mjb377

Got out for a quick trip yesterday evening. Managed 6 lakers from 7:30 to 9 PM off Myers point, sizes ran between 7.5 and 9.5 lbs. Dipsys with fly and flasher rigs have been hot for me most of the summer, but a green and silver spoon with a glow ladder back off the rigger at about 65ft was the ticket yesterday, taking 5 of the fish.

- Matt

Thanks for the input chowder. Getting the copper / leader connection through the levelwind is not something I even thought about. What type of connection do you like to use there? Albright knot? Inline swivel? Something else?

- Matt

Hey Copper Trollers,

I am looking to set up a rig for trolling copper on Cayuga without breaking the bank. So for I have collected a Cabelas DM45 linecounter reel for $30 on sale, a 300' spool of 45lb copper, and some 50lb powerpro for backing. For the rod I am hoping to use something I already have laying around my garage. I have three rods sitting around and not getting much use right now. They are:

1) 8'6" downrigger rod - M action, softer tip

2) 9' dipsy diver rod - M action, more backbone

3) 6'6" MH trolling rod

Which of these rods would be best suited to trolling copper? I plan to mostly run the copper down the chute, but I'll probably use it with planer boards as well sometimes.

Thanks,

Matt

Hi John,

While there are plenty of guys here who know much more about Finger Lakes fishing than I do, here are my suggestions based on my 3 seasons of trolling Cayuga for lakers:

1. IMO mid afternoons are generally the worst fishing of the day. I find the first 2-3 hours of daylight and the last 2-3 hours of the day to be much better.

2. This season in particular, dipsys with fly/flasher rigs are outproducing downriggers by a large margin for my crew. Run your dipsys 200 - 275 feet back on a #2 or 2.5 setting to spread them away from your boat. Green, green/white, and pure white have all been good fly colors for me this year. I run mostly G-Fly + Echip flies, but I think the Atomiks should work fine. Some days the small "peanut" style flies are killer too.

3. If you are running a spoon on your rigger, always run another spoon on a cheater. This way you can put lure down deep for lakers and still pick up shallower landlocks on the cheater. If you are running a flasher on the rigger you may want to skip the cheater to eliminate tangles.

4. Equipment wise, you seem to have all the basic tools you need. If you have some money to burn, the only addition I'd suggest is a downrigger speed and temp probe as Mower talked about. GPS speeds and downspeeds are often quite different - usually I troll between 2 and 2.5 mph at the downrigger ball and the GPS will read anywhere from 2.4 to 3.5 mph.

Good luck and keep at it.

- Matt

Thanks for the info on the divers guys. Those snap weights sound interesting as well. Does anyone have any info on how much depth each ounce of snap weight will add to the leadcore?

[ Post made via Mobile Device ]

Hi Indian,

I've heard about guys running long leaders behind dipsys like you suggest but I have never tried it because I am not sure how to handle netting a fish with that much leader. Do you just reel in as far as you can and then hand-line the fish from there or what?

Thanks.

Any chance those port riggers work when the cable is *out* of the water? I had a weird problem with my mag 10s at the end of last season where the riggers would work normally out of the water, lower the ball to depth fine, but then refuse to reel the ball back up. Apparently the shortstop feature was malfunctioning. I ended up totally bypassing the circuit board inside the rigger and just hooking up the motor directly to a DPDT momentary toggle switch. After that the rigger worked fine, but you have to hold the switch up or down to raise or lower the ball. Weirdest thing of all was this problem first appeared on my starboard rigger, and then, two weeks later the port side started doing it too!

I don't know if any of this affects you, but you might want to try bypassing the circuit board inside the housing just to verify that it is not the problem.

