Sk8man

Man...those little guys look like bait for the ones we get on Cape Cod.....it is great to see they have made such a wonderful come back from the days when they had to be at least 40 inches to keep. They are great fish and the big ones fight similar to king salmon...and best of all they are great on the grill   Sand eels are usually the ticket on the Cape fishing the rip tides

JB235 and I fished the area from Gibsons landing to the bluffs and then to the state park in his Grady and came up with 3 fish...lakers all cookie cutters of about 18 inches or so. A double came on the thermocline (Seth Green) rig we were just testing out and one from the downrigger set at 35 ft. with a slider...he came from 35 ft on a Sutton spoon. Nothing whatsoever on the dipsey or topline set way back. That was it... no other hits or errors or fish left on base   Got a bit windy at the end but a fun day nevertheless....especially for a "shakedown" cruise.

My first chinook was in the late seventies about 26 lbs. and it was exciting but not nearly as exciting as seeing my 8 year old son catch his 31 pound chinook off a downrigger on 12 lb test line (dodger/ squid)  in 1985 in our 13 ft. whaler

Sounds likes little progress anyway. Good luck with it Alec. Thank heaven for buddies with boats right?...My buddy Admiral Byrd saved my butt (from going bonkers) this winter when I had the plastic still on my boat with good action at the south end of Seneca.

Definitely want at least 30's but Convectors is probably a better choice for the money and with the 30's they can be adapted to do most of the different setups and can handle some capacity for the various lines. They are good for running anything from standard downriggers to stranded wire or lead core with the right rods.....Although I have specific setups for the different lead cores and wire I also switch line from one of my rigs from braid to wire when the fleas start up so they are quite flexible reels too.

Sweeeeet! Probably take a week or so to get the smile off his face!   

For flies  ziplock storage bags and a cloth shopping bag (stays put doesn't slide around ziplocks keep everything from tangling and protect from elements. I have nearly all my setups pre set up in Ziplocks (cowbells, dodgers, flashers, Spin Docs dipseys extra leaders by length and line strength etc. all this way so seldom have to rig or tie anything on the boat unless I desire a change of fly or lure.  I get everything ready over the winter when I can't get out there and it saves a lot of time and aggravation (e.g. tying in the wind) and allows more time actually fishing. On the downside my wife spends a lot of time looking for her ziplocks

Could be a fungal infection they are very prone to that when an area of protective slime is removed from their skin for example (as in someone poorly handling it when released). Usually seen more often in the Summer and Fall when the temps are higher though but could have had it for a while I suppose.

I'm not sure what you are running for your main line....it sounds as though it is fluorocarbon. The fluoro is best used as leader material not the main line. The the length and line strength of the leader is dependent on what you intend to then use for your main line and also what particular set ups you intend to run, (wire, copper, lead core, mono etc.), and your terminal lures and/or attractors as well as the depth you are trying to achieve. The specific rod and reel that you are using is also important in determining what types of setups you can run from it (e.g. rod have a twilli tip or roller tip, standard tip and guides ,reel capacity etc. The main reasons for not using the fluoro for your main line is that a) it has little if any stretch and it is rather brittle and stiff and b) does not come off the reel well when there is a lot of it on there.

Sounds as though you guys had quite a time of it. Good report too. Is Al still waiting on his Yamaha parts  to get back into business with his boat ?  Hope to get out myself early next week (in- laws are here right now for another couple days....sure put a dent in my fishing plans)   

Nice fish and very good report. I do have a question though.....are you sure your temp gauge is correct the 53 temp sounds way out of bounds for what everything else seems to have been running  e.g. Canandaigua and Seneca north end barely low 40's last time out...and lately cold rain....

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 Just a word of caution about the prop pitch. The pitch has to deliver rpms within the rated range of rpms for your engine. If not careful you could select a prop that will cause the engine to exceed the range it was designed to operate within and overheat and damage your motor.

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Just regular black barrel swivels small enough to go through the tip and eyes but I also encase the wound copper wire at the end (leader end) in clear hot glue so that it will not untwist or bend back and forth and with the clear glue I can see it inside to detect any possible breakage of strands. Yes it is possible that it will collect a flea or two or grass but it is well before the lure etc. and so far no problem.

It says at the top $18,500 or best offer

Hey Sean I think Finnlander's point is well taken. Sometimes it is safer to bite the bullet and have someone who has messed with the stuff before (probably many times) and also may have the necessary testing equipment etc. to sort it all out. You may have a compound problem there too. Good luck with it.

Maybe all the browns were at Mexico Bay....notice I said WERE   Nice bunch of fish....

Nothing like getting it in there after working hard at it

It could be that the concentrations of Zebra Mussels and Quaggas have blocked much of the traditional spawning beds of bass and perch as well in the shallower areas in many places you can't see the bottom itself because they are so thick. They also strain out most if not all of the pyytoplankton that the younger baitfish feed on in shallow so the food sources are scarce to none there and it goes up the food chain.....

Basic question: what kind of gas are you using? Is it ethanol? If the answer is yes it may be your problem it wasn't designed to use it... if it is non-ethanol how old is the gas? Was it "wintered over"? It may have water in it or in the gas line.You may want to check the fuel filter if it has one....it may be more than one issue...

You may want to go back to square one with the impeller and check things out again because a hot engine may mean something is plugged there....are you getting a constant stream of water out of the outflow?  I know my old 1979 Johnson had an automatic shut off when it overheated to a certain point  because algae in the water had blocked the intake and impeller.

The engine should not be hot at that point and it should not seize up so I would think that it is either an internal problem such as a gasket leak or malfunction, carburator issue, oil is not getting to the engine,  or the water is not cooling the engine because of a blockage of some sort.  

I would think that given the age of the motor that 50 to 1 may not be enough oil in the mixture either despite it being well "broken in".

By using only a light snap or a loop knot, you are missing the opportunity to tune the action of your stick baits to the fish’s mood.

 

I just take out my mood ring and expose it to the sun and shine it at the fish to make the determination

It seems to be because they have a little hook on their tail that is not able to adhere to the larger diameter line as long as it is smooth like mono...textured stuff like braid or leadcore is a very different story.....

Good going.....sorry to hear about Rusty's boat these are expensive critters to own aren't they? Good thing that pickerals head wasn't down further

150 ft isn't exactly "close in" its half the length of a football field Right now things will be tough until the water warms up unless you are lucky enough to happen across a pocket of water a few degrees warmer that has a color line....