chowder

Ah, yes- the trip when the batteries went dead and it took forever to get the kicker going

Saiff is a rank opportunist. I hope he gets slammed.

The Chowder n reel Doc team dropped the boat in at T-Falls at 7:30 am and trolled North. Very consistent action on wire divers pulling white spinny +green fly and silver w/ green dots spinny+ silver/green fly. With the exception of 1 laker and 1 salmon on the 40' rigger we got a 2 man box on the wires (reg divers on 2 with 145' and 112'). Worked back n forth across 65 to 250 fow @ 2.4 surface. Ran an 8 color and a 5 color off the boards with different stick baits to no avail. Ran into Zeke and Cyn when we were pulling the boat out, always good to see you folks! Water is pretty skinny at the launch.

I run black or clear slide divers. I use slide divers on powerpro pulling spoons as my outside (high) diver rods. My inside diver rods are mag dipsys pulling flasher/fly or flasher/meat on wire. Depending on how many people I have and weather conditions I will sometimes run a slide diver rod on one side of the boat and a wire mag dipsy rod on the other side of the boat.

Just remember that a tow vehicle and trailer can create some angles that might not be apparent looking at the combo on flat ground. Even though it's inconvenient I usually drain the kicker and main and trim them both up appropriately before travel.

Out in front of Deans in 120 fow temp was 40 to 40.25. In the band of water where we marked the most fish it was 40 to 40.5

Another thought: skip the monster OB setup and go with a boat with an I/O (LOL). Lot easier netting fish too!

Launched out of Deans in the winter boat (sonar read 2'- it's getting real shallow). Headed North into a North wind with moderate to heavy rain. Looked for fish in 80-200 fow but did not have a good screen at all. Eventually found quite a few suspended fish in 30-45 fow, very few were associated with bottom. We got some lakers to hit a small stinger scorpion frog pattern spoon with a white back-they only hit that spoon (had 1 on each rigger and one as a cheater and they all took a fish once and the cheater on the 30' rigger took 2 fish). Fish mood seemed negative, marked only a smidgeon of bait. What didn't work: 1.) going slow or fast, 2.0-2.4 surface was the ticket. 2.) Flasher fly combos on wires = ZIP. 3.) Spoons and or stick baits on 8 color or 4 color. Good to be back on the water after a long deer season.Fresh fish dinner was fantastic!

Nice going!!

Hefty yote!!

Just posted this relative to another kicker question. As long as you use a bracket you will have no problem with the tiller handle (picture is of 165 Alumacraft). Also- a bracket will probably enable you to trim the kicker up enough to get the shaft out of the water when steaming (which is way better for your transom and the kicker.) Also you can connect 2 outboards together with an inexpensive bracket on the front side of the motors.

50 down with 10 colors is very feasible as long as you are running spoons- I think a flasher/fly combo creates so much drag it resists getting down there

I have a 6 hp merc 4 stroke tiller extralong on my 165 Alumacraft connected to the 50 hp merc 4 stroke with a very inexpensive bracket on the front of the two motors. IMHO you would want a solid but economical kicker bracket in order to be able the trim the kicker up without undue restrictions.

There are some great smelt pattern tandem trolling fly patterns out there. some days those are just the ticket for the Atlantics on the Fingerlakes.

5 colors (25' down)or 6 colors tops is what you are gonna get on a 47 with some power pro backing in there. The 320 GTis could hold 10 colors (50' down) or maybe 300' copper (60' down)

I'd consider the idea of running 1 rigger to one side (with either a fixed cheater or a free slider), 1 dipsy to the other side, and 1 lead core (or a copper) down the chute, let the fish tell you what they want on that given day and whatever is dead- pull it and double up on the hot presentation.

Good going!

Have a fair amount of experience fishing in the winter months. LLs will be found all over the water column depending on the day and the bait. On Cayuga a lot of alewives get locked up deep- they are not strong swimmers, and sometimes you will catch the LLs feeding on them deep. I typically target multiple depths from surface with trolling flies and stick baits to mid depths w/ sticks and spoons off lead core and slide divers to deeper water with rigger spoons and wire flasher fly. I also weave from shallower to deeper water. I do tend to run smaller spoons in the winter than I would in the summer and I usually run cheaters as well. I would be prepared to cover as much productive water as possible.

I don't think it would generate a favorable response...

Way to get this thing started! We'll get the 'covered wagon' over for the next one-had to go Christmas shopping yesterday buddy.

Couple winter fishing pics