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lfoster607

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Everything posted by lfoster607

  1. Beautiful pup! I tried to take my Coonhound to Cayuga once, but he was disturbing the peace with his yowling hahaha!
  2. This is what we saw for a good mile or two on the West shore on the south end. Perhaps we would've had better luck with meat rigs? The Humminbird was lit up like this for a few miles, but no takers.
  3. We were on the water by 7am Saturday, launching from Treman. We drove out to about 150 FOW and started seeing marks so we got our gear set. I got the first hit off a Dipsey and blue/silver Cleo. It felt like a good fish and I got a good look at it, but lost it boatside. It was a nice brown. Based on what I was seeing on the finder, I felt no need to set the rigger close the bottom. I ran anywhere from 60-75' clipped right to the ball. I ran a Green Rainbow Cowbell with a Slimer Gambler 32" back, and 15' back from the ball. It finally produced the first fish on my rigger since mounting it back in May. It was a 15" LL that got put back, but hey, I'll take it! We only ended up with a few other barely-legal LL's the rest of the morning. So, at least I'm feeling little better that I'm starting to make the right adjustments as far as my rigger is concerned, but still don't quite have it dialed in yet. The bucket trick worked pretty good, and we stayed anywhere from 2.0-2.5. The amount of bait down there was insane. I just wish it would've produced more fish. I think the next thing I'm going to add to the arsenal are some wire Dipsey rods and Chinook divers. Hey...there's quite a learning curve to this, but it's starting to come together. Thank you all very much!
  4. Thanks for the info. I don't have a probe at the moment. I'm trolling too fast though, as I've recently learned. The best I can do on a calm day is 2.8-3.0. I'm going to try a couple buckets to remedy that. I'm taking off out of Treman tomorrow AM and I will certainly post a report. Tomorrow will be my first time giving cowbells a try, but I'll take what you said into consideration and will see what happens. Up until now, I've been fishing the rigger anywhere from 60-80FOW with UV Moonshine spoons, sometimes with a dodger and sometimes without. All my fish this year have come on the Dipsey's with silver/blue or bronze/blue spoons. Just trying to get my rigger game dialed in a little better...
  5. I've been trolling for the last four years, but this is my first year with an electric downrigger on the back of my 16' Tracker. I hear a lot about guys letting their cannonball hit bottom and then drag it when laker fishing. Doesn't that make anyone else a little uneasy!? Perhaps its because I'm new to it, but it always makes me nervous when things starts to shallow up and I've got a lot of cable out, let alone to let it hit bottom on purpose. I mostly fish Cayuga, but is this common practice and is it safe? I've only been out 5 times this year, and I haven't had my rigger fire once yet. So, I'm looking to try something different. I'm going to start off running cowbells with Gambler rigs and will either be close to the bottom, or on the bottom depending on what you guys think. Any input is appreciated, as always!
  6. You don't have to put anything in there for flotation? Also, how far back from the boat do you run them? The slowest I've been able to idle on a calm day is 2.9. I'd like to slow it down a little...
  7. Thank you! "What size?" was going to be my next question. Perfect...
  8. Hey all, I was on a charter on O this past weekend (had a GREAT trip). I forgot to ask the mate, but I noticed that the divers they were using weren't the usual Luhr-Jensen Dipsy's. These appeared to be a black, ?steel? disk with a few different holes to clip into from the main line that were either left or right of center. I'm guessing that has the same effect as turning the disc on the bottom of a "regular" Dipsy?? Anyway, I was just wondering if anyone knew what these were. I'm just looking to try some different setups. Thanks!
  9. I think that was my issue. I was thinking it had to be feet based on what I saw on the graph, but was just being cautious and didn't want to drop it down to the bottom if I was wrong. The last thing I wanted was to get a cable hung up my first time using one. Thanks everyone!
  10. So you're telling me I need to drag my butt out of bed earlier even in the early season? I suppose I can handle that!
  11. Stupid question, but are the mechanical readouts on Scotty riggers in meters or feet? I know they're made in Canada and they come with the conversion sticker to put on the arm. The reason I ask is what I was seeing on my fish finder didn't jive with the mechanical readout. It could've been interference, I guess. I just mounted the rigger and used it for the first time last weekend. I may need to adjust the transducer now that it's on there. It's a Depthpower 24" electric. Any help is appreciated!
