Gill-T

Nice start to the season.

Went out today in a friend's Polarcraft out of Olcott. Nice conditions for the most part. Good to see NOAA is in mid-season form......SW wind forcasted was strong westerlies with whitecaps 2-3' waves in 20' FOW. Clear water conditions. 37-38 degree surface temps. Good emerald shiner schools in harbor. Could have been good, but we opened the 2013 season with a skunk. Now I know what Jan. fishing is like and I can concentrate on bird hunting until March. NOTE!!! call ahead and check the conditions of the launches this spring before you trailer as the water was still 2.5' below normal. If you are used to trolling with a two or 1.5 color.....you may want to make up some 1 colors to keep from hitting bottom.

It will be interesting to hear the breakdown of the year classes that spawned. I wonder how the flood of Oct, 2010 will effect the three year old class this year out in the lake. If more fish bypassed the gauntlet of snatchers then in theory more fish would have made it up to the no-kill zone to spawn.

Nope, I will stand by my statements. The author asked for our opinion. I too have every spoon listed by other posters and agree they are all good patterns. I am not sponsored by anyone and have no agenda only trying to keep a fellow angler from getting a spoon collections as big as mine. In the end if I had to start all over, I would only have one spoon box with those patterns I listed. Too many options clouds judgements. Keep it simple to start. Spoons on the riggers and flasher/flies on the dipsys and you will do fine. Rather see you spend your money on a good fishfinder and speed and temp unit then getting every spoon pattern under the sun.

I am going to do you a favor. Go to Northportnailer.com and order a bunch of their 100 series 3.24" spoons in K41G color for steelhead, cohos and spring browns. Order a bunch of their 300 series 3.75" spoons in K82 color for Kings. You will not need any other spoons for Lake O fish. If you would like some other good blanks try dreamweaver SS in Leopard frog color for a green spoon, and mytacklebox.com has a great spook pattern (dark) listed under their hex pattern super-lite blank in Black ice/glow LB #99.

I hear you Vince, the blue zone was solid with bait from Niagara County to Orleans County this fall. Is it March yet?

Anybody have figures on what percentage of returning salmon are 4 year olds? As good as last year was.....I think this year will be even better for numbers of big 4 year old kings. Of course if they all spawn at 3 years old then I will be wrong with my prediction. http://www.dec.ny.gov/docs/fish_marine_ ... lights.pdf

I would think the "majority" of spawning occurs before the April 1st opener.....esp with the mild winters we have been having so the decreasing numbers probably goes beyond trib pressure. Perhaps we need a slot limit to protect the big spawners and do away with the derbies? Maybe catch and release sections?

Great Buck! Better still is there is a buck big enough to fight with him for next years season. Get those trail cams up.

Agreed BS. If the committee is so worried about Laker health they would target the spring LOC. I am not sure if the DEC truly knows how many Lakers are in the system. I would gladly invite any of the researchers working on the "laker problem" to join me this spring and I will show them a world class-laker fishery. The problem of lack of spawning evidence is not a fishery-take problem (nobody keeps Lakers), but a pollution, alewive/thiaminase problem......and they ain't going to solve that in our lifetime.

Ya, I guess you can't have a Seneca Shootout on a lake other than Seneca . What kind of help are you looking for?

Good point, but how about video. Maybe if you can't get to a C&R format, consider having the tournament on Keuka Lake where the lake needs Lakers taken out.

No water at the launches means nobody will be able to put their boats in the water......let it snow, let it snow.

Would love to see something different than what is offered on the great lakes. An eight rod tournament where total length is measured of all fish during tournament time. A picture would be taken of each fish next to a measuring stick with a tournament button ( button given out on the morning of the tournament). This would allow for catch and release. April weather would allow for C&R.....and no weed mats!!!! Also awards could be offered for biggest fish of each salmon/trout species category.

I would rather see you paint the bottom like the view of the surface water looking up at it. Make it invisible NOT visable!

Build schools near police barracks and you will see this horrible spree end one day.

