Sk8man

I haven't fished Wellesley in a while but Eel Bay is quite shallow for the most part and weedy. Much of it is about 2-6 ft deep until you get out toward the channel. A lot of big Northerns in there as well a some perch (mostly dinks) and huge bullheads. I used to have good luck with the SM bass and pike and perch right out from the launch ramp at Wellesley State Park campground. You might want to ask someone at the grocery/boat rental/bait shop where things have been happening. I never trailered my own boat up there just rented one so I didn't use downriggers or other stuff there. I was always leery of wiping out my prop and lower unit on those submerged boulders in the river

John you have a PM

John this lake is a whole different animal than Seneca or Cayuga for that matter and in general a tougher lake to fish trolling for lakers although there are some big fish in here. I marked some big lakers right off bottom in 257 ft on Saturday. It is a muck or sand bottom throughout most of the lake and unlike the cobble bottom areas of Seneca. A number of guys fish this derby with bait (mostly still fishing). The brown I got the other day was down about 40 ft over 203.....largely anyone's guess where they will be until scoped out in person usually. I imagine the surface temp is about in the low 60's now as it was 58.6 on saturday. The bait could be moving back out by now too....

I don't know if they actually do the polygraph for this derby but the Seneca lake one my buddy had to take it for his first place laker and he said the winner as well.

The fishing traffic usually isn't the concern it is the recreational boat traffic especially jet skiers and the twice per season types after 10 AM or so and the sailboats when they have a regatta.

Now that much of the heavy duty perch fishing is over there are usually guys fishing for trout out there (downriggers included ) so I don't think it is anything to be concerned about relative to the derby other than the fact that they may have a little "edge" in terms of where the fish are or aren't

I'm pretty sure it sounds like unburned oil and gas mixture my older two stroke 9.9 Johnson does it sometimes but mine is usually a darker color than above

Dave I was out there Saturday and there were some limbs and debris out in the middle of the lake going south but level is OK now and north end was clear of other than occasional small stuff not sure about the south end.

We're entered and looking forward to it...I always do whether I'm actually able to fish it or not....as was said the money goes to a good cause (Camp Good Days and Special Times which had serious flood damage this year) Here is the link to the Chamber and entry form there http://canandaiguachamber.com/

Mark astutely picked up on the fact that you may have been referring to the fixed cheater (or slider). His version is the most straight forward but I use a slightly different version because I found that the rubber band sometimes slips up the wire with more active lures. I've been using trot line clips ( for catfish set lines etc. I believe Jann's Netcraft still has them) with a duo lock snap shrink wrapped together with a rubber band attached to the main line. It snaps onto the downrigger wire at one end and holds the cheater tight to its intended spot until the fish releases the cheater leader by breaking the rubber band but when the downrigger weight comes up it will slide under that type of pressure at the tip of the downrigger and stay there for retrieval. See pic below P.S. This same release can also be used as a "stacker" release for additional rods on the downrigger

I've been using cheaters since about1979 successfully and most of the time without tangles. I think a lot of it may relate to boat a speed and possibly radical turns and possibly lure selection. I use an approximately 6-8 ft of either 12 lb test fluoro or mono for Finger Lakes (20lb for lake Ontario) with regular inexpensive (not ball bearing) swivels tied to each end of the leader. I keep several of the cheater leaders wrapped up on a small section of foam noodle in case one gets messed up. I send my weight with my main lure on it down to about 10-15 ft and then hook the one end with the cheater leader swivel (other end from the lure) on the main line, fasten the swivel and let down the weight taking the cheater down with it where it generally hangs in the bow or arch off the main line and depending on boat speed, current, lure action etc. moves up or down the line at random. I try to select lures that won't potentially "fight" each other (such as a crank bait and stickbait combo might do for example). I usually use lighter spoons on the cheater and put the heavier spoons or a stickbait on the mainline. The reason for using the 6-8 ft length of the cheater is so that I can net the fish OK as I often go solo and I use 8 1/2 ft downrigger rods. I have also used shorter length as mentioned above but the 6-8 ft seems to get a lot more hits.

Don't shoot the wrong fly Mark! That thing could be dangerous in the hands of an irate wife

You know we get kinda used to folks posting pics of big salmon and walleyes etc. but it is really neat when you see something out of the ordinary like that and it is another reminder of the world class diversity of the fishery we have here....Cool! Thanks for posting it.

Congrats guys....a little different lake to fish than Seneca size wise eh? Nice going with the fishing.

Thanks chuck....those fish of yours were great too. WTG derby time it's quality over quantity anyway

I took another look just now they are different pics than yesterday....there was only the one pic then of a guy holding up a bow. That is why I was a bit more confused than usual....