TheToadHunter

Again, I appreciate the people who brought this up. I’ve motored by hundreds and hundreds of people in the Spring over the last 5 years and not a single person spoke up. So thank you! It’s my fault not knowing the law during cold water periods, and honestly, have been doing it unknowingly for years. I’ve most likely got away with it for so long because my boat is just under the 21’ mark, but there’s no excuse. Safety anywhere is a priority, and none of us want to be hurt or see others hurt. For a split second I thought about deleting this post, but if my wrongdoing and humility can help educate other small boat fishermen, great. Rookie - Thank you, and it is a girl, that will be cutting into my summertime trolling.... but maybe our annual shark fishing trip in September will make up for it. Mike Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United mobile app

Definitely appreciate the heads up. Not sure why I thought it was vessels 16’ or less. Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United mobile app

Definitely appreciate the heads up. Not sure why I thought it was vessels 16’ or less. Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United mobile app

First troll of the year. We like to fish lakers in early spring instead of browns in close. The charters and other fishermen can have them. We slide out and have an open lake. Several triples, many doubles, and after the first two hours we started experimenting lures/presentations and running gear 40’ over 70’ of water to limit catches. Too much action tired out the pregnant first mate very quickly. Spoons took the first five fish, then not another hit all day. Switched out different colors, sizes, presentations to no avail. Flasher/flies took most everything else, but a few stickbaits on the downrigger fooled some too. Kept a 3-4 color core and x-rap in the water most of the day. Took a hard rip in 100’ but nothing attached, then back to back lakers in 70’. Those two lakers were the largest we landed, around 14-16lbs. Marked some nice fish at 25-30’ in 70’ of water, but just going to chalk them up as suspended spotted perch (lakers). Sonar waypoints of fish hooked showed 49, not counting the doubles/triples, subtract 5-6 lost, multiply that by 2, divide by 2.3, add 17, end with the square route squared and that might be the number you’re hoping to see. We had fun as always. Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United mobile app

You're welcome. We had a great weekend. It was my father's first trip for Ontario trolling and my third for kings. I think we did ok. The salmon were down 75'-95', mag dipsys on 0 at 150' and #1 dipsys on 1 at 250'.

Sodus 8/19-20 After hitting Cayuga in the AM, my father and I launched out of Sodus around 4:30. Didn't mark much of anything between 120-200. Took one in 150' and another hit but nobody was home. Sunday morning, started around 6:46 in 120' and headed out to 220'. Not a hit and few marks. Trolled back in and smacked a king in 138'. We were going to call it quits once the dipsies started dragging bottom on the way back in, but once we hit 100', game on. 5 quick ones in about 30 minutes of fishing time to finish the day. A West troll in 100' put 4 kings on deck, but the East troll on the same track only did 1 coho. Dipsy with FF. Ran leadcore with a variety of spoons, but nada.

Thanks for the input and replies. I will keep an eye out for your boats the next time up. Hoping to fish Tuesday unless the weather changes for Sunday. I run a 20' G3 Eagle Talon (G3 eagle wrap with a minn Kota talon on the port side). What model/type of single hooks do you guys use with consistent hook-land ratios. Most of my landed fish on trebles had a deep hook, which means they wanted the fly 100%. That leads me to believe it was the hook style that caused me to drop so many on singles. A single hook point requires 66% less energy to penetrate than a treble (if each point makes contact)! I'm thinking a snell knot octopus style would be better than the finesse wide gap I used, due to the hook point angle when rigged.

After reading a few posts on here about trolling Cayuga, I thought I'd give it a serious try considering Lake O was calling for 30mph winds. Trolling for trout and salmon is new to me, but water temps and fish behavior is not. Launched my bass boat out of Myer's around 8 and headed for the closest and steepest drop shown on my Garmin. 10 minutes in I dropped a bow and laker at the boat. The action continued until 11ish when I decided food outweighed the fight with waves. I fished one rod between 9-10:30 because 1 or 2 minutes down resulted in a bite. I pulled back into the lot and rigged up as a few guys in the derby were taking out and mingling (1 o'clockish). Thought about introducing myself, but my saltwater gear turned into trolling gear made me feel out of place. Went back out to the morning location and was plagued by small landlocks that couldn't even trip the dipsy's. Headed north for 2 hours to explore and not a bite. When I headed back down lake south of Myer's, I only managed two more landlocks about 17-18". For what it's worth, I was running dipsys out 150' in the AM, 250' in the PM. GPS speeds of 2.75-3.5. Spoons had 1 bow and 1 LL. Everything else was on flashers and tube flies I made. 3 Lakers, 1 bow, and 14 landlocks made it in the boat. I lost more than I landed, which frustrates me and I want to know why. Many were lost as soon as they broke surface beside the boat. I prefer to run a single hook for releasing purposes, but I started to actually land fish consistently when running a gamakatsu treble on my flies. My single hook was a gamakatsu finesse wide gap with a snelled knot. Any input on alternate hooks would be appreciated or maybe the softer action of fiberglass rods is required? Mike