Sk8man

Maisie - it is a little difficult to tell from the pic but I think it is monel wire which is a composite alloy of nickel mixed with copper. It is very soft and has a similar sink rate to copper wire and was used by many folks for jerking copper like the use of the victrola.

Encouraging report and great looking dog

Cool. Each off these lakes can be considerably different from one another though as some such as Canandaigua or Keuka don't have the amount of water flowing into it as Cayuga does from Seneca and Seneca does from Keuka. A lot more control on the lakes hooked up to the canal system.

Going to be interesting launching this spring on many of these launches on the lakes. Water awfully low about everywhere.

Gorgeous paint job

Yeah Mike I think I may have unconsciously hoping someone would say "I I have a bunch of these green frog ones if someone wants to buy them"

Joel I'm sorry to have "hijacked " your thread. I still think the best chance of getting a high quality victrola may be the Watkins show if the guy is there....they are beautiful boxes. and I believe worth the money.

For those folks wondering what the hell is a Twin Minnow. Here are some iterations. The black with the white belly was the most productive followed by the yellow translucent one. They originally came with a small treble. After losing fish from straightening out the small hooks I modified to SS triple strength (XXX) Siwash Salmon hooks 1/0 or 2/0 turned upward t avoid the weeds (and now zebra mussels)

Their outrigger release can be easily adapted for the use too with a couple duolock snaps etc. I've used them in a variety of ways for years.

You try not to let it get anywhere close to the spool. It is a dynamic process always taking up slack as you go along so only the amount of copper needed to touch bottom is used at any one point if done right. You assess bottom by feeling the "tick tick" of the spoon or the "wiggle" feel of a Twin Minnow.

I haven't bought any in years but I used to get it from electrical supply places.

That is exactly it as Frogger says and additionally you can't get as much of it on the spool and you try to shoot for as close to at least 600 ft. of copper as you can get. I think I found that .024 diameter copper worked best for me and I had tried .018-.032. The thinner wire will kink easier too and the single strand will kink easier than braided.

Reel Doc Although it could be done on Youtube or with a Go Pro etc. the absolute best way to get the true gist of it is to watch in person someone experienced doing it because as I said the "nuances" or small things are critical to success. I did fail to mention that most folks use something to protect their fingers from the wire (often a thumb and forefinger cut from a pair of thick leather work gloves) because if you snag up on bottom or even have a large laker at the end you could potentially severely cut or even lose a finger from the wire cutting. It is a technique done totally by hand without any reel etc. The slack in the wire is taken up automatically by the spring (or gear) inside the box. So as you change depths the victrola or A& S reel roll the wire onto the spool for you. In the old days various things were used to manually wind up the wire onto while trolling, OR the wire was coiled on the floor of the boat trying hard not to kink the wire. Mike: It would be a lot of fun watching Bill do it wouldn't it (especially experiencing initial hit and then the "head shake" of a real big one

A few diehards like Frogger and Signalman on Seneca and there are still some on Cayuga, Keuka and Canandaigua. It is the one technique though that takes years to perfect with a lot of hands on experience and not because it is particularly "difficult" but rather the little nuances make all the difference in the world. Two people on the same boat doing it can appear to be doing about the same thing but with vastly different results, and the bottom characteristics felt through the wire are very important - so knowing the bottom very well where you are fishing is also a game changer. You troll at very slow speeds and usually on a diagonal from shore gradually letting out wire while feeling the bottom to know where the lure is. My grandfather did it on Seneca in the early 1900's from a rowboat