Fat Trout

I love my fishmaster 196. I moved up from an 18 pro starweld. Sent from my Pixel 2 using Lake Ontario United mobile app

I have a 2018 with a 9.9 kicker on the port side. Mine does not have the tiller arm. I can tell you that the splash well will interfere with the tiller arm laying out flat. You will likely be able to operate it with the arm folded up but that may not work for you. I attached a pic i have from last winter when i had it stored in a sweet garage i had access to. Sent from my Pixel 2 using Lake Ontario United mobile app

Regardless of the DEC saying kings are managed for the lake, they will never shut down the SR for the sake of increasing natural reproduction. That's just the pipe dream of those wanting natural reproduction to make up for the stocking cuts. You can say "DEC said kings are to be managed for the lake" until you are blue in the face, the reality is that natural reproduction makes it harder for the DEC to manage the lake. We can disagree on cuts or no cuts but from a management perspective natural reproduction is a wildcard. They can't count on natural reproduction enough to back off and save rearing tank space for other species, but they also know it could blow out one year and a bumper natural reproduction crop could impact baitfish. Regardless of the economics or the stupidity of the fishing in Pulaski in Sept / Oct, they aren't going to suddenly agree to shut down fishing in a natural reproduction stream in the effort to increase natural reproduction in order to undermine their stocking cuts. Its possible they may in the future shut down the SR in the event of another drought year as bad as the one a 8 years ago or whenever that was when they struggled to get the minimum egg take. Bottom line is they think what they are doing is right for the lake. I fish east. I don't see piles of bait as described by others claiming full on conspiracy theories....that's what I know.

Nope, thanks thats plenty of detail. I wasn't trying to dig at old wounds. I had a 3 min conversation with him when i saw the pen there. Sent from my Pixel 2 using Lake Ontario United mobile app

Just curious ...and only curious...did they turn down atlantics or whatever would be pen reared? I was talking with Bob at Salmon Country and from what I understood the Pen thing degraded into not enough help and he just didn't have the manpower to do it. He was telling me how long it took to wire tie the nets to the pen etc. I don't even remember how it came up, probably because I saw the pen sitting there and asked him. He was telling me something to the effect that those that might have helped had more interest in other things ie browns than steelhead or others. I could be off, only asking again out of curiosity. I realize that volunteer effort is insufficient generally speaking everywhere and usually falls on the shoulders of a very few. Admittedly, my knowledge is piece meal.

25" or to your point...any size limit is stupid. I had a (memorably) gill hooked bleed fest steelie on the small side this summer that was 23.5". The only reason I knew that was there was a DEC survey boat. I had the fish in the box with others but was worried about that one as I came into the inlet as I couldn't recall what was current reg. I shake small fish off at the boat side IF workable, non copper etc and seemingly survivable. This guy ate the whole thing deep enough to get every hook on the treble in the gills in a total bleedfest I regretted bringing over the side in my new boat (hence the clear memory). I'm not a charter, but an obviously dead fish went in the box. I was pretty sure 21" was the current rule but I did sweat for a moment when I saw the state boat. I try to play nice but I do hate this game.

So, against my better judgment I'll add this for anyone following this thread...and with full knowledge that I recall you to be a little bit of a sH*t stirrer from other forum(s) at other times. A significant lake user perspective / concern if nothing else (and which I respect) is a "give an inch take a mile concern". Way back the limit use to be 5. Now its 3. Now add a restriction to steelhead from 3 to 2. The fully logical question is ….whats next? You took steelhead to 2....lets go to one...and while we are at it lets take browns from 3 to 2 to …..some day 1. I get it, it was stated in earlier posts. Its the lobster being cooked without realizing it by starting in a cold pot and not realizing until its too late that its too hot. I won't debate this one. This is the one thing without question I fully understand from the lake fisherman's point of view. I'll add from the river side, that I see the same in different ways. Is it this current reg....we'll yes, I saw prior fishery impact from diverted effort in the lake reducing trib results. Yes it happened. However I also appreciate the give an inch issue too. I watched the DSR do this for years. I went from supporter to at best neutral to negative. I had a season pass for 23 years and bailed on it this past year. You can only piss on my back and tell me its raining for so long. I don't love coolers full of fish but I do understand the perspective. lake guys have historically put in effort to the fishery as a whole. River guys...nope....other than those few that play both sides and those are a select few charter guys (mostly).

Whos arguing. I was only replying to your comment that you were still waiting for pictures of limits (or near limits) of steelhead. Limits happen. If you target it happens....some places more than others. If you want your limit take it. Don't act like it never happens.

Well perhaps in this case since there are 5 people and a brown.

Here's 9.....good catch. October even so current events. I don't know who's who though.

Your opinion is yours and that's fine. I'm not some new guy who doesn't understand about boxes of 9+ other kinds of fish. I've fished this lake for 30+ years, I know exactly what comes in to port out of sight in white rectangles. More power to those that have good day(s) I don't care, and I personally think TU should go F themselves and stay out of this fishery. However I did run a drift boat from 95' to 2005' and saw exactly what redirected effort did to steelhead in the tribs. The thing that pisses me off in this thread isn't what we keep its the entitled attitude that we fish for no other reason than to push meat through a grinder in high volume.

At the point this becomes a problem for a charter and someone is looking for a 3rd fish for each client they are already loading up on steelhead primarily if not exclusively and the other options in that location aren't panning out. Move or change tactics. I fish both sides and have done so for a long time, lake mostly in recent years. I see both sides and have no problem with taking limits and full boxes daily but I'll never see the need for a box of 9+ steelhead on a single trip. Worst thread I've seen on this forum. The smash-em in the head with a bat comment on page 1 really took the cake.

Full disclosure I took steelhead more than once last year on my meat rig deep while my high sliders took mature kings meant for steelies! No complaints but couldn't help myself on the post

Gary D rig?

More expensive but I've been running the cannon digi troll 10's for 5 seasons. I really like the soft stop and also the adjustable down speed. I also have an older Scotty 1106 rigger that I'm going to put down the center as my occasional use 3rd rigger. I've used (older) scottys before and have no complaints other than their known operational differences.