- Matt

Hey Guys,

I've got a pair of Mag 10s that I bought used 2 years ago. They are the version with the gray toggle switch in the back, postive ion control, and the shortstop feature. Up until now, they have been very reliable and have never given me any real trouble. Now, on my last two trips both riggers have failed! First, on Sunday, the starboard rigger would not come up. It would go down fine, but when you pushed the switch up, nothing. If I unplugged the rigger for a minute or so and then reconnected it to the battery, it would come up fine, but as soon as you went down at all it would not come up again. I took the motor housing apart, everything looked fine, no moisture or corrosion, all wires connected. So I figured the relays on the circuit board must have gone bad and I would have to get a replacement. Now tonight, the port one is doing something similar! Again it goes down fine, but it will only come up about 6in at a time, then stop. If you let the switch go and then push it again it will come up another 6in or so, then stop. Once the ball is out of the water, it works fine again.

It seems awfully suspicious that both of these circuit boards would have decided to fail at almost the same time - anyone have any ideas what might be causing my problems? Anybody ever have something like this happen on their riggers?

Thanks,

Matt

We were fishing for the suspended fish in water 90- 200 fow.

Sure lavarock,

They are on Ebay actually. Here's the link:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/CANNON-D ... |72%3A1171

I decided the price is too good to pass up and just bought one. I figure that at this price if I don't like it I can probably throw it back on Ebay and get most if not all of my money back.

Happy Trolling!

Matt

Got out from 6pm til dark with a buddy from work. The water started out a little choppy but flattened out around dark. We fished Meyers to the point just south of AES. We went 7 for 8 for the night with a mixed bag of lakers, salmon, and a nice fat 27" rainbow that gave 3 good jumps before the net. No particular color or lure, but everything came between 70 and 80 ft on the riggers or 210 - 250 back on the dipseys.

- Matt

Hello fellow trollers,

What brands of downrigger speed and temperature probes does everyone use? I've been thinking about buying the Moor based on recommendations from friends, but I can get the Cannon speed-n-temp for under $200 on internet closeout. Cost is a concern for me, but I don't want to regret the purchase either and buying a discontinued product might be risky.

If it makes any difference, the probe will mostly be used on Cayuga for lakers.

Thanks,

Matt

Hey Guys,

What type of line is everyone using for flatline / planer board trolling this time of year? I switched to 30lb fleaflicker on all my rods last summer and have not respooled yet. Should I switch to something lighter - maybe 12 or 14 for trolling Cayuga right now or just stick with the heavy stuff? Is it worth using a flouro or hybrid line? flouro leader?

Thanks!

Matt

Went out of Ithaca for a couple of hours this morning. Time was short so I fished the south end, near the Cornell bouys and along the drop off. Caught 3 landlocks, none were legal. Marked tons of fish and bait from about 45 ft down to about 90. Spoons and peanut flies brought the fish.

Anybody catching any browns or legal salmon in this area yet?

- Matt

Hi 58Johnson,

I'm surprised to hear the fly/flasher didn't work for you. Its been the total opposite for me, spoons ignored entirely and flashers and flies the only game in town. White/glow, green/gold, and black/purple have all been hot for me. What speeds were you trolling? 2.2-2.6 has been serving me well.

hahaha guys... I apologize for the lack of posts, I found this site about a month ago but never made the time to get involved. Cayuga does have plenty of fish, especially lakers. My only reason for selling the boat is that we want a bigger one! Here's a couple of my better catches from the past few weeks. I tried to let the big one go but she was floating on the surface in under 5 min.

1998 Bayliner 2452 Hardtop - $26000 obo- Loaded!

This 24 ft hardtop sportfisherman / cruiser is loaded and ready to fish with 2 Cannon Mag 10'S, 6 rod holders, rocket launchers, LOWRANCE x510c color fish finder, GPS, JRC 16 mile radar, and more. UNDER 300 HOURS on Mercruiser 5.7L. The boat is in excellent condition and 100% ready to go. In the water and ready to water test on Cayuga Lake (Ithaca, NY). All reasonable offers considered! For pics and more info see:

http://ithaca.craigslist.org/boa/833668996.html