Followed The Waves

I keep an eye on the Solunar Tables and the best bite was supposed to be right before the eclipse. This guy was a little late but he got the skunk out of the boat. Agreed on the weather—-ugh. I sat this weekend out. Auto Pilot will be here Wednesday!

Reel Doc, thanks! It wasn't much of a show on Seneca. I saw about 10% of the sun disappear and then everything disappeared behind the clouds. I had been out most of the day at that point and only had one bite until the eclipse was just hitting the fan and a planer board took a dive. After a long fought battle, I was able to get this guy in the boat. I was sure the line was going to break. As you can see from my expression, it really made my day! I am beginning to look into an autopilot. I'm just getting started but this one came up on my radar. My 28 foot Voyager ways 10,500 pounds but with a couple tanks of gas and all my fishing crap on board, I'm sure I'm over 11,000 pounds. Think I'm looking in the right direction?

RD, many thanks. Autopilot would sure be sweet but probably not worth the money on my old 40-year-old clunker. I'm heading up today and I'll fish in the morning and I may watch the eclipse from the water---with my eclipse glasses of course!

I got out for my shakedown cruise last weekend and fished the north end of Seneca. On Saturday, I fished until about 4 PM and landed a nice mix of 9 fish---lakers, salmon (just one keeper and some dinks), a rainbow, and a brown. All but two were caught by 10 AM or so. On Sunday, I fished until about noon and managed three lakers and a decent brown. Everything was caught from 20' to 70' on small spoons. I ran a stickbait and a plug for a while Saturday afternoon with no action. Everything came on 2 leadcore rods or a planer. Water temps ran from 39° to 42°. On Saturday, I didn't even see another boat until 2:20 PM. A few guys were out perch fishing Sunday morning but I didn't see anyone else trolling either day. For the most part, the fish looked healthy but the biggest brown was beaten up pretty bad by a lamprey and one of the lakers had a nasty bite. Boat control is difficult for one guy in a 28 foot flybridge with the wind but by the afternoon on both days, things settled down. Some chop is nice but I have to troll with the wind unless I have a driver on board. I want to give a special shout out to my coach, Capt. Nick O (Reel Stories) for all his help in shortening my very long learning curve when it comes to trolling. It's not something that came naturally to me with all the variables---speed, color, depth, temperature, etc. but I think I'm finally getting it. Tight lines! Saturday's catch... Sunday's catch...

Beats being stuck inside with the same relatives who told the same stories at Thanksgiving! LOL…

Their expressions are priceless!

Anthony, well done and thanks. Looks like I am on the right track although I don't have the Lite Bite version. I have been picking up a few fish on the slide divers. Because I had it on hand, I'm running about 50 feet of 12 pound fluorocarbon down to a swivel about 4 feet above the spoon and then 10 pound fluorocarbon from the swivel to the spoon and I attached the spoon with just a snap. For whatever reason, the 10 pound stuff seems so much smaller in diameter than the 12 pound. Tight lines!

It does and thanks! I got to thinking about it and I think what I'll do on my next trip out is to get the right speed going in 50 feet of water and slowly keep letting line out until I hit bottom. I should be able to figure out the ratios from there. I'm a little disappointed in the lack of info the manufacturer provides. Grumble…

Great report and great info---thanks! Quick question, if you don't mind. I just started fishing U-Charters slide divers and I didn't think I was getting down deep enough so I bought the Ultimate Accessory Ring and Weight Set. I've been through a few nasty tangles with my lead core, so I run the divers on a #6 setting to get them as far away from the boat as I can (I run Chinook divers on a #4 setting). With the slide divers on that setting, any idea how much wire I need to let out? U-Charters doesn't seem to offer a chart with this "Ultimate" setup and from my googling, no one else seems to be able to find what I'm looking for either. Does a 3 to 1 ratio sound right (3 feet out for every foot of depth)?

I have to say that since the die-off, I've been seeing actual bait pods instead of the screen going black for half an hour. Now if we can just get rid of the weeds and fleas!

A troll trolling trollers...

Definitely go with the orange!