Sk8man

Quite a few people have been killed thus far in the Carribean including a 16 year old pro surfer so this storm is no joke. People are fleeing Florida in droves heading north. I hope this thing turns out to sea.

As far as the leaders go I tie my own and a few years ago went to 50 lb Big Game mono after losing large fish on well known commercially tied flies with fluoro and have never looked back.

Just don't do a comparison of the price with the price of fish in the store because you may be old and wrinkled before you break even....I didn't say that did I Dave?

The issue sure points up something that should reside in every lure and hook buyers mind before purchase The most common concern of fishermen is usually the sharpness of the hook but the strength of the metal comprising itt is not changeable after manufacturing and is determined by the hook diameter, composition of the metal and the tempering of it. If you take a look at the "old school" J plug hooks for instance you'll realize that they are very hard, thicker, and look different thickness wise than most of current hooks being used. They are beefier, composed of a different mixture of components or alloys in the steel, and harder than most of the 'fine wire" type hooks now available. The Mustad stainless steel single siwash salmon hooks although having a different look have the similar hardness feature and they will only when under very extreme tension break rather than bend. This is related to the hardness factor. The metal for these hooks is tempered during manufacturing to give them this quality in very specific ways and the diameter of the shafts and hook points combined with this give them increased strength and also make them more brittle so they don't bend. These hardened hooks can be more difficult to manufacture, sharpen and probably add to the cost of manufacturing as well as expanding the retail price so often other less expensive options are often used now days. Under usual circumstances these "softer" hooks may perform adequately but especially at this late point in the king season this softness shows up because of the hardening of the mouth area of them combined with the ferosity of their strikes..Suggestion: replace questionable hooks with triple XXX (hardened) hooks.

Good report John and goodto see you're back at it here. Good luck out there.

Knowda you have a PM (Personal Message)

To me it looks like living proof that you can have a wonderful time and catch great fish without a 30 ft boat and state of the art expensive equipment. The look on that kids face proves it

Might also want to place the bag (s) of sand in construction grade trash bags or something as the container bags sand comes in often leaks and it can be tough to get out of the boat and when wet can clog a shop vac

" but the population must be sustained by annual hatchery supplementation despite the presence of appropriate habitat." That may be the most significant statement in the article.

Question regarding invasive water fleas I don't fish Lake Ontario as frequently as some of you as I fish the various Finger Lakes as well as Lake O. I have noticed every time I have fished Lake O this flea season that the previously notorius and irritating fishook type whitish grey in color and sticking to the line much as cottenwood does were replaced on my lines by light to medium green and sometimes translucent invasives that resembled prickly pears or bottle brushes and could be shaken from the lines regardless of type of line very easily while retrieving them and the other type was only very lightly present if at all. Was this different than the experience of others out there? I'm wondering if this was a localized situation or lake wide... On Caanandaigua on Sunday we had extremely gooey dark brown to black gobs of what appeared to be dying or already dead fleas all over ourlines regardless of type line and they hung in clusters andwere difficult to get off.(very slimey). On this one my hunch is that the fleas are "tanking" and dying off now on Canandaigua as part of the annual cycle. Anyone with a scientific take on this?

Hell hath no fury like Lake Ontario scorned

I run the 124 mm Deeper Divers too and often run two per side on my 18 1/2 ft boat. I set the closest in to 1 (to stay away from my riggers) and the outside ones to 2 1/2 or 3 and they seem to run fine in terms of outward and separation between them. I seldom run smaller divers than them any longer because of the increased depth range of them.Trolling speed is always a consideration as are severe turns

Lilly is right. The seven strand stinless steel wire can act like a hack saw on the tip and or line guides unless the friction path is redirected by either a roller tip or a twilli. The twilli tip is the least expensive and perhaps the easiest solution for most folks as good quality roller tips can be expensive (some wellover $100 in the salt water environment) and they vary greatly in diameter so you have to pretty much know the actual diameter of the rod tip shaft and how it corresponds to the diameter number of the roller tips for a good fit. The twillis come with several adaptors in the package and the total cost is less than $10. The cheaper roller tips may have aluminum side plates which when the rod is at an inappropriate angle (say from wave action when in the rod holder) the 7 strand wire may see saw into or through the side plate. All steel roller tips with steel side plates are necessary when using the 30 lb 7 strand wire.