EarlyRiser

Silver and blue have done pretty well this year, too. I was out Monday night and the weeds and the fleas were absolutely awful. We quit early because it was too much like work.You will want to make sure that you are taking care to keep a pretty narrow setup so you can possibly maneuver around weeds and also that you have flea-resistant line on your riggers and diver rods or it will be more of a headache than it's worth. Ideal water temps were between 40 and 55 feet down.

Thanks for all the helpful feedback, guys. I will jack it up and double-check function of everything. I suspect it wasn't working toward the end of this last trip and hopefully it's something minor, because I just put a bunch of money into getting the trailer all ready to go. If it's not right, maybe I will bring it right back to the guys who worked on it and see if they will make it right because it's only been a couple months and two trips since they worked on it.

Just one axle. Hadn't realized the potential conflict with electric brakes. Will definitely double-check all the items to be sure the place did the brakes correctly. Thank you all for your help so far. I welcome additional thoughts and ideas, too.

I have a boat and trailer combination that is on the upper end of what my truck can tow and the last time I was returning from a 4 hour trip with the boat, the brakes on my truck got real hot coming down the big hill into my marina. The truck brakes are new and I have surge brakes on the trailer that I recently had serviced (and will double check to be sure they are working properly), but I am contemplating switching the hydraulic surge brakes out for electric brakes. Has anyone out there done this before that can shed some light on the labor or cost they incurred? From what I read, I will need new electric brake hubs, a new coupler, some wiring, a new wire connector to the truck, and a brake controller in the truck -- probably about $350-400 worth of parts. Are there other options I am not considering (besides buying a new trailer or a new truck!) What do you think? Thanks, Kyle

Mine has certainly had a few hiccups so far, too. I do find that sometimes I have to go into the system settings under chart and select Lowrance instead of Navionics, let it load, then repeat and select Navionics to let everything reload and then the Navionics chip seems to be functioning properly after doing that reset...

I used an old plastic/synthetic cutting board as a backer for my rigger tracks. It cuts easily, is cheap, and won't rot.

Fished the morning on Cayuga. Concentrated on West side near Tgk and North, plus the areas on the East side near Milliken. Concentrated on 85-120 ft of water and used a 6 rod spread including 3 and 4 color lead cores, mag diver, 300' copper, and riggers. We went 7/8, but nothing over 16" -- lots of dink salmon on the lead cores. That's been the story of our year on Cayuga so far, lots of dinks. We marked tons of bait and good sized fish, but only the little ones were interested. Tested the water temps in 80' near Tgk and it was 59 degrees at the surface, 50 degrees at 35', then 49 degrees down 80'. No wonder the fish are so scattered! Hoping for the thermocline and some stable weather.

I would say it is probably the difference in how far down the intake holes are submerged in the water. When you come up on plane, the top few intake holes are probably up out of the water, so you are taking in some water, but not as much as when you are at low speeds and it is fully submerged.

don't know the guy or the motor, but did just come across this listing on Craigslist in Ithaca: http://ithaca.craigslist.org/boa/3838559515.html

Very happy with my 2013 Tohatsu 9.8 so far. Very quiet, runs smooth, starts right up. The only difference between it and the comparable Mercury (besides the color/stickers) is the electric start button and the gear shift are on the motor instead of built into the handle like it is on the Mercury. I'd rather have it built into the handle, but for $600 less, I can deal with it.

I am selling a brand new Walker Downrigger Short Swivel Base. I just bought a new downrigger and it came with this base, but I already have Bert's swivel bases that I plan to use, so here is your chance for a bargain. Best price I've found on these is $90 at Bass Pro, but they are actually out of stock because they are the best price. I will sell this one for $80. Here is what you'd be purchasing: http://www.basspro.com/Walker-Short-Swivel-Base-for-Downriggers/product/53532/ Located in Ithaca or Myers Point on Cayuga Lake. Could also ship Priority Mail for $8. Kyle

PM Sent

I also use the double-uni and it serves me very well.

My boat is already in the water for the year. The outboard motors are tipped up out of the water at the moment, but I am thinking I would be better off putting them all the way down in the water to avoid freezing whatever water may be trapped in them from running the motor and today's storms. Does that make sense?