ac holmes

I am looking for a trailer for a 27 foot EASTERN BOAT COMPANY inboard that weighs about 6000 lbs. Phone # 831-241-8018 Thanks, Andrew Holmes

what is a control king for honda?

My 2 cents I have spent most of my adult life around Seneca lake and have had boats on that lake for more than 50 years. I have come to the understanding that one must think of Seneca as a "bigger water" situation than the other finger lakes, under some conditions. Big waves can build in a hurry and they are closely stacked waves with no swell, like the great lakes or the ocean has. If you get abeam of those waves a small boat can get in trouble fast, and the other thing is, a big wave pouring over the transom if the bow digs in. As we know, the waves get the biggest as they come into shallow water...duh...out in front on the south end is the worst of it in a big wind. I have gotten into trouble 2x, years ago, in a small boat trying to get back into the canal when a storm came up. Better to go aground someplace at some cottage beach.

Hi Tuck, Andrew here...I was down at the dock today for awhile and the water is cleared up and looks good. TUCKS LUCK looks OK. Still some junk floating around but not too bad at all. I was going to fish yesterday but the wind came up out of the N, and it felt awful cold to me, colder than it did 20 years ago. Supposed to be cold all week and some snow also. On a happier note, I have been seeing some nice sized Smallmouths right around the docks and they look active and hungry.

These fish are huge http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 7111436613

Yes indeed...3cyl Yanmar with a closed cooling system and an exchanger for the fresh water circuit. I have been putting a little anti freeze in overnight but yesterday went to a small heater in the doghouse. It trolls too fast at idle and it's not good to idle the diesel for long periods anyway, so I am using 2 small, Cabala trolling bags. The bags are very easy to deploy off the bow and run amidships...it takes 30 seconds to drop them in and another 30 to pull them. With the bags, I can adjust my speed exactly by tapping the throttle a bit and the engine is turning at it's sweet spot (1200-1500 RPM), under load. It is all too easy and a near perfect setup. I thought that I would need a kicker in the beginning but it is totally not needed, although it would be nice to have backup power. I suspect trolling bags would be a good option for a lot of big, outboards rigs instead of a kicker. The bags are far easier than I ever guessed once you get them setup. The Cabala bags have a float on one side of the opening and a lead weight on the bottom, so they pop open every time. I had some bags years ago that lacked this feature and they were a pain in the butt to use. The bags provide another happy accident that I had not planned on. I have a RayMarine X-5 sport autohelm installed with cable steering to the rudder. At 1200-1500 RPM, there is a pretty strong prop wash at the rudder and just a little tweek from the autohelm is all that's needed to keep a course. I have never had an autohelm that worked as well at trolling speeds with wind and waves. In the past, my Simrad setup on two Honda 90's worked itself to death keeping a course, and the noise from the pump drove me nuts, although those Hondas were sweet and very quiet. That auto helm worked fine going fast, but very poorly at trolling speed. TARA is a beauty and a wonderful boat to fish in. Three fisherfolk is plenty and four is too crowded in the cockpit. It is not a good choice for a charter boat (which is what I will be doing a little of next year) but I will do two guys instead of four and charge less for the trip. TARA is very slow wide open (10 MPH) but easily trailered if I want to fish the North end or another Lake. All boats are compromises and TARA seems like a pretty good fit for me at this stage of my life. It cost too much but what the hell, I don't have kids and am retired from business and troubles for the most part, and I sure did not want another project boat. I will try to get a buddy to take some pictures on the water from his boat and post them. I think there may be something to "hot" boats and boats that do not catch fish as well. I don't know if it has to do with engine noise or electrical discharge, etc., etc. TARA is most happily a "hot" boat and I have never had such good results fishing as I have this season. I just know I am going to catch fish as soon as I get the lines set up. Keep happy, AC Holmes

All of the salmon I have been catching lately are fat hogs, but their gut is empty. Maybe they have been instinctively in a spawning behavior this time of year (although natural reproduction is very minimal I am told), and have just started to eat again. I know they are hungry the last few days. They really slam the spoons and there is no doubt about triggering the release. The fat fish I caught yesterday jumped very high 3 times...the first jump was 10 feet or so out of the water. These LL's are beautiful, powerful fish and also very fine table fare fresh out of the cold, clear water. Finger Lakes Salmon are lot different than farmed salmon that spend their life swimming around in their own waste.

I did a little more afternoon fishing today and had some luck with LL's. A few little guys today but one bigger one. They seem to like the Moose look and Moose look, look alike in photo in gold and orange. This fish was at 30 feet over 100 foot bottom, 2.5 MPH over ground. I like fishing for the Salmon and do not mess with the Lakers unless I have to. My buddy was on the water today and they caught a nice Rainbow and a good brown on top lines.

