jonboat

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=9906

Me... if my go-to isn't working, yet I'm marking fish and bait, I'll put out a spread that has a mash-up of different baits and colors. Lots of times, that's all it takes. give them a menu to choose from and (hopefully) they'll tell you what they want. If I get a hit at this point, I'll start changing another couple rods over to what just worked, untill I've got the same, or similar baits in the water.

Great report and one heck of a fish! Makes you feel great when you can get a kid to smile like that with a fishing trip!!!

Our first three fish yesterday (only boated one of them) were kings, and we got the hits in 30 FOW!!!! Big surprise for me, but a welcome one. There were a lot of boats out deep, not sure how they did since we had our limit of 1 king and 5 browns by 10:30AM, nobody else at the ramp to talk to. My advice is get up here and go fishing. the fish are here and ready to make your reels scream!

Funny extra piece of info... We had 5 in the box and were in shallow in front of Blind Sodus, about ready to call it a day. I decided to go out deeper and work back toward the chute then pack up. I bumped the throttle up to 3.75 MPH to make my turn a little sharper, and wouldn't you know, the outside line on the outside board pops with the final cookie-cutter to fill our limit. That outside board must have been doing 4.5 -5 MPH!!!!!!! Weird how that happened. All hits the rest of the time we were out came right at 3 MPH. Nothing at all slower than 2.75, and that was the only time I bumped it up over 3.

Fishing Report Your Name / Boat Name: The Bubman ============== TRIP OVERVIEW ============== Date(s):5/6 Time on Water: 7-10:30 AM Weather/Temp: Wind Speed/Direction: NE Waves: 1-2 Surface Temp: 50-53 Location:Fair Haven LAT/LONG (GPS Cords): =============== FISHING RESULTS =============== Total Hits: 9 Total Boated:6 Species Breakdown:King, Browns Hot Lure: Silver/blue Loco, silver/blue Thunderstick jr Trolling Speed: 3.0 GPS Down Speed: 3.0 GPS Boat Depth: 12-30 Lure Depth: planers ==================== SUMMARY & FURTHER DETAILS ==================== Got out after the sun was up, heading East out of the chute, and followed some advice I read here on LOU to throw a line out the back while putting out my spread... we didn't even get a board in the water and had a fish on - a teen-king on a Loco. Came unbuttoned while trying to net it (yes this was my shakedown, and I was rusty). Put it back out and got back to putting our spread in the water. Had another king on a couple minutes later (had one board and 2 lines set up), again, on the Loco. This one simply came off on its own about 20' from the boat. The Loco almost got me Finally got all the lines set and my son in law was up when the first release popped, he got a nice 11.5 lb king in 30 FOW on a blue/silver Thunderstick jr. Next up was my 12 lb brown, same bait, same depth. The rest were cookie-cutters we got on zig-zag from 12 to 35 FOW. Took one on black/silver Thunderstick jr, the rest on Loco or blue/silver T-stick jr. 6 for 9 was a great shakedown, and the kings in 30 FOW were a nice surprise. Here are our two biggest fish of the day:

Does anyone besides me have a few Loco's in their tackle arsenal? I've found them to work great on spring browns. Haven't tried them on salmon yet. I wonder why Luhr Jensen discontinued them.

All I've ever used are OtterBoats. They've served me well so far, but I would think that homemades would work just as well. Mine were a gift, so cost wasn't a factor. If I had to get my own, I'd likely make them myself from any of the plans that are posted here on LOU. I already have the skillsaw, so I'd come out ahead on the $$$$ LOL

Yankee has a point. The whole pivot point idea just made a lightbulb go on over my head. I never thought about it, but I've heard guys with their mast at the bow having problems in turns. I always wondered why some folks had problems and I don't. I'm sure the string measurements come into play too, but I've never had problems with mine - the string measurements are correct and my masts are mounted about 6' back from the bow on a 19' boat. Interesting thought.... I'd love to see someone try at different locations from bow to stern and let us know the performance diferences.

you guys are my new heros!!!!!!! I'll be using this tip - probably with the soup can option, at the end of the season. Too late for this year, but next year will be sooooooo much easier!!!! Thanks for sharing!

Use REALLY good swivels!!!!!! I've lost some flasher-fly combos because I skimped on the swivels and line twist can be realy bad on the FF line.

I run sticks (Thunderstick jr's) off big boards and generally throw a spoon (stinger) down the chute. I use 12# fluoro leaders (same length as the rod), and run them 150' back. In shallow, you don't need to worry about down speed. I usually keep it between 2.1 and 2.9 on the GPS. Using a 90HP 2-stroke outboard, I find I need to use the power trim and tip the motor up a good bit to keep in my speed range at idle. (used bags before, but that makes steering tough). Early morning, start in 8-12 FOW. Look for tributary mouths and colored water if there is any to be had. My luck is the days I can fish, I end up in gin-clear water Bright colors are suited for the colored water and natural colors if it's clear. As the morning goes on, I move out, eventually into 25-30 FOW. I add snap weights about 50' up from the bait as I move out into deeper water. Split shots will work, but I like the snap weights because you don't have to really stop reeling to remove them when they get to your rod tip - the way I rig them, with a snap at the back end that goes on my main line, they release and slide down to your leader swivel.

