Adm Byrd

Look the boat over closely, tap on stringers and transom with a small hammer, pray you don't hear dull hollow thuds. Ended up replacing transom and repairing three stringers in my 18'. Had so much fun repairing that one I bought a 21' last year which had a little rot on one battery tray and water had discolored the divider / stiffener between engine compartment and fuel tank. I replaced that piece, ground the decay from the battery tray and reinforced it with cloth and West systems epoxy. On the two I worked on Penn Yan embeds a piece of wood in the floor on engine side of divider (to mount bilge pump to) which acts as a dam holding water ahead of it and poor sealing of the bottom of the divider allows water to wick into the wood. I spent extra time making sure I got all the drain passages sealed up. If you are patient and a little handy you can do it yourself. Bob

Nothing brings the greed out like a few cooperating perch. I used to be driven by the catch at any cost motto but with age I've realized to appreciate the expierence much more than the quantity. I don't understand folks taking a ton of dinks or worse yet the old ice fishing method of throwing them on the ice so you don't catch them again. With the increased fishing pressure from more anglers I worry about the long term effects over harvesting and selling will have. Our state gov't can't seem to wisely manage our money or our resources, lets hope they get a handle on this one before its gone. Speaking of gone, where did all the smallmouth go to in the Finger Lakes? Last region 8 state of the lakes meeting I attended the biologists commented on the lack of funds to allow them to manage cold water species let alone the warm water ones. Bob

Ted, We thought that was you out there. Glad you got into them. Your report will put Sk8man over the edge Bob

Want Ontario bad but haven't seen a decent report yet and crowds just keep me tense. So Saturday we had the morning to fish and decided to save gas and fish longer on Seneca. Launched at the chamber and headed south. Started in 170' coming back with the stiff south wind, got to 150 and started marking fish. We caught fish all morning on rigs, dipsys and one downrigger - downrigger out 100' - 105' was hot but they would just swim with it, had to trip it and they where usually there, only got a wiggle on the rod about half the time. They didn't fight as agressively as the previous weekend but they wanted to stay deep. We don't remember how many we got to the boat, around 10 and lost atleast another 8. Back at the dock by 1. Enjoy, Bob

We got a late start Sunday, was prepared to go out of Hughes but Les said the reports where dismal, he also said Kevin was trying Seneca so I gave him a call and decided to stay closer to home - it was the right plan! we hit the water and passed Kevin as he was coming in. We started south of Belhurst and got into fish immediately. We ran dipsy / spin doctor / flies off each side and pulled a pai of Seth rigs. I've never expierenced so many grabs on flies in my life, many yanked it a couple times and never hooked up or even tripped them. The ones that got the hook in fought like crazy, even lost a fly and paddle to a good one. As the flies slowed down the rigs took over with steady hits. They finally slowed down but the picture on the screen said they where still active, finally picked up our speed a bit and the bites started right back - we knocked off around 5. Caught lakers from 12" to close to 12 lbs, all went back to fight again. Bob

Thanks Nick, you make us feel like we are with you or at least want to be with you - great report! Bob

One trip we found them on our way up at Gander Mtn in Watertown in many colors - 4 years ago though. Bob

I also had my trailer's cross member rust in half, found out while loading back up at Sampson, I was lucky enough to limp it home and get new ones fabricated ( under my 18', not the new one). Bob

Thanks for the ideas guys, I was trying to work the problem out in the back of my gray matter and this certainly helped - nothing sucks worse than fighting a diving board and a fish at the same time. Bob