58Johnson

Fished dinnertime till sunset on the east side run below AES to Meyers. Action in 70-85 ft was very good. Fished Kwikfish near bottom with cow bells. Speed 1.3.

Did two trips Saturday: AM Trip: 6am from Meyers. Crossed over. Wind was strong so I trolled with it up to Taughannock. Noticed a lot of boats staying south. I pushed back just south of the point across from Meyers and did the with the wind troll north again. Got one smallish laker on the first run. Got a pig laker on the second run. The pig got to within 10 feet below the boat and refused to come up. The last 10 feet took seemingly forever, moving only inches at a time. Both came from 125ft on bottom. PM trip: In the afternoon (3pm) pushed from Meyers all the way south to the dropoff by Ithaca. Trolled north with the wind. Got a steady pick of smallish lakers. Got one medium. Motor sputtered before it was empty so I decided to hightail it back into Meyers rather than be stuck out in the wind. Done by 6pm. AM trip was much less productive than I expected. I know the south wind messes with the water temps. The PM trip proved that at least there are fish active out there as they should be this time of year. Any one else run into less pre spawn aggressive fish lately? (ps. I'm not complaining...the pig made it all worth while!)

58 Johnson Update: I sent my info to Billy V and got a call immediately from Jennifer at Humminbird. I explained that I had been able to get my 768 combo working again through a software update, redoing my electrical connections and using my old quad transducer. Jennifer asked if she could send out a new dual band transducer just to be sure I had a good dual (I also have the quad). I thought that was a nice gesture and good insurance for the future. She was very helpful and knowlegable. She gave me some good suggestions and followed my rambling explanation of events very well. I'll post later if things don't continue to work out. For now, all is working and HBird has been interested and helpful in solving my issue of losing bottom. Also, Billy V...thank you for stepping up and bringing our concerns to Humminbird's attention.

You said you broke off at the knot. It might be possible that the line broke at the contact point with the downrigger release. I avoid abraiding the line there by using a rubber band (staples run of the mill #16s) half hitched around the line and the loop end is hooked to the release. You can reduce slippage by wrapping the rubber band around the line 3 times before the half hitch. The rubber band WILL go through your guides on retreive and wind onto the reel. Thats OK. The added advantage is that big fish will break the rubber band and little fish will usually bounce the tip of your rod so you know they are there. If it IS breaking at the swivel it isn't a Palomar tied properly. They are one of the best knots and one of the easiest to tie. Wet em to tighten. Pull them tight. Don't let a loop get hooked over the metal loop of the swivel you are tying to.

To be fair to Humminbird here is an update: Downloaded software update to SD card and loaded into fishfinder after restoring defaults. Unit said version was the same as what I already had and no update was needed. The non update has dramatically improved things. I lose bottom really infrequently for only seconds now. I know things were updated because TVG was replaced by Switchfire in the sonar menu. I am also now using the quad transducer. Both quad and dual were losing bottom previously. I stayed with the quad because it seemed like it was a better quality unit. I don't know if the dual ducer was the cause of the problem previously. So...all is working well now for me. I have fish arches, can track downrigger balls to 100+ feet and do not lose bottom frequently. Lets see if this lasts. Fishing is more fun now.

Same issues from 768 combo. Loses bottom randomly No longer marks fish arches Humminbird customer service says send it in cause I've already swapped transducers with no improvement, set the unit to salt water deep with no improvement, set surface clutter to 10 with no improvement, turned off all other electronics with no improvement, etc, etc. Unit worked GREAT when new. Tracked downrigger balls well past 100ft. Now it distracts me from fishing. Too bad.

Lakers were hitting on perch color rapalas and sticks run behind cowbells Sunday morning. Depths were 6-10 feet off bottom in 80 to 120 ft. Speed was 1.2-2.0. Set up by AES and headed south. The wind pushed me along and helped with keeping up an erratic motion. Also headed east west occasionally to roll on the waves. This was my best day ever for total number of fish boated. All released. I lost track around 12 and ended up with around two dozen. All small to medium..no pigs. I was waiting for a good one with all the action going on. I used one 5" stick and one shad rap. The 5" picked up lots of small fish. I was expecting to get fewer but bigger fish on the 5". I quit before getting all the way to Meyers. My arms were getting tired hauling in the the bells. That's a good day when the fish tire you out.