All depends on wind direction. Up in the Cape Vincent area, an E or ENE or ESE wind would be best - not a lot of fetch for the waves to build up. 10-15 from those directions would be fishable. Out of the W or WSW or SW, not so much. Those winds give most of the length of the lake for the wind to really build the waves up. NOAA website has lots of tools for getting forecasts for areas around the lake. Start here and use the links for point forecasts for specific areas on the lake.

And to think, just a few short days ago it was 85°, sunny, and relatively calm. Now we're in snow, cold and high winds... that's Upstate NY for ya! I hope there aren't a lot of folks that have traveled a long distance to get after spring browns the first half of the week.

If it's a legal fish and I'm under my limit, I just release them into my cooler, then later on, onto my grill or my smoker. Never have to worry about mortality rates. Fish that are not legal, go back so fast they hardly have to miss a breath.

15 minutes away in Cato, there is a really good pizza shop on one corner, and the Cato Family Diner across the street. Both have good food. If you want a "cold one" to go with your meal, the Cato Hotel has a full menu (with good food), and a full bar. Up the road in Hannibal, there is an IGA grocery store that serves take out hot food and good pizza at the Deli. In Fair Haven, we like the sub shop across from Screwy Loui's. I think there are a couple decent restaurants along the West side of the bay too... but have never eaten at any of them.

I've been going by the single vs. double row of teeth to ID them. Thanks for posting additional features to key in on. Maybe the AT or AHEAD of the eye on the mouth is a better quick-ID to help get the Atlantics back in the water faster.

They should open season on 'em and let us shoot them all!!!! nasty birds!

Here's another good one from the noaa: http://forecast.weather.gov/gridpoint.php?site=buf click a spot on the little map to get a point forecast. I can't seem to find how I got it, but you can also get the noaa/nws digital forcast as a kml file that is used by google earth. Works great, pulling up the most recent forecast.

I asked about that last year - didn't hear much about it other than some guys use mooching rods for trolling. I would think it would work great - especially with the currents the lake has. Head out on a day with a little breeze, drop your rig, then sit back and relax until your reel starts screaming.

On my 19' carolina skiff (8'beam) I've got two Big Jon masts on the bow platform - about 3" higher than the gunwales, and vertical rod holders near the stern. Since they're about 7' apart and up relatively high, they seem to do really well. Unless I'm fighting four-footers or making quick turns, they seem to keep tension on the lines very well and the tow lines don't get anywhere near my rods. You can see where they're mounted here:

Run sticks off boards 150' back. I've had good luck both East and West of the chute. Early mornings 8-12 FOW, then move out to 15-25 FOW as the sun gets higher. Water temps in the 50's are best. You can sill get them in gin-clear water - use fluoro leaders and natural color baits (black/silver, blue/silver, green/silver). There's a good chance of stained water early next week - we've got rain in the forecast and stiff NNW winds over the weekend. I like brighter colors in the stained water.

ABSOLUTELY!!! I know some guys that can do mounts of mammals and birds that look so lifelike it's scary, but give them a fish, and they come back looking nothing like what you caught. Replicas or skin mounts - BOTH require the taxidermist to be a taxidermist, a sculptor, and most importantly, a very talented painter. Bottom line is the paint job done on your fish is the single most important part of getting a mount to be proud of. Don't limit yourself by location for a fish mount, find someone with lots of references and examples of their work (online photos can help). As for replicas, like Mike said, unless you want a custom mount where the mold is made from your actual fish, all you really need are some good measurements and some high quality color photos so they can match the coloring accurately. It's been a while since I had to measure up a fish for a replica and don't recall all of the ones beyond length and girth. I know they work with just those two, but if I remember, there were a few extras if you want it to truely look like the fish you caught. I'm sure Mike can elaborate on that. By the way... Really nice work Mike!!!!

I don't have a problem with boaters learning safety, rules of the road, etc. However, I do have a problem with mandating every boat owner to pay $75.00 to take an 8 hour course. I took my boater safety course 35 years ago - it was required for anyone 12-16 to operate a power boat. I also was fully qualified on helm and lee helm (driving the ship) on a frigate back in my Navy days. Since I took my boater's safety course, there have been some changes to recreational boating regulations, but not very many. Any noobie that has a clue and wants to be safe, only needs to go to the nyparks.com website for a handy little book with all of the basics http://www.nysparks.com/recreation/boating/documents/NYSBoatersGuide.pdf. Drunk driving has dropped off over the last couple decades because of increased enforcement and harsher penalties - that is what is needed with regard to boating safety (and BWI). Even with the decrease in DWI, there are still idiots that are multiple-repeat offenders. In cases like that - as Ron White says: "you can't fix stupid" (you can't legislate common sense either). We'll always have idiots that are unsafe on the waters, just like we'll always have unsafe drivers on the roads. The best we can hope for is that law enforcement catches up with them and they get penalized for their actions. They want to do a money-grab, they need to start fining idiots more. NOW for a little bit of a counter-point were the bill written a little differently: IF there were a grandfather clause - I'd have no problem. IF there was an option to simply take the test to get a certificate, I could live with it. As written today - I wholeheartedly am against this bill and just sent an email to my State Senator's office urging him to vote against it so that it never leaves committee in it's current form.