Dan M

For me it's more of how little room I have on my boat already, it's pretty narrow I think.

Thanks for the advice. I really just want to upgrade to a bigger boat in a couple years. Hard to justify pouring more money into this thing that I'll never see back. Probably just make due with the dispy setups for now and work on the wife to get a different boat

Thanks. I might just stick with the lakers for now until the salmon start on the pier. Don’t really want to run a huge leader just for rainbows - that sounds awful. I’ll try and make my dipsy leader from 6’ to 12’ and see if that helps at all. Side note - this is my boat - how would you run downriggers on this?

Next year I might add a few things - maybe downriggers over the winter. Literally just bought the 2 dipsy setups (tekotas with talora rods) and rod holders, trolling bags, etc. Money has been flying out of my wallet. It's a small boat, and usually just me, or me and my brother, so I'm trying to keep it simple and not have 4 rods out at a time. 2 is plenty for us honestly.

Don't down riggers run straight down? How is that away from the boat? I don't think I could fit riggers on my boat - it's pretty tight as it is being a small 16' aluminum. So if I'm targeting rainbows and browns, it's right in the middle of the lake? How far down? 40-50 where the lakers have been?

Not running downriggers, just 2 dipsy rods.

Tried that through the middle at around 2.8-3mph bright colors , nothing both times. What are cheaters?

Last 3 times out we've hit Canandaigua twice and Cayuga once. Trolling dipsys at both lakes, Canandaigua has produced 7 lake trout in both trips, almost all on copper backed michigan stingers in 40-50' down. Cayuga only produced one laker with a flasher fly. Still very new to trolling, so it's a learning in progress. I tried running one line at 45' down and another at 100' down ( deeper with a spin doctor and lake trout fly ) - bumped bottom and lost my spin doctor and fly. Damnit. Higher one up caught a laker. Go figure. Can't seem to find any rainbows, and as far as I can tell all my lake trout have seemed to be random pickups. I'll mark a huge school of bait, run up , down, around it several times/speeds, and not a single pickup, ever. What gives?! Launching in the South end of Canandaigua - speeds around 2.2-2.5. Anyone that fishes here regularly, is there a certain are that is better than others? Right now I'm just driving everywhere hoping to get bit. Look at this bait pod - how did I not get any action from that?!

We fished it from 6am to 2pm. Got one on a green / white fly, lost one on a michigan stinger. Other than that - no action what so ever. So tons of bait heading south from the launch hovering around 30-50' but couldn't get anything to produce. Speed ranged from 2.2 - 2.8. Not sure what FOW I was even supposed to be trolling at so I tried pretty much everything. Both bites were at about 170 FOW and 50' down on the dipsy.

What size dreamweaver? 6”, 8”?

Hey all - plan to hit Cayuga next week sometime - just started trolling with dipsys - hooked into 4 on Canadaguia today - finally broke our skunk! Anyhow, I have spoons already - as I said new to trolling - flasher / flies - any suggestions on what to bring to Cayuga? Salmon would be fun or lakers, or really anything - would be running them behind dipsys. Something I could pick up at field and stream would be great - I don't know all the trolling lingo - so links or pics would be great. Thanks!

Looking for rod/reels

Open to trades

thanks - I'll probably have to wait til they get a bit closer then, 80 fow was still a little rough for my boat, doable, but I didn't feel great about it.

Last year I was casting spoons off the pier for kings at that time, maybe I'll give it a shot on the boat instead.

You'd go with wire? I've never used it before

I've got a couple threads around asking questions (great community!) - anyhow, all of my gear is bass/pike/musky, and I want to start trolling for trout/salmon as well on my boat. I have the rod holders, electronics, dipsy divers and lures, but my rods and reels - I go from bass and pike to musky gear. Lake O might be a bit too big for my boat judging from today, so I might try and focus on Canandaguia lake trolling for now - maybe Cayuga sometime as well. For Canandguia, what rods and reels are you guys using to troll for the trout there? Would my 13 fishing Concept C and A3 be fine for now until I got 2 trolling setups? 30# and 50# braid on those two , rods are MH and H. I was thinking of purchasing two Shimano Tekota HG500's and Shimano Talora rods to troll with on Lake O - is that overkill for the finger lakes? Ugly boat pic attached for reference.

