chowder

Thanks for the brookie pics, they are awesome!

Welcome Dave, great bunch of people here to swap ideas with. See you on Cayuga! -Andy

Hey Split, is it going to rain?

It might sound callous but in the current business climate bankruptcy is almost a normal state of affairs, it's a transition state from one form of organization to another. The names may change, the banks involved may change but the B.S. goes on forever. In this case I really don't think I'd let it be a factor of major importance in making a choice. Just my 2 cents.

These high speed manual downriggers are like new. Telescopic arms/swivel bases. $275 for the pair.

I'm trying to think about the issues involved w/being prepared for targeting Kings when they are significantly below 100'. I currently have older Mag 10s (200' cable) w/ 13lb torpedoes. When I use this setup to try and get down to 90-100', I would say I've got out 130'+ of cable so I'm guessing there is no way this configuration is going much further than that. So, here's my questions: 1. How much weight is realistically required to get down to 200' 2. Whatever this is it's probably to much for an older Mag 10, right? 3. If you don't fish the Bar, how often in a season will cold water on top force you to go real deep? 4. If you do fish the Bar how often is it like last early May where the deep presentations were pretty important. P.S. If we could keep it to riggers here w/ out getting into discussions about Torpedo divers and core/copper clipped into the riggers it would help me out more. Thanks!

Wondering if there are some economical but solid approaches anybody has taken to get some kind of spotlight & flood light benefits. Looked at what West Marine's got & I can see a lot of options and too much money for most of them. Thinking maybe a hand held spot (battery or 12v plug in?) and maybe an Ag equipment style Halogen for the back deck. Suggestions?

Nice ones! I can see where you were when ya took the pix, how about a little blurb on the presentation?

Rollie, I run the SD lite bite w/ the heavier weight & Mag ring on wire. To get to 80' down on 1.5-2 setting you need to let out approx 240' wire. I'm pretty sure you will find that depth/ foot of line out is a curve not a linear relationship. Especially w/ mono I'm quite sure you are going to have to let out a whole lot more than 2:1 to get down to the lakers w/ that setup. Just my 2 cents. -Andy

I find that sometimes the small 2" Pin minnows are what BTs and Bows want but the hooks just don't stand up to the larger fish, I've had quite a few straighten right out. I'm talking about the 2" Pins. These hooks are very small & light. If anybody has successfully replaced these hooks w/ either a single or a treble that's stronger w/ out impairing the action of these little stix tell me what you used, size, brand, source, etc. Thanks much!

I've fished Cayuga's open water for 12 months in a row. At the end of Sept I park my Islander I/O in the machine shed and start using my 16' outboard. I keep the 16' in one of those Shelter Logic "garage in a box" shelters. It works great, it's even warm in there when the sun is out, so if I need to mess around w/ stuff it's pretty comfortable. If I didn't have my machine shed I'd get a bigger Shelter Logic shelter for the Islander.

I've come to really prefer torpedo shaped weights. Sounds like what you've got should work similar to torpedoes. Not sure what I think about directional weights, got a pair that have become spares (actually I used em on Saturday come to think about it) seems like the deeper you go the more unpredictable they get in terms of planing & spinning especially in turns.

Coup, I'm glad to hear you're getting in some extra hours, sure wouldn't want to hear you crying poverty on the kicker deal all next season Nice job on the perch, there's a few meals! -Andy

Depending on the time of year the active/feeding lakers on Cayuga can actually range a fair amount in terms of both suspended depth and total water column depth. Actually I'd go further to venture that during a lot of the summer anyway it seems to me that there are multiple populations of Lakers that are using different parts of the lake differently which is pretty cool and can lead to a number of different approaches all being successful to varying degrees at the same time.

I think any rod w/ the good Aftco roller guides is going to be $100+ (the guides alone are $40-50).

