lyk2fish

Thanks Johnny, it is great to have a finger lake with this variety. A mesotrophic playground in my opinion, and could be managed as such..........all the suspended small mouths under the bait have avoided my spoons for weeks though. Trying to accomplish the pelagic grand slam........if you do it, post it............that’s a bow, a brown, an eye, and a smallmouth......throw the laker in for good measure since they will come up into the column toward that suspended high bait. What a great challenge!

Yeah, it was me.........I had to stop at camp Today and repair my roof cap from the wind yesterday, I looked at that water and thought I should be on it.......looked prime, especially in that zone nautitroller was in......fish and bait got pushed up there with all hat south wind.......discovered it Sunday........wind machine turned back on Monday and well.....back to work today......water looked prime........but yes those bows slow down when the chop dies........cores on boards start to fire then. Nice work all.

Holiday weekend was, busy, windy, fun. Got some friends out chasing fish. Found my pod of fish moved north but was able to put a program together to bend some rods. Copper and riggers were the ticket as the cores only washed lures this weekend. Temp got down to 65ft in my area that if been fishing and changed a bit when I moved around, no doubt the hurricane remnants mixed the water a bit. With it came some fleas......not bad, but you had to check lines every 20 minutes to clean. Speeds the same around 2.6-3.0 at the surface, quick turns triggered strikes. A lot of quick tips, then gone this weekend. Nothing huge, a ton of good eaters and happy faces. Congratulations to camo joe and his first eye. I saw ya Monday, was up by your camp had a double with bows trying to battle in that wind when ya came over west. Had to take off after that, good way to end the weekend. Things starting to develop up north. Good luck and tight lines.

Cline down at 65 yesterday, waves were rough, got 2 good bows, a laker and couple small bows in 4 hours. Copper and riggers, core was dead, all in all, Slowwwww. Need the wind machine to shut down and let things stratify again. Would not have wanted to be up on the north end yesterday.

That’s a good setting my man, 😉 congrats!

Sent ya a PM on the clips and deep Raps.

Way to go Billy D, wondered how Saturday worked out for ya. Never been afraid of them blank screens, best surprises always arise from em!

Yes I was, been fishing off that lately...also run a green Lund and will be on that again next week. That paint job on your boat is awesome. Came back and told my wife that I saw a boat with a naval camo pattern on it and it looked bad a$$. If I didn’t see you against the trees, I would’ve had a hard time seeing you......that really blends with the water. I ventured back south and got on a better quality bite, where I saw you I was getting pestered by small bows and lakers. Don’t mind those bites but they don’t release well this time of year. How long is that boat?....looks big, definitely a fishing machine!

Will do Justin, work getting crazy, your schedule crazy too. When your guide season starts to wind down, and my work levels out here in October, we’ll hook up and hit some of the spots.

Hit the lake late friday afternoon and the bite was on, couldn't get the third rod set on 3 different passes. I ran 2 copper, 1 rigger and after a quick TD drop, I set just above the temp at 60. Copper was on fire for 2 hours, then the wind out of the north shut it down. Sat morning was good, temp came up from the wind and bait was all over, most I've seen this year minus large amounts of hooks below and in. Wasnt gonna leave a fish area from friday and after a few adjustments fired a copper on a nice eye, lost a second in the back of the boat......they come right to the surface and you drag em on top, I should slowed it down but a last minute flip threw the hook. Rest of the day was made of bows, smaller browns and lakers. Lost a real screamin bow at dark......wrapped the copper, what's new.....they're smart and know were to go. Sunday was one nice brown, and small bows. Lakers came up in the column, and the hit started to fizzle. Thought the front would fire things up, but I washed lures. Great weekend, fleas not around, speeds 2.6+, and blue/silver hammers kept the rods firing. Should be a great fall.

Great day, those fish are nice and fed up over there.

Great job, working for those kids is always rewarding, memories they make they will never forget.

Another great weekend of fishing. Still some down time but the flurry of multiple bites makes for quite the fire drill. See some folks like Stillwater getting it done with a nice rainbow this weekend. As always found some good temp down 50 to 70 and played with the copper, core and riggers to get it right above the Cline. Speeds went up this weekend near 3mph to trigger but had some great violence in the hits, a lot of which came unglued. Colors were blue and copper this weekend. Copper rods still remain the champ, riggers in second and the core was quiet this weekend. I'm sure due to the depth they were at, even smallys and eyes down deep. Great weekend, catch per unit effort on silvers still around a fish per hour, but the acrobatics are worth the wait. Did have a rigger trigger on a beast of a laker......thought I was wrapped in the copper only to get suprised by a 30 incher!

Spoons this time of year on your set up.....but sticks and cranks will work, just have to figure out the additional dive you'll get from them.

You bet Stillwater, go get um! That's a great bow......now you need an eye......7 till dark or first light till about 7 am is a great time.

Ryanrobb52, I understand keeping the kids busy, my oldest is 20 and he gets impatient still when we troll, ...that’s one of the reasons I set my pontoon up.....at least it’s comfortable and he can lay down with room if he is board.........but when that rod screams, he’s still up and add it like he was 6. I used to get silvers on a smaller dipsey on wire usually 90-120 ft out on a #3 setting. Turning is difficult with a full spread out including dipseys. Also, going almost 3 mph, you really got tighten the dipsey release. Speed and random turns are key to trigger those silvers.......those 12 inches have big ones with them.......if I start catching shorts, at least I know I’m in the zone.........I then start doing sharp turns, circles, or east west runs, my gps trails look like a scribble, but that is what’s gets it done. Both my boys know when we go out, we’re dedicated to silver fish only........good thing I got a deck of uno cards on board to pass the slow time. Keep at it, a few tweeks and you’ll fire on a good one.

