FleetTracker

I don't spend much time in Chaumont... Not sure that this will be of any specific help but it will get you thinking...

What depth have you been fishing? What are you running behind the planers? How far back? What's your GPS speed? What main line are you using? Do you have fluorocarbon leaders? Are you trolling straight? S-curves? On and off contours or parallel with them? With the wind? Against it?

This will keep you up at night...

It's not easy and there are a ton of variables involved. You need to constantly think about all of these things and pattern them. Oh did I mention every day is different?

Best of luck to you today and on future trips.

Left the dock at 5:00AM for an earlier start and plans to do numbers like yesterday...

The winds late yesterday sure did change the fishing today though and that's why I love fishing Ontario. It's always a challenge and things can change dramatically in just a few hours or overnight. Found temps 8+ degrees warmer than yesterday with little to no bait or hooks on the screen. Bounced around a bit and picked up 2 nice big Eyes, a nice Pike, and a bonus Brown. Back at the dock at 11:00AM for lunch.

Same hardware as yesterday.

Thanks PAP. Best of luck to you this year!! See ya out there.

Black River Bay was Hot yesterday. Myself and 4 other boats from my camp all got at least a 1 man limit if not 2+ (we all share significant intel and help each other out). Another Buddy picked up 6 in Chaumont. Was a great opener for us.

Thanks SharkHunter! Glad to keep it going another year!

Opening day of Walleye went great on the Reel Happy. My Dad, younger Brother and I kicked off the dock at 5:45AM and had 3 in the boat before 6:30AM. Slowly picked away at them for a few hours and called it after lunch on the boat. Got back to the dock at 1:00PM with a respectable 7 Walleye haul. Decent start to the season and glad to see it's going to be another banner year!

Bombers. RipSticks. Caught fish in 15-50 FOW. One weighed 10lb 6oz, and the slob on the right weighed 12lb 7oz. Rest were 6-8lbs.

(7 fish taken with 3 of us aboard; someone had to take the picture, that was me.)

I bought a few dozen this year and gave em a go and they caught every fish despite only 3 of them out in an 8 rod spread. Hmmm... I'm a believer.

Got two in the shed you could have had Nick!! Need more?

Shakedown trip on the Reel Happy 4/25 launched out of Stony Creek and met up with some not so nice waves crashing in from the NW. Toughed it out for a 1hr troll and plucked a nice fat Laker and 2 misses. Temps 38-39.5... All hits on Bay Rats... Spoons were not touched.

Headed in and went back out of Henderson to play around looking for stray Browns and picked up an accidental Male Walleye. He was quickly returned after a fast photo. Was my little brother's first walleye ever. He's Autistic and loves to be on the boat and wants to reel in more fish this year. He was so confused when I said we have to throw him back... He looked at me in a blank stare like "you're joking, right?" Haha next weekend I told him... Temps 42-46. Few pics for viewing pleasure.

One day in the trench we caught 4 on Mag spoons... it was comical.

There are no walleye in chaumont bay, orange belly must be confused and Fleetracker folowed me and got lucky.

You're still in bed when my lines get set. Then you eventually show up. Who's following who? Consistency isn't luck my friend. I do agree though, Chaumont is weak! Haha

Im from Sandusky... That is a long way to travel for walleye... you realize there are walleye much closer right? I also reside in the Binghamton area... Lake Ontario is closer and the fishing is just as good if you know what you're doing. I'm up there every weekend... PM me for info anytime. Glad to help.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using Lake Ontario United mobile app

Should have asked me man... went through camp today. Barely any white stuff we have more at home. Most of the ground is showing up there.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using Lake Ontario United mobile app

Oh yea... The Elite series never comes with the cover. Only HDS series.

That's messed up. The 4 HDS 5 units I bought last year all came with the covers.

I used nothing but the new Seaguar STS Leader across the board last year on all my set-ups from 4-6lb in the creeks, 10lb for walleye, 12lb for browns, 20lb for Salmon.  It worked great - I had no issues with it whatsoever and best of all, it's way cheaper then some of the other stuff and comes in 100yd spools.

http://www.fishusa.com/product/Seaguar-STS-TroutSteelhead-Fluorocarbon-Leader-Material?utm_source=google_ps&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=google_ps&gclid=CjwKEAjw56moBRD8_4-AgoOqhV4SJADWWVCccyxbjclWsGPla9ml5RrMsNvM04UMPEoa88ffoz_bZBoC7oLw_wcB

The Adipose Fin.  Top one.

iPilot is awesome.  The only way I can fish solo and set-up and troll 3 rods.  I've fished Browns/Walleye/Kings this way.  And even can pull big boards if I need to (although the terrova really works to maintain proper trolling speed)

I use my 80lb 60" 24V iPilot for both direction and propulsion when I fish solo... Once my spread is out I turn it off and rely on the main motor, when I hook up I throw her in neutral and hit the iPilot on (lanyard on your neck).  I don't think it would work quite as well using a kicker for propulsion and the iPilot for direction.  Sounds good... but you'll be messing with it a bunch constantly... the Ipilot has a fairly slow GPS ping speed so it'll be late to react to constant wind/wave changes against the boat with the added external propulsion factor only complicating it's every move.  It may work in some conditions, but more often then not It may not be as cool as it sounds.

nice!

agree with fleettracke about some added weight

also add a lenght of grinded sharp metal to the outside tappered edge of both boards - Rochester combat board wars secret- cuts thru the other guys planer tow line in second when get to close.....

just kidding good job on your project

Haha there were times last year I wished I had a bunch of razor blades on the front of my boards and remember joking about it. Managed to never tangle or cross boards with anyone last year despite some very close calls during amateur hour the first 2 weeks of the season. Gotta watch out for the guys trolling N/S when the entire pack of boats are trolling W/E... Unreal.

Mr. Bolton (orange belly) gave some solid advice. I personally have never fished eyes out of Oswego so I can't intelligently comment. Different things work best on different bodies of water and in large bodies like Lake O, different areas of the lake have their own 'hot lures' and presentations. It can definitely be a tough specie to target if you're just starting out... If you ever venture north a bit more and fish the east end bay system, give me a shout and I'd be glad to offer intel.

Good luck out there!!

-Devin

It's purely a liability statement. I have a new Garelick extra long throw 4 stroke bracket and it trailers just fine on the penn yan with a brand new XL Merc 9.9 pro kicker which is over 125lbs if I remember right.

Adding weight also makes them lag really fast on a turn... Then they have to catch back up constantly. You don't need more weight.

Chas - on the bottom of your boards, screw 2 aluminum 3/16" thick plates about 2" wide and however long your new boards are... This flat surface adds a lot of resistance against the water which keeps your boards sitting down (an Amish secret).

Think about it... Try pulling one of those all threads through the water with your hand. Much resistance there? Nope. Now try pulling a rectangular piece of aluminum through the water. Much better!!

Thank you everyone for the kind words and wishes!!!

My wife and I welcomed our first child into this world today. Hunter Scott Fleetwood born 12:36PM, 7lbs 3oz, 20 1/4".

Such an amazing experience - I am absolutely thrilled to share every single thing with this little guy in the woods, stream, and the open water. Here's to many years of the very best memories, my newfound patience, my new fishing buddy, and my best friend.

likely the first or second week of April.  Probably the latter.

Works well and man is it fun hooking up with a football on that little amount of line out. For the most part stealth is important but Browns are curious. Last year a handful of times I saw them surface right at my big boards. Pretty cool to see. Should be setting up for another decent spring. Going to be very hard to beat last year's walleye bite though.