Sk8man

For most of us this years derby was the toughest fished in a long while. Conditions were far from perfect. Continous soaking rain the first day and relentless sun beating down the second day..some of us opted out of the third half day because of the expected packed launch with recreational boat traffic and all that goes with it. Usually we fish all three days. The lesson here though is that persistence pays off for those hardcore veterans that have paid their ddues over the years, made necessary adjustments in their fishing strategies, and very competent fishermen that have kept up with the times, and lastly that have maintained the dogged determination to reach their goal.

Our LOU buddy Frogger after many years of diligent trying put it together this time with his very experienced team and won the derby under some of the most trying fishing I have seen in years. I couldn't be any more proud if it had been our boat as I have known him since he was a youth just getting into fishing. Winning the derby may involve a bit of luck but all those little details learned from many years of fishing that lake finally paid off big time and My hat is off to him and his great team of fishermen.

Thanks for posting this

If you have a breaker box try resetting  it. If you have inline fuses (should) check them and replace if look burned. It is usually that but if not maybe a bad switch. Screwwy Louies near Fairhaven used to fix them and may still. If not try Fish307 in Lake George.

Me too first time in ONE year

Wonderful video Dan. Best  I have seen in a long time. It is also great to see guys who are well organized and really know what they are doing. The netting  is an exemplar for everyone out there to use as their guide. Your videos as always are top notch. I felt as though I was right there in the boat participating. Best of luck for a great season this year.

I'd go with HB2's advice. It applies to Canandaigua and the Fingers just as in Ontario.

Bill like wet the net I keep mine surrounded by padding when not in direct use. I never let it just hang on the rigger when cruising either. They are pretty fragile. I have a little padded cooler bag with separate padded compartments that I keep both the probe and display in when not in use. Trevor Sumption is the guy that owns the company and he is good about standing by things in my experience. I do think that things get vibrated and subjected to a lot of extreme temp changes etc. and these electronics are unfortunately - delicate. I would hope however that given the nature of the  trouble shooting info he is looking into some way of reducing or eliminating eliminating the problem.

I had one just as bad Stan only all my ice fishing jigs (hundreds) falling out of the overturned compartments in the snow on top of the ice.....still wondering if I got them all and had to sort them and dry them out on the cellar floor when I got home

Even with the carbon fiber drags those reels  slipped and were hard to reel with any significant weight one them

Best of luck out there this season.

Les

I guess my take may be a bit different. When fishing live bait  e.g. still fishing you do set the hook after you are confident that the fish has the bait. e.g. lake trout usually turn the bait around in their mouth after grabbing then swallowing so you wait for the fish to stop the initial run then set the hook when they begin the run again. Browns sometimes carry the bait around a bit before getting it down their throat (e.g. bobber fishing) and rainbows often hook themselves by viciously attacking the bait and sometimes even jumping out of the water in the process.

When trolling I seldom if ever set the hook on trout or salmon and it applies to stripers and tuna as well in the salt water environment. One of the key aspects to this is to maintain very sharp hook points which I constantly monitor and sharpen as needed. Some require it right out of the package. As Fisherman 21 mentioned the initial drag setting is adjusted so that it maintains the line on the reel so that it doesn't play out with the clicker always on. I then increase the drag setting so that it requires a slight tug on the line to play out so there is some drag but not enough to impair the line if a hard hit. When the fish hits, the drag setting should be strong enough to exert some pressure on the fish so the hook penetrates; the rest is done by the rod tip when the rod is picked up and arched and the tip being maintained upward provides constant pressure on the fighting fish which in large part hooks itself. The constant pressure with no slack allowed is critical.

A lot of folks don't further adjust the drag setting while fishing the fish but I carefully  adjust it while fighting what I perceive larger fish according to to what is going on with the fight. I think a lot of folks that do an extreme hook set on fish lose a lot of them that way.

It is also possible to carefully hammer the hook back to the "s"shape.

The extreme south dock is loaded with silt and sand and pretty much impossible to get trailer out far enough so might want to use the northern most ones. Parking has been VERY full to so may want to consider Union Springs

5 hours ago, Frogger said:

I’d go min 15hp if boating on fingerlakes, min 20-25 if on the big pond. Trolling is one thing, being able to get her in if needed is another. If you have twins and already have a back up then 15 would work.  

X2

Are you sure they are both the same lure? The lips look different on each. The gold/black one looks like it might be a Renegade

A long time ago they stocked some Seeforellen Brown Trout in Owasco (German lake dwelling browns) that were reputed to reach into the twenties....wonder if the genetics have transferred to some? Hope so they didn't fare well in Seneca. Nice fish. Maine fairly recently selected the Seeforellen strain for stocking there as a study of several strains found them to be the hardiest with high genetic integrity as well.

