Gator

I've got one if you can get to Rochester. Nothing special, wood mounting board and aluminum bracket/lift, it would hold a 6-8 hp motor. pm me.

Hi Sharkhunter, It's been too many years since I fished Canada within driving distance with an outfitter for me to give you recommendations, but when I was planning a trip two years ago (we ended up at Silver Water Wheel at Lac Seul) I found lots of information on Walleye Central. Most of the guys who posted didn't mind a quick phone call, either. Best of luck. Gator

Geez Paul, I guess I know who I'm recommending to TripleS for his goldeneye! Nice work.

Buy?? Why would I do that when there's a whole lake full of smelt just sitting there? The old rules prohibited the use of smelt as bait, despite the fact that smelt were native. Now I just need someone who jigs for smelt to offer me a seat one nite.

Here's some quick snapshots I took this morning. And look, turns out Mark was right, my basement does need to be cleaned...at least the camera is pointed AWAY from the piles of hunting and fishing stuff. I'm not a pack rat, but I can't seem to convince myself that I won't need that 150 lb ice shelter or those dozen floater goose decoys someday...even though I haven't goose hunted in five years. If I ever have a garage sale, my advice is: come early. You can probably get a good idea as to the size of this thing by comparing it to the furnace or stairs. That's a removable rigid hitch on the front for towing with an ATV. A Clam 5600 would fit perfectly with room on top for tip-ups, bait, etc..

Nah, my original intention was just to make excuses, then blow off the picture entirely I'll try to dig it out of the basement this weekend.

Excellent, Smithers! I can finally use those Slammer tipups that I bought a year ago on Canadice...dead smelt on the bottom!

Guys- Yeah, electrical conduit...TripleS is a union guy I haven't used the frame yet this year, so it's still buried in the basement, but when it comes out I'll try to post a picture. Think plywood-size open bottom with cross bar braces and 6" high sides, all conduit, welded, sitting maybe a foot up on conduit runners. Kinda a simple box frame on runners, but boy does it work. The guy who built it for me was Mark Evanicki down in Hemlock. His brother Tom Evanicki used to own the Honeoye Bait Shop off Rt 20A years ago and in fact I still have five of his old tip downs with his name on them that he sold me. And my graduate student was gifted the small jonboat that Tom sold me for $100. Sorry, momentary lapse of nostalgia... Gator

A couple years ago I had a light conduit frame built that sits ~10" off the ice in order to pull the shanty in heavy snow. I've pulled as many as three shanties at a time (two Fishtraps on top of an old Clam four person monster) in a couple inches of snow by myself, and in heavy snow it can't be beat. I also had a rigid coupler made to link it to a four wheeler for towing (if I'm ever lucky enough to have a four wheeler for ice fishing). If anyone's interested, pm me and I'll see if I can remember the name of the individual down in Honeoye who built this for me. I think that it was $80-100 to have it made. Finally, TripleS made some runners for my FishTrap Pro out of light conduit as well, and they seem to work better than the skis. Just need to bend the conduit so it goes up at the front and screw it on from the inside. Gator

Good point about the deer-car accidents...if coyotes are pressuring deer toward more suburban settings, then the # of accidents is likely to rise, even if the # of deer is stable or even declining. Personally, where we hunt in Orleans county I've only seen a couple of dogs over the years (shot one with a bow in '07), so I guess we have to be thankful. It sounds like other parts of the state are getting snookered. Does anyone have any hard data on how coyote #s influence the size of the herd? I'm not arguing that there isn't an impact, I'm just wondering how big it is. We always use coyotes to explain the lack of deer and I'd hate for this tendency to mask a broader problem. Also, there's an interesting report on empirehunting.com posted by Deer Search, Inc. on bow and gun hunter sightings logs from 1998-2008. It's broken down by region and contains some great statistics. Take a look. Gator

He must be. Everyone I've spoken to has had a great year. The weather was fantastic during bow season, the rut raged for about three weeks, and this snow has made the late season with the smokepoles interesting. New York state has its share of trophies, but frankly the potential for routinely enormous racks like you see in the Midwest just doesn't exist here. A 140 inch spread is the deer of a lifetime for most Empire state hunters (including me). And that's okay. You've just got to gauge your expectations to the area we hunt; sure doesn't make it any less fun. Probably the best way to tell the population of the herd is to look at the number of deer-car accidents in any given area

Just about sharted myself this morning when I sat down for the first cup of coffee and broke a few...forgot they were there and thought the X-mas tree was falling over. My wife was amused. I was too, after I cleaned the coffee off myself.

