Pete Collin

Just to weigh in. I have a 16 foot deep V. I take it on all the fingers. Watch the weather and don't go out if it calls for more than 15 mph of wind. I have ventured on Lake Ontario but I feel way too vulnerable out there. One day I trolled "O" in 3 foot waves and just felt really beat up by the end of the day.

Nice video, but boy my ears are ringing!!!

Snap weights will keep weeds from working their way down to the lure. Clip them on way ahead of the leader.

Sometimes you will hook a fish somewhere on its body. This makes it so you don't feel the typical throbbing, and you have to pull a fish sideways to get it in. So a small fish will feel big, and a big fish is very hard to bring in at all.

Nice job Chris! Those browns are a treat when you get them.

Nothing like a fishing derby to make a guy disappointed about 2 - 5 pound lakers! Glad you made it out despite the weather. If you ever need an extra man on your boat this year, let me know! Pete http://www.pcforestry.com

Nice job, idn! It's always fun to be in that stage of learning fishing where every catch is a treasure.

Steelydan, The Ambassadeur is my favorite jigging reel too. Reliable, and a million cheap used ones out there to choose from.

Is this Alec? I wonder how you have been! Good to see you are still fishing. It was your very detailed jigging tutorial that got me started, and I have reaped some nice benefits. Baitcasters, it seems, are quirky. I have owned 2 reels, by different makers, that had the annoying problem where the anti-reverse would not always engage, causing snarls and lost fish. One of the 2 was a fairly high quality reel. I had to quit using either one because it was too much bother. In your case, I suppose if you troll with it, you could start off on a light drag setting and increase it as needed. Take Care, Pete www.pcforestry.com

Jonboy, Don't give up on the flashers and flies, they can work magic. When I am trolling, I like to have different kinds of lures on my rods: a spoon on one, a F/F on the other, a plug on another. If you have located the fish, they will tell you which one they like. they can be funny. For example, I love using flatfish type lures for lakers. Last year, it was all I could do to get a strike on one. You can't argue with them. If they like one type of lure consistenly, switch the rest of your rods to that lure. I wonder if finding fish was your problem during those 20 attempts. they can't bite if they ain't there. Pete Collin www.pcforestry.com

Captain, I use those cheap little clip bells on my SG rods. The smallest fish will jingle them. I started using them so I wouldn't have to keep looking backwards, I can watch the graph and where I am going. www.pcforestry.com

A yearling doe, maybe? They get a shaggy, ragamuffin look to them this time of year as they shed their winter coat and change to their orange summer coat.

Yes, Dbutts, my boat has seen better days. The previous owner must have trashed it. But it has been an excellent fishing boat for the last 5 years, and the main motor is utterly reliable. I would love to tear it down to the hull and start over, but I would have to sacrifice an entire fishing season for that. And working on it in the winter in my unheated space wouldn't do. I'll probably resort to a quick and dirty fix to the decking.

Hello All, All the posts about landlocked salmon have intrigued me. In my life, that is one species that I haven't caught anywhere near enough of. For the last few years I had so much fun getting lakers that I didn't try for much else. And you won't get much else by chance. So I decided to spend a couple of days in Watkins Glen hoping to get the biggest landlocked salmon of my life. (that isn't saying much). I didn't really know what I was doing. All I knew is to go shallower and faster. With my 3 lines I was covering 15, 30, and 55 foot depths. Friday night I found the 15 foot (3 color) lead core with small rapala was a fingerling killer. Every time I checked for weeds there would be some poor 9 incher attached. The 30 foot dipsy was left alone. And the 55 foot downrigger gave me fits. It kept popping and I would keep losing whatever was attached. Twice it seemed like there was something big on. When fate finally let me reel one all the way in, it was a 19 inch salmon. Not the biggest I ever got, but I'll take it! I had assumed that it would tailwalk like other salmon I had hooked elsewhere and years ago, but not so. Maybe the water has to warm up yet. Cloudless sunny days aren't my favorite fishing weather, but I figured the early hours of the following morning were a better bet. I camped at the KOA in Watkins Glen. "Pitch your tent by the pond," the lady who checked me in said. "It's really nice over there." It was in fact very nice. It also turns out that nesting geese honk all night long. No problem rousing myself early. So today I had my lines out at the crack of dawn in the places where the missed strikes came yesterday. Pretty quiet morning, really. Got my standard dragged fingerling on the leadcore, but otherwise not a tap......until the dandy hit. Not the biggest landlock like I was after, but the biggest brown I ever got in the Finger lakes! About a 6 or 7 pounder. Anything that compares with a Lake Ontario fish is alright with me. Watkins Glen was pretty busy with fishing boats today. They were trolling pretty much the same places I was, so maybe the trick is simply to be there when they are biting. Pete Collin http://www.pcforestry.com

