chuck527

No sign of fleas today

I believe you're correct. I thought maybe you had a fish on when you trolled past us the one time as I recall there was Woman reeling in a rod and she sounded pretty excited or maybe just laughing?

Second Chance, I've heard of many very large lakers taken on Canandaigua. I think the part that struck me as "unbelievable" was more the fact that this was Jim's first time jiggin and his first fish on the jig. We all know how easy it is to drop fish on jigs and he landed this fish with no problems and faught it beautifully. And of course the jig fell out as soon as the fish hit the net. It's like walkin in the woods on your first whitetail hunt and shootin a twelve pointer.

Hey Mark, I will be heading up to camp late Friday night. I can spend all day Saturday on the work detail but will have to head back late Sat night as I work Sunday 9-8. Definately gonna get this one mounted! I don't keep many fish especially if they are 8lbs or more outside of tourny's but i'm gonna make an exception for this one.

Hit Canandaigua lake this morning about 7am and dropped lines by 7:30. Had a few fish early and the jig bite was on and off. Very cloudy out there with a light sprinkle. Fish turned on as the rain slowed. My old friend Jim from Michigan calls Fish-ON and was he in for a fight. No joke 20 minutes to get this fish off the bottom. Every time he gained some line you would hear the drag run back to the bottom. Took a bit longer and I saw color and slipped the net under what is no question the largest lake trout I have caught on the Fingers on my boat! Ran the tape over him quick at 38 inches and he tipped my scale at 17.5 lbs and I know my scale is a little light. What an Amazing day and both guys with me caught the largest Lakers of there lives thus far. The other big fish we caught was 10lbs 8oz. I will try and post the side x side pick later. Boated over 15 lakers today and had one troller workin around us with no one else out there. What a memorable day! 10lb 8oz vs the big boy

Nice lookin fish! We jigged up 8 lakers same morning pretty close to you but nothin over 6lbs.

All fish came on Jigs. 80 to 115 FOW with 110 being best. Green (chartreuse) was the hot color. Can't wait to get back out on Sunday. Hope the bite holds up.

A relative contacted me with family coming up from Florida that wanted to fish. We hit Canandaigua on the north end and just had a great day!! Boated about 4 fish between 3 and 6lbs before heading mid lake when the one person that had not caught a fish yet hooked a monster! After a good fight we boated the egg laiden female that was about 32" and i'm sure every ounce of twelve lbs. Everyone on the boat got at least one at 8lbs or better. Headed back North and lost a few before we hooked what I first thought was a big brown till it jumped and clearly revealed itself as a bass! I caught a 6.5 smallmouth last summer and it was nothing compared to this fish!! One good jump and it threw the hook and the rest is just a story Unfortunately I was just controlling the boat and coaching today so no pics from me but I did get the video of the slob laker that you can see at facebook if you search my name (Paul Nagel) Great day with 2 of 3 getting there limit and the third getting the slob and missing the smallmouth of a lifetime. Just a quick side note... Fished the B&B with my wife and we boated 8 decent lakers out of T Falls day one with maybe 2 8lbs or better and day 2 we boated closer to 20 out of Deans cove but the average was much smaller with very few big fish. Congrats to you guys pullin fish over ten. Most of the big spawners had lock jaw but we caught plenty of dinks that were barely big enough to eat the jigs.

Thanks for the advice guys. I pulled out the compressor this morning and shot a couple blasts of air into the peehole and could hear the air exit the lower unit. Hooked the hose back up and she spit water like she never had before!

Gentlemen, I was out on the water yesterday and I have an '09 mercury 50hp. It has never really had a "jet" stream of water exiting the engine port but yesterday it slowed to almost a trickle at an idle and a weak stream at best running back in. I took it home and flushed it with the hose and muffs. Now in the past I know when i hooked the hose up on other motors it shot out pretty good before i even started the motor. As I ran the motor the water volume picked up a little and continued to pick up as I increased the RPM's. Any thoughts? The last thing I want to do is damage this motor. I'm a bit paranoid after seizing a motor about fifteen years ago. Thanks.

