PhlyanPan

This very closely matches the advice I've been given about Lake George as well.  The flats is supposed to be the safest place to bump bottom with the rigger balls.  I was also told to run mooselook wobblers in red or orange about 100' back from the ball.  

Haven't had a chance to try it yet but I'll be heading there in a few weeks and staying in Ticonderoga.  

now is a good time to troll the flats north of Long island. Start in about 90 ft of water just north of the island. head north, bounce bottom. the bottom is sandy and will gradually get deeper.

its been a good spot for me in tears past this time of year, and easy to fish without and dramatic depth changes that LG is famous for.

The shape of the tail looks pretty square if you look at the shadow.  

You're right.  California.  My bad, a different video mentioned Florida.  

Not sure what you man about holding them vertically?  You mean posing with them before they send them down?  Yeah I can imagine that wouldn't be great for them.  

You're also right about lack of information regarding how many fish actually survived.  I'd love to see a study that had a way of confirming that.  Ultimately I just thought it was an interesting discussion and I'm always open to methods that ensure as many fish survive catch and release as possible.  

I found the video interesting but I think it may have been done in California rather than Florida   I know the study was well intentioned but one of the things that strikes me is the absence of visual information about how well the fish actually survived. Some were still upside down when they became free so I wonder. Also holding the fish vertically doesn't do them a lot of good survival wise either

Anybody use these?  I found this video of a study done in Florida of various devices designed to release fish at depth and thought with all of the lake trout catching done here in recent years maybe we should be thinking about this.  

I could easily see a way of rigging up a chamberlain release to perform this same type of release at depth using a downrigger.  

Thoughts?  

I like my water shoes.  They're made by body glove I believe.  If you like the feel of barefoot but want some protection this is the closest I've found to that.  They're basically a low cut wetsuit boot.  

That's a good tip.  I never thought of that.  Looks like I'll be searching for another place to buy my gas.  Paying extra to have 2 gallons of gas be garbage is crap.  

Woah woah there.  I'm not suggesting the onus is on you to buy night vision or radar.  Mine happened to be a unit that I got for hunting as well.  All I'm saying is there is a way to operate safely and it makes me feel better.  I can't control what some numbnuts in a rowboat does, but I can use the equipment I have at my disposal to feel comfortable navigating at night.  

The only other options are to run without special equipment and hope that there aren't any morons in your path....or just accept the fact that if you do it long enough you're going to kill someone (who's probably more in the wrong than you, but still...).  Unless you can think of a way to get these people to stop doing what they're doing...I just don't see any other options.  

There is no safe way to operate at these harbors except to be able to stop in half the visibility  distance. 

I'm going to disagree with this statement slightly.  I have a night vision device and it looks like daylight in complete darkness.  Having previously run at night with no special equipment (using lights across the lake and watching for something to break the glare) and now having done so with the NOD, there is no comparison and I can't foresee ever again operating at night without it unless it's an emergency.  

However....they're not cheap.  

My only two hits were a magnum spoon on the rigger.  15 ft over 25.  Sexy veggie.  

Red top center console.  

Hopefully we have a few more weeks.

What boat r u in?

Did u catch mainly on plugs or what?

I'm definitely too deep but I threw everything at em!

At least it was slow for others. Felt so bad I didn't land any I took off to laker country to put something in the boat for my daughter.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Lake Ontario United mobile app

Good work capt.  

We were the red top center console you passed on the way in with our riggers still down.  

Went straight out of genny.  Made a quick run to the east to get set up before swinging back through.  Our first rigger fired before we even got divers in the water.  15 down over 25 on a sexy veggie spoon.  About a 6-8 lb steelhead.  Beautiful fish.  

About half hour later same rigger fires over 30 feet of water just west of the river.  13 lb king.  Nothing else but a skipper steelie the whole rest of the day.  Headed in at noon.  We tried everything we could think of...slow troll, fast troll, j plugs, leadcore, flasher flies, in the pack, out of the pack, deeper, shallower,...etc.  

I was with you.  We had two hits early and then nothing despite a report of a good bite in top 10 feet.  Guys at the launch had 7 in the boat.  We tried speeds from 2.1-3.0 with nothing but a skipper steelie after the first 2.  

Where is the antiventilation plate relative to the surface of the water flow at cruise?

Take your drill with you on the boat,drill and try out till you get what you want for speed.

This.  

My mistake.  

I just got a heartland from Gander mountain.  It was cheap and free in store pickup.  

How about $30 each

Still have these.  Anybody want gimbal mount bases?  

We went on a charter this year at the end of May.  We caught steelhead fishing the same spoons we were catching lakers and salmon on, just up a bit higher in the water.  I think we were looking at mid 50s for water temps.  At that time it was in the 30-40 ft depth range if I remember correctly.  

 I think that we have gotten a bit off topic though

Ain't that the truth.  

Got to the launch just before 5 and found the place looking abandoned. Dropped in and headed out in the pitch dark again seeing nobody in site and wondering what they knew that we didn't.

By the time we got some gear in the water and got a pass in we started seeing a couple of other boats and were a little more comfortable.

We stayed mostly deeper then the pack by a bit just because we were new and wanted to have room to maneuver especially with the wind blowing us all over. Fished mostly between 30 and 40, came in to 25 once. Marks were random, occasionally marking groups of fish only to have them gone when we swung back around.

Ended up having 3 releases. 2 on the diver that broke off (1 bad knot and 1 trying to pop the diver that I think was already popped... We're learning.) And one that we netted that was 20 down over 32 feet of water. Went off on the rigger. Fuzzy bear dirty Harry with a mother's milk spoon on a slider above it.

Shots on the diver were on a green spoon doctor with a white fly and pink dirty goose spoon.

King that we boated ended up at 11.2 lbs which seemed very small to me for a staging mature king?

What if I have a very large fish tank at home? 

1 think for sure is it wont if ya keep it..

Done some home brewing in my day.  Plan to get back into it one of these days.  

I know deep water kings in the summer is sketchy as far as survival rates but what about this time of year.  If I release a king caught in relatively shallow water would it live to spawn?  

How early is early?  What time do you guys hit the water this time of year?