Dan M

51 minutes ago, whaler1 said:

Paid not that much more with a two year old trailer. Spent a little money after to get things right but you’d be surprised what you can buy.
#1 do your research.
#2 don’t buy on impulse.



Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United

Friend in Charleston suggested center console - huge lack of storage to me and seems like a big lack of casting deck.

If this diagram makes sense at all - how big of a boat can I fit in my space?  Current setup is 20'8" long and 82" wide and it fits in straight. I could angle it in the corner to fit a bigger boat. Trying to figure out how big I can realistically go in my garage with my wife not killing me because she can't park her car.

24 minutes ago, Bozeman Bob said:

Fold away tongue on the trailer will allow you to go bigger. Maybe measure your garage and take it from there. The bigger the better .

I added a fold away tongue to this one - I have like 20' from front to back, but it's a car and a half so I can go in at an angle and get some more room. Just not sure just how big I could go and fit. 18 would PROBABLY fit - not sure about 19. If I was good at maths I could probably figure it out

I bought two bags from Amish outfitters and they slowed down my 16' aluminum nicely.

Wife finally budged a bit on getting a newer boat - now I'm trying to figure out what I would want to get. Budget is 10k or less.

Primarily going to be used for musky and trolling the finger lakes. Maybe lake O at times when it's nice.

Probably leaning towards a 16 or 17.5 deep V which I would still be able to fit in my garage.

My current boat is an 82 Duranautic - only 70" wide which is very cramped for my brother and I.

Will spend probably 70/30 trolling / casting on this boat.

Thoughts or suggestions?

Just now, Chowdaire said:

I spend most of my time there trolling but I've done some casting and picked up a couple with some follows and misses. All of mine have been in 6-10fow on a glide or twitch bait.

 

Do you mind me asking what kind of speed you're trolling at? I have had a couple of really slow trolling days in a row out there and just feel like my speed may be off. Thanks,

Varying from 3.5 - 4.5.  Yesterday we hit the first one on a 6" diver over 25 FOW - 16' down ( just found the bait and targetted) - took 2 hours to hit that one. Then the second one came in like 15 FOW as I was reeling in the lure to check for weeds. That got the heart pumping, wasn't expecting to get blasted with the trolling rod in my hand

We also missed a strike as I stopped from 4mph to idle and the hit came on the stop.

Previous time we went 2 hits were at 4.5mph and one at 3.8ish.

Time before that we landed 5 all around 3.5mph.

Just now, old man said:

Only tip I can give is stay at it. I caught one Saturday on the west side in 2 fow. It hit a black/nickel super girl. Not a magic bait,just what I had on as I waded through the box. I don’t have a bait I can recommend other than what you have tied on when you find a hungry one. It’s hard to see followers there so it’s extra important to play the bait around at the end of the cast. Make enough casts,you’ll get one. Fishing pressure on them will be easing up now. Next couple weeks should be good.


Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United mobile app

I think I'm not in shallow enough water when casting - my boat is usually sitting at 13-16 FOW when I try to cast

We've seemingly got the trolling down and caught some good fish year (one lucky lure has gotten 6-8 musky so far) - I'd like to catch a musky casting still.

Any tips on lures or depths to cast at? I get trolling - looking for bait balls & fish, adjusting depth of lures to target, but I'm not sure what I'm really looking for as far as casting goes.

If I was fishing for largemouth I'd be casting at docks, structure etc.

West side of Waneta is more of a gradual dropoff where East side is steep.

Are the musky in shallow in fall? If so, are you casting right to shore and retrieving back to boat? Or are you targeting the bottom of the lake with a bulldowg or similar?

Put a solid 2 days trolling there Monday and Tuesday without a bite. First time there - spent Monday trolling from south to north and back and Tuesday mostly south. Gave up and went to Waneta today and landed 2 in 4 hours. Chataqua was much tougher than I thought it would be. 

9 hours ago, Fishstix said:

Certain times of the year lakers fight harder. Ive had them jump and rear and tear. But most of the time unless its a real big one you dont get much fight. If I wanted a fight I would skip the wire dipseys and go with light mono on noodle rods.I would run them off the down riggers .I had a couple noodle rods.Its hard to get your releases set loose enough to release with the rods. It limits you to spoons or stick-baits. Even a 4lb laker will give you a fight. Only downfall is its hard to revive a fish after a long fight.You end up keeping more fish . I ran noodle rods many moons ago.Before sea fleas. As far as reels go 300s would be great with 10lb test.

 Good luck   

I'm going to install downriggers on the next boat for sure. So for this one I'll stick with dipsys. Prob load up a 300 with wire and just enjoy the fight for what it is - meat for the cooler - when I'm not fishing for musky

7 minutes ago, Sk8man said:

I should think that 1,000 ft wire should fit on it OK. I have an Okuma 30 that takes it.

1000ft of wire fit on my Tekota 500. I think the 300s fit 500-600ft.

Looking at the https://www.tackledirect.com/daiwa-lexa-lc300pwr-p-lexa-lc300-line-counter-baitcasting-reel.html now - which will probably end up being what I go for.

3 minutes ago, Sk8man said:

Just run the wire off 300 reels and use downrigger rods with a twilli on the tip. I have a couple setups that are about this way for the Fingers and they work fine and I adjust leader strength according to what I run from them.

I'll have two leftover Talora wire roller rods that I'm going to have a rod builder friend replace the guides on with high end ones (at cost) that will run wire - and a twilli top. That way I don't have to buy anymore rods, and won't get killed trying to sell my two rolller setups.

But yea, I think the 300s will be good with the wire, not sure how much it will fit, but I'm sure it will be more than enough for the finger lakes.