Head south... There are points and bays in the south half that are usually productive. Try random areas along the shore also. There are lots of productive spots to be found. Skinny has much less weeds than most of the finger lakes. Look for the cobbled bottom. Also you can look for cliffs on the east side down lake. This is a good place to fish a dropoff. I use tube jigs. 2 3/4" with 1/8th oz jig heads. Pumpkinseed color. These get a good ratio of hookups but occasionally they will swallow them (that's on the small side for a tube jig). There are fish in the shallows but I get the bigger ones out in 20ft. Skinny is loaded with smallmouth. They run on the small side generally but some decent ones can be found. I pulled my biggest smallie ever out of the southern end of the lake. Good luck

Salmon were hitting Spinnies/flies tonight at 50 and 85 down over 145 to 225 FOW. Got out from 8 to 9:30. Fished stretch just below AES down to Meyers (east side). Pleased to get the flies working at last. I have been all spoon bite this year. Steady nonstop Salmon for the first hour. Almost always a fish on but zero doubles. I moved in to target Lakers in the 100 to 125 FOW but could not find them. I just switched over to Big Game 30lb for the fleas. I tried Flea Flicker last year. Very few fleas and also very few fish with Flicker! Liking the Big Game. Weeds were pretty minimal for a change. A good quick trip.

Frisco..it was nice crossing paths with you today. Appreciate your advice on the deeper water on the east side. I got spoons to work today. Got two big lakers and a ton of salmon. I switched over to spinny/fly and got nothing at all later in the morning. I packed up and headed over to the west side and got more salmon and then got haunted by a big fish on with a breakoff. This year has been bad with breakoffs on big fish. I am using 15 ft Seagar Fluoro 15 lb leaders with palomar knots to a mini swivel to braid main line. Big fish will break off sometimes even when I'm careful. Its frustrating cause I used strictly braid last year with fewer fish on but NO breakoffs. The fluoro leader is a blessing and a curse. Again it was nice talking today. It was a beautiful day out there!

I'm off from work for a week so I have been getting out regularly. Monday action was very good. Tuesday was awful. Here's where I found the Monday fish: Rainbows - Good concentration out just in front of AES (Milliken). 35- 50 down over 145 to 200 FOW. Got several big ones. Best ever rainbow action AES. Chartruse spoons 2.2 to 2.6 SOG. Salmon - Tons of small to medium south of Miliken all the way to Meyers. Actually trended towards medium (still not legal) for a change. 25-50 down over 70 to 100 FOW. Any speed/ Any spoon. Lakers - A few big ones south of Miliken after the cottages end. In the run by the blue house (shed by rr tracks). 100 ft down over 100 ft. Chartruse cowbells/ small rapala did the trick. Tuesday I fished the same areas with only one tiny laker for the whole trip. What a difference one day makes! At least I had one hot day that showed where the fish are at. Its been hard to locate the fish mid lake recently. I have had good luck up Long Point way pretty consistantly in June but not so much a little further south. Sorry no pictures.

Can anyone give some info on Sutton's. 44s and 88s are all I've seen. All in brass. All in single hook. All smooth. These were from the pulling copper days. What do you use? Silver? Brass? Silver/Brass combo? Smooth? Hammered? Single hook? Treble hook? Anything other than 44s and 88s? Just Lakers? Any special speed or technique?

Did a morning run (8am) on the west side starting south of Taughannock. No action at all until I got near Camp Barton. I was fishing 25-35 down - 80 back with spoons. Got a medium size Brown on a DW Blue Dolphin. Immediately after I got a very active Salmon on a Stinger Alwife Holo. Speed was 2.4 for both. Crossed over to the East side heading south and picked up another Salmon with the Alwife spoon. Other boats reported no action so three sounded like a good outing for the quick trip. This is the Brown:

Did a short Friday eve run north from Meyers. First was a Pickerel (18") from the shallows. Next a heavy Laker (21") from 10 down over 35ft. Last was my first Brown of the year. Got it as I almost beached my boat playing with the fishfinder. I swerved back out and sped up quickly only to have the rod pop in a not so snagged the bottom way. That was fun! Got one more good hit but lost it quickly. Very good quick trip. Just a Salmon/Rainbow short of a grand slam.

