Guppy35

Got my new reels in the mail today, can't wait to try them out this Spring!

Just ordered new trolling rods and reels. Spring had better come quick or else i'm going to be broke!

I think antler restrictions should come from within each hunting group, IF they choose to do so. As someone stated earlier, there are trophy hunters, and there are meat hunters. However, regardless of whether you are a trophy hunter or a meat hunter, we all pay the same price for the tags we receive. If there is a MANDATORY antler restriction, it will increase the average size and age of harvested bucks in NY, but will decrease a "meat hunter's" chance to harvest a deer. If you do antler restrictions within your own hunting group, those interested in trophy bucks, will see improvement (if they have the necessary acreage and nutrition for that to happen), but someone interested in just putting venison in the freezer will not be affected by it. Justin has a great point about nuissance permits, from a hunters perspective it's disappointing to see so many deer taken every year because we all know it means we're going to see less in the woods. But from a farmers perspective, it is important to be able to get the best harvest they can every year (and if that means shooting multiple deer, you can bet they won't have a problem doing it). Although when sitting in my treestand on the edge of a cornfield i sometimes think that farmers should get damage permits for squirrels and raccoons instead of deer My family and small hunting group have done QDM on our land over the past 8-10 years now, and it can be very successful. We don't shoot anything smaller than an 8 point (unless it's a youth hunter, or first time hunter). Here are just a handful of bucks that we've harvested over the last 10 years.

Big Dave - I think my problem might be with the flasher and flies rather than the DD's. I've always ran flasher fly combos in my DD setups, and have also tried flasher fly combos on down riggers as well. Never had much luck at all on them. 99% of the fish I catch in the finger lakes while trolling are on spoons. I usually run about 1.9 - 2.3 GPS speed, maybe I'm not running fast enough for the flasher fly combos to be effective?

Below is a chart that was sent to me by Sk8man (Les) last year. It is a very useful chart for dipsy divers that show the differences when using regular dipsy vs magnum dipsy, braid vs wire, and the different settings (1,2,3). When some guys run two per side, they most likely run one on a 1 setting and the other on a 3 setting. I have also heard from others on this site to be careful not to have the dipsy set PAST #3 setting or the dipsy will spin out of control while deploying. Everybody will have slightly different charts, but this gives you the general idea.

Thanks for pointing that out Tim! Now i just need to figure out how to catch fish with them. I've tried them probably about a dozen times, for several hours each time, with very limited success.

Egoody - I have tried Dipsey Divers for a couple years now on the finger lakes, and for some reason i was just not able to get the hang of them either. They never seemed to get out away from the boat as far as i thought they should be, and think i only caught 1 fish on that set up after many trips. I bought leadcore last Spring and set up a 7 color and a 3 color and had a lot better luck with those than i did Dipseys. With that being said, i will still try to figure out how to use the Dipseys because of the large number of people on this site that swear by them and say that they won't leave the dock without them.

Congrats Chas!

Nice job on the season, TrackerHunter. Those kids will remember those hunts for the rest of their lives!

I'm sure this probably sounds like a stupid question, but i've never used a bracket like this before for a kicker. How do you connect the kicker to the steering column of your big motor?

There was a thread on this topic a year or two ago, but i can't seem to find it now. I think the majority of inidividuals that posted on that thread went with black for their rigger weights. Not sure how big of a difference it makes though. My weights are orange (factory color), but i'm going to paint them black before this upcoming season to see if it makes a difference in catch rates for me on my riggers.

My step brother has a Tracker Targa, so i've fished from it several time for bass on the finger lakes, Salmon/Browns on Ontario, and Lakers on the finger lakes. I really like the versatility of that model, because i do about equal amounts of trolling and bass fishing. That's probably the reason i like that particular boat is because i've actually fished from it several times before. I did look up the LUND Impact 1775, and it is a great looking boat. My only concerns with that boat is that the gunnels are quite narrow. The old boat i have now has narrow gunnels and i use a board across the back of the boat to mount my downriggers to, but i would really like to be able to mount my downriggers directly to the gunnels if possible to eliminate the need for the board (allowing for more open room in the back of the boat to fight fish, etc). I am probably about 5 or 6 years away from purchasing a new boat, so obviously i haven't done near enough research to have my mind already set on a particular boat. I do appreciate all the input though, very helpful!