rail bird

On the charters that I have gone on I have tipped the mate directly at least 15%. Most of the time more. I have only tipped the Captain once when he kept us out for extra time. If the captain was alone acting as the mate then of course he would get tipped as a mate would but otherwise the captain sets the price of trip and should be able to decide what he is willing to go out for.  

It's small, It's the same size or a little larger than the other probes. It has a small paddle wheel to determine speed.

This may be true but if you are parked at a marina there can be all kinds of stray currents and your anodes can save an outdrive. Boat wires themselves get worn and leak electricity. My Anodes were going pretty fast. I cleaned up some of the boat wires and they seem to be lasting a lot longer. As far a the black box goes it seems to me that the current is very small and would disapate fast in the big lake.

My shade tree electrician skills tell me that water is just about the best ground available, which in my humble opinion means that any thing that is conductive will be completely neutral relative to the fresh water around it. This is a different story with salt  which has a much stronger ionic charge and will react strongly to anything it can react with.

Anodes are a necessity in salt water ,but in fresh water much less so,for the same above mentioned reason.

If you want to troll Lake Ontario and you want to set up your boat the right way,you would be much better off by investing in electric down riggers than in the black box.

If you go out on the lake when there is a small craft advisory in your boat and you look around a say "holy ****, I'm gonna die" then your boat would be considered a "small craft"

You mean like this guy?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYE6Ynwutn4

Can you run a copper rig down the middle with dipsys off the sides?

yes!

There was a warning that hit the news today about eating fish that are caught near alge blooms. Here is a link of what to look for. Not too common in Lake O because of the cold water turnover but the river could see a bloom if it gets real hot.

http://www.dec.ny.gov/chemical/77118.html

the rigger was set at 70' and later 90'. we use 8# weights there was some blowback not sure how that effects the arc in the line...

Do you know how fast you are going? You will have a lot of blow back with 8 lb weights and 70 to 90 feet of cable out no matter how slow you are going. I think your line is probably too horizontal and the sliders are going all the way down the line. If you have to use 8 lb weights try running spreads that are higher than 60 feet until you get the hang of it. try a 40 and 60 spread. at most. If you are close to shore run even higher. I have had hits on free sliders with only 20 feet of cable out to the ball. That almost has my slider in the prop wash. Steelhead and cohos don't care. They will hit close to the boat.

Good luck and keep trying

Don't take all the bow out of your main line. Slider should find the back of the bow in the line. Make sure your ball is at the depth you want to fish before putting the slider out and try not to change the depth by too much.

tryed free slider for the first time but it kept getting hung up on the rigger release making it impossible to trip when retrieving line. Not sure if it worked its way down quick or what. spoon was super slim glow frog. it did take a shot at one point saw the rod slack up for a few seconds but fish wasnt around after that.

I like using a Michigan Stinger glow frog for free sliders. It's one of my most productive spoons.

A few tips.

1) fish where the thermocline intersects with the bottom of the lake. So if the thermocline is 40 feet down search around that area parallel to shore. Fish anywhere from 5 to 20 feet off the bottom.

2) Look for pods of bait in that area. If you don't see much on the screen when running near shore then don't bother.

3) I like to run green spoons in that area Ice, Antifreeze, Watermelons.

4) Run a lead core down the shoot with a Mag green spoon.

5) Run a little faster if you are not taking any hits.

I asked a guy at a bait shop once why people did not use sawbellies as bait on Ontario. He said that due to the lack of structure it's a lot tougher to figgure out a place to start. You are not covering the ground you can trolling. The fish on Ontario move pretty far pretty fast on some days so it might be tough to stay on them. It certainly should work like it does in other places but in the long run it might be less effective.

Like hasbeen says most likely a short. You may have 2 or 3 loops depending on how the boat is wired. If your port and starbord lights are going to 1 bow mount fixture you can test it by removing the bulbs and disconecting the connection to power and ground. Do this with your battery disconnected to avoid trouble. Your loop should read like an open circuit with the bulbs out. If there is a short it will probably read zero ohms. It could be the fixture or the run to the fixture. If you remove the fixture and still have a short it will be in the wire and you need run new ones. Not to tough in a small boat. Test the stern light as well to see if you have a short. Try to use tinned marine wire to if you have to run new.

Good Luck

What octane gas are you using? Is it old? Is this a 2 stroke? If it is maybe it's as simple as mixing up a new tank of higher octane gas.

If you look at the box are there large wires and smaller wires coming out of it? The pourpose of a relay is to control a high current circuit with a lower current switch. This would stand to reason as a DC voltage wire ratings are affected by distance. The further you go the bigger wire you need. The relay saves the problem of running large wires to the front of the boat and back. It would be normal to hear a relay click when energized so most likely that is what you have.

