Jump to content

skanperch

Members
  • Posts

    33
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by skanperch

  1. Some decent advice here, wide ranging. But it essentially comes down to this : if there is abundant rain in the fall, the tribS will have all 4 species..........if not, there will be no fish or fishing in the creeks. It really is that simple. If no rain, stick to the lakes , or try the larger tribs of lake O. The finger lakes tribs are far too small to deliver consistent fishing
  2. Some decent advice here, wide ranging. But it essentially comes down to this : if there is abundant rain in the fall, the tribS will have all 4 species..........if not, there will be no fish or fishing in the creeks. It really is that simple. If no rain, stick to the lakes , or try the larger tribs of lake O. The finger lakes tribs are far too small to deliver consistent fishing
  3. Thanks to all who responded. The freeboard matter is one I'd not given any thought to.....so yes, I will try to put a 50 lb battery next to the transom to see how it affects clearance.
  4. Hello to all in the forum......for 15 yrs I've owned a 16.5' Starcraft Camp Boat, with a 25 hp 2 stroke Merc. I'd like to get a new motor for this rig, a 4 stroke..... But every 25 hp 4 stroke I have looked at weighs 50 to 60 pounds more than my current motor, and I am questioning if that extra weight would be too much for the transom to bear. Also, I am wondering if that extra weight in the back affects the boat's handling. I have tried to contact Starcraft directly, but that has proven to be Mission Impossible, so I'd appreciate any experienced opinions/observations any of you might be able to share. Thank you .
  5. thanks for all your thoughtful responses....to Hermit, Bigfoot,and BSmaster..Ihave to mention that your ideas about SMBs and the weeds were not really applicable in this instance because the SMBs I used to catch would come off a) the docks in June, well before any weed growth started and b) out in my boat in August, where we would fish in 40 -50 fow, well away from any weeds. Nowadays, both types of fishing yield nothing in the way of SMBs. In June, off the docks, I would see many of them swim past, and would catch a fair number of them. Now, I don't even see any, and that has been the case for several years. Which brings me to bulletbob........bb, I am so glad you broached the topic of something catastrophic happening to a portion of the Cayuga fishery, as given what I have witnessed and experienced, I have suspected the same thing. I did not want to mention my suspicions in my first post, as I did not want to influence anyones' responses to my question. Besides the SMBs, now that you mention it, the rock bass have virtually disappeared from my fishing too....and they used to be a pain in the ass, there were so many of them. I still see and catch some perch, and there is a small number of sunnies/bluegill ( but not nearly the numbers that used to be) off the docks. I never did witness a fish kill of the magnitude you described, but I do remember that some yrs back we had many dead panfish floating around in May or early June. Also I recall a year about the same time when we had loads and loads of dead carp floating. I didn't mind that at the time, but in hindsight, maybe I should have. As I wrote earlier, I see and catch more LMBs than ever before in my area of the lake. I wonder if they filled a niche vacated by the smallies.And you wrote that you did not see many LMBs in your desciption of the fish kill. RE the DEC....I get suspicious at how they use the expressions." spawning stress" and "thermal event" after nearly every fish die-off. Hell, the fish spawn and the lake temps change every spring.;... and there's stuff going on with the fishery I have not witnessed in 50 years. I can state with certainty that the warm water abundance that Cayuga used to support has been MIA for the past 5 or so years. If some calamitous event has occured in Cayuga, I wish the DEC would be straight with us about it. Even if there's nothing they can do about it, if the DEC can shed some light on it, they should. If that fish kill happened in 2008 as bb said, one would think the lake would have rebounded some by now. But it hasn't. Between these possible diseases, and the invasives, it's a shame what has happened to the Finger Lakes. I hope the trout fishing holds up.
  6. any of you regular fishermen on Cayuga noticed a precipitous decline in the SMB population? I have fished the lake for decades, and have never found it harder to catch a SMB.......I'm not a bass guy, but just in casually casting off the dock for the past couple of years, I haven't even seen a SMB... I also go out a couple times in the summer with bait for them...all the places and approaches that have worked for me for decades have not produced a single fish the past 2 -3 yrs. I fish the section of the lake from Union Springs to Long Point and I wonder where all the SMBs have gone. Oddly, the LMB population in this area seems to be on the rise. We used to catch about 5 SMBS for every LMB, but now it's all LMBs. Any thoughts or theories?
  7. Hmmm..... Never considered the flow of the lake going north. But it is still odd to me why whatever is suspended in the water does not seem to be settling out at all. Its been at least a couple of weeks
  8. Thanks for your thoughts.....but we have had no rain to speak of, and the creeks have been running clear for about 10 days.....yes, the lake level is very high (with a lot of crap floating), but with no additional mud running into it, I am bewildered as to why it won't clear up. And I still scratch my head as to why it is clear and normal near Lansing, but not at Aurora. The south end is where the big tribs are and is where most of the mud comes in.
  9. Hi, for the past 2 or 3 wks, Cayuga lake - at least from Union Springs to Long Point - has been oddly murky, with a vis of only about 3 ft. This is VERY unusual for this time of year. Yet yesterday I was on the lake near Lansing, and the water was clear and normal. Anyone have any ideas about what's going on with Cayuga?
