momay4000

Sounds fantastic - glad to hear of another fellow fisherman out of Mayer's! Stop by anytime if you need anything. We'll see you on the water... and thanks again for the compliments on the boat (my wife picked the color) - Chris

Just fishin - I fish out of I-Bay as well. I'm docked at Mayer's - you can't miss me I'm the only yellow Trophy hardtop in the bay (quite possibly the only yellow Trophy on the lake....). Stop by anytime if you see us. We're usually on Channel 8 on the VHF. I hear ya - this is a great site with a great family of fishermen/women. As an example, when I first started fishing out of the Bay, I met Bruce Bolger earlier this year and instantly he gave me pointers. It's testament to what a great site this is and what great people you can meet along the way. - Chris

Nelina, I have a Trophy 2152 and I mounted my two riggers about 6 inches medially from the corners on the transom. I have Big Jons on swivel bases with permanent 4 foot booms (they don't telescope) and most of the time we run them as boom riggers out to the sides. Then I have two Big Jon heavy duty Dipsy rod holders (single holders) and a Big Jon double mounted on each of the gunwales. The Dipsy furthest to the stern is about 10 inches from the transom and each of the other two are spaced about 10 inches apart. We run a 9 1/2 Dipsy wire on the rear holder and a 10 1/2 Dipsy on the other whenever we run two Dipsy's per side. The only drawback is I had to drill a lot of holes to mount everything and they don't slide like a track system, but the access below the gunwales is great and makes it an easy installation. I've never used gimball mounts before so I can't comment on them, but it seems like a lot of torque could be place on them and you'd get cracks or alot of "play" from them being loose. I can send you a pic if you'd like of the spread. Good luck, - Chris

Fished from 5:30 AM only until 7 AM. My buddy Jason took our best fish of the season - a 22.5# king -straight north out of the Bay. Set up in 125 fow, after we had lots of very nice marks but no bait. Fish hit around 6:30 AM, probe rigger down 85 feet over 145 fow, standard size 42nd spoon which my 4 year old daughter "taped up" the night before. We fished the spoon 20 feet back with a slower troll at 2.3 mph at the ball. It was a fun fish to catch, especially when it wrapped in the wire Dipsy, port rigger and we had to fight fleas on the leader. FYI - by far, our hottest spoon this year has been the 42nd off the probe rigger. We tape it many different ways, but any combination which has glow ladder tape or transparent bubble seems to work the best. See ya next week, _Chris

Shade, It sounds like you have a lot more personal experience with wire line depth with your Dipsy's than me, especially if you have been experimenting with depth on your own boat. However, for us, we typically use the Precision Big Water Edition as a guide for us and I don't think the dive curves go to 100 feet or more of depth even with the O-ring on a #1 Dipsy. We also use a very general rule of thumb that on a #2 setting, size 1 Dipsy WITHOUT O-ring, it's down 45-50 feet at 120 feet out, and about 75-85 feet down at 220 feet out. In my post above, I'm referring to a #1 Dipsy WITHOUT the O-ring, so although it's commonly referred to as the "4 1/8 inch Dipsy" it's only that size with the O-ring. Nonetheless, the Trolling Guide describes the depths, with or without the ring, mag size dipsy, mag size rings, etc. and since I can't commit depth charts to memory, I use the guide every chance I can. Perhaps I'm way off myself on wire depth, but I'd like to hear from anyone who has other experience or "rules of thumb" for calculating wire line depth. -Chris

Shade/Mike, I think Shade is a little "aggressive" on his estimate on wire line depth. First, it's not a linear relationship as you let line out with a wire dipsy. At 220 feet out on a #1 wire dipsy on a #3 setting, you're probably more like 75-80 feet down (maybe less depending on current). Do yourself a favor and purchase the Precision Trolling "Big Water" edition and it will give you all the info. you need on depth. It is well worth the money and it is highly accurate. Second, Mason or Malin 7 strand wire line comes in several colors, typically smoke color or plain stainless color. I think the color often confuses people when they interchange "copper" and wire line. However, true copper and wire are totally different. Although one of the major advantages of wire line is better depth, especially later in the summer, a HUGE advantage is the "signature" that the line makes in the water. Since it doesn't stretch like mono, it "jerks" the spoons and flasher/flys much different then mono. I think this one of the major advantages to a wire diver presentation. It also has a "hum" in the water which also acts as a fish attractor. Copper is great, because you can achieve greater depths than leadcore, it also has a stiffer presentation to the lures like wire and most importantly it puts a solitary lure way,way back from your downrigger balls, the boat, divers, etc. Thus when the fish sees this solitary lure hanging way back "on it's own", it just can't resist. Both of these presentations have their place, but I have to say on most days WIRE divers and copper both consistently put the most fish in the boat. Hope this helps, Chris