That last fish hit this morning for the short outing I went on........running the pontoon in the wind is no fun........and as I turned to go into the wind, wouldn’t you know the rigger fires and the fish just starts screaming.......couldn’t do nothing but hold the wheel as the rigger was in between 2 coppers not on boards........was a circus for a bit, all I could do was hold on.......I knew if she stayed on the surface too long she would be done, all I could do to get her to the net and stay out of the copper while controlling the boat. Once I got her in and saw her, I made up my mind I was done for the day........even picking up rods was a challenge........but even my Lund would’ve been a challenge in the wind today. She was a beautiful fish.

Had the chance to get my oldest son and a friend out for a day chasing silvers. Day started off slow, temps were down but kept making adjustments and found the spot. Rods started to fire, especially the copper. A lot of shorts mixed in but constant action none the less. Big fish started to fire late afternoon and an east west troll made the lure speed irresistible. Same speeds near 3.0......colors were blue and greens, all spoons, small and larger. Next couple days had a friend come up, took him out for a quick trip before he launched his boat, copper fired on a nice eye. A good bow and brown completed the trip. We launched his boat and worked together the next few days to figure things out. Great silvers came to the net before the front Sunday and the wind made it challenging for my pontoon to fish with control, might have to bring the lund back out.......I figured with our success our catch per unit effort was around one fish per hour......but with the quality we took, it was worth it.......saw a few boats running boards out there this weekend, hope all did well.

Longtime........yes those spoons and sticks will work. Remeber with a shad rap your gonna have extra dive, so you need to figure that into your drop. If you dont want to calculate all that, I would suggest jr thundersticks, they used to be king in thus lake, and they still produce. Yellow birds should hold the core.....I use off shore brand....they work well and have a little bit more strength, remember, you dont have to have the core out a mile from your boat, get it out the best you can. Good luck.

Billy D gettin it done!!!!!!!

Yeah Reel Doc, I find this happening for me more the last couple years. When boat traffic picks up some days the rods start firing........now it could be due to bait scatter, but for me I feel it is the maneuvering of my boat on quick turns to avoid other boats. The triple I experienced, was when I was maneuvering between 2 boats that were coming down the lake and not giving me time to properly avoid them, I had to make some quick turns that comprised my spread and luckily didn’t tangle everything up and rods went off.......I thought I had a mess to clean up at first..........then the rods started screaming.....turned my frown into a smile real quick.

First of all Long Time, I would tell you your leader is too big, downsize your leader to 10-12 lb. lite line is a gamble, and fleas build on it, but I feel I take more hits and I manage my drags on my reels. Run your core off boards away from the boat. Fish are all over on both sides and the center.........it’s not so much about location on the lake but location in the water column. I use my finder and my fish hawk to determine the thermocline......if you don’t have a hawk.......get a TD model from them, they are inexpensive compared to the base mount units and it will tell you the temp in 5 ft increments, you just hook it on your core and let it out and retrieve it. The classified section of this forum usually has them for sale. You have to determine the temp breaks to set your spread right. 47-52 is usually good temp and I’ll set above it. If I get lakers, I’ll set even higher. Seems crazy to pull away from fish but lakers are not what I personally want to catch, and I have found that once lakers take over a column, they take it over. Through my experience your hits will come out of the temp for silvers and eyes and bass........seeing marks on your finder can sometimes fool you into where to set your riggers, core or copper........alewife are primary forage, match lure to it, sticks or spoons big or small, when you get a hit or hits on same lure, adjust all in hat color and size. Next, know your drop rates for your core and copper. I always start just above temp and adjust my copper and core accordingly or at least I think I do. Remember as I have said in my posts, there are days I troll for HOURS before I get a hit.........during that time I am constantly adjusting my copper and my cores until I get a bite.........then I fine tune and am dialed in..........I don’t troll in straight lines, I zig zag which constantly speeds up and slows down my spread......I pay attention to what speeds and on what part of my turn I’m getting hit on..........and once I find fish.......I stay there circling and circling......you have to have a relentless approach.......and don’t leave fish to find them......as we all know it’s not easy, it’s work and if your not tired after a day of working your spread, then you might not have done enough. If you want silver fish, commit that your gonna put hours in to get the hit....I can tell you I put in years to figure these fish out.....I’m a walleye guy, not a trout guy, so I had to learn....I have noticed that fish have come up out of the temp and are viscous on biting with little effort then they leave and you sit here scratching your head thinking you did something wrong.........that’s fishing.......finally, put hours on the water.......commit to what you want to catch, developed your plan and execute.......you’ll be rewarded.

Yes Stillwater, eyes out deep suspended under bait with smallmouth, even the pike I got earlier in the week was suspended over 150 ft. Alex, only reason I’m dialed in is because your not out there showing those Bows how it’s done. I haven’t ventured much onto your grounds yet, but I know the mega bows are up there.

You did great!, the lakers are very healthy and well fed in there.