ifishy

Leaky rivets under the bunk on the trailer are possible.  Also try putting the tungh down all the way and filling with water different angle will help find leaks up front

thanks for that.  each year it gets a little harder to do some of these launches without docks for me

possibly looking to get a trip in next week where did you launch and were there docks?

i only went there for the first time this past fall so i dont know all the launches yet we went to onedia shores and the docks were out we still got out but if i had an option with docks i would prefer it

Where are you located

Not sure of your drive direction but versatility is a wonderful thing especially as I get older i can play to my comfort and its worth it. You have a very capable boat for the area and based on your gear you have an excellent set up. Work the water the weather dictates and be adaptable. Lake o for browns in that area I have found to be very conditions dependent.  There is also fish on and off all summer within range on good weather days.  I used to fish seneca a lot on my little boat and had a lot of fun and also learned a lot.  4 footers on lake o can be almost dead calm. On the fingers. Sounds like you have the right lures just need to dial in the spread and speed for your boat. Green and silver. White and black. Glow, blue and silver are good starting standards for all. In shallow black and gold treats me well.

Don't be afraid to try cayuga a lot more weather friendly for a small boat and very similar techniques good practice and productive fishing grounds

Both have a good reputation but after all the good years you got with the merc I say stay with them especially is there is local reliable service 

Cross lake has a good white perch population.  As far as crappie we are in the northern portion of there range so though they do well they don't compete as favorably as they do farther south so that makes the populations smaller and more vunrable though there are still pleanty around as far as the pressure well they taste good and are fun to catch. 

Remember there are new panfish regs on otisco there are minimum length limits and a smaller bag limit it will take years before the size develops enough to get a meal out of only a few that said it would be cool to have a trophy lake for bluegill one day.  Still any time on the water is worth it so tight lines

So at the risk of you being a troll ill answer otisco has potential to become a trophy fishery for crappie and bluegill its one of the lakes the dec has identified and is implementing harvest and size limits to push a quality fishery and not a quantity one. The science behind this is really compelling and if those that fish the lake embrace it than in the years to come it can become a place for a personal best however if there is a continued "oldschool" mentality based on conventional thinking than the bluegill and crappie fishery will never improve and will be no different than what is available in lakes all over the state as for perch honestly the state has a number of truly special fisherys including all the fingerlakes and most are pretty vunrable to harvest and over harvest I suspect otisco has less potential based on predators and for them it would not be on my list  even if it was closest

On 12/30/2023 at 3:32 PM, 13owhunter said:

f you have a Minn Kota with iPilot and the auto pilot seems to be correcting too aggressively, you probably have it in the wrong mode.  You have to put it in the "dumb" mode which will correct itself more gradually.  I think the advanced mode is more for following contours in smaller waters.

It took me a few tense incidents and a Google search before I learned this. The advance mode is the bad one for this use you want the auto pilot on "traditional" mode for sure. Good call out here its valuable lession for sure

I'm still trying to dial it in but using the kicker to push and the electric just to steer I can get most of the day on a 24 volt set up I run an 18 foot lund with a terrova 80lb electric.  It struggles against any real waves and gotta have the right angle In the current but that's true no matter what with the waves it proving to be a game changer and as I gain trust (I'm old and stubborn) I use it more and more I set speed with the kicker and set trolling motor at speed of 4 to 6 just to steer I adjust speed with kicker and any turns I do manually 

58 minutes ago, schreckstoff said:

Schreckstoff is a chemical alarm response that minnows release when being predated to warn others.  Fish nerd joke trying to be clever.

 

 

Thats awesome I will likely now know that word forever.   I now want screckstoff scent to put on my lures to signal predators of a feeding opportunity 

Purely speculation but maybe clearer water means harder to hunt so more calories burned to eat thus a lower net gain.     Also maybe more aggressive e faster growing fish are more likely to get caught so with a lower overall population quality fishing pressure has a bigger effect this has been seen in some smallmouth studies.  I suspect that dec doesn't have clear understanding of why size I'd down which makes it tough to mitigate.   As Yankee has mentioned in the past the dec has stated there is no research on selective hatchery breeding for salmon size so they don't do that,  as stakeholders we should ask for that research. DEC has limited resources for what studies to run. They run fisheries throughout the state not just lake o and they have done good science and made good decisions accordingly.  Lake o salmon size is a worthy endeavor to study and that what we should ask for with the understanding that it is not a fast study

