Big Water

First marry a wife who earns enough like a registered nurse or teacher.

Interesting numbers. I enjoy fishing too much to turn it into a business.

Funny. When I was a kid and people asked me what I wanted to do for a living, I always said "fish". I knew that it wasn't an undertaking to make money in. It wasn't till MANY years later that I realized some people actually do. Probably a good thing I didn't know that then.

Ok Les, I'll hire ha, 2.79 an hr on Seneca, perch first. I'm in !

Where's the Like Button?

And the look on a kids face when his first Salmon hits the floor of the boat.......

Priceless.

+1

I do roughly 20 trips a year friends, friends of friends and local people. Don't get me wrong I enjoy watching and teaching more then I actually enjoy catching them myself. I guess at some point the challenge in my brain became how many can we catch with people who don't know anything. We Erie walleye fish and are also on Lake Ontario a week in spring a week in the fall.

I'm with you RD9. I work in a company of 15,000+ people and there are a lot of people I've become friends with over the last 20 some years that like fishing. I have a few regulars I fish with frequently and fit in others when the opportunity arises, but it's about figuring out what it's going to take to put fish in the boat. I really don't care if I touch a rod, it's about the challenge. I get some gas money, tackle or gifts cards sometimes and that suits me fine.

P.s. My wife always says that "we bought this boat and you don't even do any fishing". What she doesn't get is that it's the puzzle to be figured out and the challenge for me. I suppose it's like that for some others too.

A friend is considering getting his Captain's License and had asked another LOU member about how many trips he would need to make to start making profit. He told him something like 30 or 40 (I can't remember the exact number). My friend called me and said that surprised him so I threw together a quick Excel Spreadsheet that allows you to enter fixed and variable costs and shows you your break-even point. It uses 20 year straight line depreciation without salvage for the boat costs if you enter that. This isn't a thorough breakdown and I wouldn't be taking it to the CPA for review, but I thought you may be entertained. I'm sure there are much more advanced programs out there, but what do you want for 10 minutes of work?

The preceding has not been reviewed and no accuracy should be implied. The creator is to be held harmless and for any misuse, misinterpretation, errors or any other stuff like that.

Nevermind, It won't allow me to upload a spreadsheet.

If you want a copy, pm me your email address and I'll send it.

A very good charter captain pointed me to these colors fwiw. I don't recall the names.

If you ever get a wire diver into a copper board line with a spin dr on either, just start cutting.

I don't trust Albright knots.

I'm glad you said that Joe, because neither do I. I've lost too many leaders and whole coppers because somehow the copper cuts through the mono/flouro. Too many to be a coincidence. I tried a couple variations of the Albright knot thinking that may make a difference and it did not. It's always inline swivels for me going forward.

Thanks for all of the great replies guys. A lot to digest.

Thanks Bloodruntackle! So it all boils down to "toughness" and rigidity. Makes sense that my mono seemed to produce as well as my infrequent use of flouro since the invisibility factor isn't an issue in common trolling situations. Since I retie and make new leaders very often, the question then becomes whether I would need to do so less frequently with flouro. I'm really having very, very few bite-off problems so it seems like durability is the benefit.

Btw, your 60# copper really makes a difference. I know it puts more fish in the boat, whatever the reason.

A question for you experts. I've run flouro leaders occasionally but most often I'm running straight mono since I'm getting pretty good results and with the color in the water, I'm not sure how visible they are down 50-70 anyway. Now trying to figure if flouro will make any significant difference. Also, is there any real difference between flouro line and flouro leader other than hardness? I ask because I go through a lot of leaders having a diamond plate floor on my deck and a single step on the line compromises the line. Bottom line, how much difference do you feel that true flouro leader material makes?

Another option that has worked well and has been very productive for me is using a 200' copper down the chute. The difference is that I'm using 60# copper rather than the usual 45#. On a high speed reel,, you can clear this rod quickly if you're into a big fish. I also think that the 60# stuff takes more hits for some reason. Just a thought.

Nice fish. Thanks for sharing

April 21, June 19, August 23 and September 10. . Seriously, what cmbomysoad said. With a small boat, pick the times you can find fish in close. April for Browns and late Aug/Sep for staging kings.

Welcome to the site dg. Wow, that's some "non-traditional" fishing platform. Sounds like your more inclined toward fishing than having a recreational boat. Your attention to detail will serve you well but really rethink those manual down riggers. Most of all, enjoy the affliction that you'll develop for Lake Ontario. I'm an ex-Erie guy myself and never looked back.

But you still cant tell where the fish is in the sonar cone

Correct.  You don't know if it's a "glancing blow" and the fish just cuts through the edge of the cone or the fish traverses the entire diameter of the cone, or something in between.  Whether the fish is moving and in what direction further complicates this.  

The FF has no way of telling the exact depth it can only tell you how FAR the fish is away from the transducer and displays that as depth on the screen. So when it first spots the fish it's far away (so shows deeper 80ft) then it is under the transducer and closer (gradually shows shallower to peak of 60ft) and then it goes away from the transducer again (gradually shows deeperror until signal is lost at 80ft).

 

Tyee is correct, but this is not very hard to understand.  Just visualize a cone moving through the water while intercepting both stationary and moving objects as they pass through the cone from different locations on the cone and it becomes very easy to understand the difference between displayed depth and actual depth.

One of the presenters at this year's Salmon School said that he has some confidence in Solunar Tables when deciding to fish. To be honest, the few dozen times I've checked Solunar Tables while fishing, I've seen very little correlation between the table's predictions and actual fish activity. The exception would be when the tables predict activity during the typical early morning and evening bites. What are your thoughts on the predictive power of these tables??? I have always put these in the same category as Astrology.

I just got back from my 5 hour drive also. I didn't attend the swap meet but I can tell you that the salmon school was top notch. LOTSA does a great job picking speakers and I took more notes than when I was back in school. Great way to break the winter doldrums. Got to see a few friends and meet a few new ones. I'll be back next year.

I think the definitive argument I saw for choosing Scotty's was that you could sit a beer on them.

With and without UV light

No experience with Big Johns. I have Cisco and love them. Supposedly, the Ciscos have the more powerful motor. They pull my Otters Boats with double keels in without breaking a sweat.

Bobby Fuller's FLT goby spoons. Various Jr Thunderstick in natural/dark colors. To be fair, I haven't given the Bay Rat sticks a ride yet. Soon.

Count me as a UV convert. It isn't night and day, but enough to notice.