Sk8man

https://gamblerrigs.com/collections/all

www.gamblerrigs.com Its all good stuff https://gamblerrigs.com/

You won't find anything better on the market for lakers than the Gambler products

Leadcore on Seneca 300 yds. of 30 lb braid as backing is plenty for running with or without boards. I would imagine it would fit as the 30 lb braid is pretty thin diameter. All my reels are bigger than the 20's though but I have room to spare on them. If all ten colors won't fit use fewer colors and snap weights to get down.

I think "troubles on here (Greg Dale) makes some good ones. I have made my own for many years that I use with rubber bands.

Generally the heavier the spoon the more it may slide downward but usually it reaches a bow in the line somewhere before actually reaching the end. If your cheater length is kept to about 6-8 ft as stated it should just go to the main line swivel and trail behind the main lure after popping the rigger if you are using decent swivel snaps and your trolling speed is not super excessive where there are strong currents. Sometimes folks underestimate the directionality of currents and think it is just one continuous direction while it can be multi-directional (e.g. side currents) from the side as well and this is the case with Lake O big time.

I think they claimed to have sighted that fish during the Civil War better check the papers from that time period

After a few days of thinking about the derby and the winning fish. A few speculations come to mind which could be instructional. First of all that laker is so far off the charts from the usual winner or even the previous record fish that I caught in 2016 (33 inch 16.18 lb Brown) it is hard to imagine a trout that big (nearly twice the size) being down there all these years while his peers must be long gone. He obviously was doing something different that they weren't doing. My hunch is he may be even older than Gambler estimated based on his own gargantuan laker from Lake O because of the difference in food availability, and perhaps even bait size and diversity in Canandaigua (perhaps slower growth rate?). My hunch is he may be close to 30 years old. No matter what he didn't get to that age or size by being careless or stupid Taking into consideration the area in which he was caught (near the deepest spot in the lake) and the method which was rather unorthodox for catching a laker out deep (on a stickbait trolled shallow over deep water) it made me wonder if perhaps he mainly resided out there in that deep water area near the deepest spot in the lake and maybe didn't frequent the shallower ends of the lake where much more fishing tends to occur, where he would have been more vulnerable etc. or whether perhaps he was a mainly a night feeder or something. I know on Seneca in years past I used to heavily fish the 500 ft. barge area and would frequently mark huge fish down between 300 and 450 ft. and it was always rumored that divers had seen gigantic fish down there. I know that in that general area of Canandaigua Lake there is a pretty constant source of bait nearly all year around hugging bottom so the fish may not have needed to travel far for food or be in "risky" places. The first day I marked several very long pods of bait stretched along the bottom the first day in 156ft through 192 ft of water very little suspended. About all of the previous night fishing on Canandaigua stopped many years ago and usually it was limited to the first 150 ft or so of water at the south end and not in the area he was caught so if he was in the depths he would have avoided that as well. This brings us to the current situation wherein he was caught. There was a lot of suspended debris in the lake this weekend and lakers are great "opportunists" so I wonder if he was up higher than usual checking out the debris field for potential food and here comes this nice stickbait scurrying by and boom he makes his mistake. Obviously all supposition but fun trying to figure it out anyway.

Congrats Justin and thanks for letting us know the story behind catching it. Truly a remarkable fish

If you have money to burn take a look at the 31 ft Whaler

They do on the Fingers I've had a number of them do it over the years. Usually when they are caught high up in the water column.

I think she still had that smile throughout the ceremony Mike You know that was big in her world!

The fish should receive a trophy for outlasting his peers from the dinosaur age

The baitfish base has been gone for some time now and the lakers have b een feeding on perch and whatever else they can find and those items don't contain the fat or oil levels that lead to predator growth. That likely will not change anytime soon without a rich baitfish base. They have been trying to stock some Cisco's in there but who knows how successful that will be, or how long it might take to rejuvinate things If successful. The depletion of bait is at the heart of the problem but also the invasives have added some problems as well. I used to fish Cold Brook at the hammondsport for rainbows for many years and that stream isn't even a shadow of what it once was. At one time the state record brown came from that end of the lake as well and a long time ago we used to get quite a few at night at Keuka. They just don't seem to be making it in the lake anymore and same for the Landlocks. Even the perch fishing has taken a huge hit there. I'm sure a few exceptions may exist and maybe some of the "locals" may have more specific info. Even the ice fishing there was spotty at best this year.

In days past I even caught rainbows jerking copper out from the college and on the Branchport arm near Gibson's Landing. The fishing for browns was good at the Hammondsport end and landlocks moved throughout the lake and most of mine came off boards out deep or Seth Green rigs. Other than a 22 inch landlock through the ice at the Penn Yan end while after perch I haven't caught a silver in the last few years there or seen any caught.

Nice going Kev and great pics. Holy smoke last time I saw your daughter she was a little biddy thing...time going too fast bud.

I was told they didn't stock the lake this year either.