My wife and I went out this PM for a few hours and we got right into the LLs. About 6 miles from Watkins Glen in the top 50 feet of water over 125-175 foot bottom. The biggest one hit a top line and the other two on the rigger down about 50 feet. All spoon bite: small Mooselook gold and red for one fish and a small green and orange spoon that I painted myself for the other two. The top line fish jumped many times and tested my ultralight tackle a little. It was a nice day on the water and I am looking forward to cold water fishing this season as my new boat has a cabin heater. mb

Hello Rebs, I sent email... AC Holmes

How do you "bleed" a fish?

I asked my good seawife to join me today and we trolled for an hour or so without results. I told her we needed to get very scientific about the fishing thing and find out were the 50-55 degree water was. I put the probe down and set both riggers at 80 feet where the water was 52 degrees. Within 5 minutes we had a nice bow and a smaller LL. She was quite impressed and went home with the delusion that I actually knew what I was talking about.

My buddy Mike and I fished the S end today and caught no fish at all. We did all the things we usually do but got skunked...first time this year. It was a perfect day on the water however. Tried hard off several points to get into some of those big browns that erabbit has been catching.

Hi Chuck, Thanks for the report. I have always wanted to learn more about Hemlock Lake. I used to spend a lot of time in that part of the state many years ago and always thought the lake was very special. I would like to fish it this fall. I have a small boat to meet the size and power limits and know how to get the free permit, but could you suggest a launch and some basic suggestions for trolling. Thanks, Andrew

Hi Guys, More details about the "new ride" TARA. I ordered the boat @ http://www.winterssailing.com/ in Riverside NJ last December. Glen Winter is the owner and a great guy to do business with. I picked the boat up and trailered to Seneca Lake last April. I messed around with my old boat this spring to get it sold and launched TARA in mid June. The boat was brand new and had never been in the water until we did sea trials in NJ. Regarding low freeboard, if you notice in the photo or better still, the link to the factory brochure at the top of this thread, you will notice heavy duty (1 inch) stainless guard rail sections that are mounted in thru-bolted sockets with backing plates. Without those guard rails, I would feel a little top heavy and somewhat concerned about falling out, and I would have passed on buying the boat. I feel that way on a lot of boats that I have fished in lately and think it is quite dangerous, especially if you fish alone. The very nice thing about TARA's rails is that they are in 30 inch sections and can be easily slid in or out as needed. I have removed one on each side to get at the BIG JON riggers (always used Scottys before) but like the BIG JONs pretty well so far, and they fit my space better than other brands. The downrigger itself serves as a pretty good safety rail. I also removed the rail on the stern as it is not needed either as I have installed rod holders and filet table there. Everything is just fine and I am not disappointed with the purchase. As I said above, I have had quite a number of boats and I knew what I was getting into before I made the deposit. The Ranger Tugs have a phenomenal resale value and are a kind of liquid asset when one wants to sell, if you keep it up well. The downside is the fact that the boat is very slow...10 MPH wide open. I cannot therefore, tear ass up to Sampson to fish for a few hours and then tear ass back to the Village Marina in Watkins Glen. I can however chug, chug up to Peach Orchard and fish back, or fish up and chug, chug back. I traded off speed for the fun of the 30 HP diesel and I wanted a setup that trailers easily. I have a dandy tandem axel aluminum trailer that was specifically designed for the boat and I can pull the whole package with my 1/2 ton truck, and the boat goes on and off very quickly. The boat is 2750 lbs. dry and the trailer is about 650 lbs. I barely know I'm pulling something. I want to fish the other lakes in NY state and that is one of the main reasons for my choice. Finally, I like boats and boating and have built several small boats and have spent a lot of time with all kinds of sailboats, fishing boats, etc., etc. So it is important to me that I enjoy the boat I use to fish with and I am old enough now to know that we must do the things that are important to us now, and not put things off too much. If I don't catch fish, I still enjoy the ride.

North Coast 24...terrific deep V fishing platform and a great boat for Lake Ontario. I think the molds were sold to another company and now the design may be made under another name, but used ones from the 80's are available but still hold their value very well.

If you guys started at 4:30 you must have got bounced around a bit.

Fished for a few hours yesterday PM from about 2 until 4:30 N of Watkins Glen 7 -10 miles E side. Boated 4 fish, 3 LLs, 2 keepers about 4#s and 1 fat Laker about 7-8 #s. All on green and gold Spin Dr with Big Weenie greenish flies. We fished @ 100 feet down at 2.4 MPH. All fish hit in one area within 45 min. Lots of bait at that spot. Continue to mark larger suspended fish in the 60 -100 foot range.

