hawkeye625

The Precision Trolling Big Water edition has the diver charts for wire/braid/mono. It also has charts for various other delivery methods lead core/jet divers/copper/weights etc. Pretty good reference if you don't mind spending a couple bucks. Jeff

Does anyone know where I can buy owner hooks in bulk? I'm looking to change out all of my hooks on spoons and flys..100 to 200 or so hooks..if there's a discount I'd buy more if need be. Thanks, Jeff

I have a similar setup on my 19.5 sea nymph with a manual tilt 4 stroke tohatsu 9.8 tiller and a control king. The 9.8 pushes my boat 7-8 mph at full throttle in ideal lake conditions, when it's snotty out there maybe 5mph. It will troll from sun up to sun down on 3 to 3.5 gallons (12 or so hours) at 2.5mph. I personally wouldn't want any less than a 9.8 kicker. You never know what the lake's gonna throw at you and you don't want to get stuck in a storm without a main motor and too small of a kicker. You will want electric start if you plan on charging your batteries with the kicker and most companies don't offer that in small hp motors. If you go with a tiller model you can easily remove it for storage or use on another boat. The manual tilt isn't that big of deal, once it's down you only have to bring it up when you're going to make a run to another spot or into port. If you live close to a cabelas, the bargain cave usually has a control king or 2 on the shelves. The Wheeling WV store had 3 as of mid January. My transom has just enough room for both engines, no bracket needed. I have the atwood steering connectors which are basically the same as the cabelas brand. Works fine. No issues with the tohatsu and it's pretty quiet. Best price I found was from: http://www.onlineoutboards.com/Tohatsu- ... A3EFL.html

I use to run 4 and 5 dipsys off my 19.5 until I got riggers. We'd run one on a 0 down the chute and two out each side on a 1.5 and 3.5 all size 1 and all on power pro. We would get a tangle here and there but not too many, usually when a big fish got hooked and nobody was steering. We always kept the outside lines higher in the water column, all rods were 8.5ft long. You could also try running your higher outside divers on mono to give you more seperation from the boat if you're only targeting 30 or 35 fow. Let your braid or wire divers and riggers cover the deep stuff. I think you'd want to run your mag dipsy on a lower set than your 01, I believe they dive deeper. If you try the extra divers and have trouble with tangles you could always stack your riggers with the other 2 lines.

I've only fished Ontario for a couple of years but this works well for us. 4 rods 2 riggers w/spoons and cheaters 2 dipsys w/flasher fly 90% of the time. If spoons are hot we'll change out one of the flasher w/fly on dipsy to spoon on dipsy. Did well on spoons all year, but flashers took their share too. We always leave at least 1 flasher down to attract fish. Cheated riggers also give you another bait per rod. Do you use flashers with spoons? Yes How far off the ball do you run spoons?5-30ft Is it best to use them in combination with flies (if running 4 lines, do I use 2 spoons and 2 F/F) or just stick with whats working? yes What are good colors? greens/glow silver/black And is there a particular time of the year that they are better then F/F? Spring/early summer for us Do a search on favorite spoons for options as there are many. Good luck, Jeff

Cabelas in Tridelphia WV has 2 in the bargain cave as of 1/21/12. Both looked new and unopened $195/each. Jeff

Jerry, If you're just looking to contol speed from the helm you may want to look into a control king or troll master. I have the control king on my tiller and love it. You'll still have to start the motor and put it in gear at the transom, but you'll have precise control over speed. I can bump speed at increments of .10 mph fairly easy. I picked mine up in the bargain cave at cabelas for aound $120...they're are around $230 new, just make sure you get the right one for your motor. Jeff

He bought the one from Corning. Thanks guys.

Thanks for all the replies...managed to pick a couple up off ebay before the price went back up. Thanks for the heads up Gator. Had to watch for a couple days but he relisted them for $125 and some change. Got the reels a couple of days ago and they seem pretty sweet. I can't wait to put them to the test! Jeff

Sounds pretty good so far. Thanks for the quick responses. Jeff

Merry Christmas to all and a New Year full of tackle busting fish!! Jeff

I have a buddy looking for an aluminum boat in the 17 to 19 ft range for the great lakes and smaller lakes. Let me know what you have. Sea Nymph great lakes special or something similar. Thanks, Jeff

I'm looking to upgrade a couple of reels over the winter and wondered what you guys think of the saltist line counters. I know a couple of the charters ran them this year and just wondered how are they holding up. Thanks, Jeff

Time to respool power pro reels and wondered what kind of braid you guys run. My 30lb power pro is 4 years old and getting pretty beat up. Is there a better option for divers? Jeff

Great fish, and you never know...next year may get better.

Nice pics.

The smallies came from the Niagra Bar as bonus fish while drifting for lakers. We usually pick up a couple a day during the spring derby. Always wanted to target them but never got around to it.

