Traveling Circus

The other day when driving along a Monroe county road close(1/2 mile) to lake Ontario, I spotted a merganser in the snow along the edge of a road. It appeared to be a cut corn field, but was covered in 2+ feet of snow. It flushed and flew off....??? Any ideas what it might have been doing there? I'd never seen that before.

I stand corrected..... my experience with HP's and thin jackets has been dramatic expansion...... blow up's if you will, and "splashes" on predators.......... complete disintegration upon impact...... I've tried them when actually trying to minimize pelt damage. the theorey being that driven at extreme speeds, the projetile completely disintegrates inside the target..... like with frangibles...... which takes the thin jacket theorey one step further by making the core less stable..... I agree that they are unethical in most circumstances..... as are FMJ's..... Good luck, have fun, be safe.......

I never did read the Geneva convention, but I did go to the Sierra website, and they specifically say...... MatchKing Bullets: This is the classification for Sierra's pre-eminent target bullets. The driving motivation for the design of each MatchKing bullet is accuracy. These bullets have very thin jackets drawn to an exacting concentricity standard of 0.0003 in maximum variation, and their weight is held to within ± 0.3 grain. All MatchKing have a hollow point design with a very small meplat for high ballistic coefficient. The majority of these bullets have a boat tail shape to further minimize drag and improve ballistic coefficient. They are manufactured to the very highest quality standards. Their accuracy has been acclaimed worldwide, and they have been used to win more target competitions than all target bullets from other manufacturers combined. Although some of these bullets have been used for hunting, Sierra recommends them only for target shooting. Thin Jackets equals dramatic expansion......... Take it with 168 grains of salt...........???

I believe the Federal 168 gr BTHP are a Sierra Match King target bullet..... hollow points, thin jackets........not a hunting bullet...... expect dramatic expansion without alot of penetration on game..... I think they're a great bullet at the range, but there are better choices out there for a hunting bullet.....

Fished with my daughter out of the Catt last Sunday and kept 87 perch..... The day started cold (37F) and with a 10 - 15 mph S wind the lake was covered in rolling fog. It took some searching, but we found a good school off Evangola Park in 66 FOW. Then, it was non-stop action until the bait bucket was MT.

HI Frank ...... What makes a diver wire or mono is the line you run it on..... a "mono" diver is run on monofiliment line. monofiliment line will only get your diver so deep(like 50 feet down), and mono stretches like crazy so the diver can be difficult to release from the boat. A "wire" diver is just a regular diver run on wire line... you can get wire diver rigs as deep as 100 feet if you let out enough wire line. I stopped running mono divers 15 years ago. To run a wire diver you have to dedicate a reel to wire line, and the rod should have a twilli tip (google it)..... it's a spring wire tip that has to be glued onto a rod after removing the "regular" tip. Dedicated Wire divers and rods can completely save a fishing outing. They are well worth the investment. I've been fishing out of Sandy creek 3 times this week...... Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I've landed 4 kings 15 Browns and one laker in those outings, and every fish has come on a wire diver! My rigger has not produced one hit in those 3 outings!

Congrats Frank .....!!! If your divers are twisting on the way down, you're letting them out too fast. Are you using wire divers or mono divers?

Nice Report Jeremy.... Way to keep the old man busy!

I Fished SP yesterday 64 - 70 FOW...... wound up with 5 and one short. Had a hard time establishing any pattern..... but the best rig for the day was a 7 color lead core with a watermelon harness, good for 3 fish..... also took a fish on a long A bomber off the rigger (down 57), and one off a wire diver with a harness out 145.... tough bite for me. Wet day....

Fished Thursday out of SP south of the fence. Landed 11... cores(3,4,5 color) and riggers with harnesses worked. Very nice quality fish..... 4 over 8 lbs, and one pushing 10. Yesterday, fished on a friends boat out of SP, and we put 9 in the cooler..... tougher bite yesterday... again, all harnesses but this time all off the cores..... couldn't get a rigger bite regardless of bait... Stayed south of the pack (on the fence), mostly in 50 - 55 FOW... How long will the walleye bite out of SBH/SP last? Does it extend into August? Where do they go when the water warms?

very nice report..... wait until they hook up a couple of kings! What port did you fish out of?

Maybe a new thread for SBH improvements? Fished solo out of Sturgeon Point yesterday (which was pretty quiet at 05:30). Managed 2 walleyes bottom bouncing crawlers around Myers , and then took 4 trolling out in the deep water (50+). The last of which was 9+. Lots of sheepies, silver bass, and SM Bass in the mix.....even a couple of trophy perch. My only complaint on the launch area is it's so damn far! Gotta start driving at 3:30, and even then it's daylight when you get there! Questions for you regulars around Buffalo...... 1. While trolling out in the deep stuff, every now and the graph would show "baitfish marks" on the bottom....... are they bait or perch? 2. What do you think about Sam Reinhart as the #2 pick?

Had another very good day off the Catt ...... 86 fish out of 50 - 55 fow...... couple of sheeps, white perch... great day.

I've heard them referred to as "lucky stones"..... behind their eyes....... not too lucky for them when they're removed.

State record is 24 lb 8 oz....from Chaumont Bay

I'll bet he said he got them at the "Can"...... the red Can.... off the Niagara river. I think the can is 4 ish miles out of the mouth of the Niagara. There's a drop off very close to the can, where the bottom drops from roughly 50 to 150 fetet. It can be fantastic fishing there when conditions are right.

My daughter and I fished out of the Catt yesterday morning in 55 FOW and wound up with 75 perch in the cooler. The weather was perfect, and the fish cooperated at a decent pace. Emeralds on the bottom were the ticket.... many perch were spitting up small gobies, and the perch pack was spread from about 50 to 60 straight out of the harbor. seemed like not many boats strayed from the group.... One female still had eggs. Fun day.