Nessmuk

Les, I'm guessing City of Rochester has one on Hemlock but doubt it is accessible. Never heard of one on Canadice?

Guys, Mooneyes seem as tough to keep as my wife's tropical fish! Hermit, is a Nobel net legal The whole thing of using mooneyes for bait sounds either expensive or difficult. I think I'll stick to artificials ! If I ever catch something trophy size having a few mooneyes mounted with the trophy might make for an interesting mount though.

Les, Not an image of Canadice and not live. Conesus? I took my Springer down there for a walk and it was very warm. Would have been a nice day to fish!

How do you attract them to the dip net? Just bright light or bait too?

I was thinking more in terms of a minnow trap. Never saw mooneyes in Rochester bait shops?

Just got back from Canadice. Very open with only a bit of ice at the south end. Amazingly the ramp is plowed as was Hemlock. That being said a 4wd would be required to get in and out.

I want a Cannon manual DR to match the one I have. It is a white one with short metal boom. Please PM me if you have one available. Thanks, Jack

Les, Alewives came up the St. Lawrence from what I have been reading but results are same entering through the canals. I assume the other lakes were populated by baitfish brought in? Do smelt still exist in the Finger Lakes and if so are they in numbers enough to serve as additional forage fish? Frogger, "my fisheries brain has turned into how fast and what color spin docter to use" I can understand that! After spending many years "matching the hatch" I think in terms of learning about the prey with the idea of learning more about the target predator. While exploring my own library I read a piece in Mc Clean's book and found out that what I called "mooneyes" as a kid are alewives. The other interesting thing is that I normally think in terms of only fishing structure but much of what I read indicates that the schools of alewives can be large and anywhere in a large lake including open water. This changes my ideas of where to fish. Does anyone attempt to catch alewives to use as bait? Especially in Hemlock/Canadice?

I just googled "alewife" to learn more about them. Was totally amazed to find that they are not native? to our Finger Lakes and in fact are considered an invasive species? I read about Lake George trout being threatened due to them. I read that they were only native to NE Canada and US going as far west as Niagara river prior to Welland canal. Anyone have any insight on this subject? Jack

Thanks, good luck!

Yes, I don't go out on ice before the 1st of Jan to be sure. Been watching the clowns on Braddock's and Long Pond when I take my dog for here morning run Actually, I was wondering if it has any ice or has some open water??? Wish there was a web cam on each of the Finger Lakes! Long drive just to see what weather is! Jack

Just wondering if there is any ice on Canadice Lake?

62 lures.... that's a chunk of change in lures! Was this w/o use of a sonar? I'm planning on starting out flat lining with in-line planers after ice out. When they go deeper I'll fish with a cheater on the stbd DR and maybe a dipsy to the port . I have 30lb braid on the dipsy rod and wonder how that will effect running depth. I'll be using a standard bait casting rod on the DR. I have been toying with the idea of a SG rig but I have yet to find a precise description on how to handle it. As a hand line with 1lb lead at the bottom I can visualize winding the rig on something similar to the copper wire wound on a chunk of wood removing droppers as they come up but this doesn't appeal to me. I'm wondering what options there are. All this stuff in the water at the same time gives me visions of tangled messes!

I just looked at the regs, 15 lures! with up to 45 points! I guess it gets down to figuring out how to best set up the 5 lures on each of the 3 lines. With two people fishing that ends up with a lot of lures in the water! That being said I'll be lucky to effectively fish just a few lures w/o a tangled up mess.

Given the name of your boat I think the real reason for single hooks is that you can have more lures out! 15 points means 15 rods and 15 lures which might mean more fish on the table! Umbrella rigs? Prey drive? It is nice to not have much damage to the fish so we might give it a chance to grow and fight another day though. What you say makes sense to me. I've done very little fishing with treble hooks and single point flies seldom do much damage to a fish. I used to crunch the barbs for easy removal. I was looking at trolling a flatfish but when I see the hooks and how it is put together I wonder. When is ice out?

Les, I thought the Sutton hooks looked OK to my fly fishing mind but then I have caught good sized stream trout on size 24 hooks. The Blade Runner treble hooks are Mustad and are a lot heavier than the Sutton. Blade Runner also offers single hook. Why the single hook rather than treble? Do the eyes on the Siwash hooks close with pliers and stay closed? How big are these lakers I'm gonna reel in??? This is beginning to sound like "The old Man and the Sea".......... J PS I just did some hook testing. You are correct about the Sutton hooks being whimpy bendy!!!! Looks like some stronger hooks are in order.

Sk8man, You anticipated my next question! I was wondering about the fly being taken but assumed that the spoon would be a bigger meal. Speaking of the Sutton 44s, I just got a Blade Runner 44 in the mail today. The spoon itself looks very good though I wish it had rings and hooks like the Suttons. Guys, I am aware of flashers and spin doctors and may try the spin doctor eventually. I'm not real keen on lost of big stuff on the line ahead of the spoon but everyone seems to use them. One fellow said green and white SDs are the way to go?

After having given second thought to Sk8man and me going out for a shakedown cruise in my 12'er I had a cuppa and was rereading Earl Holdren's book excerpts in the Sanders guide. I ran across a diagram showing a leader with a fly on a dropper about 8" ahead of a spoon and another with multiple flies ahead of the spoon. I assume the idea is to sort of imitate a bug being pursued by forage fish? I am wondering if anyone has fished this rig? Results? Thoughts? Mind the light bulbs! Jack

Looks like an interesting shop! Thanks!

A bit of surfing turned up this company - http://www.pelicanluretackle.com/ Looks very interesting to me but I am wondering if anyone has used these flutter spoons?

Did you run into wave action on Cayuga? I am a bit timid about taking a 12' boat on Cayuga or Seneca unless it is very calm.

I looked at the folding chair and by the time I added up the mounting hardware it got pretty pricey. The other issue is I would want two and the one for the center thwart would be to high for rowing. Actually I tried a small folding camp chair, very cheap, low slung and it worked mint sitting in the bottom of the boat. The deck will raise it about 2-3" and allow for better positioning. Oops.... there goes my boat! Hopefully not! Definitely not for running with the gas motor at 10 knots ! But then there is the time I fell asleep at the helm of my sailboat and got woke up by cold rush of water, yikes. That happened on the big O and I had to get a life jacket on, sort out the floating flotsam, dismast, bail, get in, and re-step the mast and re-rig all solo. Hardest part was stepping the mast in a relatively calm sea. Of course this happened to me with another sailboat near by and was very embarrassing Worse part of all this is that if I get to liking this trolling thing I will want a larger boat..................

Sk8man - Thanks, I am guessing 600 lbs ready to go with me in it so I may be over the needed power. Better more than too little if a stiff breeze gives trouble. I hope to combine it with the 6hp gas motor but that transom is pretty small ! pap - Thanks, I didn't have a clue about the 29 and was thinking of getting two of the 27 to be able to use the battery boxes. Might start out with one to see how long it lasts. Wiring will be the challenge as I would like the battery(s) in the bow and the motor in the stern. Guessing #4 wire if I can find some. Also cut out switch and fuse. I just bolted the DR in place and it seems solid with all the give in the DR and Cannon mounting plate. Next to design/build some simple floor boards to keep my feet dry and have a flat surface for my deck chair Then a forward deck to hold battery box and small gas tank as well as some sort of mount for a speed indicator and fish finder. How long till spring fishing It will be interesting to see if I can catch Thanks, Jack