jekyll

I knew going in that this thread would raise some discussion. If you ask 10 guys on the lake, 8 of them will say you can only take 3 fish, 1 will say the correct answer and 1 will say he doesn't know. 5 of the group will add they don't care because they have never caught that many

Looking to get a boat surveyed in the Henderson Bay area. Would like some recommendations for good surveyors in the area.

Fish away!

[quote="bandrus1 so do you think if you limited out on kings in the box early you could keep fishing and say you are fishing for lakers or atlantics? 1. You can tell them you are fishing for Atlantics, or Lakers to add to your box. 2. You can tell then you are now fishing for any of the fish in the same species section on a catch and release basis. In this case, tell him you are fishing for kings on a catch and release basis. From the regs: •A person may continue to fish for a species while in possession of a daily limit for that species provided all fish of that species subsequently caught are immediately returned to the water. See below for special provisions made for largemouth and smallmouth bass. 3. You can tell them you are fishing for sheeps head (they will hit on salmon lures) 4. You can tell them you are fishing for perch but, aren't very savvy on the proper techniques. 5. Tell him you are in compliance with all fishing and creel limits and point him towards Ray K's boat In the end, all you need to say is "Officer, I had a great morning. I got my limit of kings early and I'm still enjoying the day fishing"

Not surprised my post would cause some consernation. Here is a link to the regs: http://www.dec.ny.gov/outdoor/31423.html Each fish is in its own row on the table. There is no overarching statement that states 3 in any combination for the first 3 rows of the table. The words "in any combination" is clearly confined to the row for Brown trout, rainbow/steel head trout, chinook, pink and coho salmon. Catching 3 from the top row, 2 from the 2nd row and 1 from the 3rd row IS NO different than catching a limit of kings in the morning and then going perch fishing in the afternoon. You could keep 3 kings from your morning trip and 50 perch from your afternoon trip. Yes, you need to keep in mind all the minimum and maximum lenght issues as well.

I wrap my leader around the trebbles twice before snelling. Fills the gap better than 1 wrap. Stops this sort of break off.

Atlantic have thier own creel limit of 1 fish and Lake Trout have a limit of 2 fish. All other trout and salmon are lumped into a single limit of 3 in any combination. As a result, you can actually keep 6 salmon/trout a day provided 2 are lakers and 1 is an Atlantic.

Not trying to start a food fight but, IMO, Magdas are bottom basement for wire dipsies. They have the same wide spool to frame gaps as Convectors and they have less-than-adequate drags for dipsies. A lot of them get sold on dipsy-ready, wire combos. They catch a price concious eye however; there is a big difference between price concious and value concious purchases. I suggest you put your wire on your Sealines which, work very well with wire and will last for years. Then spool mono on your Magdas for your riggers. The larger spool to frame gap will not be a problem with 25 or 30lb mono. You will be much happier this way. The smoother drag on the Sealines will go a long way towards ending your wire problems.

Gosh, ya might consider adding some GPS coordinates to your post!

Fold your leader at 22.5 inches and tie an overhand loop of about 2 inches in diameter. This should leave you with a 22 inch leader from nose to end of loop. If you don't have a measuring stick on your boat, just put some marks on yer gunn'l at 22.5 inches apart.

Red beads will turn black after 13-16 feet down. Blues and greens will show color deeper. When in doubt, glow, chartruese and green seem to be good choices. I agree, Big Wieenie beeds are good. Bandrus1: Are those some kind of new "Twinky Rigs" used for San Francisco bay kings? They must be Berkinstock Twinky Rigs.

What kind of reels are you using and are the spools full? With wire, one must keep the line tight at all times so it can't relax and loosen up the top layers on the spool. I've found Convectors to have a larger gap between the spools and frame which seems to suck up loose wraps easily. Full spools are good but, overfilling a wire reel will greatly increase your risk of getting a loose wrap behind the spool. Always ensure your wire is deplyed slowly and under tension using the drag. Cut off ALL frays and sharp kinks. As stated, the overhand wire knott is the way to go. If you get line behind the spool, strip the line down to the spot where it went under and cut it off. You can quickly retie the overhand knott. It is the simplest knott you will have on any of your gear.

I usually run a mix of Spin Doctors and Pro Trolls on riggers and dipsies. This gives the fish a vote for the day. I mix in a spoon and J-plug as well. Unlike the November elections, exit polls are great tools on the lake.

