Sk8man

Ah! That is all that counts....plus eating them on vacation helps too

Hey Vlad.....nice job on the video and great scenery ...but next time you need to find some bigger fish !

I dinged the prop on something submerged in the channel itself. I should have mentioned that it wasn't shallow water per se. There used to be old wooden posts with wire on them there too but they are probably gone now. As I mentioned it wasn't recently that I was there.

Nice going Joe...and....you're making me regret putting the boat away....I'm having withdrawal symptoms already

I'll second that. I haven't launched there in years but even with my previous smaller boat I dinged my prop in there on the way out to the lake. The state launch is the way to go on Keuka. By the way Morgan rents cottages they own right next to the marina if you wish to be at that end of the lake. It would avoid the trip out to the lake itself.

Hope you've had a great birthday Bob. Keep at those great recipes of yours too! Best wishes for many happy returns! Les

Hey Zimm I see you live in Canandaigua. I'd be glad to meet with you and can help you out with all of it if you wish. I'll PM you.

I would think the quality of the cable might be the deciding factor rather than color itself. I have brown on one of mine and silver on the other and have never noted any difference in the amount of fish action....more related to how they are run and what is on them.

Welcome to LOU Mike. I'm sure you'll enjoy this website as much as all of us do. It is a great place to learn things as well as contribute to the group. There are a lot of very knowledgeable generous people here and it is a neat place to hang out no matter what stage of fishing or life you are at for that matter. Chad does a wonderful job of development and maintenance on this website and that is why many of us try to support his efforts by contributing via the 'Professional" membership. The term does not exclusively mean we're all pro fishermen....it means that there are additional resources available to folks at that level of membership as well as the absence of advertisements. Best of luck with your fishing!

Has Been - Most of the info I post is geared toward the many inexperienced or novice fishermen who frequent the website looking for basic information I certainly don't intend to "talk down" to anyone here regardless of experience level.

I think Tim's example is a good one. One of the factors about drag settings is that for most of the commonly used reels the maximum drag setting is about 15 - 20 lbs. This assumes that the drag is functioning properly and is probably figured on new drag disks. How many times have you ever actually applied the maximum drag to a fish to try to stop him ? I'm betting for most of us it would be never. The reason is that many experienced fishermen set the drag and leave it at the desired setting which is usually by "feel" and they think that they don't want to "chance" breaking the line. A lot of folks feel that when fighting a fish the drag shouldn't be messed with. I do just the opposite... I constantly manipulate the drag setting according to how the fish is fighting and as he starts to go with the line I gradually increase the tension on him and over the years I have lost very few fish. This year it was one big king and that was because he broke the 40 lb. fluoro right at the fly on his fifth jump (since that I've gone back to 40lb. mono on my flies so they will "give"). When you start to approach the max capacity the fish is actually pulling against the boat itself and when I had my13ft Whaler in the old days a big king would actually pull the boat for short distances so I knew it was just a matter of time...Rather than put the boat in idle I just lowered the speed to the lowest trolling speed I could get...making the fish really work against the boat ....again another advantage to a small boat where you can get better control sometimes. I know this process may be quite different for the charter guys because they have more unknowns and usually more equipment out (e.g. novice anglers, unfamiliar with the equipment and it's limitations etc.).

I hear you on the throwing the hook issue. You really have to have very good boat control to do it right because of the "slack" problem and whoever is driving the boat has to be totally focused as well as experienced. Slack line (even momentary) is the number one enemy of the fisherman.