Raaven

The 7-10 K a year you spend on the frustration of owning a boat.....would most likely finance more charters a year, than trips you actually took on your own boat. Plus you could charter out of the "hot" ports, and even change great lakes and species and even throw in an offshore Tuna charter and a whole bunch of head boat trips as well every year.

Unfortunately... WHEN something does happen...You will just be the next statistic. All you guys with the smaller boats say the same thing. "I'm really careful" " I watch the weather" " I am really experienced" " I pick my days" Do any of you ever think that those are the same things that the guys who drown every year thought?

I would rather see The St.Larry musky anglers and all NY State musky anglers UNITED, within the chapter you guys have already created. IMO this would be much better organized than many small chapters spread out through the State. Capt. Bob and myself will be joining Chapter 69, as well as promoting our clientele and peers to do the same. We may be too busy out on the water to attend meetings and events, but that is no excuse not to be members and do what we can, PROMOTE. We like the idea of the online meetings, and hope that idea pans out and becomes a reality! This would certainly help with the logistics of having a membership spread out over hundreds of miles of the State. What we don't need is many "organizations of one" throughout the State, not communicating with each other, and all chasing separate agendas. This will accomplish nothing. Creating an individual "legacy", will not help the musky population . We need to work together, to achieve common goals. Glad you guys came up to Clayton and we got a chance to meet many of you. looking forward to seeing you all again, and meeting more of you in the future! Heading out on the River now, we have a little problem to solve......I think the Waterwolf was the only boat at that meeting, THAT HASN'T LANDED A MUSKY YET THIS SEASON!

Capt. Bob and I were at O'Brians this evening. Bob brought a few of his "props", and set up a DVD player for the meeting. Buffy informed us that even though the dining room is open to the public, she believes most of her patrons will be heading outside by 7:30 pm for the concert on the River Walk. There is also a Pumpkin Chunkin' competition going on right there all that day with trebuchets and catapults throwing pumpkins out into the river! Clayton is a very festive town, expect good crowds. We will be running a charter all day, and plan on getting to O'Brians as soon as possible, maybe by 7:30- 8:00 pm? See you all there.

I can only say , that since labor day, there hasn't been much traffic out of Oswego, except for the local Charter boats, and a few recreational guys....I don't talk to the rec guys, i don't know what they are catching. But there has been a decent catch going on for some of the Charter boats. I guess its a matter of who posts what on the internet, and who catches what on the lake!

I guess that depends on what day and what boat you are on! Tuesday and Wednesday were even better than that for most boats out of Oz.

Photo compliments of LOU member "big brookie" Who is actually Capt. Greg Manning of Little Whip Charters !

Sorry your fish swam into us. What a mess it created! Only good thing for us was, it was quitting time anyway, so we didn't have to reset the whole spread. You have our phone # now, Use it anytime you like, not just when your "big one" is heading our way!

Deer season? Musky season? Fish in tribs? Marinas winterizing and putting away boats? You will basically have the water to yourself! Have a great trip and be safe /wear your pfd's!

Hmm, I will have to try that! I always ran the other way, longer out, shorter in, or both the same length on a side....Never had too many issues with tangles on a straight troll strike...turns and crazy coho seem to tangle more often for me! If you don't get tangles, you are not fishing aggressively enough....... I agree with the torpedo weights. Another great tool in the arsenal!

Tough for me to tell you what is the best daily starting spread for your situation....We are chartering. Captain , mate, and 2-6 guests everyday....so we are putting out a minimum twelve rod spread if the conditions allow.....4 riggers, 4 dipsys, 4 coppers....If it is rough, 4downriggers-2dipsys-2coppers-...really rough, 3 downriggers, 2 dipsys and one copper down chute...Again, The whole object is to find the depth the fish are striking at, and focus your efforts there. If you are alone, start with 1 downrigger(probe) one dipsy, one copper. What ever fires, DUPLICATE.

Just give me ONE, that works! What is important to remember is that you are trying to focus your spread in a controlled depth....THE STRIKE ZONE. We sometimes will have 5 coppers and 4 dipsys out at the same time, as well as three downriggers. But we run two coppers off of each board, and another down the chute. If our target "strike zone" is 20-50 feet down, we replace the coppers with leadcore. If the fish are hitting a 300 copper...we will put out 4-5 of them, and adjust our dipsys accordingly. By running all the same length coppers, we can slide the one in the chute to either board after the one on the board hooks up. Reset the one that fired back down the chute. Saves alot of cranking copper just to reset a longer one first, then redeploying a shorter one. but when that length copper shuts off...you have to change them all...We start by using a longer one down the chute, and a shorter one on the inside position on the boards...find the "strike zone" again, and FOCUS ON IT! I understand not every boat has 30 copper rods aboard to play with either..... But we have a little problem with our tackle addiction

Still fishing for musky in the St. Larry until Dec. 15......but then it's time to head to Stuart, Florida for Pompano and Kingfish all winter! When the Atlantic gets too rough, we fish the surf and the jetty's for spanish and blues and jacks and whiting. It's only an hour drive away from "speckled perch" in Kissimee River.

See you next spring!

Most of the crowds left after labor day...This is good advice ." if you do decide to run in 100' fow, run your dipsy's 240-270' out on a #2 setting. go with white flashers in morning and greens or chrome after around 8 am" That's what is working for me also. Most of our hits have been coming first thing in the morning, slow all day, and then again a little flurry of action at sunset. Temperature went way down deep today...break was very sharp, concentrate your efforts on where that break meets bottom. When in doubt about speed, GO SLOWER. Good luck.