chowder

I use the SD lite bite on wire the same way Tim is talking about. I like it so well that I don't use regular dipsies any more. One thing I do different is to use a regular Mag dipsy bottom and mate it it to the large SD top. Then I use the SD mag size ring and you have a SD w/ the same exact depth curve (and numbers) as a Mag dipsy. Best part is you can reel right up to within 2' of the flasher, no more trying to net a fish that's 7'+ away from the rod tip!.

Hey, I gave a short but accurate post last week w/in 6 hrs of the run . Anyway, I'm gonna be slipped on L.O. for a spell but will make every effort to get back down for the LOU-ALL & I hope there will be a T-Storm @ 4:00 am that day, it always seems to crank up the C. Lake fish.-Andy

Sounds like a darn good time Greg! I hear you on the names. My kids always want to run spoons w/ names like 'monkey puke', or 'bloody death'. They are very intrigued w/ a new flasher I got from John King called the 'King Leland Puke' ( I gotta admit, it's truly an outrageous name, and I can't wait to use it in a post ).

Great post. I strongly support the idea of using the wineries as navigational landmarks, not to mention that they must have a favorable effect on female's attitudes towards spending the day fishing! Good going

Latest installment; kicker is putting out what appears to be adequate voltage but I'm wondering about amperage. Started the main a couple times while fishing today, maybe I'm just gonna have to do this or maybe I've solved the problem by pulling the batteries and tightening stuff up?

Launched solo at LP went N in 125-150 lots of med. sized lakers on the wire divers. Headed back S in 225-250, better class of lakers w/ most on spoons, some on cheaters, got quite a bunch of sub legal and just legal salmon (released) on sliders (ran some of the 'retro' Honey bees which seemed to attract their attention). Powered down to Sheldrake and worked skinny water w/ just riggers, slide divers & core, got a couple 16"+ bows (released) on spoons & bunch of big lakers on deep spoons. Weeds were massed up on the N side of the points & fleas were a PITA.-Andy

Tim, sounds like a great weekend! I'm gonna be heading up to the big pond soon-keep me posted. -Andy

Thanks Mackerel, checking voltage tomorrow, should have the verdict soon.

Flasher/fly combos on divers & riggers seem to work best for me when fish are aggressive and sometimes they can work on long copper lines when the fish are 'neutral'.Spoons typically out perform ff combos when the fish are neutral/negative. I don't typically have 'hot inside' info on the fishing picture so on any given day I start out w/ a flasher fly on one rigger and cheat it w/ a spoon and a spoon on the other, also cheated w/ a spoon. I typically set up both divers w/ flasher fly combo appropriate for the level of light or cloud cover. Then I go w/ a pair of coppers out on the boards, 1 w/ spoon and 1 w/ ff combo. If nothing seems to be going on, vary speed/vary the depths of the presentations. The fish are gonna tell you what to do next. If you find a 'hot' ff diver bite, then obviously you want to mimic that presentation w/ short leads on the riggers and load them w/ ff combos similar to what's working. If the spoon program is the only thing that's working, I still usually leave 1 wire diver down w/ a ff and run spoons on the rest of the rigs. Remember that the bite can and does change so don't get stuck thinking that what you have out is still the best spread even if the fish are telling you something else. If you are just getting your feet wet w/ the flasher fly deal I would suggest that you consider the following concept; When the bite is hot a pretty basic assortment of ff combos will work, you want to have combos appropriate for early/low light, sunny conditions, cloudy conditions, and flat bright sunny days. If the ff bite is not hot, it will help somewhat to have some more esoteric ff combos but that probably won't help you as much as running some stealthy copper or lead core lines, changing spoon colors, searching different depths, temps, speeds and locations w/ a spoon biased program. Main point I'm trying to make is that although flasher/fly combos can be awesome you need to be prepared for the average and below average days when the bite is 'so so' to 'negative'. Just my 2 cents. -Andy

Yea Ray, I do know how to check voltage from the alternator (I are a farmer after all) As far as the total electrical draw goes, here's a couple interesting things; 1. I never got the batteries unhooked last fall, never charged them up and the boat cranked right up this spring. So if there is a constant draw, it can't be very great. 2. I went out for browns 3 times for 4-5 hrs/trip and then fished a 2 day tournament before this situation seemed to present itself. Now I can't seem to go more than a day w/ out charging the batteries. So, I'm thinking that maybe the alternator or voltage regulator (which is probably internal anyway) in my practically brand new kicker is not working correctly.

Hard to say yet but I agree w/ Ray, he's gonna be pretty decent!

Lunch at Kidders sounds pretty good! I'll buy the first round

Well, both batteries are good so I guess I'll have to check DC voltage from the kicker at typical rpms.

I have some issues to deal with as well, hoping to have my charging problem solved by the end of the day today & I should be out Sat or Sun, maybe both, I'll be on 68. Hey Scott, I'll probably have an empty seat on my Islander if yours is still down.