I used to be a surgical technician and assisted with this surgery with multiple surgeons and multiple systems the one thing they all agreed on was that Physical Theropy is by far the most important factor. Get up and moving as soon as you can listen to your therapist and do the work if you do it is 100% worth it I have talked to many patients that said it was hard but it was the best decision they could have made and would  recommend it. So if your ready for it do it as a fellow fisherman for what it's worth I'm in your corner 

Yes fisherman follow reports but they were not following mine I had one of my worst years ever but I think k it was something I was doing wrong current guess is something electrical I did notice late summer my anodes were pretty corroded I changed them and had an improved couple trips will do some more investigation down that path yes many boats were in the bays but there were tons on the lake trolling and there wasn't a single day where I didn't have traffic affect my planned trolling path I don't know that fishing effort has increased in the last ten years but it has not fallen significantly honestly with inline boards and various junk lines even small boats can get an effective spread these days and it can be pricey but doesn't have be  the dec is not run by political Conspiricy yes there is politics but the science heads are not elected so are not fighting for there jobs the science they put out is valid and often the recommendations that go with it are as well. the policy makers however do play to there voters and often use over gross over simplification of the science. The fact is a healthy sustainable population will use a diverse and variable cross section of the gene pool there are also factors that drive the expression of thegenes like prey abundance competition and environmental conditions so these fish could have all the abilities to get bigger but the conditions just aren't there and only changing conditions can bring back the size

Loneline I have to disagree about crowds I fought more boat traffic and launch traffic than ever this Year.        I see a lot of posts on here that way over simplify the science and ignore some of the real life time lines of ecology size does not necessarily equate to fit from an evolutionary stand point and the lake is different than it was 20 years ago and different than it was in the 80s and 90s it stands to reason what it can support is not the same.  There are more and bigger walleye than there was decades ago smallmouth are bigger but less of them (maybe) and if we went down the list every species has a different biomass and distribution than it did 20 years ago since the clean water act in the 80s the nutrient load in the lake has dropped steadily muscles compounded it gobys somewhat mitigated that but into a lower layer.  Expect change and roll with it you will be less stressed the dec should do a study of selectively breeding the biggest fish dedicate maybe 5% of egg take to it and raise them all at the hatchery. To get any real results would need multiple generations so probably a 10-12 year study we should lobby for that experiment to see if managing it as a trophy fishery is actually an option

Lot of boats get put away after the fall derby especially those that post a lot of those left some start fishing for other things like perch or walleye or river fishing where spot burning is more possible. A number of people also turn to hunting weather limits trips as well 

No experience with hornets but with bees I trow some seven powder at the opening at night when there calm blast it and run two days later nest is usually dead they track the powder in and all over and a takes a day or two to kill them but like I said never tried on hornets 

11 hours ago, UNREEL said:

On Irondequoit Bay in the spring, there is a large die-off of the gizzard shad every couple of years. Hundreds line the shoreline ranging from 1-3 lbs. The winged rats love it. 

I hate launching those years get the slime and rot on the trailer and I usually just wade to crank it on the trailer and sticking my feet it that is brutal nasty

I think and and may be wrong but the funding g was from a specific wildlife rehab fund federal and was required for an approved rehab project.   I think Monroe County does a terrible job of promoting its outdoor resources and wish they did more that includes poor enforcement and prosecution that said having project like the Braddock bay one that could not creep out of scope is necessary in today's bureaucracy to get real environmental improvements done. I personally would like to see Braddock more usable for boats but a pike hatchery area is much needed on the lake to maintain what could be another world class fishery

Thriving pike in part because of the work as an avid ice fishermana i find that valuable 

It's not a breakwater it's an artificial headland beach and was never intended to aide or help the channel in anyway with plan 2014 one of consequences will be places like that getting sandbars naturally building up especially low water years

Looking for crayfish I was able to track down a couple options woody's in waterport adds only a couple mins also a place in Lockport called les bait and one in niagara falls called primos they all answered the phone and have crabs others didn't have them I feel like I have a plan looks like there were options in Buffalo but that adds some driving as I would be picking people up in greece

Thanks for the replies seems like bait shops are disappearing in the internet age it's a shame