chowder

Sounds like a heck of a good time Tim!

I'd get 2 reels loaded from Tom @ ATOMIK, a 300 and a 500. I second Rob's advice on the Okuma Classic pro leadcore rods, get the 7' easier to reef on the fish & easier to weave between other rods in the the event of a 'fubar' fish behind the boat.. Run the coppers off the big boards out to the side - you will be glad you did !(use the big Scotty power grip releases) If you are going to run them off inlines you better get a 400 instead of a 500'. I run 20lb leaders on 300' and shorter w/ spoons, you can just add them on w/ a sampo micro swivel and remove it when you run a FF combo.-Andy

Yeah, we had a couple rigger fish in a row there and I just get all 4 reset and the 45' goes again and one of the kids grabs it and cranks down and says "I'm snagged on one of the rigger weights". So, I trip & raise the weights and low and behold he's still 'snagged' on something, oops NOT! Boy,there are some big ole nasty lakers kicking around this summer. When you look up after a bunch of net jobs and see the AP is blinking on 'stand by' it's never good! Good thing your wife had the situation under control, please extend my apologies and thanks to her. -Andy

Some of Saturday's fish did come from around T-Falls which was why I wasn't surprised to see the smelt in them but the fish we kept from Sun were from much, much further north. Makes me wonder how far some of these bait fish and predator fish travel.

Didn't think much of finding smelt in Saturday's fish but on Sun again most of the recognizable forage species were smelt again. Can't remember seeing so many!

Great pics & good for you for getting on the fish! -Andy

Hey Chris, I ran a perch colored stick on 6 colors after talking w/ ya but nada. We got our bows on Yecks & Bees on shallow riggers & sliders. Also, I bumped the guy in that little sailing dingy w/ a planer board, how many points do I get? -Andy

Sweet!

Scott, thanks for working around me yesterday as we plunged southward w/ nobody at the wheel. My cores didn't exactly light things up either this weekend but it is nice to see those rigger rods going off. Your guys looked like they were having a good time. -Andy

Bite was different for us today. Started off working the same water w/ a 4 rigger spoon program but things were much slower down around T-Falls w/ only a couple lakers and one good bow out in front of AES. We eventually cruised up to Sheldrake and got into the fish in 60-80 FOW with the 4 rigger spoon program. Kept a big box yesterday so I tried to C&R as much as possible but we had to box a few.Did manage to get almost all the silvers back in the water in good shape. Pretty good fathers day w/ my middle son T-bone (Tristan) and his buddy Matt. Breakfast on the water Some fish

I'm always ready to fix stuff w/ the 'fire wrench' too! Good to see you made it happen & that what happened is going on the grill -Mission Accomplished! -Andy

Solo style this morning on Cayuga. Very intense action from T-Falls to Sheldrake. I put the divers away after the first lakers went into the box. Just ran spoon riggers and later 1 rigger & one 6 or 8 color. Nice mixed bag today w/ some real good fighting salmon, 1 crazy bow on a cheater and way too many lakers to count. As usual a lot of short salmon on everything I ran as well...I'll be back tomorrow w/ my posse but look out, I think my radio is toasted! -Andy

I might be solo. Shoot me a pm if you want to get out. I'll be launching from Myers @ around 5:30 or so.

Launching out of Myers both days, not sure when but gotta get out of here & out on the water, it's been over a month! I'll be on 68, Blue/White Starcraft Islander 'Emily'. -Andy

250'+ power pro. Make sure you got a big enough reel if you are making a 10+ color rig!

Divers w/ ff combos and riggers w/ ff combos behind short leads are very effective presentations for aggressive fish. If you are catching more fish on spoons, especially w/ long leads or on copper & core then either you are not in the right zone w/ the divers & ff riggers or the fish may not be as aggressively feeding. There is tons of sonic 'signature' w/ flasher combos behind a delivery device (diver or rigger weight) and aggressive fish will often be very attracted to these presentations. Less active and negative fish will often ignore or even be spooked by a 'noisy' presentation but may smack a spoon, stick, or crank especially if its back away from a weight or diver or on core or copper. Now, If you are getting hit on ffs off riggers & not the wires then I would have to think the wires are not where they need to be. Well, that's my 2 cents anyway, might be just a bunch of B.S. -Andy

Get this book, read the whole thing & then go back & read the chapter for the season you are in. http://www.amazon.com/Great-Lakes-Salmo ... 522&sr=8-1 Then book a charter w/ one of the best guys in the area you plan to fish the most-it will greatly shorten the learning curve and really flesh out the book (and even though it's few bucks look at it as the best way to maximize the huge investment you have all ready made in all that gear). -Andy

New LOU-ALL rule: All licensed charter captains must compete in the pro division.

I have no opinion on rules for weighing in fish for the simple reason that I do not have a set schedule of 'time off', so I don't attempt to fish in any of the Ontario tournaments but Elliot & I would like to fish again in the LOU-ALL and hopefully we can make it over at some point in the day! -Andy

There are at least 2 species(or subspecies) of these critters. The Finger lakes species are worse and there are times when they truly makes things unbearable and I just stop running lighter high lines for cheaters etc. On the other hand, the species I typically run into on Ontario (around Port Bay/Sodus) are not near as hard to get off the line as they typically slough off at the top guide. Both species seem to come & go due to factors that seem difficult for me to understand but start anytime now and seem to peak sometime in July/Aug. Sometimes they come & go more than once in the season.

Sounds like a good time with Dad to me! As Ben said, the north end concentration of active lakers will start to dissolve very soon, it's time to really start watching down temp for masses of cold & warmer water and begin to search the mid lake areas.Without having been out since the B&B, I would imagine that the lake is trying to set up and will probably change a lot from day to day, especially if the wind is variable. -Andy

P.S. Ray, we need to go fishing together again soon! I could really use some comic relief.

WTG Tim! We probably won't be up that way till the week b4 labor day weekend or so but maybe we'll catch up then.Kindest regards to you and the better half. -Andy

hmm... are we starting another round of this? P.S. It's 'politician'