Adm Byrd

Nice work Mark & Les, they didn't come easy today. Liney and I where hoping to make it a mini derby with the 2 Bob's against the 2 Breuer's but we couldn't seem to get many of those shallow fish to cooperate or fish at any depth for that matter, wonder if the full moon / clear night sky had an influence on the bite today? We started similar to you and had a little bow in a few minutes but it didn't trip the black release - happened to see the rods rise a little on that rigger - that was the norm for the day - we had to keep checking the rig rods for fish. It worked out because the fleas where out in force and the rods needed cleaning often. About 9AM we went east picking up a couple fish on the way across finding several boats working 150' range and we began marking lots of fish with less bait than west side but couldn't find anything they wanted to hit on, eventually returning to Deans which was jammed up when we wanted to leave - note to self don't quit at 1PM on a nice summer Sunday. On our way across we had a hit and when we started clearing rods the cross wind had gotten all the riggers & cheaters tangled so we knew it was time to quit. We ran leadcores at varying depths and baits without a touch, then switched over to wire & dipsys and still no hits but the wire sure did hold a ton of fleas. That brown you got Mark was a beauty. Can't wait till next weekend.

Great day for celebration off Hughes today Yesterday I convinced Les (Sk8man) that he should go to the big pond with me today. He showed up at the house around 5AM and we launched around 6AM. The lake was perfect with a gentle NW breeze - never saw any flies. As per normal for us the bickering started with how much water to start in and who gets which side of the boat, well I picked 150' and he picked port side. With that settled we got things ready and fired up the kicker and pointed it north and hit the auto pilot. We marked a fish at 75' so I started with a rigger at 80' and I picked an ugly NK28 I've never tried before, put a mixed vegetable spinny with a green fly out 200' on a big dipsy on 2 1/2 and added a 10 color leadcore off a Church board, was getting ready to throw a cheater on the rigger when it fired - first fish of the season from Lake O and its a little king. As the morning wore on that ugly spoon got one hell of a workout. I couldn't buy a hit on the flasher fly, I found a second ugly spoon in my box and put that with a silver dodger behind the dipsy and ran it out 250. I will let Les try to recount how many fish and hits we think we got, I spent an hour untangling my leadcore after one of a double of kings decided to swim into it - we must have had a half dozen hits and 3 or 4 fish landed while I had a birds nest on the floor and 15 - 30 yards trailing in the water behind us. We had 3 explosive hits on our dipsy's, Les lost 2 spindoctors, one with one of his homemade flies and one with meat and I lost one of the ugly spoons. I finally hooked and landed a 17# king after a 10 minute battle. We had a bunch of steelies on, one that jumped 3' out of the water 50' behind the boat. We got them on both cheaters and rigs. Our best depth was 200' - 250' and we ran riggers around 100'. The best day I've had on Lake O in a long long time.

Brian, my daughter and I went out of Dean's as well, we arrived around 8AM to a full parking lot, we went a few miles south and set up in middle of the lake, we made over to the east side around the college and caught fish everywhere. We ran 2 downriggers mostly at 85 and 105, both w/ cheaters, 2 wire dipsy / spin doctor / fly combos out 250 - 300 and two 10 color leadcores at varying lengths. We ran between 2.4 and 2.7 gps. Leadcores accounted for 3 hits and only one rainbow. The downriggers kept us busy and we got half a dozen on the dipsys including one that initially fought like a king for 15 seconds, then a throbbing beast that I couldn't stop from running out 120' and then it felt like a tree that we couldn't gain on. We picked up and circled back on it still feeling like a tree and eventually netted a 12 - 13 lb lakes with the treble stuck in the middle of its belly!!!! You must be sore from running those rigs up and down that many times but it sure was fun out there.

Canandaigua Derby Weekend Apparently this was the quiet derby (at least on this forum). We fished both days, took Rainbows and Lakers and one perch on Saturday off leadcores, downriggers and Seth Green rigs, ran a dipsy and various flashers with no action. Biggest for us was a 5.5# rainbow off leadcore. We quit at 4 but should have been done by 2. Morning was very steady with fish picked up on both sides of the lake. We came back this morning and went right to rigs and leadcore eventually adding a big dipsy. We caught some small bows and had a couple good fighters. The dipsy out 250 took a tap and 5 minutes later a smash and we had one of those unusual fantastic fights from a laker, pulled drag and wouldn't come up, finally netted him and our scales said 8.1 - 8.4 depending on the waves. We boxed him and talked about weighing it in. A few minutes later my buddy says to check the one leadcore - its bent more than the other side. When I brought it in far enough to unhook the church board it immediately took off with a strong steady pull, ended up being a 6.5# brown that apparently rolled when it got slack from my removing the board and got the second treble buried below and behind its gill plate, fought like a much larger fish. We then took the laker in to find out it weighed 8# exactly, needed to be heavier than 8.15#. We went back out and picked up a few more small lakers & bows. One of my friends had a really bad day of it on Saturday. Apparently this image taken of the floor of his boat happened twice!

For people who don't catch very many fish these are why I go fishing

Weeds & debris where awful at times but 3/4 of our catch on Sunday came from one leadcore spoon combo and that spoon got crushed this morning by whatever would of been our only good fish.

So my trout derby started out very different as I was alone for Saturday morning, Liney had to work till noon. The only nice screen I found was down 250' in 300' of water, pulled rigs and a top line with no results. The afternoon wasn't much better and we finally found a couple land locks after 7PM. Sunday we went back to land lock country and spent the day running leadcores and down riggers, ended up with 15 three to four pounders, included browns, rainbows, lakers and salmon. almost every fish had lampreys or recent scars, one rainbow came in with two attached and we even hooked one on a Yozuri - never had that before. Monday we stuck it out till 10:30, lost one decent fish of leadcore and got drowned by the time we got the boat back on the trailer. The good news was catching browns, we haven't caught any in years on Seneca.

I use a piece of PVC board, can paint it to match if you like.

Boy that brings back memories, hanging off a mousetrap bracket on the back of my boat, quartering the wind so you didn't turn green from the exhaust, We ran one for 20 years!

X2 on Lakebound88's method.

This has been interesting banter. I didn't know I could lock my radio off the distress channels. I sometimes shut it off though. I have had the opportunity to help several less fortunate boaters over the years and been dragged in once myself long ago. I can't imagine anyone not coming to the aid of a fellow boater, especially on one of the big lakes. If we hear or see you we will try to help.

I'll take them. Sending you a PM

cash & carry but where do you live??

You need to understand Sk8man and Hop have been doing this kind of fishing year round since the early to mid 1970's and see things going on watching their rod tips that we mere mortals will never grasp. Or it could be the entire days they spent out there when the rest of us decided to stay warm and dry.

SKUNK Took my daughter and probable son-in-law out of Hughes, hit the water around 6:30AM, worked from 80' - 130" of water, best screen around 80 - 90 then moved up to 65 - 70 but we couldn't even buy a release. tried from 2.0 - 3.2 mph. High point of trip was breakfast sandwiches son in law grabbed at Hughes - they where excellent. Good luck to you all, Bob

I finally figured out that Les dulled the hooks on all the homemade flies that he's given me! :lol: