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I would like to ask a stupid question, which of these rigger weights have less blow back, the 14# fish, or the torpedo weights, in the weight. I also saw these fish shape with bent tail, I guess to track off to the side of the boat, are the Troutmans strait or bent, thanks for any input. PAP.

I fished the Black River basin since the early 80's, and the way this year is going, I will be drifting worm harnesses off of bottom bouncers, I use 2oz bottom bouncers with the green and orange beetle spin rigs, with 3 hooks, make sure that you hook the worm as close to the tip of the crawler as possible, this make the crawler as strait as possible, if no luck there, troll up the river on the left side, stay in the deep area at the first set of bouys , then go up the left side there is a shelf about 20 yards off shore work that shelf up to the weeping willow tree, than repeat by going out to the last set of green and red bouys. I have better luck on the green side of the bouys, there are holes used to be 8 to 10 feet deep on the side and they hang in those deep holes when the boat traffic is heavy. Hope this helps a little, been successful their for years, if no luck there, troll down the north shore towards Chaumont bay or try Chaumont bay, after the Black River Basin.

We always got off 81 at Pulaski exit and got our stuff there, but I heard they moved, can anyone shed some light as to where they are now, will have to change our travel arrangements to go there but it's worth every extra drop of gas to hit them up before heading to the Black River Camp Ground. Thanks PAP.

Thanks legacy for that site, I tried it and it worked flawlessly. It's hard to believe that one overhand knot will do the trick, I pulled on it as hard as I could and it wouldn't come apart( The 2 fishing lines for those that may be mislead by my wording)

Very interesting, It's amazing to see that the younger generation taking a interest to this very much needed subject, this will keep the youngsters out of trouble and doing what us older guys did for generations. I remember doing a float stock for trout in our local streams, we always put the larger fish along with really nice size trout in places where it was a good hike from the road, hopefully to keep those fish in the streams, and not in the creel. Our local streams are thought to be self reproducing streams, so keeping the females out of the easy reach of anglers, would help in natural reproduction going. Thanks for the interesting video!! PAP. 

Reelintence, That's a sweet looking ride, and don't rush things together, I bought a 1983 22ft Sea Ray cuddy that I have been working on for 3 years now, this year I will be ready for Lake O'. I had other boats in the 18ft range, but going to a 22fter is a whole new ball game, from 4cyl to 350  Mercruiser (complete rebuild,30 over bore job) did all the work myself, I think it's a lot of boat, 96 inch beam, and a lot of boat in front of the helm makes for a lot of time on a lake at home getting used to the boat, loading and learning to handle the new to me vessel, before I bring it up to the big O. Nothing irritates me more than waiting for someone else to load their boat, taking 20 minutes to get it on the trailer, so I don't want to be that someone!! This boat took a lot of work but it's worth every penny to me, it should be the last boat I need, not that I wouldn't want a new one, but all the work and time make you appreciate the ones we have. Enough about me, good luck with your new ride and let there be many fish in your box this year!!

WOW, that was a mouthful, Thanks for the info, I learned a lot. PAP.

WOW, what a trip, sounds like you guys had a blast, I always wanted to take a charter trip on lake O' but time fly's buy and before you know it's fall and where did the season go. Glad you guy's pulled off, maybe the trip of a life time!!!

Kuda, my uncle has a pontoon boat an they are ok to fish off of if you are still fishing,(perch,crappie,ect) but to troll they suck!! and forget about rough water, they simply can't handle the waves, they will capsize. I saw one almost sink 2 years ago out in the trench, he had his hands full to get in behind the break wall in Henderson harbor, the waves were breaking on the deck of the boat, it got ugly fast,other boats followed him in to break the waves and he followed in their wake, no way would that boat make it in on it's own, my hats off to those guys who wrapped things up to assist the pontoon boat.

Very well thought out post, nice pics, with nicely put wording, considering the weather conditions, wind sucks , when you wait all year for this week, weather is alright but the F'in wind blows to hard to even get out. Looks and sounds like you guys are making the best of it. Good luck and nice post fellows, keep us up on the rest of your trip.   PAP. from PA. 

Thanks for the fishing report, as always, what worked, what color, and how it was used, thanks again Yankee Troller, right now there is more stuff for sale, than fishing reports, NICE to read a report, Getting the itch, bad, a little more electrical work and I'll be ready to tow her up the Black River Bay Camp Grounds for the year.

I'm with you on that one Ray!!!! Over the top and out, 10-4

That boat went from $5000.00 to $1500.00 in less than a year, Either the guy is desperate for cash or I'd be very cautious, even at the $5000.00 that was a good price the trailer is a 2007 or so and 3 scotty downriggers are well worth what he is asking, with that being said Either it's a deal of a life time (with this economy) it is possible, or there is a reason many members from here didn't buy it. Approach with caution and on here some one posted what a boat surveyor does and how he goes about his business, really good article, read that stuff it's pretty much  no brainer what to look for once you read the article. I wish I had that information before I bought my boat, 2 years later I finally got it running, complete rebuild, and reconstruction of the motor mounts they were to soft to hold down my new 355 cubic inch mercrursier, that my uncle did for me, he has a motor rebuild shop that specializes in circle track racing.