Lots of 5 lb Jacks run the river with the big fish and end up dieing. Lots of 4 year olds are only 15 lb. If you fish the rivers in the fall, you will soon realize we don't hurt the population much by what we take on the Lake. 10s of thousands run the rivers and die without successfully spawning. If a fisherman is happy to keep a smaller salmon than, the goal is met. I don't begrudge any fisherman for keeping a legal fish after he has spent hundreds or thousands of his hard earned dollars reaching for the prize. Somebody recently told me they saw fresh, line caught salmon for $28 a pound in the local Piggly Wiggly. That is a steal compared to what we pay per pound! So keep all the small fish you want within the creel limit. You paid dearly for each pound.

Unlike other fish that spawn numerous times, keeping kings, small or large, has the same impact on breeding. All lake-caught kings are caught before they have their one and only spawn. With that out of the picture, it comes down to the dinner plate. I know lots of people who only eat kings under 10lb.; they prefer the meat and, there is less mercury in smaller fish. Creel limits are creel limits. IMO, there is not much difference to the population whether you take 3-10lb fish or 3-20lb fish. Most all die after 3-years in the Lake. For me, 10 to 25lb kings get filleted and frozen while those larger than 25lb go to the smoker.

FishUSA.com is having a closeout sale on all NK spoons.

Nice fish. Nice spoon as well; what is it? I caught a 14 1/2 pounder last year on Lake O. My wife suprised me with a fiberglass mount of it at Christmas.

Congratulations and welcome back to the Lake. I'm in Riegelsville, not too far from you. Channel 78 has a lot of Mexico Point/Little Salmon River traffic and channel 9 has much of the Catfish Creek traffic.

Exactly! This was one of those "special" ones. And yes, it's 1 or 2 like this in a good year. Though few and far between, these rare fish are the ones for which we need extra line. The remaining 99.99 % will come to net with much less line. However, these rare fish are the ones that go on the wall or win money in tournaments and are therefore the ones that tackle should be prepared for, IMO. You don't get mulligans with big kings.

Popular Daiwa Sealines and Accudepth Plus reels hold less than 200 yards of 30 lb mono. This is insufficient for my tastes. I've been spooled this way. Moving to 25 lb gives you another 30 yards or so with little difference in performance with fleas and fish. You need to remember that nice kings can strip big lenghts of line. If you start with your rigger down deep, you may already have 150 feet or more of line out. I locked up with a nice king last time out which took a rigger set at 120 with a 20 foot set back. It stopped running when the line counter said 1240 feet. This fish took 1100 feet of line (probably less but, the counter said 1100 feet). You can't do that with mono on most rigger reels. I spool on 300 yards of 30# Power Pro and then fill the reels with 25lb Big Game or Andie. Works well for me and I only have to change the shorter lenghts of mono each year versus respooling entire reels.

I drop 2 trolling bags to slow way down untill the board is in the boat. Once in, I put the bags and work on double/tripple.

Drag and bag. Light drag while trolling and then double bag when a fish hits till the board is in the boat.

ddoouubbllee ppoosstt..

Mono is not good for long set backs on dipsies. Line stretch prevents tripping the release to retrive the rig. Mono also is thicker per test strength and thus dives less deep. Braid and wire are about the same diameter and dive almost the same. Braid is more forgiving of mishandleing and thus, "safer" for beginners. Wire breaks easily if handleing precautions are not observed however, fleas are much easier to remove from wire than braid. Suggest you get some first-hand schooling on how to handle wire and then start with that. No schooling, stick with braid.

$31 Daiwa heartland 9'6" dipsy rod $8-10 Twilly Tip $65 Daiwa Accudepth Plus 47 LC reel $30 1000 feet wire line, 7-strand Malin or AFW is less expensive than Torpedo wire $15 Magnum dipsy diver $20 flasher/fly combo Or $6 per spoon. About $146 per side will get you in the water and down to fish. Add a rod holder and some 30# mono. follow the fleet and catch fish. If I were starting out with what you have and what I know, I would put 2 dipsies in the water first, then buy a fish finder with GPS and lastly, add riggers and rigger rods. This will put fish in the boat for the least up front cost while you save for more equipment. You can see other boats to find the fish and use them to guage speed for the interim, just don't get too close and don't cross behind other boats at less than 300 yards. They will have stuff behind them that you might not understand or recognize. Salmon fishing can be a very expensive illness but, if work hard, you can inexpensively put a good dent in the salmon fishery with 2 dipsy rods and 2 rigger rods run off manual riggers. Finally, find a friend without a boat who is willing to put up the equipment while you put up the boat. Share gas and lost gear and you will both save a lot of money.