Most outboards smaller than an 8hp have no alternator for charging your battery and running your riggers and electronics so give that a thought when picking one out.

That kind of rod is not ideal for long line copper set ups. It is to short and stiff to pump in 500 yards of line plus a fish. The only thing I can think it might be used for would be a thumper rod set up where you would run a heavy sinker, often near the bottom. You can search this site for thumper rod set ups to see how they are done. Even those set ups are more often done with longer rods but there is no rule that says you can't use the rod for a thumper or copper for that matter.

It's normal to have tubes that drain water back toward the bilge so the boat will drain after waves or rain. Why there are plugs I am not certain.

What I do is find the direction the current is pushing me to go in a straight line. Normally with the current. Set my rods then drive whatever way I want to. When I have a fish on I turn back with the current/wind and fight the fish. I don't go out alone unless it's pretty flat. I do run with a sock on each side wich can help at times.

I think it's because it's tough to revive an undersized fish with a hole in it.

I know using a gaff is illegal, but does anyone know the reasoning behind this regulation.

I will take the other side of this. First of all congrats on putting all those nice fish in the boat. That alone had to have your clients thrilled with that kind of catch and planting the seed of remorse in them about not having a derby ticket is the last thing you want to do. Looking at the raw numbers the odds are pretty slim that a one or two day a year charter client has much of a chance to come out ahead financialy. Looking at it from the prospective of the the boat it even becomes less likely you will come out ahead.

As an example, If you run ten charters during the fall derby and charged 4 people 15 dollar entry fees to the derby, that would be a total of $600 for the boat not including your pass. Third place in any one division pays $550 so you need second place or above to come out ahead, or a good combination of high placed entries. Now if you do hit second place you have to deal with the tax issue. Also you have to deal with how prize money is divided. Are you leving it up to the clients to fight it out? Are you expecting a percentage? All hypothetical issues that should be clear a head of time.

This is in now way a rant against the LOC which is a great tournament and has done a lot for Lake Ontario fishing over the years. I participate in it from time to time but I understand that the chance of return on investment is pretty slim unless I am on the lake a lot and in an area that is producing big fish. The people who make out in this tournament are the guys that can get on the board time after time and always cash. I think the best thing to do is make your clients aware of the tournament explain the all in rule and let them decide.

One further thought. Most charters I have been on the first mate pulls the rod out of the holder and hands it to the client. Is that not a DQ by the rules?

Are you willing to let the clients grab the rods in all cases?

$1500 seems pretty steep. I had mine done 2 years ago including replacing the impellor and replacing annodes for $1000. The impellor cost $150 for the part so I would guess bellows replacement should cost around $800 these days.

Most information on Salmon in Lake Ontario is theoretical but here are a few thoughts. Yes many of the salmon migrate to the west in the spring, probabaly because of the warmer temps and the active pods of bait. Salmon from the US side come from the east end at the hatchery in Pulaski. There seems to be a natural migration to that area toward the fall for many of the Salmon. Some of the salmon stocked in the creeks imprint where they are stocked. This may be more common now with the pen rearing programs. The day to day and week to week changes in the water temp that change over the summer with winds seems to have a great effect upon where a lot of the salmon are. Salmon can travel a great distance in one day. I have read that they can travel 30 miles in 1 day. It seems that each year can be different and that is because of the wind and weather. One thing for certain once it is time to spawn they will go to just about any creek that spits out water.

At the risk or repeating myself, I'd REALLY like to see them try and enforce this on the Niagara Bar on any spring weekend.

Tim

The problem is they can do just what they are doing right now. Selective enforcement. My guess is there were dozens of US boats fishing in Canadian waters without reporting in the 1000 islands but they only grabed one that we know of. Was the Tournament boat the only one to make a small rule violation in reporting last weekend on lake Ontario? I doubt it. The sudden change of attitude, the selective enforcement and punitive nature of the fine is what seems so unfair about it.

You would have to modify them somehow because the bases have screws that tighten into the tracks.

When I was first starting out I would run spoons way behind the ball and now feel most of the time that was a mistake. First of all getting spoons to run at the right speed 50 or more feet behind the ball means you have to go in a straight line for longer periods of time. If there is a big current you can cross lines. On turns you can tangle, drag bottom or cross lines. I think in order to run things right it's best to keep down riggers close. I run about 10 to 20 feet most days, and then run lead core, dipseys or copper for the fish that don't want to be around a ball.

If the fish are active those cannon balls will not scare them away and many times will attract them.