I use a Hummingbird 161c finder/gps. Nothing fancy but it does the job. It has a 20 degree transducer which is not the best. I strictly use my trolling motor to hold myself vertical. Any drift and I probably would lose visual contact with my jig. I am going to upgrade to a 60 degree. I've always used power pro braid but i'm sure spiderwire would work just fine. The jigs from B. MTO jigs are very good. I think they have a longer shank than the Cabelas jigs I also use. I have been playing around alot lately with different types of trailer hooks with mixed results. Of course Zebra Muscles really mess with the trailers if they are run to far back on the bait. As far as a general area any where up North really paid off for us. The biggest factor was definately the bait. I did not mark much very deep but even decent pods 50-60 over 100-120FOW really produced chasers off the bottom and suspended fish chasing down.

Weather fronts can be a huge factor. Today for example was a great day with the front moving in. If I have the opportunity to fish a morning with an afternoon storm coming in I just cant pass that up. IMO there is no better time to jig lakers! There are sooooo many different ways to jig these fish and so many work very well. I saw somewhere recently where someone posted if you sre not marking fish than its not worth fishing that area. Dont buy into this. If you know an area generally holds fish then take a few drops and see if anything chases. Some of my best fish have come from areas where I marked nothing. You can fish a great area with no success and hit it an hour later and put a limit of fish in the boat in no time. Jiggin is funny like that and when the fish turn on they really turn on! Nothin beats a stiff baitcaster and some quality line.

Gout out with two buddies today for some jiggin and maybe a little trollin if we maxed out on the lakers. As luck would have it we pounded the lakers with a few bonus hook ups! Popped a couple of nice lakers off the start and it was slow going for an hour or so after and then it was like someone flipped a switch. Tons of chasers, a double and then a triple with a Big Brown that spit the hook at the boat. Just non stop jiggin action and some good size fish to boot. Wrapped up our limit on Lakers and trolled a few J9's back in a plugged a small Bow. Overall a great trip and Canandaigua is just plain hot right now. Caught fish mostly in about 120 FOW and many suspended were chasing well. Color didn't seem to matter much once they turned on. All fish were on plastics today. Fish ranged from 2lbs to well over 8lbs with a couple of drag rippin lakers!! This is what has me hooked on jiggin. I've caught tons of Lakers trollin and never had them rip drag like they do on the jig. The fish in my left hand ripped 80 feet of line 2 seperate times and I hated to have to keep it but thats just the way it goes sometimes.

Hey Scott, I would be interested in taking this course. Any general info you could give me would be appreciated. Tried sending a PM but I dont think it went through. Thanks, Paul.

Hit the north end of Canandaigua about 8am and found some lakers jigging pretty quick. Worked our way down the west shore and hit a total of six fish on the way down as far as Bristol Harbor. Decided on the way back up to stop on the North flat again and take a few more drops. I was amazed on the first drop I had at least 5 seperate marks coming up on my jig! We sat there for about an hour and hit 8 more fish up to about seven pounds. Most fish were 4 to 5 and we caught them on plastics as well as spoons. Lost a few about half way up and one monster that ran a ton of drag headin back deep and I just had the drag too tight. Caught fish in 85 to 135 FOW.

Got out really early this morning hopin to beat the wind as My wife and I were gonna give the Lighthouse derby a shot. Started fihing the east side out of Dean's just after 5:30. My wife was on fire from the get go and put three fish in the boat before I hooked one. She hooked a small LL that literally jumped over the boat and spit the hook in the process. Finally got a solid 8lb plus fish but decided to throw it back. Maybe not a good decision but thats ok. Water got a bit rough so we decided to pull and head for T Falls. Got into fish pretty quick and my wife ended up catching a nice 9lb 10oz Laker. Good enough for third. Just a good day overall even with the rough conditions. Landed lots of fish jiggin and I hated to see the day end! Thanks Scott for your time and effort!

