momay4000

Jack, Try these video tips from Fishdoctorcharters (look at the Rigging copper reels link) - they're awesome and the link for rigging your copper using an in-line swivel is great. It's a Palomar on the mono end and a Haywire on the Copper end. http://www.fishdoctorcharters.com/templ ... ctor=video Good luck, - Chris

Reel power, I had one of my plastic reels on my BJ downriggers break last year after only one season and after a quick call to Big Jon, they sent me TWO new reels free of charge. I second the opinion that their customer service is excellent. - Chris

Way to go Mark!!! - Chris

Jason, With all due respect - I am not commenting on the ethical or moral nature of the law itself (I actually agree that it's a poor law to enforce while trolling). My comment on Dodger acting morally/ethically was simply based on how he reacted to what he thought was the "tournament" rule.............i.e. he wanted to make sure every fish caught was perfectly legal.......... - Chris

Paul, I was not trying to be disrespectful to the committee or your efforts as volunteers - my concern was only to be projected at the DEC for being selective simply b/c it's a tournament. I completely agree with your philosophy and the "catch 22" that you mention above. I have been stopped quite a few times in I-Bay by the DEC and they have inspected our fish quite closely in the past and on occasion they have asked if any were snagged or foul hooked. That being said - I'm not sure how they would react if I ever answered yes..... I appreciate your response and I appreciate your efforts with the ProAm's (yes I have fished them in the past with a Pro-team) and have found them to be very enjoyable. Take care, - Chris

Paul, With all due respect, I'm somewhat surprised and concerned that the DEC would "look the other way" on a foul-hooked fish just because it is caught in a ProAm tournament. You are correct in assuming that a fish foul hooked while trolling was most likely attempting to eat the lure, but a law is a law and something that a non-tournament fisherman would have to abide. It's funny how you didn't "print" the rule, but now you "printed" the rule...... Dodger - I commend you for doing what is right both morally and ethically. Respectfully submitted, - Chris

Smalltauk, I fish out of I-Bay (Yellow Trophy hardtop at Mayer's) and we're out most every weekend May until bow season. Nonetheless for late Spring/Summer fishing - I will always put out my "go-to" spread of lures and leave them alone. I will start out putting my deepest rigger at 42 degrees and work my spread from there to the top of the water column depending on what I'm seeing on my screen and what some of the reports say. I always put something in the thermocline layer (need to have a good sonar or probe to locate this water boundary). When I see fish on my screen and I know my lures are in the strike zone, I am constantly varying my speed and direction of my troll before I ever even touch or change a lure. When I get my first hit, I mentally log down speed, trolling direction, and depth and go from there. Good luck, - Chris

Fishing Report Chris/ Liv'n Ellie: ============== TRIP OVERVIEW ============== Date(s):6/11/10 Time on Water:1:30 PM-3:30 PM Weather/Temp: 70's, sunny Wind Speed/Direction: north wind <5mph Waves: <1 ft Surface Temp: mid 60's Location: north of I-Bay LAT/LONG (GPS Cords): 32-33 W lines =============== FISHING RESULTS =============== Total Hits: 2 Total Boated:2 Species Breakdown: KINGS!!!! Hot Lure: Green dot spinny/Hammer Fly took both Trolling Speed: 3.1-3.3 sog Down Speed: 2.5 mph Boat Depth: 120-190' Lure Depth: wire divers; 190' #3 setting ==================== SUMMARY & FURTHER DETAILS Finally I put some silver on the boat this year. The lakers have been plentiful and fun, but it was time to get serious....I only had a few hours this afternoon so I headed straight north out of the bay. Beautiful pea-green water out there and it was loaded with bait pods and fish galore. Only two small kings (4-5#) to show for it, but I was solo again so I only fished two wires for most of the day based on some of the reports from the western basin. I also fished 600' of copper for about 15 minutes on my south troll back in, but no takers. Both fish came on the same wire diver - 190' out #3 setting, one fish in 180 fow, the other in 120 fow. I can feel that it's getting better - I think July/August are going to be stellar out of Rochester.... Good luck to all, - Chris ====================

Thanks Anthony - FWIW, I have not been able to put a king, coho or steelhead in the boat this year......Granted I haven't been targeting them much since I was skunked a few weeks back, but I'm just not hearing many folks catching them in decent numbers out of Rochester so I'm sticking to LT for now. It seems like we were marking a few more fish down 50-60' along with more few scattered bait pods here and there, so maybe things will start to pick up soon. Good luck, - Chris