I'm really interested in your spoons, but I fish the eastern side of lake O' I wouldn't mind paying the  shipping cost, if you would ship them I will buy them. Thanks PAP

I just want to remind those folks going over the border, They are all a bunch off Bastards!!!!, once you cross their border, what's good one day is not the next. I call it changing of the Guards, new people(well I won't go there) new set of rules, what worked yesterday, wont today, Trust me, been there done that, cost me a lot of money and time. I haven't bee back since, that one Incident, three hours being detained, on a total inspection of my boat, I had my wife, my twin daughters, and my dad and a good friend along, dad was a Korean war vet, Butch  was Vietnam vet. They charged me with having to much tobacco on board, first they ask how long you are staying a ( a few hours means one day) so we got cited for having to much chew tobacco, they asked why are the kids taking so many pictures, don't know they like to take pictures, what's wrong with that, well  we don't like it they said and took the chip out of the camera, and deleted some of the pictures and gave the chip back to my girls, then they took Butch off board to their boat and he was gone 15-20 minutes, then they took Dave, same thing, finally Butch, reached in his pocket and got a card with numbers on it and called to Fort Drum , after a brief discussion with the Canadians and who every was on the other end of the phone (Military guy of some sort.) we where able to enter the states again, $60.00 in taxes for having  roll of chew,$300.00 for not having a coast guard approv. tag sewed to my throw device, I had a brand new one but it was not tied to the rope so the one on the rope was what I got fined for, Just a word of advice, the fish aren't worth it.

Updates can be done, but you must be teck savy, you need to remove the card and then do the on line update useing a card reader then insert the card into the reader and complete the update useing the info from the card reader to your card out of the unit, not excactly shure how its done, but I was told it can be done, someone from here told me how to do it I'll have to go back through my PM's to get the hole scoop, as this was a concern of mine also, since I bought a ELITE 7 also

We used a simular rig for fishing walleyes in the river, we used a huge salt water fly fishing reel with automatic retreve to take up the wire line, used 2oz jigs with a twister tail, just jigged it off the botton, you could feel the jig hit bottom, then when fish hit, hand line it in, when a pile of line was on the floor just hit the trigger on the fly reel and it spools up on it's own, we use a short peice of rod, just the handle and the reel clamp and maybe 8" of rod, this way you can reach the line to do the jigging, I use a batters glove, the wire hurts after a while of jigging, and when a fish hits it can be a battle, where the batters glove is thin and you can feel everything. This system works well and it should work for lakers also, oh I put a roller line guide on the tip, like what the guys use with copper rigs. We troll real slow .5mph so the line stays vertical at all times, if it doesn't go heavier with jig. I'm going to try it this year on LakeO for lakers.

Lobster, I have a 20ft Sea Ray I can get down to .5 mph with a 15hp Johnson twin cylinder 2 stroke, if you can't get it to do what you want, I have a troll plate I had on a 88hp Johnson don't know if it will fit, I no longer need it, It's one of those spring loaded ones, you don't have to remember to unlock it, it flys up with the pressure from the prop, I hated the thing because in reverse you have no controll-steering, with it being down it wouldn't allow enough water to the prop for proper controll, anyway if you choose a troll plate, I will give you the one I have, just pay the shipping and it's yours!  I paid like $90.00 for it but that doesn't matter because it just lays in the garage in my way.  PAP.

Awsome first time out guys, nice pics.also,nice to to finally read a real fish report and see some new fish pics. Looks like the season is here, go get them guys!! 

So what your saying is, no need for a 4g net work, the phone will communicate with the smart troll? Im not that teck savy so this is kind of confusing to me, please feel free to help me understand this new teck stuff, I really like the what I been hearing as far it's ability to do so much, just lost in fog with the understanding of how it works.

My uncle and his buddy thinks Lake O' is the best lake they ever fished, and they live on the water, so they know what good and whats so,so for size and the amount they catch, all are released! don't dare hurt a smallie on their boat or you will be swimming back to shore, they are looking for that 7#er for a reproduction mount. They drop shot and wacky style fish a gold with sparkles and a paddle style tail rubber worm, I went along a few times, one time we were on the end of Galloo Island and found a limestone under water island, If we didn't catch 100 smallies we didn't catch one and all fish where 3# and up to a almost mounter fish, best day ever on lake O' First we fished rubber worm ran out, fished a paddle tail fish ran out, on on, till we were fishing a bright yellow bare jig head, then everything stopped, we just sat in the boat and just couldn't believe what just happened. Awsome experience!!!!!!   The smallies are out there I'm living proof of that.

If I'm following the info correctly you will need a smart phone, low end phone cost $200.00 then in order to use an app you will need a service of some sort, verizon which is what I have for phone service now is $79.00 a month, so I need a phone $200.00. My service is free due to my work pays my service,Does the Smart Troll communicate with the phone directly or are you using the service, are you going to be roaming, if so your bill will floor you when you get it, or am I all wrong, Just wondering?? $79.00 a year is $948.00 a year plus $200.00 for the phone=$1'148.00 the first year because of the cost of the phone,$948,00 every year after for the phone service?

Thanks again guys, going to give it a go PAP

DJ717, This is right out of the Big Water Edition Precision Trolling, They run  1# ball at 2.5 mph using 30# power pro  I'll  just give you a few of the chart readings . 40ft down would be 55ft back 60ft down 85ft back 80ft down,125ft back 100ft down,155ft back 120 down,190ftback  if you want, I can give you more specific depths if you want. PAP

Thanks guys, stupid&slow that sounds like my kind of fishing,I also heard of bumping the bottom triggers strikes for lakers, So glow white and on the bottom Gottcha. PAP