Sorry about that - give me a call at 585-598-8506 Thanks, Chris

I'm interested - see your PM Thx - Chris

Thumbburn - How are you measuring your surface speed (i.e. GPS) and comparing it with the probe speed (i.e. dropping your probe down a foot and comparing with the GPS?) Since the probe only works when in the water, even when your probe is only down a foot in the water and you are comparing it with your GPS speed, there can be a significant difference because of surface currents. Think about it - how often do you see a styrofoam cup "floating" on the surface, yet it's moving. Certainly some of it is from wind, but some is from the surface current as well. That's why the subsurface probes are so important. I have no idea how they calibrate the probes at Moor, but my guess it there isn't anything wrong with your unit. - Chris

Bub: What you are doing is possibly illegal - DEC regulations state that any fish which is to be released must be done immediately (i.e. cannot be put in a livewell and then released later - the only exception is largemouth bass) and must be released uninjured. My guess is poking a hole in a fin is considered "injuring the fish". My guess is if you call the DEC they'll halt your project immediately. - Chris

Fished 5:30AM til 10 AM. 7 for 11 (6 kings, 1 steelie). Set up in 115 fow and fished to 225 fow, between Russell and the Genny. Best bite was around 175 fow, speeds typically 2.5 to 2.9 at the ball, until we lost probe (see below). Lures - half and half (silver back), 42nd mag, DW SS orange crush (had two kings hit this spoon early at 55' down), kevorkian, carmel dolphin Set ups - two wire diver spoon hits (225 out, #3 setting) over 150-175fow, rest were all rigger bites (110' over 200, 85' over 175, 75' over 175, and two kings early at 55' over 130 fow). Otherwise no core or copper bites. Highlight/Lowlight of the day was when we had a triple (both riggers and a wire) and we were retrieving the rigger with the probe when it snapped as soon as the terminator hit the tip of the boom. Ball, release, and Subtroll were history - but I'm sure they were accompanied by a few other things down deep. We still landed all three kings so we couldn't complain that much. FYI - check your terminator clips - as that's where mine failed, despite the autostop feature on my riggers. Hope to be back this weekend - probe or no probe, Chris

I agree with Legacy - keep good separation and use GOOD QUALITY ball bearing swivels (we use Sampo). That being said, it's also very important to keep good tension on your rod and the main line when letting down your rigger to help minimize blow back of the main line during descent. I don't even let "rookies" on my boat set the riggers anymore because they seem to tangle everything up and 9 times out of ten it's from blow back and failure to keep the rod tip at the water. (this also helps with hook ups out of your hand when you're dropping your riggers). This is critically important when you have FIXED cheaters. It sounds like you know what you're doing so maybe that's not the issue, but since we eliminated blow back on our riggers when sending them down, we've had very, very few tangles on these lines. Good luck, -Chris

DB - I don't want to steal Rob's thunder, but when we do it: 1.) We attach the main line with the smaller spoon through the rigger release and set it 10-20 feet back from the ball 2.) We let it down between six and ten feet 3.) We attach the 6' Mag leader to the main line with a Sampo coastlock swivel (simply attach it to the mono line) and then make two half hitches with a #12 rubber band on the main line near the swivel to form a loop and clip that inside the coast lock as well. MAKE SURE you clip your swivel from the Mag leader to the main line and not just the rubber band or after a hit you can kiss your lure and leader good-bye. The purpose of the rubber band is simply to prevent the fixed cheater from sliding down the line when you set it up. By doing it this way, you can effectively use only one rod to run the Mup rig. Otherwise, if you attach your fixed slider to your down rigger cable, you need two rods. Hope this helps - Chris

Jammer - One way to remember it is "Mag" + "up" = "mupped" It's simply a fixed cheater above your main lure, where the higher lure is typically a larger spoon (Mag spoon) with a shorter lead, compared with the deeper spoon which is smaller and further back. I believe the priniciple behind this is the fish thinks the smaller lure further back is an easier target, wounded, out of the pack, etc. Hope this helps - Chris

Nice report Ken - glad to hear you had some action with the laker program and that we weren't the only ones having a slow day with the silvers. We actually were marking quite a few fish on the bottom in the 100-150 fow range, but we presumed they were kings. Sounds like they might have been the lakers you were targeting. Thanks for the report (i'm not sure if we were fishing near you but I think we might have - at any rate we were in the yellow Trophy) Thanks again, Chris