Fishing Report Chris/ Yellow Trophy (soon to be Liv'n Ellie) named for my daughters: ============== TRIP OVERVIEW ============== Date(s):6/4 and 6/5/10 Time on Water: 6/4 1PM-4PM; 6/5 6AM-9AM Weather/Temp: 70's Wind Speed/Direction: calm; SW 5 mph Waves: calm; 1-2' Surface Temp: 67 Location: I-Bay to Braddocks =============== FISHING RESULTS =============== Total Hits: lots Total Boated: lots Species Breakdown: lake trout Hot Lure: cowbells/peanuts/spin n'glow; green dot glow spin Dr./ Hammer Fly Trolling Speed: 2.0-3.0 sog Down Speed: 2.0 mph Boat Depth: 80-180 fow Lure Depth: bottom; wire diver 175' - 300' #3 setting ==================== SUMMARY & FURTHER DETAILS Lots of fish over two short days - all lake trout. Fished mainly on bottom but some fish also hit our wire divers (3 or 4 hits over two days). Hottest depth 80-120 fow. Best troll was west/NW. Pulled our LT gear on Friday and fished for silver fish in 100-180', but no takers so we stuck with the LT program this morning and it continued to produce. Best lures were: Hammerhead chartreuse cowbells/peanuts and Spin n'glows and NK watermellon cowbells/chartreuse peanut. All wire diver fish hit a green dot spinny/ Hammer Fly. Good luck to all, - Chris ====================

Mickey Finn, You're probably right, I just can't see anything other than the thumbnail detail and I can't see the tail for spot patterns. For me: 1.) To tell a coho from a chinook, I usually look at the spots on the bottom of the tail and the colors of the gums 2.) To tell a steelhead from anything, I look for all white gums 3.) To tell an Atlantic from a very silver brown, I look at the tail and the pattern of the spots themselves (the x-pattern) Here's a cheat sheet page I often use (no ID for Atlantics, however MF is exactly correct about the spot patterns) http://www.great-lakes.org/fishid.html - Chris

John, It is from cloud cover - the surface temp map for the eastern basin is not accurate. - Chris

For some reason I can't zoom in on your pics (I think it's blocked my my employer) but the top pic looks like a chinook to me. I can't zoom in on the bottom pic to see more detail..... - Chris

Nice job, Agree it's a chinook. Based on your trolling speed, you might have been a little fast for lakers.....but that's just my 2 pennies.... Thanks for your post, - Chris

I upgraded to these (Daiwa Sealine 47 LCA's) last year and they're awesome: http://www.lakemichiganangler.com/store ... _Reels.htm Good luck, - Chris Disclaimer - I have no financial,personal or sponsorship ties to Lake Michigan Angler or Daiwa.

Deaf Fisherman, Are you thinking of coffee or smoke "colored" stainless steel line to use with your Dipsy diver? Typically the "brown" or silver colored line used as a wire Dipsy set-up is not copper, but 7 or 19 strand steel line: http://www.lakemichiganangler.com/store ... e_Line.htm True copper line is much thicker in diameter and not usually used with a Dipsy: http://www.lakemichiganangler.com/store ... g_Line.htm Hope this helps, - Chris

Mdryer, I don't run anything behind the spin n- glow other than a 1/0 treble hook. I use a leader between 18 and 36" between the cowbells and the spin n'glow and I run three red colored beads in between the treble and the spin n glow. I run the same thing for the peanut. I don't fish for lakers much (used to 5-6 years ago) but that's all I'm catching this year b/c the salmon fishing has been very slow for us. Good luck, - Chris

Fishing Report Chris:Yellow Trophy: ============== TRIP OVERVIEW ============== Date(s):5/23/10 Time on Water:1PM - 6PM Weather/Temp: Sunny; 70's Wind Speed/Direction: SE 5 mph Waves: <1ft. Surface Temp: 55 deg. Location: Russell LAT/LONG (GPS Cords): 37-39 W lines =============== FISHING RESULTS =============== Total Hits: 13 Total Boated:13 Species Breakdown: all lake trout Hot Lure: NK Watermellon cowbells; Chartreuse cowbells with spin and glows Trolling Speed: 2.0-2.2 sog Down Speed: 1.8-2.0 mph Boat Depth: 90-110 fow Lure Depth: on the bottom ==================== SUMMARY & FURTHER DETAILS Fantastic day for lakers. Not much to say other than I fished solo and stuck with a laker program. I fished two riggers the whole day and couldn't keep them in the water. Fished on the bottom the whole day - hottest depth was 100 fow in front of the power plant (line the stacks up going north). Trolling direction didn't matter at all. Fished each rigger with a cowbell/spin n'glow and cowbell/peanut set-up. Cowbell colors were NK watermellon and an old Chartreuse set-up I haven't used in probably 5 or 6 years. Both the peanut and spin n' glow were chartreuse with a pink tip. I had the whole lake to myself out there on a great night....... Biggest fish was 17.5# - all the fish went back and all were very,very healthy (only one lamprey mark on one laker which I thought was great). FWIW - I didn't mark many fish in the upper depths but it does look like a thermocline is setting up and the water is starting to stratify (The surface temp was in the mid 50's and down temp was 42 deg. at 100') Good luck to all, - Chris ====================

