Gill-T

....and I would put a peanut head with a curly-tail gulp grub behind cowbells up against your custom spin-n-glows LOL.

Had a lunch date with my wife down in Lewiston on Valentine's day which allowed me to check out river conditions. There were four boats out drifting. The Lewiston launch is open, the water is nice and green but there is a lot of loose ice floating around. Below Lewiston there is a lot of shore ice. The Youngstown and Fort Niagara launches are completely iced-in with pack ice that extends 1/2 way across river. Fishing out near the green can is probably not possible. I think I saw Vince out there but everyone is so bundled up- unrecognizable. Maybe someone can comment on how the fishing has been.

Thanks for the report. So nobody is catching anything in closer on the rock structure off the point?

Trolling the shoreline in spring you don't need a downspeed, just look at GPS. Around 2MPH should be about right. Later in the season when you are using spoons or flashers downspeed is critical as you head out into deeper water where currents rule. If you don't have a downspeed unit you can start with your GPS at 2.5-3mph and then speed up or slow down based on your dipsy rods bend or the angle of the downrigger cable. When I didn't have a probe I would set to the GPS fore-mentioned speed and then speed up until I heard the hum of my rigger cables start. Keep in mind you downspeed changes constantly as you troll esp. if you change direction. Always a good practice to figure out the current direction down below, and troll into the current thus guaranteeing your spoons will be kicking and not dead.

Earliest I have seen Lake Ontario go Isothermic (same temp top-bottom). Lately isothermic conditions did not exist until mid-March. I would expect the boom on Erie will stay in place until April 20th. BOOOOOOOOO

Don't know why everyone is trying to re-invent the wheel. Does anyone really have trouble catching fish on dipsys?

Late May- early June you can see them doing their dance along the south shore. Sometimes in as shallow as 10'.

Depends.....shoreline trolling go smaller. Move out over Laker/King water then break out the mags in spring.

On 40 lb test it does little to effect the action. The disks shine on light fly leaders for flyfishing in lakes. Big Weenies vibrating flies do dance however.

On my 23' boat I run 9 rods. I would never consider running more.....too much work. Fishing should be fun not a chore.

Gobblers strutting in January.......no wonder by spring their heads are blue!!

As tight as your dipsy release for salmon. Trout and light line.....a little looser. The deeper you fish the tighter the release will need to be. Larger flashers will need a tighter release as well.

I have done similar testing using a camera flash just to test how long I can let baits wash before recharging them. Orange glow lasts the shortest. Blue glow (big weenie fly beads or lure tape) lasts the longest. Strands on flies don't glow long but having glow beads underneath keeps them charged longer.

Usually both my outside lines have no weight so interchangeable. The third line in has a hot/n/tot.....this line gets moved to dipsy rod holder while I reset the line that just got bit. Between the downrigger line, the flat line out the side, and the chute 1.5 color I only run three board lines per side based on a three person 9-rod spread. If I was running a charter with tons of rods......yes I would do as you suggested to have everything interchangeable.

This is a funny one....look at 333 tournament footage on Lake Michigan and you will see most of the top boats hand-lining. From what I can see some of these set-ups make no sense. If you want to run a super long leader off your dipsy for stealth....why in the world do you run an orange dipsy???? Go to a clear dipsy and run your leader as long as you can handle netting for your boat and you will have no problems. My 10' dipsy rods rigged for travel with the dipsy at the rod tip has the a length of leader that goes down around the handle to a flasher/fly with the hook in a rod eyelet about 3/4 the way back up the rod.

Outside baits should not have any weights. As you add lines closer to the boat you should run something that dives a little deeper or add some splits and shorten the set-backs. Using this method will keep everything tangle free when you get a fish on.

You are NOT going to average 17 fish per outing UNLESS you are targeting multiple species with your spread. Come to Niagara County in May and you can shoot for that goal realistically.

They sometimes get them in Small Boat Harbor thru the ice. The lower Niagara will have a run in April for dip-netting.

Its a big friekin' lake....spill the beans!!!

Killer spoon http://www.northportnailer.com/store/product_info.php?cPath=22_23&products_id=300

Keep us updated on ice conditions. There is no open water anywhere so I might have to resort to ice fishing??? Gulp. Any cheap flights to Florida?