Rick, I want to thank you for reminding me about some of core's different qualities. I remember a post/conversation we had last spring about 10 colors vs. 200 copper along the same lines. Interestingly, this was made clear trolling for Atlantics yesterday on Cayuga when the salmon hit baits on 10 colors and 6 colors but ignored similar stuff on 150 and 200 copper. -Andy

As a farmer w/ 500 acres in forage crops and as hunter w/ a lot of experience let me explain something to everyone about food plots. 1. Most food plots attract deer for the simple reason that the forage is a "new seeding". Young emerging plants ( a "new seeding") have very low NDF (neutral detergent fiber) and Lignin values. These values are an indication of the digestibility of the forage source and are used by nutritionists to compare forages in order to balance ruminant diets in farm animals. 2.What continues to attract deer to a food plot after the stand is "established" (three years later) has more to do w/ the variety and family of the plants that were sowed in the plot. 3. As a guy who winds up getting dragged into the establishment of these plots on some of the farms we rent, as a service to the landlord, I can tell you that very few of these plots ever make it to mature stands. Most food plots are too small, the soil is too acidic but most of all the deer ( tutkeys are even worse) just destroy the least hardy species in the seed mix. The result is a stand of the plants the deer like the least b/c they were left alone enough to get established. My point is that it can be very difficult to compare seed mixes etc when the first reason that deer come to a food plot is b/c the plants are immature (not because there is something special about the variety planted). Additionally I am suggesting that you be very realistic about the amount of time you are going to put into developing a long term forage resource for deer in an area where they have unrestricted access to the forage, Third be careful about trying to make comparisons between different seed mixes b/c many stands never mature and those that do may have a very different composition than the same seed mix planted under different conditions. This is not to say don't mess w/ food plots ( I don't but I'd rather go fishing) Just try and keep an eye on the big picture. Thought I'd add another observation. Give plenty of forethought to how you are going to use the food plot. Human travel routes to and from stand are the first things mature deer use to educate themselves about hunting pressure, not just scent coming from a hunter "in position".

What a gorgeous day on the water! A little on the slow side as far as the fishing goes but hey it was better than another day of ice fishing. Put 2 nice salmon and 2 good lakers in the cooler, tons of dinks. We found the salmon down 50' over 100-200, lakers were down 90'+ over same.

I'll run 2 cheated riggers, 2 slide divers, & 2 cores/coppers if I can find anybody who isn't too busy for a mid day adventure.

Might try to launch a trolling mission out of T-Falls today, can't get over there till noon & the usual partners in crime appear at this point to be unavailable. Not sure this will happen yet but drop me a pm if interested w/ cell #. -Andy

I couldn't believe how much easier it was to fish out of my 16.5 Alumacraft Side console after I took out all but the drivers seat. There is still the carpeted side bench over the live well for an extra person or two to sit on, heck that's where most people sat anyway.

Jack, another thing you could look into for minimizing problems between a chute copper and other lines is hook up a pike ball float to the copper so you can float that rig back and out of the back of the boat conflict zone if you need to. Also, not sure how you're boat is set up but you can stick a chute copper up in a rocket launcher holder to get it out of the way too. Set the drag a little light and it will be easier to get it out of there w/ a fish on it.

Had one land on the peak of the barn roof in December. I had just pulled into the driveway & my spotting scope was lying on the passenger seat. Spent about 5 minutes watching it before it split- AMAZING BIRD!

Ray, what you need in that canoe now is an auto pilot. I think Hank's got a sweet heart deal w/ Simrad, probably get you into one pdq!

Anybody got an opinion on 2 color core vs. just using snap weights on a flatline to get an offering to spring,fall, and winter browns,landlocks, & bows that are feeding down a little. I put together a pair of 2 color reels two years ago but generally I wind up just putting on snap weights on one or 2 flatl planer lines to get down the 10' or so instead of using the core but maybe the core would be more effective- I'm not sure I see much difference. I'd like to respool these reels & use them as additional flat planer lines, it seems like I'd get a lot more use out of them that way. What would you do?