Pete Collin

I've tried both and find I prefer the right hand wind baitcasters. Funny, because when flyfishing, I can't stand cranking with my right. Crank a spinning rod with my left as well.

Just a laker jigging video. I may do more in the future.

Fly Tying - Making a Realistic Crayfish Hello All, I used to do tying demonstrations at Coleman's Fly Shop, and at the Catskill Fly Fishing Museum. It was a lot of fun. Here is a pattern of my own invention, giving you a tutorial of how to make this fairly complicated design.

Hello. I have several hunting leases left for sale including one new one. They are as follows: Town of Hinsdale, Cattaraugus County, NY - 64.9 acres, $973/year Town of Amity, Allegany County - 85.5 acres, $1,539/year Town of New Hudson, Allegany County, NY - 287 acres, $6325/year Town of Lyndon, Cattaraugus County, NY - 426 acres, $7,668/year. I am a consulting forester from Portageville, NY. All of these properties belong to a large dairy farm. If you are interested in looking at them, email me and I will send you a map. You can go look at your convenience, then contact me if you are interested in signing a lease. I will not field any phone calls until you have already gone to look at the property. The lease will be a signed agreement that will give you exclusive rights for one calendar year. You may not camp on the property. ATV use must be limited to setting up tree stands or retrieving downed game. These four are all I have at the moment. I will not have any more until next year. Contact me and you can have a lease in time for gun season! www.pcforestry.com

I have had guys pestering to sell me stuff on the stream and have found it rather annoying. Of course, if you are the only guy catching fish, there may be a bidding war for what fly you are using.

I have two large hunting leases left. They are on the pricey side, but they are adjacent to and owned by a large dairy farm. The owners have chased away trespassers for the last 30 years, so nobody will dare interfere with your hunting there. Unlike the other hunting leases I sell, I have personally hunted these properties and know them to be full of deer and turkey. One of them also has a large swamp and has waterfowling opportunities as well. the ad can be seen here: http://buffalo.craigslist.org/sgd/5767362750.html Archery season is getting close! Pete Collin

I think if they did bite on bait they would hold onto it longer, which would help since the boat's not moving.

Hello All, I went fishing today and got skunked. Nothing to brag about, but I had the potential to come up with a pretty unique fishing story. The boating conditions couldn't have been better. Dead flat all day. I set up a troll to hunt for good fish concentrations. Chugged along for several miles, and got to one waypoint in a suspiciously short amount of time. That is when the screen lit up, so I pulled in the trolling gear and set up for jigging. It was so calm that jigging should have been effortless - no drift bags to mess with. When I made a few drops, i was puzzled. Despite being seemingly motionless, the jig would sweep way behind me in just a few seconds. It became clear that I was in a strong current. Thinking that anchoring over the fish was the way to go, I threw one out with a couple hundred feet of rope and tied off to the bow. There was actually a wake behind the stern! It became clear that jigging wasn't going to work. The lure would sweep way behind me as it had done when I wasn't under anchor. What to do? I took my cowbell setup, and held it underwater with the rod tip. The blades flashed cheerfully and the fly fluttered. Why not let it down with the rigger, and see if anything would bite that way? It was like an extremely deep version of "hot-shotting" for salmon, where you hold a lure in river current in a stationary boat. if it worked, it could be the most leisurely way to catch a bunch. No steering, no loud motor noise, no fumes. I set a meatball rig down the other side with a flutter spoon on it. Watching the graph, the bait and blips moved around under me. They would often go look at the rigger setup. Twice the rigger rod wiggled like I was getting a nibble. What to do? Grab the rod and try to set the hook? Hope the fish hooks itself? I could imagine a laker holding in the current below me just like a stream trout sipping bugs. it could suck in and spit out my fly without any indication on my end. it would have to be an aggressive lunge that would hook itself or the approach wouldn't work at all. i took the meatball rig and tried jigging up and down, tried rocking the boat side to side to impart a little action. Those two tip wiggle nibbles were all i got, but just imagine if it HAD worked! Pete

The flasher is about five inches long.

I caught an atlantic salmon once. I see marks up high, never manage to hook one. one of these days i'll get into a steelhead and it will rock my world!

I've caught salmon on rapalas in the spring while trolling the shoreline. That being said, a rapala is kind of delicate, and it could get pretty expensive if you had a lot of action from big chinooks. Those balsa lures get chewed up.

Alec, Sometimes the fish do follow partways up. When they are active they will suspend 10-20 feet off the bottom. But the majority are belly down and hit close to the bottom. It's kind of a pity - it feels awesome when they wallop the jig while you are cranking up. A bottom hit feels like a perch peck - until you set the hook.

Jigging LO is different than the finger lakes in that the fish will not move very far to hit. A fast crank never seems to work so i slow-roll it back to the boat.

The only time I have used a sawbelly was when I accidentally snagged one. I thought for sure I could put it on a hook and catch a laker right away. Didn't work! There's just no telling what they want some days.

That's me, a fishing Barry White.

Hello All, I took on a big project this year that made me pretty much sacrifice an entire fishing season. Still, I had to make one venture out because the weather conditions were perfect for my little boat. First hookup of the day was amazing. Right when he bit I swore he had a baleen grin. A couple of years ago I wrote a report here where I described a battle with a 40 inch laker. This one put that fight to shame. I must have had him on for about 15 minutes. When he came up, it wasn't straight up, but swinging way behind the boat. Right when the dorsal fin broke the surface, the hook popped loose. I never saw him but for the tail flip when he went back down. My knees felt rubbery right then. On the plus side, I always wanted to film myself jigging up a laker. Tough with my cheap little camera with very limited battery and memory card capacity. I experienced a little flurry of action, so I put it on a tripod and turned it on. Recorded a few missed strikes and finally a fish! i have gotten questions from some of you about jigging over the years. In the video I talk about how to do it and you can watch what I'm doing, see the tackle I use. So maybe this will help some of you what always wanted to give it a try!