Sk8man

I am convinced there is no RIGHT ANSWER that fits all situations. My wire and braid rigs are run off 6 1/2 ft rods with roller tips. There is enough separation on my boat and they work great. I run top stuff and small dipseys from 8 1/2 rods from my 15 ft. outriggers..again good separation. The down riggers have telescoping booms and I run them off the back corners angled 45 degrees usually but at higher speeds straight back and seldom if have ever have had a tangle.  I find that the shorter rods are much easier to handle in my particular boat (after a lot of experimentation with various rod lengths). An additional benefit is that t is easier to net fish as I often fish by myself. The decision regarding rod size pretty much boils down to personal preference, particular boat set up, and whether or not you can do all that you want or need to do to catch fish. I seldom run more than 6 or 8 rods so this is also a consideration.

Typically June is a "transition" month for the Finger lakes as well as Ontario and with the recent storm activity and heavy rains the apple cart has been upset a bit in terms of the water temps. The bait is still easily accessible to the fish as it is clumped up in shallow (40-70 ft) and they are probably well fed without having to work for their meals....they are located right next door to their prey, and may be feeding heavily at night or wee hours. They won't expend energy chasing down stuff if they don't have to. Once these major bait concentrations start to disengage and  break up into smaller pods and redistribute throughout  the lake and the thermocline sets up things will heat up....the rainbows will be more active in the upper layers of the water column and the lakers will be more bottom oriented.... but locating the bait pod remnants will still be the key to getting fish in the boat.

Basically each size dipsey has it's own set of strengths and weaknesses. I use the smaller size off my outriggers for shallow water presentations with light flutter spoons mainly (with mono), the mediums for down to70 ft or so (with wire) and the Deep divers for 100 ft plus (with wire).

Black releases I've used them successfully for many years and they are very reasonably priced as well (about $10-12)

When I was a kid we found one crossing the road near  a major stream my little sister had a small broom in her hand and I  stuck it out toward the turtles mouth and he snapped the broom handle  right off....glad it wasn't one of my fingers... he was about the size of a medium wash tub ...

Major porkers....those browns...eating machines...nice fish!

Nice fish....beautiful coloration good going!

Good luck and be safe Ed. Hopefully Andy left a few browns for ya.

Les

Try not to get the one with the square wheel

Normally that is right Poke....but for whatever reason folks are reporting that larger sawbellies are in the stomach contents and that's what I usually try to match up as closely as possible. Most of the time around now I use small spoons....on Canandaigua today I never had a touch on small spoons  but even that small rainbow I got hit a 4 1/2- 5 inch Doctor spoon.

Thanks Ed.... I know you've probably been there too.....at least it was a beautiful day...after all that darned rain.. I forgot to mention that there was quite a bit of "cotton" on the surface but it was fishable a least.

Got on the water at 5AM and trolled south from the pump station to Menteth Point  then across to Pelican and south along the east shore. Nothing at all on west side in the way of fish....only one pod of bait marked. The east side was  a different story .....marked massive pods of bait mostly in 50-75 ft water with many fish mixed in some ....large ones suspended in and near the bait and a bunch on and near the bottom....looking like lakers taking a nap   I messed with them with a variety of lures , attractors and distances on lead core, wire , dipseys and spin docs with no takers. I then went to downriggers and for a long while back and forth through the bait and the fish no followers and no takers. I then went slightly shallower....40 -60 ft and set the riggers about10 ft off the bottom ....shore side rigger goes of and then the arial show started.....bow jumped at least six times and took out the drag after each time....he fought his heart out and was totally spent when he reached the boat and my efforts to revive him were to no avail. .... so in the box he went.....and that was the end of the action and story.  Tough day on the pond....think I should have gone to Seneca and joined the other lucky dudes   Here's my fighting buddy anyway...I figured he at least deserved a pic despite not being quite the trophy he tried to be.

Nice fish Ed....guess I should have fished Seneca instead of Canandaigua

I haven't been down there in a bit so DK on colors etc. but if it were me I'd be trying fairly large spoons as it seems that the reports have been that larger sawbellies are in the stomach contents of the ones caught....e.g the size of NK 28's etc.

My hunch is that EarlyRiser was right dead on target with his response.

Good going Andy!

Just to be clear he didn't post the letter I did. He sent it to me and in light of the previous intense interest in the gun/ammo issues I then posted it for informational value for those who wish to see it and who have been following these issues. I posted it in the fishing section because many fishermen are also gun owners but may not hunt any longer (like me).

I think I'd have bags of sandbox sand instead of concrete mix....ever gets water on it.....

Yep! black it is!

If just trolling looking for fish (in shallow especially) I use the 200khz for better definition and separation of fish and bait and weeds etc. When trolling out deep and just surveying for fish and bait I use the 83 khz because the cone angle is wider so it spots more. I don't use "Fish ID" because it often confuses fish with bait or weeds and just shows whatever it spots as a fish (I tested it out in water where I could actually see what was there). It could be used out deeper I guess without as much of a problem but I'm used to the conventional  "arcs" after years of this stuff .  Most of the time I leave it set to auto sensitivity but when out deeper I sometimes turn it up a bit because I'm not as interested in the 'surface clutter" anyway

Note: Meals -on-Reels is correct....on the general functioning of the 50 vs. 200khz I had them reversed...that's what happens when you try to do something without a whole lot of sleep (and apparently not enough coffee).   However picking up the downrigger balls is also a function of boat speed, weight of ball, currents, on turns and depth that the ball is at etc. because they can go in and out of the cone angle. I have a dual beam and I can usually mark at least one of them all the time and most of the time both of them with the 83 and the 200 khz. Reportedly there is 120 degrees of wider sonar coverage with it but Lowrance doesn't give the cone angles for my unit. My old 50 khz picked up both downrigger weights but had trouble separating them if close to each other in depth.

Welcome to LOU Jerry and best of luck with the fishing!

(Section deleted due to defective brain of the writer at the moment of writing- signed Sk8man)

You can have a unit at the helm and one at the stern if a) your hull design and motor placement permit it (locate transducers away from sources of turbulence) and b) if the frequencies of the units are different enough to prevent interference or hijaaking of the return signal by one of the units. Although it may be possible to have two units operating at the same frequency on a very large boat (i.e. if they are located far enough away from each other and wired on separate sides of the boat on a large boat (and well shielded electrically). In a normal boating situation with a sport fishing boat it would probably not be a great idea to have both units at the same frequency. I'd select a transducer with a different frequency for one of the units.

The 31 is only a hair longer and  hair wider than the 44 (nearly identical in shape) They are a pretty good substitute and the 21 is a little shorter and slightly wider but not a bad substitute either. Out of the hundreds of Sutton's I've used over the years I've never seen a 61 or an 81 ....plenty of 71's (much longer thin version of the 31).

Good going Conesus guy!