greenhornet73

This was my modified Icicle that I had colored last night. It worked and I am calling it the Hurly Bird…My other 3 producers are on the deck pic.

Took the morning off to try again and was met with swells big enough to make me hurl.  Dirty water didn’t produce for me even when the water temp went up 2 degrees besides 1 hit and run.  Was getting discouraged but sucked it up and changed up colors and hit some fish in clear water mid-morning around 10:30.  Started off working in 5-10’ with a Smithwick, rapala and a modified Icicle.  Icicle on my rigger down 4’ hit first and snapped my leader on the strike.  Too choppy to retie so I tossed out my 1 color core with a Sodus Buckeye.  No more hits for 2 hours. Moved out to clear water but still under 10’ and hit a pod of fish.  Every rod went off within 5 minutes and had to net 2 at once.  Third one hit as I was untangling hooks. Decided to put two lines back out as I was packing up to leave and the leadcore went off again, this time was a noticeable heavier fish.  The drag on that Okuma goes from weak to locked without much in between. Had to tighten it to gain on it and of course it turns and snapped me off at the leader.  10# leader lost me 2 spoons today but great to land some quality fish.

Awesome day, congrats. Heading out solo on Thursday, what was your surface temp out there?

I definitely don’t recommend trolling with a 2 stroke as I did for a couple years and constantly had to replace the spark plugs. With your smaller 4 stroke you will be absolutely fine but may want to throw a small bag over each side if you aren’t slowing down enough  since 1 bag will pull the boat to that side pretty hard.  I have an electric trolling motor with auto pilot to stay on course that I run at low power (3 out of 10) to conserve battery charge and usually can get about 5 hours out of it and I have a pretty large gel battery just for that motor.

Yes my trolling motor has auto pilot so the planer boards won’t be a factor

I was about to get into airbrushing even though I didn’t want to put in the time.  Definitely holding off on that project for now.

I’ll be fishing solo this spring while my buddy rehabs his shoulder so I’m limited to a 3 rod setup.  I rarely do well with this when fishing alone and am wondering if my lines are spread too far from each other with a planer on each side and one slider off one side a few feet.  I’m wondering if it’s better to run 3 off one side to mimic a school.  Or tighten my spread a little. Any recommendations?

If it’s too rough on the main lake I’m sure Irondeqoit Bay will have some perch action if you are West and Henderson Harbor if you are East.

I don’t know what size fish you typically get but I absolutely love my Starfire ML rods on my downriggers for walleye, small lake trout and rainbows.  Most fish I get are in the 2-6 lb range but have also used them for 20# king salmon on Lake Ontario.  They aren’t fancy new rods but I haven’t found any that are strong And have enough action to enjoy catching small fish along with larger ones.  

I caught one of my biggest walleyes ever throwing a Little Cleo off the fair haven pier for brown’s and thank God it happened to be on May 1st.  30” and 11lbs.  What a rush with a 11’ noodle rod and 6# test. Only walleye I ever caught while brown fishing but one of my best fishing memories.

Mine just touches the ground but sometimes have to dig a little trench when it gets muddy and the trailer tires settle a little too much.  You can also leave it up and double bag it with garbage bags and tie it down with some twine to keep the snow and rain out.

I have a question?  Are you running the 5 diver or smaller and is it on a braid main line?  My 5’s are all on wire rods that would take the fight out of a brown.

Those are tanks

I trailer mine with the kicker down and 2 ratchet straps because of stories I’ve heard of it popping off.  Trailered it all last year without a problem.

That’s awesome, we saw you out a little deeper than where we started then slid out  on our way back.  We were completely blind, figuratively and literally between the fog and no electronics.  Good to know there were fish around. The water color looked great but couldn’t get anything to go. 

Sounds like Mexico has been fished regularly since January

That is correct about not installing those in an enclosed area, good point.

Yes, I did this last year and it worked out great.  The only thing to remember is after you shut off one motor, firm up the fuel line bulb before firing up the other motor because the fuel gets drawn out of that line. Very easy to install and only takes 10 minutes.  Make sure you install the water separator high enough so you can point the bulb up while priming it. 

Wow, what a trip and that boat is beautiful 

Screwy Louie’s at Fair Haven used to have cabins for rent but not sure if they are still available since the tackle shop changed ownership.  Large lot for parking the boat with the free(this time of year) launch across the street at the state park

Well done. It’s definitely not easy doing it alone.  Congrats on a good trip. 

Anyone else fish out of Fair Haven today?  Got to the launch at 7am and the fog was so thick you couldn’t see shore from 200’ away. My Hummingbird blew a fuse over winter and didn’t have a replacement on board so had zero navigation, depth, temp,  fish finding capability.  Relied on phone navionics for gps location/speed and gave it hell for 4 hours without a hit running 4 planers, 1 dipsey and 1 weight rod in roughly 6-18 fow (Didn’t know for sure obviously). Hard to believe no fish in that beautiful mud line running out from the pond channel but threw many options at them including sticks and spoons.  Same thing in the green water everywhere else.  Shakedown was successful besides the graph that is now fixed and no fish to clean but will try again next available chance.

Great, thanks again for the report. I am shocked the water was clear. Heading out tomorrow a little further west and hoping for at least half the number of bites you got today.  Plan 1 is that everything works as it should after sitting for 4 months 🤞 

Awesome! Good sized fish too. Can’t wait get out sunday