I slow troll, successfully, with spin doctors all the time. There are 2 holes on the front of it that the swivel clips into. The front one is for a fast, the one behind it is for a slow troll. Pete Collin http://www.pcforestry.com

The most prevalent brands are Cortland and Mason. Both are fine. Most people get either 18 lb or 27 lb. Supposedly the lead core is the same weight in either. Which would mean the lighter line, in theory would get just a little deeper due to lesser water resistance. I have caught fish on either. 10 colors is a good amount to go by. Depends if it will fit on your reel. The slower you go, the deeper it will be presented. As a guide, I have slow trolled 10 colors in 60 feet of water and scraped bottom. Rule of thumb is one color gives 5 feet of depth. This will vary greatly with speed and how often you make turns. In practice you are likely presenting at a range of 5 feet up and down from your target depth. Put backing on if it will fit on the reel. Loop-to-loop connections work fine. Bear this in mind: ANY amount of weeds will mess you up. If you put a snap weight well ahead of the lure, it may catch the few strands of weeds that work their way down the line. But midsummer, you may become frustrated with lead core.

Steve, How far are you from ithaca? You could join me in my boat for some jigging.

idn, I have had some success jigging Canandaigua, so I will tell you what I know. First of all, Canandaigua is by far the most difficult lake to jig, so know that when you venture out. It has a lower population of fish than the other lakes, and you have already experienced the challenges of keeping your boat at the desired contour. On Keuka, Seneca, and Cayuga, there are large spots the size of several football fields where fish hold for months at a time. you drive out to these spots, throw out a drift bag, watch your graph, and jig until you drift out of the productive water. Pull in the bag, motor back upwind, and repeat the process. Cnandaigua Lake fish don't conentrate anywhere near as much. Sometimes they aren't bottom oriented at all, and the big expanse of deep water is a lot to swallow whole. if you discover that lakers are sitting on the bottom at a particualr depth, here is what you do. Get a bow mounted electric motor. If the wind is out of the west, get on the protected side of the lake. If the wind is blowing down the lake, throw your drift bag out the stern of your boat and use the electric to nudge yourself back into your target depth. Work yourself down a length of shoreline. In the fall it gets way easier on Canandigua because the fish get bottom oriented. you will have an advantage over guys trolling with downriggers, because they fear snagging bottom of that steep-sided lake. Good luck, and post your progress on this board. Seriously, if you want to be easier on yourself jig the other lakes to get used to the feel of the techique. Pete Collin http://www.pcforestry.com

