greenhornet73

Krux, trolling for browns in the spring doesn't take many gadgets and can be done by just flat lining with floating/ shallow running stickbaits so all you need are a few rod holders on your boat and reels with decent capacity for 10lb test.

Yeah and the wind conditions have been mild enough to allow me to get a few hours in each trip. My blood pressure has dropped for sure after some good quiet, slow trolling.

When is someone else gonna come out here and show me how to catch a fish?!  I went out again and found a nice mud line but warmest surface water this week was 39.4.  My rods fired 3 times in the same pocket of water  8' deep but came up empty each time.  Trolled all sticks mostly except for 1 stinger spoon with a couple split shots.  Only 1 other boat out there that looked like it came out of the West.  Been nice and quiet fishing these past 2 weeks but a little too quiet without the drags screamin'.

Thanks.  Yeah if I'm going to troll a dipsy I would only use 1 rod.  Last season trolling 2 big lipped crankbaits had my shoulders screaming.  Good thing my only fishing day is Sunday so I have the rest of the week to recuperate.

you do raise a good point there pap, especially since March snow tends to be the wet, heavy stuff and not the blow out of your hand kind.  Glad my "boat" is back up in the sling in my garage until next Sunday

Yep, I remember when that happened one spring about 8 years ago when I went out for a test run with a charter captain friend out of Oswego and we ended up running into a pod of kings and landed 5 or 6 of them up to 20lbs.  What a blast that was.  i never did end up going for browns that spring

Not the results I was hoping for but I did catch an awesome sunrise at least and got the gear in working order.

I fished Fair Haven this morning from 7am -9:30 and the pond and Little Sodus are ice free with no more ice chunks floating in the lake.  There was a lot of floating debris though and was hard to keep it off the hooks.  Temps ranged from 39.0 - 42.2 between 6 and 11 fow and got 2 strikes in the warmest zones and dropped both.  I threw all my sticks at em but nothing drew them in.  Both hits came on a smithwick and the 2nd made such a mess of my lines I packed it in.  Trolling with 2 rods out of the kayak with 100' of line out combined with a stiff NE wind made landing a fish difficult but didn't have enough confidence in any 1 lure to run it alone.  It was nice to get out though and I got 6 passes in before the wind really picked up and there wasn't another boat on the water. 

I don't go out without a life jacket on, even if it's 90 degrees out.  All of my fish pictures are taken from shore since I usually fish alone and have someone take a photo when I get to shore.

Nice fish, how was the wind out there today?

Please don't run over the red kayak out there tomorrow morning!

To put things into perspective for this year, I was out in my kayak trolling alone last year on April 12th and was dodging those ice chucks coming out of the chute while the ramp was still frozen in.  That puts us a month ahead of last year.

Very nice.  This will be only my second season with the yak but last year was so good I know I will be doing this for years so I will have to make the upgrade to foot pedals when I can find a good deal.  How much did you get yours  on sale for  if you don't mind me asking?

Haha yes that too

I launched my kayak from the fair haven beach last year on April 12th while the launch was still iced in and floating ice chucks out in the lake and I was the only one out there.  That puts us about 4 weeks early this year.

Bass Pro carries a fishing Barometer that is round with a rubberized, black housing around it.  Ebay also carries them and they work very well.  Just do some research how to use the readings and watch it for a few days leading up to your next outing.  If it isn't within the 29.7 to 30.4 range then I have found it is better to stay home and work on projects unless your goal is to just get the line wet.

I started a thread last year and it got a lot of interest so I am posting again for 2016.  I broke the kayak in for the first time late last April at Fair Haven trying for browns with no luck but was able to work out some kinks in my set-up.  Later in the season I got a new Lowrance Mark 4 Chirp with temp and speed sensors to eliminate the guess work.  Had a great 2015 after that first trip starting with walleye season and quickly chipped away at the bucket list with a large tiger muskie, king salmon, 9 1/2 lb walleye and numerous carp up to 35 #'s.  Hoping for another great year of fishing and accomodating winds.  Kayakers be safe out there and share your stories, reports and pics here. 

I can't imagine dragging a 1# weight with paddles?!  When I troll with 2 deep divers for walleyes and salmon my arms are feelin' it after a couple miles of paddling.  I suppose those that are trolling with ball weights are using Hobie Cats or yaks with foot pedals.

I'll be out there Sunday in my kayak in front of the small channel unless there's a south wind in which case I will go crappie fishing

Beautiful fish!  Wrapped up my ice fishing season this morning and will get the kayak ready this week for the weekend, can't wait

Being a mailman I watch it every day and it has been the most reliable source I use Except for the wind forecast on the lakes which is very important to us as fishermen so keep that in mind

great thanks for the reply and I think I'm going to go for it.  I have a Diawa Accudepth reel I plan on putting on it, should be a good fit.

This will be my second season with my kayak and finally am getting around to putting together a second trolling outfit for trout and salmon.  I have an eagle claw starfire 8'6"ML and was thinking about getting a Cabela's Depthmaster in the same size 86ML since I have a gift card to use up.  Anybody have any opinions on the Cabela's rods that have used them on Lake O? 

I haven't fished with Justin before but have been fishing Otisco for 20 years and just this past year he helped me a lot with trolling out of my kayak.  He was very willing to share advice and would definitely hire him for an outing if I had the money for it. 

  I tried this recipe with a big king salmon fillet fresh from lake ontario in september and couldn't taste the marinade in the meat at all and it tasted pretty bad and it marinated for 12 hrs.  I have heard others say they love this recipe too but they also used farm raised or alaskan salmon.  What kind of salmon did you use?