Sure...dock two at Village Marina

Hi Mower, Yes, I remember our chats at the Sea Tech class. The instructor, Dennis Danials, has spent the summer sailing the two masted schooner, MALIBAR, at the south end of Seneca. Somedays he has 12 or 15 people aboard. I see him nearly every AM and we shoot the breeze a little. He likes TARA a lot. It is true that the cuddy in TARA is not of much use for two people to use as a weekend hide-a-way, however, if you were not good friends when you got in there you sure would be by the time you got out in the morning. Best, Andrew

Thanks guys... I'm pleased that you like TARA. She is not perfect but all boats are compromises. Basically, the Ranger company builds a good boat and have incorporated good design with a top notch build and the best materials. A few more details below for those who may be interested. I have a kicker motor but do not think I will need/use it. I am deploying 2 small Cabala trolling sacks off the bow and running them amidships. It is very easy with the Cabala sacks because the bottom of the sack opening is weighted and the top has a foam strip for flotation, so the sack pops open as soon as it hits the water. With the bags out, I can troll at any speed I wish easily. It turns out that I can run the Yanmar in it's sweet spot (about 1650 RPM's) and the boat is making 2.3-2.5 MPH over ground. It's a little noisy compared to my last boat that had 2, 4 stroke HONDA 90's that were virtually noiseless at trolling speeds, but it is OK and I am already used to the chugging sound. The bags help to stabilize the bow, especially when trolling upwind and quartering, and that sure helps the Ray Marine Sport X-5 auto helm to do it's job very well. Of course, the inboard prop wash it an inch or two away from a hefty rudder blade so the boat handles like a sports car and the auto helm actually works perfectly, even in a bit of wind and waves at low speed. cheers, ac holmes

The new ride... company brochure... http://rangertugs.com/r/images/brochure ... Bro-08.pdf I have had many boats in my life, so I kinda knew what I wanted this time. For what I paid, I might have bought a much bigger, faster fishing platform but I have been there done that. I wanted a boat that I can: trailer easily, has an inboard diesel, fish alone, fish in cold, wet weather and that looks like a boat. I have done quite a bit of custom woodwork to make it a fishing/trolling rig and so far so good. It has a low freeboard but seems pretty good in a 2 foot chop on Seneca and I suspect with careful attention to the weather it would be good on bigger water also.

This is a sistership to my new boat doing sea trials...very seaworthy little craft. My boat is named TARA and has a dark blue hull. I have been getting her fitted out for fishing and will post a few pictures soon.

Jason and I fished in my new rig yesterday (will get some photos posted soon) all the way from Watkins Glen To Peach Orchard Pt. and caught a few fish. The new boat is a 21ft Ranger Tug with a 3 cyl Yanmar 30 HP diesel. It is a delight to fish in and very comfortable for 3 fisherfolk, 4 would get a little crowded, especially if they were the size of Jason and myself. I plan to do a few charters out of Watkins Glen with the new boat but do not want the business end of it interfere with my fishing too much. We kept 2 lakers and, technically, had a grand slam but the rainbow was not much bigger than the spoon he whacked. We fished with riggers and dipsies in the 60-110 ft range with spin doctor/fly setups and all manner of spoons. Our trolling speed was 2.2-2.5. Everything was working but the action was slow. No weeds on the W side as the wind has been SW for several days and the fleas are minimal now on Seneca. Marked lots and lots of bait at the 60-100 range and quite a few larger, suspended fish in that range as well. I am going out alone today and plan to fish a little further N toward Fir Tree Pt.

Hello ERABBIT, Your comments on multi species is very much in line with data about salmonoids and preferred temp. From what I read, the lakers like it cold at 48* or less, the LLs, rainbows, and browns can tolerate and prefer warmer water with the browns doing well with 58-60* temps, and the LLs and bows around 52* to 56*. I suspect that all these species feed outside of their temp bands when food is available but will statistically be most populated at preferred temp band. A band with a differential of 10* (between 48*-58*) may represent 50 or more FOW depth according to my temp probe. My own experience is as follows: I almost always fish a cheater/slider spoon off my downrigger setup. If I am at 80 FOW with the ball, the cheater is down aprox 40 or so feet and I usually catch a LL or a bow on the cheater and lakers off the ball. The deeper water is always colder I guess and this all makes sense. Maybe one of the reasons for the Seth Green "meat rig" being such a good method for filling the fish box is the fact that some of the leaders will almost always be in a preferred band.