Gator

July is absolutely prime time and you shouldn't have to venture too far offshore to find fish. If you're set up with an electric trolling motor, there's lots of options for days when you get blown off the lake. The Niagara river holds some great smallmouth, as do most of the Finger Lakes. There's also excellent trolling and jigging for salmonids in the Finger Lakes, particularly Keuka, Seneca and Cayuga. As for trolling the big pond, you may want to invest in a couple of wire diver rigs to complement your downriggers. A great two person setup is downriggers stacked with two lines apiece and a pair of divers off the side. 9' 6" rods (Daiwa Heartland works as well as any), Daiwa 47 linecounter reels loaded with 1000' of 30 lb seven-strand wire (no backing). Tie a big swivel onto the end and run Mag Dispeys on a 2 setting anywhere from 100' to 300' back, depending on where you find the thermocline. Don't set the drag too tight or you'll be short a rig when a king strikes. Also, good rod holders...stainless, like Bert's ratchet or Big Jons...that can be used to position the rod horizontal to the water will help. The cheaper rod holders might not stand up to a wire dipsey hit. Oh, and plan on two weeks, not one

I sent a bunch of reels to Tuna Tom's for drag upgrades, new clickers, etc...as well as a Penn spinning reel that needed some TLC. The reels were done and back to me within a week. When I wasn't happy with the anti-reverse on the spinning reel, Tom had me send it back, figured out the problem, and refunded my shipping as well. Now that's service! It's nice to have a guy who does it right, and I felt that the LOU community might want to know. Kudos to Tom. Gator

Funny how your eyes are glowing in each and every one of those pictures...like a kids' X-mas morning! I'm glad you had such a good time.

But we all know that you wanted to be I bet if you put that auger off the end of a jonboat you might be able to use like a motor to get out to those perch... In the words of George R.R. Martin, "Winter is coming". It just happens to be Old Man Winter this year, and it's taking awhile (no offense to our respected elders on this forum)

Can you say PIG!!

Jeremy, Nice machine! Are you going to stay at the marina on Sandy? gator

I don't care what they eat, they taste great! And diving for them is the most fun you can have outside the bedroom!!

Brian, you are an instigator! I can only imagine what you might have started there...

It looks like a place down in the Keys named "Robbies" where there's a large resident population of tarpon that they feed. Everybody who fishes down there has to stop at Robbies at least once. I've never seen one take a guy's hand, though. That's awesome.

I just looked back on ebay and the Saltists are now back up to normal price. I hope that the guys who wanted them got their orders in when I posted the deal a couple weeks back. Tight lines!

Yup, great reels. The only **** is that linecounter, which can eat into your wrist during a long fight. I posted on here a couple weeks ago about a store on ebay having the linecounter size 40s on sale for $125. Great deal. The reels hold more line that the "normal" Daiwa 47s, but because the frame is smaller, I don't think it will be an issue. They're certainly smaller than the Catalinas and Tekotas we run on the boat. I think for general downrigger fishing, the size 30 is fantastic (no linecounter needed, either).

Hi Ray, I don't know of a site, but the Roxio Easy Media Creator program for DVD editing or burning CDs works well for us. I have no idea as to $$$, but I think that it comes standard with most DVD burners. One of my postdocs is Polish and he uses it no problem... KWN

Heh, heh, yeah...he called you captain speedo. Have a fun birthday!

We went diving for bugs last year for the first time in the Abacos. Just snorkeling in <15 fow, but what a blast!! It was the coolest combination of hunting and fishing I've ever done. Sling spear and a snorkel, good to go. I was like Bubba from Forest Gump, "Lobster kebabs, lobster bisque, lobster pot, lobster dainties..." Every once in awhile you'd get face-to-face with a lionfish, and that wasn't much fun. They're cool to look at, but there's plenty of stories about how uncool they are when riled. Are lionfish in the Keys, Ray?

I don't know, I bought my 2003 Mr. Pike off Walleye Central from an individual (no guides, no pros!) in MN for $15,500, and that was back in 2008. The boat came fully rigged with three sonar units, a Yamaha T8 motor, a Yamaha 115 4-stroke main engine, and two 24 volt trolling motor, both front and back. I was looking for ~6 months before I found the right deal, and I have no complaints. Good luck!

They have the 30 size listed for $209...go figure. I'd have preferred the smaller reels, too, but when I held the 40s I realized that with the small frame they're actually a good fit for diver rods. Hence, we have new reels for outside divers.

Fogdog on ebay is selling the Saltist 40 levelwind linecounter model with the 6.4:1 gear ratio for $125, which is >$70 less than anywhere else. I ordered two of them and they were DELIVERED the next day. Just a heads-up for those here on LOU that are thinking of switching over to Saltists. Fogdog also had Tekota 600LCs for $102, but that only seemed to last for a day or two.

It does seem like the lakers in most of the Finger Lakes have gotten easier to catch over the past years...I know that I sure as heck haven't become that much better of a fisherman I grew up in Bath, and we trolled Keuka a fair bit when I was a kid. A good day was a couple of fish. Now, a good day is a couple dozen fish. Of course, they're typically cookie cutters, but still...I wonder if the increased water clarity has something to do with it? Ok, now all we need is ice. Fingers crossed.

yeah, they don't freeze up... Lakers are obviously very popular at these lakes. If you want to try jigging, just go out from the state boat launch on Canadice a couple hundred yards and give it a shot. Make sure that you spud your way out, but generally in February once the water gets hard they're good to go. Snow can really make a mess out of Canadice, though. I'd use 10 lb test Powerpro with an 8 lb test fluorocarbon leader. Try jigging rapalas, larger pimples, and buckshot rattle spoons. It's not the fastest fishing in the world, but you have a shot at least. I've heard interesting things about the smelt in these lakes over the past couple of years. Might be worth hitting the smelt early then spending an hour jigging lakers just after sunrise.

We used the Ande pink for years and I still run it on my steelhead reels. The abundance of fleas has gotten us hooked on the Cortland Fleaflicker line for rigger use, though. In all honesty, I've never tried the Maxima.

I'm right there with you. I've seen less movement this year than ever, but on Saturday took three shots and killed three deer. As my buddy said, a season of frustration taken out in 15 seconds of mad shooting. It's nice to fill the freezer, but it's also nice to see deer on a regular basis. Oh well, that's hunting...

Great to see a first like that. Keep at em'!

Scared the crap out of my wife this morning with them

At the risk of sounding corny...I love my iphone4. Yeah, there's lots of arguments about how it's not as fast or adept as other smartphones. But it's simple, intuitive, and powerful enough that I use it routinely for work (I'm a prof of medicine at UofR). My vote is that Siri awaits you under the X-mas tree.

This is going to be a tough sell with the a brand new LX-5 going for <$500 and Marcum having a $50 rebate going on them.