I have a T8 on my walleye boat and it's a great motor, but there's no option for manually starting it if the battery goes (inexplicably) dead. I've seen a pull start touted as a valuable option on the Merc, though. Gator

Wasn't the original derby bankrupt before the halfway point and they were never able to payout the daily winners, much less the Lund that was supposed to comprise the grant prize? There was alot of bad feelings when that derby went South. I'd like to think that any new derby run under the same format would be better organized financially. Maybe the payout could be tethered to the number of entrants? And as with any derby, it seems to me like some independent oversight would help to convince anglers that all is on the up-and-up...there were some concerns in the past, as I recall... That having been said, if it's legit and well run, I'm in! Gator

I love the camraderie of gun season, but I'm always sad to see the end of bow season. This year I had the privledge of watching a couple of breeding nucleuses pass through with several bucks chasing multiple does, and man, what a rush! After opening day, we probably won't be seeing the bucks chasing much...though with the seventeen doe I saw combined with the twenty Keith saw in the fields last nite (farewell hunt), it looks like the majority of the rut may have passed us by. We haven't seen doe like that all season. Could be they've started to get into their winter patterns. Good luck to all! Gator

I'm neither conservative nor liberal, but I do agree with the ideas that Chowder has put forth. We need to think bigger than the ideas that have been sold to us by the powers that be (on either side). One problem is that we never give any ideology time to work; it's less than a year after this guy started, and yeah, he's a snake oil salesman, but he's also a brilliant guy playing the game. If we pull the rug out from under him this early, it's like we're unwilling to give anyone's ideas but our own a chance. And it's the guys at the top who are benefiting from the constant turmoil, not the politicians and not you and me. Our confusion is certainly somebody's gain. How 'bout we each, individually, stand for what we beleive in by trying to make a difference in our own personal lives? For every guy who wants to rip on our leader, there's sombody out there who'd rip on anybody else. Maybe we should just stop ripping each other every four years and start placing the responsibility where it belongs: us. Okay, maybe we can't stop what's going on at the top, but we can certainly spend our energy better constructively than destructively. Rant over. Thank God we live in a free world where everyone can speak their piece. I'm not much for just complaining...just do something about it! But I'd die to make sure that we have the right to complain if we want to. My closing: think for yourself; maintain reason; ask who gains the most. The space inside our head is more than just a cushion for our mouths. Gator

Rick, God speed your father's recovery. You have our heartfelt condolences and prayers. BTW, I'm at Strong in the Department of Medicine; in fact, Tracy Bubel works for my wife. If I can help with anything while your father is there, please let me know. Gator

Is Highway only half a name? Gator

Very nice! I'm in Rush, but I've been driving over to Albion to hunt some land we lease...looks like I should stay closer to home! Actually, of the three guys I hunt and fish with alot, all three took shots at big deer yesterday (the 1st). I, on the other hand, was happy to be in the woods The tally is two eight-points at the processor and one big ten hopefully waiting to be found this morning (didn't want to push him last night). It's on! Maybe tonight's my nite. Gator

Hi Guys, Just a heads-up to anyone who's had problems with Lowrance. There's some information on Walleye Central as to a particular contact person at Navico who has reliably taken care of customer issues, and quickly! Her name (as posted at WC) is Linda Colt and her phone number is 1-800-324-1356 extension 8747 or 1-918-438-8747. E-mail is [email protected]. I have had no experience with her personally, as I've never had a problem with any of four or five Lowrance units on various boats, but they seem to vouch for her pretty strongly on our sister site. Gator

This is not an odd ticket at all. Two years ago I watched on several nights as the DEC ticketed fishermen on shore who had migrated past the bridge to the South...by about two feet. The regulations are quite clear. No fishing upstream of the bridge after sunset from (I believe) Aug 15th-April15th. Of course, if you weren't fishing, just under anchor watching the action, then you weren't breaking the law. Gator

I know that it isn't much use after the fact, but for those that haven't signed the check yet...make certain that the trailer will handle the boat! A too small trailer could lead to a dangerous situation, in addition to just being a pain. It's really buyer beware; common sense says that the dealer will try to cut costs by putting the smallest trailer that they feel adequate under your rig. You may not agree with their assessment. Do your homework...the trailer is just as important as the boat! Hopefully there's a few guys on here who will benefit from this thread. Gator

I'll add that there's a guy on Ebay who sells pre-cut bags at quite a discount. He goes by "elrodharris" and I don't know him from Adam, but I ordered a couple of the different sizes and they work like a champ. I think it was from between $15-20 for 100 bags, depending on the size. The problem with the rolls is that when you get near the end, they get hard to seal, and cutting them while sealing can be a chore (think nasty stinky meaty hands). I'm guessing it's probably cheaper than Sam's, too. Just my 2 cents...oh, and Foodsaver, all the way. Gator

We have the 24' Tournament hardtop model, but we looked hard at the 22' prior to purchasing. Wellcrafts are made with wood, but it's encapsulated in fiberglass, so no worries about rotting. What the wood does is dampens the vibrations when you're running and makes for a really smooth ride. We'll open it up in 3-4 footers and she takes the waves beautifully. So that's a plus. As for the build, we've noticed a few issues with things like screws, small plastic tabs, peripherals mostly that are really annoying when they go, but not essential. For example, the front light keeps blowing for reasons unknown. No problems with the big stuff, though, ie no cracks in fiberglass, everything's held up well for six years now. I do know that the reason we went with the 24' was that we weren't comfortable with the freeboard on the 22', especially with kids on board. Overall, we really like the boat, though from a fishing perspective we might go with something different in the future....maybe a Penn Yan or Cherokee, and definately an I/O over an outboard. Good luck. KWN

Gone.