Sk8man

Welcome to LOU Isabelle. Best of luck fishing and stay safe if you fish Lake Ontario.....it can be a challenging place for a kayak. Hopefully you won't be in the "middle of the water" with it out there

In the Finger Lakes toplining in winter is a little different "animal" than Spring or Fall. First of all the fish are distributed very differently (for the most part) in the lakes and bait and primary food sources are as well. It is important to understand this relationship. The alewives go very deep in winter and are bottom oriented rather than suspended. The trout for the most part locate near them and near bottom where it is the "warmest" (often 39 degrees in the densest water on bottom) The lake trout that come into the shallows tend to be fewer but often bigger in size which is understandable because they are competing there for scarce resources with the pike and pickerel and feeding on whatever is available (small perch, sunfish, small bass, shiners, and minnows. Many warm weather food sources like crayfish are hibernating in the mud, and bugs are gone (rainbows and landlocks feed heavily on them during early summer months). Once in a while big lakers are caught through the ice by folks fishing for perch and bass with fathead minnows or small shiners but for the most part they are in deep water and need to be fished with bottom tactics as mentioned by Frogger. The rainbows, browns and landlocks are more responsive to water temperature differences and will actively seek out and explore even small differences in water temps (i.e. warmer water sources) in search of food and these are usually actively feeding fish. Depending on water flow and stream temps rainbows may be entering the streams whenever conditions permit during the winter months and some stay there until they spawn so what this means isthat they aren't usually "cruising" the lakes like in the Spring , Summer, and Fall months and you have to fish them near stream mouths for best results. The browns on the other hand may also be at or near stream mouths searching for food such as fish eggs and small fish or small items discharged by the streams and they are often found near ANY warmer water being discharged or located near potential food sources because some bait(minnows and shiners for example) also seek out warmer water sources. Landlocks seem to range more and may be more surface oriented than the others in the lakes where they are found. I have caught them through the ice on Keuka while perch fishing for example cruising just under the ice. In short, if toplining in winter months and your targets are rainbows and browns do your toplining near stream outlets, power plant outlets, other potential warmer water sources, or in the case of the south end of Seneca near the salt plant. For lakers toplining will probably not have a high success rate until about the first or second week of March in the Finger Lakes when there will be some large lakers in the shallows (8-20 ft range) competing for available food with the pike which you may catch right along with the lakers on the same spoons or sticks. I've had good luck over the years with fairly large "floppy" spoons such as medium to large size red and while Daredevils, Cleos or KO Wobblers or jointed Rapalas or similar sticks. I keep a bunch of these old spoons just for this purpose. Usually the lakers and the pike are very large ones then. For the landlocks fishing them where they habitually range like on Seneca at the south end around the edges of the lake or around Milliken or Taughanock and at the south end of Cayuga is the best bet if you are only toplining them.

Jeff there is a good 7-8 inches and 10 inches or more in some places. Fishing has been slow though...a lot of "lookers" but not a whole lot of "takers"

John, I'd give Larry Japp at Roy's a call at (315) 789-3094

When buying electronics whether computers, phones, or depth finders etc. the same principle applies.....you will NEVER get ahead of the game because the research and development is always about 2 years or more ahead of the marketplace. I'm certain that CHIRP technology is already obsolete and was before it was introduced in the marketplace. I'm sure the military has more advanced stuff that will be "watered down" and "commercialized" too. Unfortunately, it is the global reality we now live with. As far as the depth finder issue it probably is wise to buy something of good quality and learn its strengths and weaknesses as far as fishing with it, use it frequently and get your money out of it and ignore the marketing hype etc.....usually leads to a happier life

X2 on the Diawas (Bazooka Joe) and the line counter in the awkward position ( can dig into your wrist) of the Saltist steered me away from them despite them being great reels with excellent retrieval rates and good drags. I've had a dozen Diawa 47H's (non line counters) for 30 plus years (without servicing and many salmon and trout) and they still work great. I had a Okuma Convector right out of the box that didn't work but some Magda Pro 45's that work very well despite being a less "expensive" real. I don't think you can go wrong with Diawas.

Possibly going in the AM and wondering how much ice etc. anyone have info?

For the old Yellowbirds I don't even bother with the offshore releases anymore I just changed the split ring to a larger stronger one and hook the swivel snap to that because I only use them for spoons or sticks and the resistance of the boards isn't real great even with a good sized fish and the larger split ring always slides to the front of the bracket rather than staying in the bend when it hooks up with a fish.

10 days from purchase

I heard it was on the same assembly line as the Queen Mary if that is a clue