Fished south end this morning. Very very slow start...smooth surface...lots of junk. Found salmon in 50-70ft. Caught 2. Spoons off mini divers. Wind picked up. I thought that the chop would help. No bites. Headed back up north on East side. Ran one stick waaaay back and one mini diver/spoon. The mini diver picked up 3 salmon and the stick got a great hit with a huge run on a salmon.

I agree....there were a lot of boats out for a Wed morning. I had luck with spoons and dipseys for the LL. Stayed in the dropoff water, 80 ft plus. Boated 7 lost 4. Best action from 9am to 10:30.

Salmon were attacking my mini diver/spoon setups this morning. I got tired of hauling in the little ones. Had one beauty get off at the boat due to a slightly too long leader. I knocked the spoon out of its mouth as I reached with the net. I lost count on the salmon. I got one 18" rainbow as I was pulling up to quit. That was a nice finale. Fished the 30' to 60' mainly. Alwife spoon (Stinger) and orange mini was by far the most productive. Speed was magic accelerating from 2.2 to 2.4. Great, great day!

The launch at Meyers Park was open this morning (no more barrels).

As I walked in the door today returning from a business trip to NJ, my 13 yr old son asked..."Can we go fishing?" How could I refuse. I made a call to confirm my suspicions on where the fish were at and headed out the door at 4:30. Drove around the bottom of the lake and on up to Taughannock. Launched, squeezed to the right under the bridge and headed north. Made one short pass north, toplining with stickbaits, made a u turn and we doubled up on the LLS. This was his first LL. He boated it without the net. When I got mine in we saw his was at least half again as big. Had a beer belly. We released both. No weights or measurements but mine was a 12-14 incher and his was near legal. We headed in after not finding them again. We were pretty cold by then, but a great day. He much prefers the fast action of perch and bass, but trips like these help to wet his appetite for the open water techniques. Sorry no pics..

Meyers was blocked off with barrels Wed. Also the channel by the lighthouse was blocked by a long tube. Major construction looked to be going on on the lake side of the public marina. Someone had launched, or tried to launch, on Tues by the look of the tire tracks in the remaining snow. The water is only a couple of feet deep at the ramp. That must have been fun.

The slider was on a 7 ft flouro (15lb test) leader. Speed was lake trout slow.

Fished 8-19-09 just north of Mile Point after dinner tonight. Mechanical problems almost cancelled the trip. A parking lot repair and out I went. Got this 24" Rainbow on an alwive spoon (slider) around 40' over 120'. No arial acrobatics at all.

Trolled west side across Meyers up to Taughanock early in am. Picked up one small laker. Boat control was a little tough going into the wind. Crossed over just below AES. Trolled south. Changed over to spoons. Immediately picked up another small one. Then had to raise the riggers quickly cause bottom was coming up fast. Rod popped and I thought I had snagged. Instead I had my only legal fish for the day on. Not huge. 24" around 6 lbs. Finished by pulling in around Meyers and finding another shaker on. Still had alot of fight so I probably hadn't dragged it around too much. Used flea flicker 20lb for the first time. Used double rubber bands wrapped three times then half hitched to keep from sliding. Flicker worked OK. Still got some fleas but could whip them off pretty easily. It was much better than the 14lb Trilene XT I had been using. The XT was ruffed up enough to collect tons of fleas in places so it definitely was time to respool. I'll watch to see if I get any breakoffs from ff. That is a known issue with flea flicker when rubber bands are not used.

Matt, Was the 70-80 fishing on the bottom (80 FOW) or were you fishing for suspended fish in deeper water?

Launched out of Meyers 7am. Went over to west side. Got a decent laker on a green (chartreuse) atomik fly and green flasher before I got the second pole in the water. Caught weeds and fleas for the next hour or so. Done by 10am. Other picture is a largemouth caught about a week ago by Cargill (on a nightcrawler not the lure shown),