Hey all , I have been wanting to start trolling a bit - tried going to Ontario this morning, but the water was a bit too rough for me at 100 FOW in my 16' Aluminum. Bummer, I wanted to try for salmon and trout. I fish Conesus alot for bass/pike/tigers, but have never tried Canandaigua. If I wanted to troll for trout, I assume I could use my size 1 dipsys? What kind of gear are you using out there as far as rods and reels? Besides my spinning setups (3000s and 4000s) the only bait casters that I could be trolling with right now are my 13Fishing Concept C with 30# braid on a 7'3 MH (pike and bass )and 13Fishing A3 with 50# braid on a 8' St Croix musky rod (H) - would those 2 setups work for that lake trolling for now? Overkill? Underkill? I wanted to see how I liked trolling before buying 2 setups just for trolling. Thanks in advance for the info! Pic below of my ugly ass boat

Well, we took the boat out this morning as the marine forecast looked good and I wanted to try trolling dipsys. Got out to 100 FOW and it was a bit too rough out there for my little boat. Going out was fine, running along the coast, or going back against the wind, not great. Water seemed fine around 40 -50 FOW, its getting out farther the wind seemed to pick up, didn't feel too comfortable. For anyone that was out today, how was that condition of the water to you guys? I think my boat should be a bit bigger before going that far out again. What I didn't even think about was how much gas I ended up going through out there, went out to 100 FOW, spent maybe 45 min out on the lake, and then tooled around in Bradocks for some bass for a bit and ended up using 3/4 of a 6gallon tank.

Switching up some of my gear so I have a couple setups for sale. First up Shimano Stradic Ci4+ 3000 on a 7' M St Croix Avid Inshore rod $250 Great condition combo - always well taken care of. Either looking to sell outright or trade for a higher end trolling setup (Dipsy Diver). No low ball. I don't need to sell. Lots of years left on the rod warranty. Reel has a power knob as installed, as well as 20# suffix 832 Ghost line. Second Combo Daiwa Certate 2004CH on a 6'8" St Croix Legend Tournament rod. $400 This is a very high end reel, completely mag sealed 11 ball bearings. I have two of them, smoothest reel I've ever used (read about it here - http://www.indepthangler.com.au/uncategorized/review-daiwa-16-certate-2004-spinning-reel/ ) The rod is super nice as well as well as a long warranty with St. Croix. . Both in mint condition. Just looking to sell to buy a couple Shimano Tekota setups for trolling. I am open to trades, but not to lowballs - as I stated above, looking to sell to fund a couple Dipsy Diver setups.

Unfortunately I don't have a FishHawk for the temp - I am going to try with a couple dipsys this week with my musky setup(s) - bought a few spoons from F&S today to give it a shot

Thanks - I have a mini, and size 0 diver now - the setups I was going to use (since I dont have a designated trolling setup yet) was my 13fishing A3 and 8' Musky H 1-8oz rod, and 13fishing Concept C with an 7'3 1oz MH rod. Not sure how that will be with dipsys. I think the smaller rod could handle the mini diver fine, and the bigger rod, probably ok with the size 0 (50# braid on the larger one - 30 on the smaller) - but I don't know if I should push it with a larger dipsy to get deeper. Thoughts?

After my 3rd skunk in a row on Conesus, I'm ready to switch it for a bit! Last year around this time we took the boat (16' Duranatic ) and casted for a bit just to see what was out there and to my surprise found a bunch of browns and landed one. I have never fished Lake ontario on my boat besides that one time, and it's not setup for kings out deep - I can run two dipsys on my musky/pike rods for now though. For anyone that fishes for them, what depths should I be looking for them? Any suggestions on what to use? I know we caught the last one on a RatlTrap and had lots of follows on spinners. - I've yet to use my Dipsys seriously though - only tried it once on Conesus to check it out.