Jonboy Walton

sorry about costing you money but with questions comes gear ;o)

I have fished the black's releases and they were very nice until I found Chamberlin releases....best on the market IMO...that and about a buck will get you some coffee. Go to any search engine and type in chamberlin releases and watch the video's. They are a little pricey but are much cheaper than new weights. Sounds like your problem is solved with your weights but thought I would mention the Chamberlins...I will not fish Black's anymore.

Fished about 5 hours on Saturday (4pm to 9pm)...oddly not many boats for a Saturday. Fished the southern end, Watkins Glen to Glenora. Struggled for a bit but managed to boat a brown and landlock. The LL was nice 6.2 lbs. Caught both on stinger spoons. I'm the person who posted a while back about the flasher and fly, took a lot of advice given and still no takers on FF. Fished them 280 ft. back on a 108 Walker diver with a green/silver flasher and blue/green/silver fly. One of these days I'll get those things figured out....not today though. Hope you like the pics...

Nice report...Nice to hear all the good news...as a guy from PA, I'm envious of you guys from NY who can be fishing in minutes...2hrs of driving is definately worth it though.

Great pics...all those nice fish shoulda had a winner...next time. good report

Here is the way I do the drag...if you have some light weighlifting weights lay around (or anything you can put on a decent scale to get the weight of), run the line through the rods first eye then to the weight. Pick up the rod and all off the ground and back the drag off until the weight starts to fall (kinda the way you set the drag when changing lures on a baitcaster). That should give you an idea of a 2lb drag or whatever the weight you tied on. It should at least give you a starting point. For what its worth I am a fan of Shimano Curado BSF reels...but everyone has a favorite.

Wow...nice fish. Good luck on the 10lber

Wow...nice fish

Steve An honorable offer...I fish sodus a couple of times a year...good fishing. Jon

Finding fish I seem to do well on. I like having good gear, my electronics are a Lowrance HDS10 with side scan and Navionics. I watch patterns and log depths and lures that are working and tweek when needed. I switch about every 20-30 minues for a rod not working (either depth, lure, speed etc.) I agree with putting out a spread. On sunday I fished stickbaits, stinger spoons and the f/f. Most of the other attempts have been in Keuka and let's face it, if you can't catch a laker in Keuka well you figure it out. Seneca is kinda new water to me and I've tried the f/f maybe 3 or 4 times before there but in either body of water no takers. In the end, it still is fishing but I would have thought that many times I could get a dumb one...

I am looking for some help with fishing flashers and flies. I tried some of the information that I picked up on previous posts on Sunday with no luck. I have tried fishing f/f before and have never caught anything on them. On Sunday I tried fishing them off of a dipsey (0 size, back about 120 which should be down about 20'ish, on the 0 setting which would be right behind the boat, not angled out). They were being fished off of Okuma rods/reels with 20lb braided to the flasher then the provided leader to the fly. I trolled that at 2.0-2.4 SOG for about 4 hours and gave up and went to the spoon on a dipsey. I was fishing a Spin Dr. in green body and silver stick on with a blue/green howie fly. After about 2 hours with nothing I swapped the blue/green fly for a blue/purple one...still no luck. Ran that f/f from Watkins Glen to Glenora and finally took it off. I realize that some days are a dipsey day and some are a downrigger day but I have NEVER caught a fish on f/f with about 20 attempts. My f/f gear is somewhat limited with green plain, green/silver, green/green and blue/green holo combo's for flashers and blue/green, green, blue/purple, green/chartruse, green/silver howie flys. I am hesitant to buy more gear for a technique that I am not proficient at and don't catch much on. Any thoughts? If someone out there is willing, I am offering a trip to Seneca on my boat (if we fish my gear what I have is what I have), if you wish to bring your gear because you are more comfortable fishing your gear you are more than welcome too, for a day of fishing in return for some on the water knowledge. We can work out the details....

Sorry we are learning some lessons from your misfortune...hope it works out.

Folks I am pretty new to the board but wanted to thank you guys and tell you how I did on Sunday. First, the thanks. I used some of the information that was posted to do well on Sunday and tell you guys what was working. Launched at Catherines and fished the west side of the lake. Started out at 0530 and fished to about 11. I put the 0 in front of 530 because oh my God it's early (left PA at 0330). Anyway, had boards out and dipseys. Hit a dink land lock right off the bat on a stick bait about the salt plant (alewife color down about 20'). It was all dipseys after that. We had another 7 fish 3 land lock and 4 browns, all over 4 lbs. The biggest LL was a 7lb'er, my biggest LL all time. The biggest brown was 6lb and the average of the LL and browns were probably about 4.5 lbs. Was fishing stinger spoons and the hot color was blue/silver hammered and green/blue smooth finish (can't remember names). Fishing 0 size dipseys and back 120 to about 160 was the best depth (probably about 15-25 down). Tried a flasher and fly off of a dipsey but didn't do anything on it (Green/silver spin dr. and a green/silver stinger spoon). About 9 it slowed down and I brought the boards in and fished 3 dipseys on the shallow side and put a downrigger on the deep side. Fished a spoon off the rigger and a dipsey off my other holder (deep side). Ended on a dink LL at 11 off the rigger (who knows how long we pulled that fish and my chamberlin release didn't fire...hmmm). Nine fish total for about 6 hrs fishing, pretty good in my book. The DEP diary program says a fish an hour is about average, so I'm happy. Added a few pics I think, hope they come out.

Chamberlain releases by far are the best IMO, they are a blacks release with an adjustable magnet for the line pull going to the bait/lure. You can crank the line to the rod way and I mean WAY down and the line going to the lure as light as .2 /10ths of a pound. No more trolling dinks and not knowing it.

Gambler, thanks for the info....If anyone out there has a pic or two for the keel placement or any other pointers, places to get as Pulaski is about 4 hours from my house in PA that would be good too. I will try Big Jon directly and see what they have. Thanks...

To all who know Can someone explain how this double keel system works, where to get one, how to modify the existing boards etc... I have two otter boats and they are so-so. I would like them to keep the line tighter so the releases slide out better. Currently they get a slight bow in them and the releases take some time to get to the ends. I have seen them mentioned several times but I look around the net and see no second keels for sale and big jon does not list them on their website. If someone can help a fellow troller out I would be in your debt...

Is there any solution for fixing the paint for the ones I already paid 6 bucks for. I understand the clear coat part of it but any ideas on how to fix a kevorkian that the paint is already flaking....