  10. Good suggestions thruout this thread for u......with one error Avoid the Aurora Inn, it has a lot of fancyness and advertising, but it is way expensive and the food is forgettable . Take it from a local
  11. Great post re the Owasco walleyes..... Can u somehow PM me UR email address?
  12. Ditto......I've been thinking of a downrigging trip on Skaneateles.......any one know if the bows are susceptible to that ? How has the bow fishing been?
  13. I heard - and it is ONLY a rumor insofar as I am concerned - that there was a substantial fish kill, in the form of lake trout, after an application of some kind of weedkiller at Myers Point. I heard nothing beyond that, no further details. I hope someone out there can put this rumor to rest.
  14. Thanks for your help Skipjack...........that sure ia a perplexing lake...... 50 to 55 is what I'd like for bows.......you find any of that? Interesting too that those SMBs were suspended
  15. Hi to all, I am thinking of trying some rainbow trolling on Skaneateles Lake soon. Anyone on this forum doing any of that this summer? How's fishing ? Thanks
  16. HI, thanks for the report, and please keep us posted on any subsequent troll for bows trips. I went a week ago, trolled 6 hrs, with streamers, flatlined stickbaits, and downrigged spoons from 10 to 50 ft. The total catch was 2 puny sub legal lake trout. Very discouraging. Surface temp a week ago was 58 - 59. I thought that too warm, and am hoping for better once it gets closer to 50. I would welcome any updates on your activities on Skan. I will do the same. Thanks.
  17. Hi, I am hoping to try downrigging for some rainbows on Skaneateles within the next few days and am wondering if anyone on this forum has had any success at that this summer. Any info on depths, colors etc would be appreciated . Thanks.
  18. Thanks for the tip.....looks like it's time for me to get the boat out and probe some depths.... would you mind saying what appx part of the lake your friend is fishing....nothing specific, I'd just like to know if I'm at all close to some decent bass fishing. Thanks.
  19. Or is it everyone who is not catching any smallmouths on Cayuga this year? I have fished the lake for decades, and have never seen SMBs so scarce. I am not a serious bass fisherman, just casting some stuff off the dock in the evening. But gosh,I always get at least a few , and this yr I have gotten next to nothing. How're the rest of you doing on them?
  20. Does anyone have a link to the Red Cross Derby results? Thanks.
  21. Chance - oh yeah, I sure read the Owasco diary report for 2010...... And frankly, I think it's an example of bureaucratic ass covering ( for the possiblity of having mismanaged Owasco's fishery with too many lakers) or not having an answer and not wanting to admit it, and pretending they know by scapegoating the walleyes. There are simply too many holes in that explanation for me to buy it. [ Post made via Mobile Device ]
  22. I wouldn't be so quick to jump to conclusions and blame walleyes for the severe deterioration of the the bow and brown fishery in Owasco..... As I have pointed out on this forum before,over the past 10 -15 yrs or so, during the same time that Owasco suffered that decline, Cayuga, Seneca, Keuka and Canandaigua all experienced similar radical declines in their non-lake trout trout populations. As there are not walleyes in those other lakes, there is lots of suspicion that the invasive species, mussels, fleas, and God knows what else etc might have had something to do with it. Even last yr, the diary data showed that, for example, in Cayuga, rainbows accounted for only 4% of the trout catch, and 2% in 2009. Similar declines have occurred in the other lakes mentioned. The famous spring rainbow runs are a small fraction of what they once were, and not just in Owasco. Back in the 70s and 80s, rainbows were far more prevalent, if I recall correctly, they comprised 20 -30% of the Cayuga catch. Admittedly the browns and salmon are looking better in Cayuga now, but this may be due to stocking policy vs Owasco. Certainly that applies in the case of the salmon. I think it is simplistic to knee-jerk and point the finger at walleyes as the sole destructive force to Owasco's rainbows and browns, and I am not so sure that a thriving walleye population in Cayuga would be anything but a good thing, adding some intriguing variety to Cayuga's angling options. Cayuga's a big lake, and IMO, could accommodate another tier of game fish species. And if I wrong about that, the fishery could always be curtailed by stopping the stocking. There may or may not be some walleye reproduction going on in Cayuga now, but if it exists, it obviously is not enough fill the lake with walleyes. Ain't gonna happen anytime soon, though - the state has no surplus walleyes for stocking, even if it wanted to.
  23. Chowder, Gill-T, Jake......thanks all for your responses....I will try some Vibrax and JJK spinners. How fast was I trolling? About as slowly as my motor would idle down to without stalling. I know spinners need a slower presentation/retrieve than spoons, but I am thinking if I can figure out this twist issue, they might be more effective than spoons [ Post made via Mobile Device ]
  24. Over the past year, I have made several mostly unsuccessful efforts to troll spinners - nothing extreme, in the size range of a #2 or 3 Mepps, or a 1/4 oz Panther Martin. I caught a couple of fish with them, but could never give them a true workout because after only 15 or 20 minutes, those spinners twisted the hell out of my line. I tried using bead chain swivels, ball bearing swivels, and a combination of both. I bought high quality Sampos, and tried them one, then two, then three at at time. Didn't matter.......no matter what I tried or how I used them, I ended up with bad line twist. Does anyone on this forum have a method or technique of trolling spinners without getting line twist that they would like to share ? I'd be most appreciative. Thanks ! [ Post made via Mobile Device ]
  25. Thanks, MarkNY, I am looking forward to hearing how you do. In general,what kind of year has your friend had on those bows to date? [ Post made via Mobile Device ]
×
×
  • Create New...