Fished 5:30 AM til 9:30 AM. Started two miles west of the bay and finished up out in front. It was a tough day for us to say the least - lots of flies and bees and little action otherwise Fished 100-165 fow. Down temp. at 80' was 42 degrees. Only went 2 for 3, both kings (skipper, 15#). We threw everything we had at them - 10 color core, 5 color core, wire divers, riggers, planers (with and without keel weight). The only thing we left out was copper. Fish were caught on a 42nd mag and 28 NK purple thunder - both on riggers on a NW heading, 80' down and 55' down. Speed - 2.4 to 2.9 at the ball Seems like purple has been a little hotter color lately - although green spoons still seem to be producing. We saw a few boats come back into the pack at 100-150 fow from venturing offshore. I wondered if anyone did anything out deep? - Chris

We use 12# Big-game on our riggers for spoons, 20# for flashers. We'll change to 30# in the late summer when the fleas are heavy, but personally I love the lighter line. Knock on wood, we have NEVER lost a fish to break off on the light line and our rigger hook-ups have improved dramatically with the lighter line and lighter swivels (30# sampo's) Good luck, Chris

Hey guys - you're right there's something odd regarding the rankings on the Am side on day one (they actually have a bunch of boats ranked "5" if you look at it) I certainly didn't look at it that close....sorry about any confusion -Chris

The full results of the '08 Pro-am are posted at: http://www.olcottfishing.com Disclaimer - I have no ties to this site, nor did I fish in the tourney. Thx, Chris

Fished 6:00AM until 10 AM, west of the bay. Started in 100 fow, but no takers until we found a decent temp. break in 200 + fow. Instantly we had a triple at the break. Finished up 7 for 12, nothing huge, but a nice mixed bag of kings,one coho, and steelhead. Speed - 2.5 - 3.2, (faster presentation worked better yesterday) Lures - DW SS orange crush, NK purple thunder, 42nd, pink alewife and a watermellon mag (copper back) all were our best lures. Still can't buy a flasher bite, but we finally had 2 rips on wire dipsys (180 feet out on a #3 setting) - Chris

Thanks again for the tips - I appreciate the help. I'm running a little longer leads - maybe 24" or so, so I think I might shorten 'em up to get a little more action. Occasionally I'll run the flashers a bit further back from the ball, let's say 25-30 feet if the fish aren't in to the "aggressive" presentation, but you're right, tangles can be a real issue with the longer leads. Good luck PH - thanks for the advice!!! -Chris

Thanks PH for the advice on copper and the fly program.... I agree the fishing has been really picking up over the past few weeks. I've been running the Hammer fly/blue bubble Spin Dr. and Hammer/Mtn. Dew SD on both my wire divers and riggers without a hit this year. We've boated over 40 fish the past two weeks, but only on a spoon bite. I'm curious what your leader length is between the flasher and fly? I'm still keeping the flashers in the spread b/c I feel that they still attract the fish into the mix, but it would be nice to see a king rip one.... Thanks for your help.... -Chris

Fished from 5:00 - 8:30 PM just west of I-Bay Depth - 80 - 150 fow Speed - 2.0 - 2.8 at the ball Fished riggers (80 foot and 50 foot down), wire Dipsy, boards with surface spoons and 5 color core, and 10 color out the chute. Went 3 for 6 - highlight was a 13# coho All spoon bite off riggers and the lead cores - the color green was the key - with hottest spoons being DW SS coyote, NBK, green alewife and 42nd (mag size) The water was clear as could be, and once the sun dropped, the bite certainly picked up. FWIW, we only saw one other boat - on such a nice night, it was a bit surprising Thanks - Chris

Nice mixed bag with steady action(16 for 19), great steelhead and king action - largest was 18# king - Fished 5:30 AM til 10:30, started just east of Russell and worked east/NE to I-Bay Depth - 80-120 fow, riggers at 60 and 80 feet, wire diver 180 feet out #3 setting, 10 and 5 color cores, surface planers 150' back Speed - 2.2 to 2.8 mph at the ball - fish seemed to be aggressive and liked quick changes in speed Lures - orange crush SS, DW pink alewife, 42nd, NK 4d silver streak were all we used all morning, but we couldn't get a bite on the flasher/fly program. Fishing has been stellar the past week - Chris

I agree 150 yds. is not enough We use at least 1000 ft. of 30# braid as well. It both helps fill the reel and obviously is needed for a long run. Just today we had an 18# king rip the 10 color and run out about 300 ft. of backing. That same fish in the summer will run out 600 ft. Good luck - hope this helps - Chris