Gill-T

No but tipping a silver leaf spoon with a piece of worm works. You really don't need anything fancy. When the shoreline sets up you can catch them on a cigarette with a treble.

The shoreline has probably not set up until after next weeks warm up. Night time temps are in the 20's so the skinny water is not the warmest. We need warm rain and sunshine. If you head out now the fish will most likely be off the bank a little. 15-25' might be where they are. Lakers will be out a touch deeper.

Demise of the emerald shiner + gobies eating bass fry = less bass.

Drag curve is similar to dipsys.

No, and they are not currently studying any possible disease process that may have caused the demise of back-to-back year classes of salmon either. I did give one of the biologists there some places to look for answers but she might think I am a loon.

At 100' down, I am running a rigger on the bottom and dialing in my dipsys to run just off bottom. Once Kings come around, bottom bouncing for lakers stops so I never am having to chase out to 100'. In Niagara County 35'-85' FOW end of March thru April 15th is Laker time and you don't need a lot of specialized bottom bouncing equipment. More fun on conventional trolling gear. My 2 lb thumper has cobwebs on it. It only comes out under dire -last resort conditions because it is no fun to winch up a laker with that much weight.

Year 4 salmon --- had two years of good growth and two years of cold winters to reduce growth. Those fish started out with the benefit of the giant 2012 hatch of alewives and subsequent large class of YOY in 2013 to reach a level they could subsist on the large stabile population of adult alewives during the lean years. Net result will be more fish over 30 pounds but a 35 lber would be a reach. Year 3 salmon---had a good jump start feeding on the 2013 YOY alewives, but then got wacked by back-to-back bad winters and reduced growing season. Still plenty of adult alewives around once the salmon got big enough to ingest them. Net result should be a good class of 3 yr olds in numbers of fish but size will probably be slightly below average because of the smaller growing season. Year 2 salmon--- will look like large shakers. No YOY alewives and no real Emerald Shiners to bump them up to the next level of feeding. IMO we should be culling these fish for table fare because they will never become giants and they are of yummy size.

Ganaraska is closed October 1st I believe.

I run a 2 lb er off transom with a saltwater deep drop rod when using big cowbells for lakers. Also have a couple of Ugly Stick one-piece bigwater rods that I will run the lighter 1 lb or 1.5 lb weights for smaller bladed cowbells like Moonshine's or dodgers. Some use a dodger on a thumper off the back. I don't like have a long line off the back for my rigger fish to get into so if I want to run multiple bottom lines I use the lighter rigs and send them out off my otter boats using Aftco Roller releases. The two pound weight rig is fished with wire, the lighter rigs utilize 30lb braid.

Great meeting last night. Good information given. Out of this meeting and the highlights I have a much better feeling that the DEC have their "eye-on-the-ball". Much more information on the lakes coming in and being studied. The tone of the meeting was less of the Atlantic Salmon/Lake Trout programs and more of the status of Kings and alewife. Issues at Altmar with water supply and quality food pellets seem to be addressed. Everyone was gracious and took time to meet with people after the meeting. Most importantly it would appear that they are listening to our concerns and addressing some of the important issue facing lake management. Birds are singing this morning and warm weather is in the forecast....its all good.

September off the pier heads is the "right time" to do it. You don't have to worry about hitting floating objects when you can start right out of the pier heads. When I used to have a slip in Youngstown I tried a couple of times off the Niagara drop. An interesting phenomena happens at night. Those of you who have gotten into the "rearing grounds" of shaker kings off the drop know how many year 1 kings are attracted to the Niagara flow. There are times when you have to pick up and leave the area because there are too many little fish taking your baits. At night your fishfinder will light-up with shaker kings that line up at the 50' band of water. This 50' phenomena was shown in the Bergstedt radio tagging study on Lake Huron. You will also see the bigger fish pattern similar to walleye movements at night.....they move inshore and higher (feeding time!). Those poor alewives never see it coming. For the stress involved with potentially hitting an object on the run in, I choose to not fish at night anymore.

Sticks on one side, spoons on the other. Run thru productive water with sticks, turn around and show them something different with spoons on the way back thru.

YEE HAW!!! Lake Trout on a 20 color!! (sorry I couldn't resist).

I put some of the product in my hands at the LOTSA show. It is MUCH more user friendly than copper. Very supple. I think guys will like the product. If I was starting off new in the copper game I would probably use it.

IF you are going to do it.....go all out. The sound of wire hum under the water is so loud having one rigger with wire and another with braid will defeat the purpose.

There was a clown on this site bragging about the perch he caught using goldfish as bait. He could not understand why all of the fuss. Here ya go clown. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/news/discarded-goldfish-are-taking-over-hamilton-s-harbour-1.3394203

The gulf side has struggled since fall with red tide flare-ups. Fishing reports have been slow. I checked out a few jetties this weekend and nobody was catching ANYTHING. Get a guide to take you offshore on some wrecks and I think you will have fillets to eat.

I am on year 5 with Sears Marine batteries. They are really heavy but fairly compact for tight places.

I flew over Erie today. Almost no ice on the lake. There is still 42 degree water off shore along most of the South shore over deep water. The shoreline needs warm rain to get it kicking. Otherwise the Gina Plant. My guess is earliest might be March 20th?

I use them for 1 or 1.5 colors out the back when trolling shoreline and I have one for a dedicated wire reel for bottom bouncing with a heavy 2 lb weight for Lakers. I don't have much use for a 2:1 gear ratio otherwise.