Sk8man

The thing I'm wondering is do you technology buffs ever catch any real fish or is it just the theoretical masturbation that excites you? A lot of folks were catching fish consistently long before most or all of this electronic gear was even invented primarily because they leaned HOW to fish.

They are nice fish and it looks as though you had a great time getting them WTG

First of all a big thank you to Jason and Theresa my great hosts for the day on the M-Arlene (Great Lakes Lure Maker boat) on Seneca Lake. I'll let Jason provide the details of the fish caught etc. when he gets the opportunity as I lost count and he and Theresa religiously kept diary details Usually I get caught up with the fishing details but today it was even more importantly about the social experience factor and another great dimension of the LOU site....that of meeting and spending quality time with people you otherwise might not have connected with. Today also underscored for me the importance of both extending and accepting opportunities that come your way. I had not personally met either Jason or Theresa before this morning. But Jason had extended the generous invitation in a posting here on LOU to join them testing out some of his lures that he manufactures on the north part of Seneca Lake (which I consider my "home territory"). I met them at 6 AM at Seneca Lake State Park where they had spent the night after fishing and field testing lures yesterday. We exchanged greetings briefly They provided me with some great coffee and we were off down the canal toward the lake. We each set up our favorite 3 rod setups each on one side of the boat. I looked over his varied selection of his Great Lakes Lures the Oakie Doakie, Keuka Wobbler, Silver Soldier and other spoons he is testing out (which looked very cool by the way). I went with my selection of Suttons and Quick Strikes etc and one of my homemade flies behind an Echip flasher on my side of the boat. Early into it I caught a nice rainbow about 4-5 pounds on the Sutton and later a nice laker on the homemade fly and others as well and the morning went pretty well for me but the afternoon the Great Lakes spoons came on strong and started kicking butt with several nice lakers and as we ended our fishing we had a quadruple. It was like a Chinese fire drill. The Great lakes Lures were truly impressive. The fishing was a lot of fun, and I think it was a mutual learning experience and it seemed very "natural" fishing with new found friends who are very competent and know what they are doing. Theresa handled the boat like a pro allowing Jason and I to "do our thing" with our equipment in the back of the boat. It was totally enjoyable chatting about things of mutual interest and I had a blast. This brings me to the main point of this post. To those of you thinking about extending an offer to someone on LOU you don't necessarily know personally but would like to fish with ....do it! To those of you who might be hesitant about accepting an offer of such from someone on here....life is short...enjoy it to the fullest....take a chance on doing something different and perhaps even out of your comfort zone...it can turn out to be a wonderful experience. This one certainly was. We didn't take pics of many of the fish but these are samples of the day. Les P.S. only the rainbow had a lamprey mark a lot of clean native lakers

Great post and very nice laker At least we know there still some big hogs out there...

on Gambler's comment. I love the king fishing as much as anyone (have fished for them since 1975) and I have tremendous respect for them as fighters as I do for stripers in the salt water environment. Diversity is the spice of life and although the humble laker is not as glamorous as the king he surely has his place in the environment as do the other species (there's nothing like atlantics and steelies doing their thing in the air). One of the best things about fishing is something akin to gambling.....you never know what you are going to get when you "pull the lever" ( or in this case throw a lure int he water)....excitement and diversity it is what makes the sport fun. Think about if the other all species weren't there and it was kings ONLY out there...would it really be as exciting and as much fun LONG TERM? I doubt it. I'm as anxious as the next guy for the kings to heat up but as Brian indicated they aren't the only game in town and never should be.

Glad to hear they are turning on now Sean. Nice healthy looking lakers too.

Cool...some good eating there. The backdrop on the one pic looks almost like Rock Harbor on Cape Cod...not sure where it actually is but I sure feel like being there Of course it is always a mixed feeling because I know the salmon fishing here should start heating up any day now....