jimski2

3 older Cannon Mag 10's electric, swivel bases, metal, not plastic,two six foot booms, one two foot boom. Make offers. [email protected]

There are Federal, New York State, other states and Canadian Ontario laws to be sure of checking.

For warmer waters, go West past Port Dahlousie and Jordan Harbor.

Northeast winds on Lake Erie have blown the warm waters down to Ohio, around Port Clinton near the Nuke Plant, they show low 50'sF. We need some steady Southwest winds to warm up eastern Lake Erie and then the Bar.

I used the blue high temperature disc brake grease and had good luck. I t lasted for a long time but I think there is some Marine Grade grease that works even in salt water that we have on our roads here in the winter .

A charter captain showed me his rigs one day. He had 50# braid with 30# fluorocarbon leaders. The 30# leaders with the clear fluorocarbon are invisible to the fish and he didn't lose a dipsey and terminal tackle all year. He used the same rigs in Lake Erie for walleye and they worked well there. He's a leader in all the contests on both lakes and claimed he saved a lot of money by not losing tackle, got fish in faster and didn't notice a dropoff in catch rates using the 30# leaders. To connect his leaders he uses a small swivel which winds onto his reels. It's not unusual to see him with 10 to 12 lines out.

Make sure you use a good Marine Grade Grease for the bearings when you repack them. The blue high temperature disc brake grease works but the old brown wheel bearing grease breaks down too soon.

The May-June issue of Walleye Insider has a story on using a Lowrance X-111C color unit to read fish on the bottom at speeds of 20 MPH. I have to travel at less than 5 MPH to find fish on the bottom, this high speed machine should work great on open waters.

While Lake Erie is still flowing its icy water out of the Canals and the Niagara, the water west of Port Dahlousie warm up and the fish start feeding earlier. The steel mills, refinerys and the millions of people on the Canadian shore dump a lot of heat into the lake there. I don't think there are more fish there, just that the temperatures in the 40'sF. increase the metabolism in the fish and they go on the feed then. When Lake Erie warms up, then the Bar turns on. Spring is when your surface temperature gauge is most important. Find the warmest waters and the fish will hit there. Early morning the kings will be on the beach feeding but the sun will drive them deep by 8:00 AM. Work the colored water and when you get a hit, go back through the area again. Shallow waters, use floating stickbaits to keep from snagging up on the bottom if you have to stop. Boards are most important for your success. Keep your lures away from the boat. In colored waters, use flourescent reds for browns feeding on the bait on the beach. For kings, use j-13 Rapala's early in the morning. If you want to fish kings after the sun comes up, 50 to 100 foot depths work, keep your speed about 2 mph, silver and blue works well in waters of less thn 45F, silver and green above 45F. Use regular, not magnum heavy spoons, lighter spoons in cold waters.

Last night's satelite pass showed temps in the low 30's for Eastern Lake Erie. The western basin has low 40's. It won't be long for the river and canal to turn the Bar on. Get ready now. When we get to the mid 40's we should have a go.

www.outdoorsniagara.com/wilsonsteelheadstocking.htm Sorry, Jim

http://www.outdoorsniara.com/wilsonstee ... ocking.htm

Last Saturday at the Buffalo Small Boat Harbor, a couple fellows filled a 2 five gallon buckets with nice perch using bright chartreuse twister tails. They were suspended about 7 foot down below slip bobbers. Another guy using minnows didn't catch anything. The new scented plastics could be the next big thing. I remember when the first Rapalas came out, you would do anything to get one. One camp in Canada would rent you one for $20 a day, but you had to give a $100 deposit. True story. I know several guys who take Lake Trout regularly on white twister tails.

Take a lure and drag the hooks on the carpet. If they hang up, don't use it. A good marine carpet won't catch hooks.

To check the fuel fill hose connection, you have to pull the floor boards. Now how many times have you pulled your floor boards to check that connection? I only found the leak when I smelled gasoline in the boat. opened the drain plug and found gasoline in the water. I spent a week before I discovered that the fuel fill hose was the cause of the leak. There are a lot of boats out there where this can happen. Pulling the tank and checking it out showed no leak. The supply and vent hoses had no leak. The leak was where the hose clamp on the base of the hose is hard to access and age hardens the hose and it can leak when you fill it up. A stain on the outside of the tank indicated that is where the leak is. I've been running boats for 55 years and this is the first time I saw this happen. I've held my operators ticket for over 30 years and gave lessons when I served in the Coast Guard as an Engineman.

As boats age, the fuel fill line loses its seal with the tank. When you fill up and overfill the tank, the hose will leak fuel into the bilge and you have a dangerous situation. Any time you can access the fill hose fitings, try to tighten up the clamps. On my boat, I took out the tank and now use 6 gallon portables that I can carry off the boat. That big hose hardens up with age and a leak develops. I tried to report it to the Coast Guard but they just don't want to get back to you.

The view from the farm in East Eden showed solid pack ice from Point Abino to across the lake to Sturgeon Point.

When the ice leaves Lake Erie, the warmer waters from Ohio follow it and flow down the Niagara River onto the Bar. That's what turns the Bar on as Lake Ontario warms up slower, probably due to its greater depth and volume. Right now there's still a lot of ice on Lake Erie where the majority of it melts although some of it goes downriver. The cement carrier English River is stuck in the ice off Buffalo today waiting for the Neah Bay to arrive to break a channel into Buffalo.

The St. Catherines Game and Fish Club Ramps on Lighthouse Road were open today. $10 Canadian was the fee posted.

The glass type fuse holders corrode easily. The contact ends can be cleaned by scraping with a knife blade. I try to install the fuse block holders with the brass connections as they hold up better and the fuses are visible to check for their continuity.

I'm going to try some of the plastic/rubber swim bait lures this year so I went to Cabela's in Hamburg, Pa. and Wheeling, WV. and dropped several hundred on that stuff. I didn't have any room for more spoons, stickbaits and dodgers.

The iceboom is scheduled for removal starting Tuesday.

If it's the clamp that is broken, auto parts stores sell them. If you can't find one long enough, you can add a couple clamps together to make them longer.

Our good old USA imports from foreign nations 3 trillion dollars of seafood annually.

VHF radios work on a line of sight transmission system. The higher your antenna is, the farther you can transmit and receive. Your 8 foot antenna mounted 3 foot above the water has the capability to reach another similar mounted radio system up to 44 miles provided weather conditions are right. The Coast Guard which monitors Channel 16 has antennas mounted high on a ridge above Lake Erie that can reach from Detroit to the Saint Lawrence River plus their local station antennas.