Hunting season's over and thinking of spring already. Sitting here going over my 2011 season on Lake Ontario and thought I'd share some pics with everyone. I made it up 10 times this year and couldn't be much happier with the results. We averaged 30+ bites per day but only boated about 1/2 of them. We had at least 1 screamer get off each trip which we hope to remedy for next year. I managed to get almost all of my friends and family out over the year which was my goal. My boat only fishes 3 comfortably. Broke the boat record twice this year with a 24lb and 26.12lb chinook and several browns over 10lbs. Our best day was in July with 35 coming to the net and a lost count of strikes. A special thanks to this site and its members for all the valuable information available to weekend warriors like myself. Hope to see you on the water soon. Jeff

Tim, I've stayed at convenience cottages, lakeview, lighthouse, and the portage house. Lakeview motel is my favorite. Wally and Chris are great people and have plenty of room for boats/trailers. It's clean, and a short drive to the bar or wilson launches, freezer for fish and if your coming back to stay with them within a couple weeks they'll let you keep your boat/trailer there. Common dining and kitchen area also gives the opportunity to talk with other fishermen after a day on the lake. Jeff

Vince, I spend around 200 hours in a tree during the fall and tried most all stands but the lone wolf. The summit viper is my stand of choice. I have both the open front and the viper ss. I prefer the ss with the rail for 2 reasons. First and foremost is safety (some early mornings I tend to close my eyes til daylight). Second is climbing. I find it alot easier and quieter to sit and climb rather than using my arms. The rail doesn't seem to get in my way for shooting the bow either, but you have to be careful. It also makes me feel safer when standing, kinda keeps you boxed in. They're both very quiet and nest together nicely for packing in and out. They are a little bulky because they don't lay flat but the trade off is no noise putting the stand back into climbing position when you reach your tree. All you have to do is remove the strap that holds the 2 parts together and put your cables around the tree, and your climbing in a couple of minutes. No fussing around with nuts and bolts in the dark which can be very noisy and a PIA if you drop one. Grips the tree very well. Good stable platform. Climbs quietly. Also extremely comfortable for long days (naps) in the tree. I'd be happy to let you try mine, but don't plan on being back to NY for a couple of weeks. Guessing you want to purchase very soon. My open front is for sale/trade, but I would go with the ss. Good luck with your search and hunting. Jeff

We went out of Olcott Saturday the 17th and didn't move a rod in tight. Moved out to 300 and started hitting steelies on spoons and flashers. Depths varied from 45 to 110 down. The temps were all over out there. Best depth was at 67 for us.

I'm pretty sure some of the steelhead from the spring derby came from the shore. As long as you have a witness. I've only been doing the derby for 2 years, but the witness rule was one of the first that caught my eye and I don't remember reading anything that says you can't fish from shore.

My current set up for the riggers is Ugly Stick 1101 9' light action rods (roughly $50) and reconditioned shimano charter special 2000 lever drag reels ($65 off ebay) that have the carbon drags from smooth drags. The lever drags make setting lines very easy and drag adjustment a snap - which is a plus for me as my crew changes all the time (too many friends without a boat). This set up has been awesome. For divers we use Gander mountain 10' heavy action diver rods ($39) with a twili tip for wire ($7). No need for rollers or special guides for wire, just a twili tip. 7 strand wire for divers, or 30-40lb braid if fleas are not bad. In the fall you shouldn't have trouble with fleas. We have okuma convector 30's for the diver rods, but upgraded 1 to shimano tekota and plan on another for next year. (daiwa saltists are nice too). The convectors are o.k. for the money, but the drags are a little sticky. My best suggestion is to look around charter boats and see what they run for reels...these guys use them daily and put them to the test. I think you'll find alot of shimano's and daiwa's. Do yourself a favor and DON'T skimp on the reels...it cost me a ton of tackle over the last 2 years. If you have the time wait til winter months for sales..most of the big box stores have great off season sales on fishing equipement...and the LOTSA show is a great place to pick stuff up.

I have a 19.5 sea nymph and a 9.8 tohatsu kicker. Top speed around 6.5mph. Can troll from sunrise to sunset on 3 to 3.5 gallons. Used the ball joint style connectors for the front of the motor and use a control king for thottle control (tiller model motor). It's quiet/fuel efficient and has no oil smell on downwind trolls. It's a little noisier than a honda or yamaha, but works fine for me. My boats motor well is similar to yours and it fits fine without a bracket. Shipped to my door from online outboards for just under $2k last year.

30 or 40 lb superline (braid) will get you down deeper as well. Wire is a better choice in flea season, but braid has its days too and is a little easier to deal with. We run 1 of each until fleas show up, then 2 wires. Ran 1 of each this weekend and the braid took more shots than wire. Might also want to go with different color divers. Many run black, green and clear. Leads 6' to 10' - 4' is too short. I keep mine as long as the rod, easy to measure and gives me enough leverage to net fish. If you go too long you'll have trouble with the net.