Some of the best paint jobs I have seen on spoons

Nice going Kevin. Little different bite than the eyes eh?

The comment about both motors being 4 stroke or having the main one  oil injected is important. You sure don't want to have that form of hookup if the kicker is a 2 stroke. Another option that folks usually resist but has a purpose is to run the kicker on its own fuel tank if you have room for one. The primary safety benefit is that you have two separate fuel systems in case of fuel contamination of the main tank (e.g. moisture or water on the main fuel which could affect both motors leaving you stranded).

Thanks guys

As suggested downriggers can be handy but they are not indispensable on Canandaigua Lake. You didn't mention when in the season you intend to fish  or all season long as there can be different answers according to time of year. Smaller dipseys can be used in the upper level of the lake in the Spring and late Fall with small to medium spoons or small to medium stick baits. toplining from boards also  works well during much of the season for rainbows and an occasional brown. The larger browns are often caught using live or dead bait (alewives) within the 100 ft or less water around the lake periphery near points and drop-offs, and often at night or early morning while a few are caught trolling. In the summer they tend to hug bottom in about 70 or 80 ft of water near drop-offs. There are no landlocks in the lake and only unstocked rainbows, stocked browns, and stocked Lake trout with a few naturally propagated fish of both the latter two species. Other than the early Spring and late Fall the Late trout are pretty deep so larger Deep Divers or Magnum sized are needed to get down deeper without riggers or Seth Green rigs. Flasher/ fly, Spin Doctor/ fly or both of these with spoons are pretty effective for lakers and the occasional rainbow or brown. It is important to keep the spoons and stickbaits within the small to medium range most of the time for most consistent results. Sutton spoons were were designed on and for Canandaigua Lake and they work very well as they are light weight and "flutter" a little differently than some other spoons and the silver plating on them is more visible for longer distances under water than say chrome or nickle. There is a large range of shapes and sizes of these spoons but they require a little trial and error experience to determine the best trolling speed for them and running several different ones of different shapes and sizes at the same time on a Seth Green rig usually means some may be running well and other maybe not so well. The larger ones seem to run best at slower speeds while the very small pones can be run at higher speeds usually for rainbows in the warmer weather and at some distance from the boat. If you don't get riggers or have leadcore lines you may wish to consider having a 5 color and 10 color to run from boards throughout the season. The smallest Suttons run very well for the bows from these. If I am found dead after posting this it was the other guys that troll Caanandaigua

It isn't a Common Shiner as the body shape isn't right (shiner wider and almost hump shaped back and the fins are orangish.

As far as the Spot Tail Shiner have a look at this pic and note the spot https://nas.er.usgs.gov/queries/factsheet.aspx?SpeciesID=596

Be aware though that the designated sizes are not the same for all manufacturers.

A few things come to mind: first of all fishing them in a pond can be quite different than in a Finger lake for example. They may or may not use the inlet or outlet. They are largely bottom feeders and prefer sandy or mud bottoms and usually are found scrounging things from those bottoms. They use their feelers around their mouths to feel for food rather than relying just on eyesight per se so they can be quite successful in muddy or murky water. I am mentioning this as it relates to the particular way you fish for them which can vary considerably. An important consideration is wind direction. Usually the most success is with the wind coming towards you because they follow the migration path from wind driven current underwater of whatever they can find and often near bottom, but they are attracted to movement detected by their feelers for moving worms, leeches or left over waxies or spikes from ice fishing dangling a foot or two off bottom can also be effective. They seem to be highly attracted to smelly/rotten things as well e.g. pieces of shrimp way past its prime, pieces of dead fathead minnows etc. Although they can be caught in the daytime most of their concentrated activity occurs at night as they are not as dependent as some species on vision for locating their food. As far as the pond situation you described I would position myself near the mouth of an inlet or outlet with the wind blowing toward you  when the water is murky and at night just as dark approaches using a lantern or light with the side toward you blocked (we used to use aluminum foil on the half facing you to block the glare and enable you to see your lines clearly. Sometimes a small piece of broken styrofoam cup and pe placed on your line to help see the line go ou.t Find some shrubs a or bushes nearby and cut some forked sticks to use as rod holders to place your rods on. Cast out aways and put allow a "u shaped" loop in your line don't totally tighten it so that you can detect when they pick up the bait as they can be very light biters. The setups can be as you described, but I have always had success with a typical perch rig type setup with bell sinker at bottom and one or two hooks either tied directly to the line , or  a two inch loop with hook suspended. In the daytime they may be caught with typical bobber setups with the line suspended just above the bottom in murky or muddy water. The version tied directly detects bites more quickly but they may also detect the tension while the loop version is not quite as quick to sense the bite. So there you have it....Bullhead 101

P.S. Small red (striped) manure worms in small gobs work great too.