  12. Here's my report for Cayuga out of the South end. We hit the water around 8:30am. We had a slow start in the AM, hence the late start time. The ramps still have quite a bit of debris washed up, but we cleared a path easily enough. Water levels were good and we had no problem getting out. The inlet is in its typical 6-10' range. There's still plenty of debris floating around out there, FYI. Headed out and started trolling in 150-200 FOW. Plenty of good marks and bait out there. Not a single fish wanted to cooperate. We threw every kind of Moonshine spoon, fly/flasher, and Little Cleo that we had at them. Dipsy's and riggers. We also hit the shoreline on the east side of the lake with stick baits off the planer boards. Not a thing. I typically don't get out and troll this early in the year. I only talked to one other guy and he said he got skunked too. Just chalk it up to an off day? Anyone got any early season advice? Should've went turkey hunting instead!
  13. Yeah, it's nasty down towards Broome/Tioga counties as well. Northern Tier PA is getting hit badly, too. Here's to hoping we all get through this safely.
  14. As most of us do, I watched the forecast religiously all week in anticipation of going out. Windfinder showed some us the lightest winds I've ever seen forecasted, which turned out to be correct. The precipitation forecast, not so much... We launched out of Treman and the rain started right about when we left the inlet. We got soaked head to toe even with rain gear. However, the bite was good which makes it all worth it. Due to the weather and what appeared to be a canoe regatta going on (perimeter enforced by police boats), we only fished about 4hrs. All fish came on spoons/Dipsy's running relatively shallow (running on #2 setting 165' back). No monsters, but all were at least 20" (we were too wet and miserable to measure!). 3 browns and 1 laker were landed and kept, and numerous sub-legals were thrown back. No lamprey wounds. Fleas aren't too terrible right now. Also, I've had my boat just over three years and this was the first time I ever had to use the bilge pump! However, if they're hitting I'll fish in the rain with calm winds any ol' time!
  15. Last Friday, two friends and myself hooked up with Capt. Earnie of Fish Doctor Charters. We had a GREAT morning. Fishing was H.O.T. just after first light. Several hits and four great sized kings were landed. We're all seasoned fishermen, but are more or less new to fishing downriggers. So, needless to say we did lose a couple. However, I gained so much valuable information from Capt. Earnie that I am going to be putting to use on my boat. I just started trolling Cayuga last year and basically have had no one to show me the finer points. This forum has been a big help as well. Anyway, I just felt like sharing and wanted to give a huge shout out Fish Doctor Charters. We will definitely be heading back next year!
  16. I’ve made up my mind after posting here to go ahead and get two for next year. Thank you!
  17. Thank you for the info. I certainly don’t doubt the size of my boat after reading this AND after being out on Cayuga from Dean’s yesterday. It got ROUGH out there but never once did I feel uncomfortable out there. That’s probably the worst conditions I’ve ever had the boat out in and it did great. Ended up with only one laker and I lost a really nice brown at the boat. I was faced with the decision of netting the fish or losing my favorite bait caster. Oh well that’s the way it goes sometimes...
  18. 10-4. Sounds good guys. So...I learned two things: give wire a try and Seth Green rigs. Do you tie those rigs yourself, or do you buy them ready-made somewhere? This offseason I may invest in some manual downriggers, but for this season I’m going to continue without.
  19. I thought the #3 was the magnum? Either way, the magnum is what I'm using along with the #1. Also, I'm thinking about trying Dean's Cove/Long Point for the first time next week. It's sounding like the trout fishing can be a little slow on the south end earlier in the year.
  20. Howdy folks...I've been reading these forums a long time, but am a new member. I'm running a 16' Tracker 1648SC w/ 40HP Merc. It's not the largest boat, but hey, it's a decent package and it works. Last year was my first year spent mainly on Cayuga trolling for trout. Due to the size of the boat, I'm not running any down riggers. My question is, what's the best setup for getting down deep without riggers? I'm currently using two line-counter reels filled with #20 fluoro. I use the #1 and #3 divers w/ snubbers, typically with a spoon or gambler rigs attached to a fluoro leader. I also have a good graph (Helix 7 DI/GPS). I've been catching fish, but no more than a few per day. Any recommendations for a good setup w/o riggers? Thank you.
  21. Howdy folks...this is my first post, but I've been visiting/reading these forums for a few years. This is a great source of information and I don't know what took me so long to join. Currently, I'm running a Tracker 1648SC w/ 40HP Merc 4-stroke. I bought it because a jon boat was nowhere near big enough for what I wanted to do, but anything larger was out of the question price-wise. I guess my original intentions were to fish bass and panfish, but one trip to Cayuga changed all that for me. I love trolling for lakers and am putting a lot of effort into learning how to fish them. I'm not the biggest boat out there, and of course I always keep a close eye on conditions before heading out on the big water. I've got some questions on how to make the most out the smaller boat I'm running, but I'll post them in the proper forums. Thank you!
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