Gray Fox

I use scottys and rubberbands for all my coppers. I just adjust how far into the release the rubberband is seated. I found a bunch of scotty releases at a fishing flea market so I picked them up pretty cheap otherwise as mentioned above the are costly.

White Blue Bubble Smartfish w/ Silver Hammer

Blue NBK Spinny w/ Hammer Fly

Daiwa Heartlands for the rods. They are cheap and very durable.

this boat can be seen on the arneys marina site under the used boats.

Like legacy said try the daiwas. I have two that are 6 years old and the wire hasnt started to cut the guides yet. Plus there cheap, if you break one you can replace it without crying.

not sure what kind of boat you have but you may want to try sterling creek. Its usually better largemouth fishing than the bay. There are also a large number of pike up the creek if the bass arent biting.

in oswego the fall run can happen any time in towards the end of the season. Once the kings start to stage right in front of the harbor all it takes is a real good rain to get the river pumping and the fish will run. Not sure how true this is but was talking to a taxidermist around home the other day who said there have already been kings as far as the salmon river hatchery?

Gambler, I have one of each. The reel made in the US lasted longer than the reel made in China. Im not tryin to bash Penn by any means but when I contacted the outfitter who is gonna repair them for me, he told me that he gets more Penns in for clicker repair than any other reel.

If you only want to run a 400' copper look into getting a Shimano Tekota 800. There are a lot faster and smoother than the Penns. As for the clickers in the Penns mine lasted about 2 years on both reels and will be replaced over the winter.

I would definitely use a swivel on the wire so that you can change the dipsys or take them off to store your rods. The best two dipsys for me are black and watermelon.

We have our camp in Fair Haven so we shop screwie louies alot. He usually has a good stock of products and if he doesnt have something he will order it for you and have it the next week.

Ive burned the clickers out of the penns and okumas. The clickers in the tekotas and the daiwas are holding up just fine. The okuma magdas burned up the first week I was on vacation with them. I leave my clickers on all the time except letting out stick baits in the spring and spooling. I also burned up some magdas completely fighting kings.

I'll take my roller trailer over my bunk any day. My 24' Penn Yan loads easier on the roller trailer than my 16' loads on the bunk. Like spoonfed said above a roller with electric is hard to beat. I crank my Penn Yan on by hand and its not bad, loads in about 2-3 minutes.

To comment off Billy V, our walkers really slowed when we went to 13 pounds weights.

Ran walkers for over 20 years. Switch to scottys last spring and will never own another brand of rigger.

Vector is making nice rod holders for the scottys, just another option.

Don't really have any good pics of the way I set up the boat, but here is one that you can kinda see the rigging.

I like to fish pike with buzz baits. They are best in the morning and late in the afternoon (like bass fishing). If you get a good size pike trailing you heart will race for sure.

25# Big Game for the kings and 10# Stren for the browns. All of my rods have 25 ft. of flourocarbon on them also. The flouro is 25# on the salmon rods and I have spro swivels on the brown rods so that I can change leader weights as needed.

Thanks jeb, We release alot of our fish anyways. I dont see many floating around the lake either. I was just curious as to what people thought on the subject. I know that after throwing some back that floated as soon as we get back to them there gone, like I said we throw alot of fish back, just wondering what people thought.

My bad...8/1 was the actual date good catch ray.

Spoons: 35 feet or longer

Dodger/Flies: 5-40 feet off the ball

I have run dodgers/flies and paddles/meat rigs 2-3 feet off the ball when fishing shallow in the late fall with success. Only problem is you have to let the rigger down very slowly so not to tangle with your main line or the rigger cable.

Went out Saturday morning to fish the ELOSTA picnic derby and foudn a bunch of fish straight out in 130. Stopped the boat dropped two riggers and the first one is up and running. Gave the rod to my brother and continue to set the dipsys. After a short battle a nice 18 pound king on the deck 65 down white on white. Trolled for a long time before the next rod fired. Landed a nice steelie on the dipsy back 250 on a black widow stingray. Shortly after that we landed another king around 14 pounds on a silver chip with a b fly down 88. Finished at noon, 3-3. Slow day for us but sounded like it was slow for most listening to the radio.

We release alot of our fish but do keep a bunch for the smoker and for family and friends. We try to release alot of them ecspecially in the spring when the water is cold through out the column and the fish are not all that deep. We keep more this time of year, ecspecially if they come on the copper becuase of having to bring them up through the warm water and fighting them so much longer. Just had a conversation with Del the other day about this and am wondering what your thoughts are, Do you think the majority of released fish survive after being pulled up from 85+ feet, out of say 48 degree water up through water that my reach 70 degrees, and then being put back into the warm water? Not trying to steal the thread just think that this fits in.