Hans, I told you we weren't joking - I really hope things start looking up for the weekend. In the meantime, I'm turkey huntin' tomorrow instead of fishing..... Thanks for the report - we'll be at it Sunday afternoon so I appreciate your report. - Chris

Hans, I always thought that with an onshore wind - i.e. it was out of the NW for two days, that the warmer water would be stacked in tight on the shoreline like it was on Sunday. How does this create a cold water upwelling onshore? I thought this would more likely occur with an off-shore breeze out of the south? Also the weather was clear and I trusted the surface temperature maps and the further north we went the colder the water became. Please help me understand this better - thanks, - Chris

Rolmops, Don't feel bad at all - we were out last night (3PM-8PM) and fished the mudline, green water in front of the bay, and fished from 30 fow to 150 fow and nothing,nada,zip,zilch........We gave them everything I have in the boat from surface lures to 600' of copper and nothing. It was humbling b/c I thought the fishing would be great with the NW wind. I really don't think the fish are in the Rochester/I-Bay area in great numbers yet - unless they are way off-shore or further to the west than what we are fishing. We marked lots of fish in the 30-50' area but not more than 5 or 6 fish when we were out deeper. Hang in there - it can only get better. Good luck, - Chris

Trap Jaw, Call Moor Electronics and order your antenna - I would be willing to bet that they would send you a user/installation manual free of charge. Their Customer service has always been fantastic for me. If they can't send you a manual, I'm sure they can help you over the phone. http://www.moorelectronics.com/ Good luck, - Chris Disclaimer - I own a Subtroll and have used them exclusively for years. However, I have never been compensated or received anything free or discounted from the company.

Fishing Report Chris / Yellow Trophy: ============== TRIP OVERVIEW ============== Date(s): 5/14/10 Time on Water: 7:30AM-11AM Weather/Temp: thick fog Wind Speed/Direction: calm Waves: <1ft. Surface Temp: 43-45 deg. Location: I-Bay/Genny LAT/LONG (GPS Cords): 32-35W lines =============== FISHING RESULTS =============== Total Hits: 2 Total Boated:2 Species Breakdown: lake trout Hot Lure: NBK Trolling Speed: 2.4-3.1 sog Down Speed: 2.2-2.6 Boat Depth: 60-100 fow Lure Depth: bottom (90-100fow) ==================== SUMMARY & FURTHER DETAILS ==================== Second trip of the year and only lakers to show thus far. Fished on Tuesday but I was stubborn and stuck to a king program only to change to a laker program later in the morning and stuck only one fish in my final 30 minutes of trolling. Today I was also stubborn and wanted kings, but I'm not sure many are around in tight so my first two hours were wasted again with my king program. I was also hesitant to head out deeper b/c of the thick fog. Started on a NW troll and the screen was barren and the water ice cold so I changed to a laker program around 9:30AM and caught two nice lakers. Both were healthy releases although they took a little air-bladder work to get them to go back down deep. Both fish caught on an NBK on my deep rigger scraping bottom in 100 fow. As expected the surface temp. improved as I headed out deeper, but as mentioned the fog was so thick I didn't want to play out too deep without a radar. Seems like the kings haven't shown up yet in any great numbers in the Rochester area. FWIW, the coast guard was responding to an apparent missing boater(s) alert out of Mexico Bay. Apparently there was some sort of distress call with an empty boat - man I hope everyone is OK or it was just a boat which blew off its moorings..... Good luck to all this weekend, - Chris

I also do not agree with your "grading" system as in my opinion it is completely subjective. I have an '08 Trophy 2152 and I'm not sure I would consider it "low-mid grade". I also would NEVER, EVER buy a boat sight unseen. You need to sit in a boat, get a feel for layout, look at features for you or your family, etc. In my opinion, I would NOT recommend the local Rochester area Trophy dealer - instead I would deal with Congel's if you like this boat line. As far as my Trophy, a few comments on my likes/dislikes of this boat: Likes: handles rough water very well, can still get an I/O as an engine option, excellent trailerability for a 22' boat, nice gunwale access for rod holders, excellent flooring, nice fishwells, well built extended hardtop, excellent stock canvas enclosure, compatible helm for aftermarket autopilot(s), very solid boat, great fishing boat but also good for family outings. Dislikes: lots of bow-steer at slow speeds, narrow cockpit in walkaround models, very little rod storage, very poor local (Rochester) dealer support I'm in my third season with this boat and all in all, I'd give the boat a 9.5/10 rating (.5 deducted for bow steer). However, if I were to do it all over again, I'd look for the same model a year or two old as I think you can get more boat for your dollar.... Good luck, - Chris

Yikes.........that blows (no pun intended)....... - Chris