon right off the bat then rode around the rest of the day for one more. All and all I just give it a OK. for the weekend. I was tough to put on a hooded sweatshirt Sat afternoon when all the landlubbers were sweating. The cold air felt good for awhile but it got to cold when the wind kicked up.Its amazing all that cold water moved in,more amazing it was gone the next day.

First you have to find some fish,then glow seems to work the best. Watermellon seemed to do some damage also.120 on the divers,30 to 50 on the riggers.

I got some new prototype dodgers from optimiser to try. Havent caught a fish on them yet . I havent really figured them out. They look good in the water and they have holes in them to make bubbles.I didnt really have the right colors I needed.If I get em going I put up some pictures. They just want some feedback.Ive awalys been a fan of optimiser spoons. Its the same outfit that makes honeybee spoons.A oldtimers favorite.....

Sometime this winter I am going to upgrade my GPS Plotter.I want color. I want a Furuno But garmin is much cheaper and seems to do the same thing.

My question is on the G2 garmin charts. The ones that show the underwater detail in 3D. There is a lot of GPS info and im trying to digest it.

Are the charts as good as they say? They are around 300 bucks just for the chart.

Not so much for LO but they would be great for the fingerlakes. I have been known to fish a few humps and bumps in LO though.

If anyone has any good or bad plotter info lets get a discussion going here. I now have a Raychart 425 that wont show track.I also use a Furuno GP37 for track but the screens to small.

I fish with a guy that uses a Lowrance 4200c that seems to be a good unit. Another guy I fish with has a northstar. Good unit but he sent it back twice[fixed for free]. I have not ruled out Lowrance,only thing I dont like is the writeing on the screen is so small its hard for me to see. I am not going to spend more than 1k closer to 500 is my price range.

Ive been checking Ebay . Lots and lots of GPS stuff there.

Great post. Great Pictures.

Looks like you had a great time.

I have been storing my boat there on the trailer for yrs. I have a campsite there . I help pull and set docks. Do what ever needs to be done around there to keep the campground going. I get a season launch and pay by the nite when my boat is in the water. I dont really know what she charges to keep a boat there. You will have to ask Cecil.

BTW I talked to a some guys fishing up there this morn. and they had just done a tripple on kings .So their back.

Sat was a blow off day. Sunday was a skunk for most boats including mine. Marked very few fish. Bait was nonexistent. After reading the other posts we should have headed east or west. Your gonna have days like this.

A blue screen day.