A lot of time, there is no rhyme or reason. I usually start the trip off with two different colors and let them show me which color they prefer. I did field test some uv Hammerheads last year and found they excelled in bright sunny days.
Thanks Pap! Glad you like them! Good luck with them. Feel free to ask questions on technique. I will have an instructional video on my website when it is done.
I have some of my Gambler Rigs for sale. These are left overs after I filled all of the orders I could fill completely. The Regular sized Gambler Rigs are $6.50 each plus shipping and the Magnum Gambler Rigs are $6.75 plus shipping. This is all that's is left unless I do not receive payment from a couple guys. Gambler Rig spin n glow rigs 1 Pink Dot Magnum 1 Green & Silver Magnums 2 UV Chartreuse Dot Regular. For pictures, see my thread in the Questions about trout and salmon trolling under Custom Spin N Glow Rigs http://www.lakeontariounited.com/fishing-hunting/topic/56147-custom-spin-n-glow-rigs/ .
I had a box of boat flares from 1984 in my garage. I used them to start camp fires last summer and they worked flawlessly. The expiration dates are BS.
Not anymore. 10 years ago, you could find smallmouth anywhere in Lake Ontario. The population is low now so finding them is like finding a needle in a haystack.
From the way the NYS DEC reps talk at the state of the lake meeting, IMO they think we are just a bunch of cavemen that do not have a clue as to what is going on out there. They would never use our observations because it is not scientifically sound data it is just observations.
How can you use data from the same time year after year and compare it? This spring will be drastically different than the last two years. With the warm winter, the alewives could be out of the pattern that normally exsists and throw the data off. Say the alewives are normally in 300' or deeper on the bottom when the do the trawls. This spring the water is warmer and alewives have moved shallower than the trawls. This will drastically throw the data off.
If you have lakers laying on the bottom, the cowbell method is the way to go. Look at the LOC Summer leaderboard and the Fall leaderboard (fall 2012 or previous) and you will see hammerhead cowbells and spin n glows dominate the leaderboard. You also have to go with the less is more approach fishing lakers. When I fish lakers, two riggers is all I use. No divers, coppers or leadcores. If you get a hot area, two rods will too much at times.
If anything they should cut back the lakers to what the levels before the addition of 300,000 more a couple years ago. If we do not have kings to catch, the laker population is going to drop anyways. That is the part they need to understand.
I heard about it today. Rumor is they are going to talk about the lack of YOY alewives. If there is another bad yearclass, they are going to cut stocking lake wide......
Another thing that has to be taken into consideration is the invasion of the gobie into the finger lakes. If food in readily available, they will not be in the feeding mood. This could also change the areas perch are in compared to the old days.