Hello All, On our way to Seneca Lake, Ray and I had a bit of back-and-forth over which launch to use. P: There were piles of fish at Severne on Saturday. R: What do you want to go all the way there for? With the cost of gas? Geneva's closer. P: Yes, but I know they are there at Severne. R: There's fish all over the lake. The north end's a good spot too. P: Yes, but I remember several trips in march when they hadn't shown up yet at the north end. I don't like wasting the good morning hours trolling around looking for fish. R: In the extra time it takes for you to drive all the way to Severne, I'll be at the north end with a limit already! P: OK, we'll go to Geneva. But if the fish aren't there, you're gonna hear about it from me! R: I ain't gonna hear nothin! So we set out lines trolling south through the fog. First jingle of the clip-bell came before I got the second rod down. Good sign. It wasn't so foggy that we couldn't see where the sun was, but a handheld GPS helped with following a contour along the west shore. Trolling motor was still sputtering and acting strange, but we made out alright. The graph was, overall, pretty blank. We got fish every so often, but the urge to needle Ray about the vast bounty at Severne we passed up was strong. With a bite here and there, we managed 9 fair to smallish lakers by 11:00. The fog finally cleared. Now that we could see where we were going, we opted to pull the lines and go prospecting for a better concentration of fish. At one spot, there was a satisfying number of bottom blips beneath us. With little wind, we decided to drop some jigs and try for them vertically. Ray got his first fish before I could even get my lure tied on. That first drift through 85-125 foot depths yeilded very fast action. It was shaping up to be a bonanza day! next drift, things slowed way down, but suddenly I got 2 back-to-back giants: 31 and 30 inch lake trout. My spring is off to a good start! Both fish were taken on an Abu Garcia Ambassadeur reel I bought this winter off Craigslist for $20. It is the second reel of that make I have and it seems ideal for jigging: smooth bearings and drag, very reliable. There are a million of them out there to buy used for peanuts. As a fly fisherman of long standing, I think how you can buy 15 used Ambassadeur reels for the price of one quality fly reel! So we jigged the rest of our trip, landing 19 fish total. Ray wanted to stick it out until we had 20, but I was tired. As warm as the day was, we stayed bundled the whole time out there - that 42 degree water keeps things chilly. Which makes an amusing contrast as you motor into the Geneva launch. You walk back to your truck dressed like a dogsled musher while joggers and dogwalkers pass you in shorts and tank tops. We saw maybe 3 other boats all day and one wasn't even fishing. Finger Lakes fishing makes you feel like the world is your oyster! Pete Collin http://www.pcforestry.com

Glad you got out this weekend, Brett. Very strong start to the season! Pete

Tom, Whenever you are ready. i am looking forward to it. I have never fished hemlock. Pete

I had a topline out in case any were around, but none. While playing one fish, the topline rod twitched, but the fish came off before I could get to it.

Hello All, I often make my first trip of the year alone, so my friends don't have to put up with me as I sort out the kinks. And kinks I did have, but still caught a nice bunch of fish today. There was a threat of fog, but the ceiling didn't drop until I was already out there. It was wierd, enshrouded in my little 50 yard bubble. Without a compass or GPS, my depth was the only thing that gave a clue as to where I was. Without wind or apparent location of the sun, there was nothing at all to fix on for navigation. I had to look behind me to tell if the boat was pointed straight. Hoo boy. My one year old kicker didn't cooperate either. It started right away, ran choppily for an hour or so, and died without a cough for the rest of the day. Had to use the main motor to rescue my trip. Good thing I have the trolling plate. Sucked that 4 dollar gas pretty hard though! Despite these troubles, the fish were present and lit up the graph everywhere along the 130-190 foot contour. Landed 10-12 up to 28 inches. Many lamprey hits on the fish, and had to stomp on one eel to get it off the fish I just landed. They're getting pretty bad. Missed several more. Despite the calm and bright sun, they were still biting steady when I quit at 1:00. I was getting tired and hungry, and had a 2 hour drive home. Felt funny driving right past Canandaigua and Keuka on my way to Severne, but Seneca is usually worth the extra distance. Lots of perch fishermen out there. No idea how they did. Perch guys aren't chatty at the launch the way lake trout fishermen are. At least they pointed my way back to the launch. When the fog cleared, I couldn't see the Dresden stacks or the Navy Barge, so I was glad to get a point-out. Lesson learned. I will keep a compass in my boat from now on! Pete Collin http://www.pcforestry.com

They had a unique riseform. They didn't show any part of themselves above the surface, but it was obvious when a bigger fish rose. The biggest walleye we caught that way were pushing 3 pounds.

Alex, You reminded me of 2 more species i forgot on my list. Tiger trout and rock bass. That' an impressive list for a young guy like yourself. Did you eat the cisco? I might remember hearing they were a food fish. Never got one before. There is also an ocean fish called a sculpin I have caught several times. they are ugly bottom dwellers, not very memorable when compiling a list like this. Pete www.pcforestry.com