Ray/Glen; I'm suspicious of one of the batteries too and I pulled it out yesterday, planning to check or just replace it and go from there. -Andy

I'm starting to look for a culprit in my charging/ battery setup after having the batteries go dead after trolling w/ my kicker supposedly keeping things charged up. I've got a brand new Yamaha T8 which seemed to keep things charged up for the first 6 trips of the year, but the last 2 times out I've had the riggers, AP & electronics die for lack of juice. Fortunately, I can start the kicker manually if I have to or things would have been a lot worse! I would think that a properly functioning T8 would keep 2 'good' batteries charged for a day of running the riggers,sonar,gps,and auto pilot and that the batteries would then have plenty of snap to start up the main engine to run in?

Here's what I put together Whether you buy or build, it's important to make careful measurements w/ the top up in order to wind up w/ a unit that is easy to get rods in/out of and that the reels are accessible and easy to use. Note the angle of the rod holders- if you make them too steep the rods will hang over the fishing space which is not good (especially if you have a little 19' like mine)

On Saturday I was taught one of life's precious lessons from two 14 year old kids, an electrical problem and a porta potty. My son 'T-bone' and one of his buddies Matt wanted to go fishing on their first day of summer vacation. I'll admit I was whipped from a series of 16 hour days in the tractor trying to finish 2cd cutting and I really wanted to spend most of Sat. napping but when your kids want you to take them fishing- you just gotta pony up and do it! So I get up at 3:15 am (normal 'dairy' time) and rip through 3 hrs of managerial and semi manual tasks, get the kids up and head to the lake. The boys had managed to stay up half the night eating chicken wings and pizza bites so they were in prime condition. I get the boat in the water and get it started up and off we go out of Long Point at about 9:00 am. I get into 225' N of the point, shut down the main,start up the kicker, hit the AP and set some rods. I look at the screen and it's off! I had had some battery issues the last time I was out but charged em b4 going out. Long & short we got no electronics, and no riggers- so much for me impressing these guys w/ an awesome day of fishing! Well, the kicker was running so we decided to fish 'blind' for a bit. I got frustrated and couldn't really get much going and then the boys began to feel the combined effects of little sleep, and too many chicken wings and pizza bites. Neither one wanted to dampen their pride w/ an open air porta potty experience but eventually it became a necessary evil. Without out going into gross details I will only say that these guys totally depleted my stash of bags for the "luggable loo". When it began to rain I figured we probably out to head in before another disaster occured. But what happened next was beautiful! Relieved of their pressing issues, the boys rallied, I somehow found a way to fish with what we had, we drank some ginger ale, teased each other mercilessly, lost a nice bow behind the boat, and bonded in way that I just don't think would have been possible if everything had gone smoothly. We got back to the launch and the boys wanted to know when we could go again, "Tomorrow Dad, can we go again tomorrow? ". Once again I learned that when we go fishing, the fish are not really what we are after... My son Tristan,'T-Bone' ( on the right) with his buddy Matt on the left

10-4 0n the slider leaders! I often find that I can break a sliding cheater leader if it's got much age on it at all. Not exactly sure why this is but I've come to expect it.-Andy

Me & some of my brood will be out tomorrow & I will share dubious down speed info w/ who ever wants it, 68,etc. -Andy

Couple thoughts; 1. I think I would put the 2 HS units in the corners, these will be used a lot of the time and they will save you a lot of time if you use them the most. 2. I would put your coated cable on one of these corner riggers. You don't want to run coated cable on an out down if it's a Cannon- you will have trouble with pulley abrasion as the coated cable rubs at an angle coming up. 3. I think I mentioned it before but, I would consider mounting your corner riggers so they don't stick out too far. This will minimize conflicts w/ a 'hot' fish behind the boat.

Different species have their own temp niches, and different species also go 'out of temp' under different conditions & situations. The temp ranges that different species seem to utilize on LO are not the same on Cayuga, and there seems to some significant differences between different Finger Lakes as well. Although I will admit to being fascinated by down temps/speeds I must say that I don't feel married to any particular 'bible' about temps & speeds. I just think the whole ecosystem of bait/phytoplankton/predator fish,etc is too dynamic and fluid (or I'm just too stupid!) to lend itself to hard & fast rules. Having said this I know of a couple guys who use hard & fast temp rules and they seem to catch a lot more fish than I do. Here's some 'accepted' guide lines for summer fishing; Browns 55-65 Bows (if you can figure this one out YOU ARE A GENIUS) 48-60+ Lakers 44-48 Kings 42-46

Launch at Cayuga State Park (west side), work the developing weed beds up towards the railroad trestles rotating thru spinner baits, different crank baits, and super flukes and Texas/Carolina rigs. You want to find weed beds w/ open pockets. Every part of this end of Cayuga gets worked over pretty hard during the tournaments and weekends, so you need to keep working & moving. Not sure how familiar you are w/ flipping & pitching and techniques like jigging and drop shotting but there is cover and stucture all over up there and down past Frontenac Island (East side) and on over towards Aurora, that lend themselves to these presentations.

Greg, my kids like the fighting belt mentioned above, especially for copper & core. Here's the net we use on Cayuga http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templ ... rch%2Fsear

Here's a point you may want to consider; the farther back you mount the kicker, the harder it's going to be to link it to the I/O so you can steer from the wheel. What happens is that the farther back the kicker is, the more the link arm is moving mostly front to back instead of side to side so it becomes difficult to synchronize the two motors for steering purposes. Just my 2 cents & good luck!