Sk8man

Looks like he either swallowed a bowling ball or a watermelon

good one Ted

WTG Mike nothing like breaking them in early.....probably already in his genes reminds me of old times with Mark

I fall for it every June...always think it might be different... but the fish know better and are probably laughing their arses off down there at us on all these lakes Hey Ted I had on 22's and 44's etc. and today they wouldn't fall for them....did you take out the "vulnerable" ones maybe?

I went solo and had my lines in at 6AM this morning...figured the fish and bait might still be inthe same 50-80 or so range near the water plant and I was right...they were both there in numbers but after trolling back and forth through them and watching my downrigger rod tips bouncing after hitting the huge bait pods no takers. I changed lures multiple times ... was running two riggers (30 Sea Flee with fluoro leaders (12 lb) cheated and all spoons and a 5 color leadcore various spoons. Then tried a few sticks and then combos no luck there either. Anyway I trolled on the west side for about 4 hrs and headed on angle from Danny's Ex's place south east toward the Christian camp...nothing. At 10:40 AM 40 ft downrigger released and had rainbow on main line about 2-3 lbs released him unharmed at side of boat. Trolled east side until about 1:30 PM and pulled up the lines and the 60 ft rigger had a laker on it about 2-3 lbs released unharmed. That was all the damage I could inflict today. Pretty sad out there....but there was one good thing the Sea Flee lines never had any noticeable fleas.

Underwater spring or gas release port?

Hard to tell there but sometimes only the last three in the middle have hooks and the others are teasers.

Yes we jigged today and I had one almost break the surface and two other real good hits one of which I had started up. I think jigging now is the way to go with the fleas there in such abundance.

:smile: Heck a couple of my kids ARE Italian Mike.

JB235 (Jim) and I left early this morning from his hoist only a couple hundred yards from trout territory on the Branchport arm of Keuka with the intention of trolling and then jigging for lakers. We set up 2 downriggers with medium spoons and each with sliders with small spoons and set them at 40 and 60 respectively. We also ran a wonder bread E-chip flasher with one of my homemade greens flies, and a top line out about 250 ft with NK28 spoon and a 5 color lead core with a Quick Strike 11. We trolled for about a half hour before I had to check a downrigger that popped....I figured small laker.....turned out to be fleas clumped so thick it triggered the release. I said screw it lets leave the lines in far a bit a and deal with it then...we trolled a while and then started pulling lines after no action. i had a small laker on the 40 ft downrigger and the pics below tell the rest of the story for folks who are unfamiliar with water fleas. We then cleaned up and went to the bluffs to jig. I had one 3 or4 lb laker a about 2 ft under the surface and he got off saving me from releasing him I had two other good hard hits on the jig with one started up but off and that was it. Most all fish we marked were suspended from 10 ft to 30 ft off bottom over 120 -130 ft out from the bluffs toward Marlena Point. To sum up....I have never seen such thick fleas this early in the season in any body of water I've fished. Trolling is all but impossible with anything vertical in the water....diameter or material of line makes no difference....they were all the way up 60 ft of the 200 lb downrigger cable as well as on the 30 lb wire and everything else.