Got a very late start with my wife this morning as we headed to Cayuga. I don't fish there very often and this was my first trip past Deans Cove which I fished a little in the spring. Launched a little after eight and my wife put the first laker in the boat pretty quick. It must have been at least fifteen.........................inches that is. The jig bite stayed pretty steady till about eleven. Amazes me how much bait is on this lake. I got two nice fish on back to back drops with one around seven and the other closer to 9lbs and what appeared to be a full stomach. I believe we boated a total of ten and i'm sure we droped at least six more. At least I remembered the net this time. Very fun trip out there this morning and i'll definately make that trip more often. Lookin forward to the derby on the 14th and good luck to everyone fishing in it!

Chowder laid out the jigging action well earlier in the post. You need to reel in all the way unless maybe you mark a fish that chases and goes back down. Many strikes will only be 20 feet or less under the boat. IMO there is no need to use a fluke that long. If they strike and miss just keep reeling. Many times they will hit again and even again. Once you get the feel for it, its a blast!! As far as depth its tuff to say. Depends on what lake, water temp, cloud cover, time of the year. Right now the only time i've been that deep is on canandaigua. But I have also hit them pretty good at 80 FOW on the same day. Nothin pays dividends like a decent fish finder. Alot of times you can fish a spot thats not showing fish but as soon as you drop your jig they start rising off the bottom.

Just checked Cabelas web site and they have the 1oz jig heads on sale for $2.15 per pack. I can tell you I will be ordering several packs at that price!! Thats like 8 cents a peice.

I used to be a die hard troller but I am completely hooked on jigging lakers now. For the price you can't beat Cabelas brand 1oz jig heads. A pack of 25 is less than $8. The only negative to these heads is the hook shank is just a lil short IMO. Cabelas also sells a similiar plastic to the Lunker City Shaker which is good. The nice feature of the Cabelas product is its only 3 inches in length and helps a bit with short strikes on the retrieve. Zoom just came out with a small white paddle tail and they work wonderful as well. I fished with my son in the Red Cross derby and what a blast he had. Sunday he went 8 for 8 in just an hour and took first and second (youth division) with 11.76 being his largest. Getting his fish up to the boat and then it stripped line and took an eighty foot run right back to the bottom! Bass pro does offer an Off Shore 1oz head painted white with pink eyes. We have caught plenty of fish on these too. You can also go to Fingerlakesanglingzone.com and I think you can print an order form right from his home page.

Thanks Chris. Looks like you guys got them dialed in on CA. I've been spending a fair amount of time out there trying to hit them with the jigs. I'll get 5 or 6 fish in a morning but its work and alot of running around. Funny part is they really dont start chasing till later in the morning. My best times out there are usually between 8 and 11am.

There was plenty of fish and bait up on the North end yesterday but there was also a ton of weeds. Think there was a good North wind today and maybe it cleared up a bit. Not sure what your pullin but there are plenty lakers up there. Good luck!

Promised my lil sister some good lake trout action so we hit the north end of Seneca at 7am. I hooked up pretty quick and soon realized I left my net at the house. I learned pretty quick that landing 7 or 8lb lakers without a net is quite a challenge. Landed 5 nice fish in about an hour and half and was really hoping she would get her first laker. Wind really picked up out of the South and I suggested heading to Woodville. Just as we were getting ready to head in she hooked up with a nice solid fish. Not a monster but she started to complain about her arms hurting. Landed the fish in short order, got a couple of quick picks and headed over to Canandaigua. Started out in 120 FOW after marking a few fish and she picked up a beauty on her first drop. Missed a few others and called it a day.

Talked my wife into letting me fish this so take it easy on us! Dont fish Cayuga very much but we will give it our best. Feel free to pm me your best laker spots as i will only be jigging and I promise not to tell anyone:)

I have had good luck jigging Canandaigua in the late morning up until around noon. Yesterday I took a friend out from 4:00pm till around eight and we only had one short strike. Marked very few fish. Even when I'm not marking fish in the morning I can get them to chase up off the bottom but nothing moving in the afternoon and boat traffic was pretty light for that lake. I fished from north of German Bros. all the way south of Bristol Harbor. Pretty dissapointing trip