1 hour ago, Fishstix said:

Certain times of the year lakers fight harder. Ive had them jump and rear and tear. But most of the time unless its a real big one you dont get much fight. If I wanted a fight I would skip the wire dipseys and go with light mono on noodle rods.I would run them off the down riggers .I had a couple noodle rods.Its hard to get your releases set loose enough to release with the rods. It limits you to spoons or stick-baits. Even a 4lb laker will give you a fight. Only downfall is its hard to revive a fish after a long fight.You end up keeping more fish . I ran noodle rods many moons ago.Before sea fleas. As far as reels go 300s would be great with 10lb test.

 Good luck   

If I was going to continue to run dipsys - don't really care to invest in riggers right now - would 10# be too little of a weight? Thinking the 30# blood run I have might just be what it ends up being - and putting as much as I can fit on the 300s - unless I wanted to move up to 500s

So I've taken the wire off my Tekota 600s and replaced with braid for musky trolling, and swapped the Talora roller rods for St Croix Musky trollers.

That leaves me with 2 Talora wire rods. - now I'm on the fence with what to do. I originally thought maybe I'd be able to go for salmon, but I found myself just fishing in the finger lakes for trout on dipsys, and chasing musky this year.

Catching trout on the 600s was not fun at all, 0 fight on 30# wire.

I still have the wire - should I get 2x Tekota 300s? and run the wire on them with dipsies?

Any other suggestions? I'd like to have at least a little fight on the fish, and the 600s just horsed them in really, even the 10# laker I caught.

Price lowered to $325

1 hour ago, muskiedreams said:

Dan, Is your last name also McGuckin (member of MI Chapter 69)? If so, I hope you will be there for the tourney on Oct. 5th to help us win the Chapter Challenge. Keep in mind that only fish caught by chapter members will qualify for the Chapter Challenge and chapter members don't have to be entered in the cash tournament to participate in the Chapter Challenge.

It is - however I'm going to Chataqua on the 7-10 to fish, so a tourney right before with the wife wouldn't go over so well

Sorry, I forgot to list the price. $375 and Rochester NY

Spent way too much money on musky gear so I have to let one of my bass setups go

Trevor B. McGuckin and I crushed it today landing 5/6 musky. Largest was 36” - landed it with no handle on my reel! The reel flew apart as I grabbed the rod out of the holder - fish was jumping and I’m trying to reel this thing in using my thumb and forefinger turning a 1/4 bolt! Great times!

1 minute ago, sawbelliesam said:

Nice. How were the fleas?

Annoying but not unfishable. About the same as they were at Canandaguia

Launched at Deans around 6am trolled around the launch for a bit with 2 dipsy rigs. One running a bronze multi colored Michigan Stinger Scorpion and the other a flasher fly. Scorpion proceeds to catch a 6# and 9.5# laker pretty early on, and a smaller laker later. Flasher fly gets nothing. Multiple dinky landlocked on the scorpion throughout the day and the larger spoon, and a nice landlocked 5# on a blue/silver Michigan Stinger, as well as a smaller one that I put back. Pretty good action for just myself out there. Most fish caught 40-50' down (dipsy setting 2.5-3 100-135' line out 30# wire.) and around 2.4-2.7mph.

Early bite was good, died down after 10:30 - 11am.

I need a bigger cooler. The 45q bends them all up

2 minutes ago, Sk8man said:

Small to medium light weight flutter spoons work best trolled pretty fast for rainbows. It is a good place to experiment.....different sizes, types, action (don't be afraid to bend one and play with it ). You may also wan t try short leads at first and then gradually lengthen them as the day moves on. Keep changing up your speed until you find something that clicks and make a lot of turns and if you notice current run on a diagonal to it or against it. Not sure with this latest weather and wind where the thermocline will be located but often it runs from about 40 -75 or so about now. Run your stuff deeper  for lakers. Thye usually respond well to both flashers or Spin docs with flies of spoons. I'd use magnum spoons down real deep but smaller or mediums for everything else.

Thanks for the tips! Thinking now that I'm just going to go to Cayuga for the day since it's just me and give it another shot. I mean its supposed to be great right?! Launching at Dean's, any tips on where to go? North/South? Last time it was awful for us I'd love to have a good day there.

5 hours ago, Sk8man said:

If the weather is decent forget about the north end of Canandaigua it will probably be packed on the weekend especially. South end if you go early AM should be better. I live right here within 5 minutes of the north end launch at Canandaigua and fish Dean's and Lake O at this time of year if that tells you anything Fleas  are reportedly bad as are the weed pads floating around in Canandaigua.

Thanks   South end hasn't seemed too bad, Cayuga is a bit farther for me, and I was a little concerned about the wind there being a larger lake. Side note - at Canandaigua, I've been using these smaller stingers, would these larger ones work as well? I bought for salmon.  The lake trout had fish in their bellies around the same size.

Gonna head out by myself with 2 dipsy rods Sat morning - I haven't fished either lake on the weekend before - would launch out of South end Canandaigua or Deans cove Cayuga. Which would you prefer on a Sat? Only fished Cayuga once and it was very slow for us.

13 minutes ago, thork9 said:

Just mount 2x6 across back, side to side, make a bracket to attach to boat then you can mount  2  down riggers, one on each side, I don’t have a picture right now but I run this on a 16 ft Lund.

Did you see the pics of the boat? I mean yes I know it's possible to mount downriggers here, but it is seriously crowded just running 2 dipsy rods off the back. It's not a very wide boat. I'm going to just run dipsys until I can get something a bit bigger.