Since we are at a crossroads maybe it is time to form a formal committee structure. Elected at the events during captain's meetings. Representation for the am and pro divisions. I think if contestants know they have representation.....a voice to look out for their collective best interests it might go a long way. I know a lot of am contestants (myself included) who have offered their time to help with events and have been turned away. Get rejected enough.....and people stop asking. My guess is there are plenty of contestants willing to VOLUNTEER their time to help with the tournaments.......USE THEM. I would be willing to bet the contestants don't care about financial transparency of the tournaments......if that is the reason for the secrecy over the years. We just want a forum to fish in a FAIR tournament where we feel everyone has a FAIR shot to win our money back.

This story does not have a good ending . After remaining motionless (I even closed my eyes so my blinking didn't give me away)....I had to wait for the 2.5 year old to look down hill before I could make a move on the bigger buck hanging back. Finally, when a car driving by caused the younger buck to look down at the road, I was able to turn, take a knee and find a small 4" window in the cover to shoot at the older deer front quartering. Now, I don't like front quartering for obvious reasons, but it was less than 10 yards. At the shot, the buck humped all up with it's opposite shoulder/leg dragging as it ran past me at 5 yards (deer still did not know where I was). Every indication was a perfect shot. The deer wavered at 20 yards broadside and I considered reloading my single shot and shooting again but it looked like he was going down and with the road nearby I did not want to throw anymore lead than needed. Then the deer labored behind a blowdown and out of site. As I fully expected the deer to be dead behind the downed tree top, I was shocked to find the deer absent upon looking. Good blood immediately. He can't go far right? Well the trail continued on 100 yards, and I started to think I single lunged him. Problems continued as the trail went across a neighboring property (horse farm) which we did not have permission to access. We called the phone number on the posted sign but was only able to leave a message on the answering machine. Then the sun departed and the skies opened up with a deluge. So it looks like it will be an after season antler hunt with my dog. Coyote food. Wish I never had shot. A hunter's shame.

Was hunting my buddies property bordering rt. 78 in wales Sunday. After being dejected about not seeing even a squirrel on stand, I decided to go stillhunting as a last chance hailmary. Using a drainage cut I counted 500' off rt.78 and entered into a bedroom area. Using the cars whizzing-by to mask my footsteps I snuck around some recently timbered areas with lots of fallen tops. I was standing next to one such top when a buck stands up from underneath, then another, then another, then another, then another. Six bucks all huddled in under this top. Given the size of the tree top, they had to be spooning!!!!! A four point, three sixes, a 2.5 year old eight, and a three year old eight. After getting to their feet, they were all looking around for the disturbance. Not moving a muscle these deer stood for five minutes within 5-8 yards of me trying to find the source of danger.....and yes, "all camoflage-hunter guy" I had an orange camo vest on. It helps late in the season when the rut is over to go for a walk and look in all the nooks and crannies.

Lower the ball slowly. The stacked line should be half the set back the down-line has. If you keep the distances short off the ball or stacker you will decrease tangles as well.

Size #1 dipsy you will not get below 70' unless you put the setting on .5-1 and troll REALLY slow. The size #1 will plane-out and stop diving any deeper once you hit 250' of line out. Mag diver on a 1 setting will get you to 115' down with 350' (before planing out) of wire out at trolling speed of 2.25-2.4 mph. Remember a factor not discussed in the diving curve is how fast you are trolling (downspeed) and the bait you are using. You will get deeper with a spoon than a heavier dragging flasher.

I wonder if the legs were functional. Those extra legs could be used to keep flies or coyotes off it's back. Two extra tarsal glands means EXTRA stinky. Interesting to see how long the hooves grow without wear and tear. Hope someone has the story behind the deer.

I have the non-line counter version for my rigger reels and really like them. Quality components you can see and feel.

Happy B-Day Jerry. I know B-day means "what should I buy myself" thoughts......how about some more downriggers? You do have all that mounting room on the hardtop!