Jomat

Not trying to argue with you but here’s some bass tourney results…..

https://www.wired2fish.com/news/avena-wins-bass-pro-tour-on-cayuga-lake

These guys are filling bags with 5lb plus average fish.  Those are St Lawrence and Lake Erie numbers which are World Class smallmouth fisheries.  If you think that gobies are bad for bass fishing I really don’t know what to tell you.

I can’t speak to sunfish but gobies have turned our bass and walleye fisheries in NY into destinations.

I just think as fisherman it’s easy to complain about how “it’s not like it used to be”…the reality is though it’s kinda our job to adapt to keep putting fish on the bank.  The environment isn’t going to quit changing regardless if you think global warming is a hoax.  And the fishing in NY is absolutely incredible right now….and I think on a whole getting better.  

I think the state record bass was just caught in Cayuga again.  There are lots of bass in Cayuga.  I know guys that travel some distance to crush large panfish up on the north end in the weeds.   If you’re fishing off a rock on the shore in Ithaca , then I could absolutely see why u catch less fish than 20 years ago.  Water is clearer and the fish are deeper.  Cayuga is def not devoid of life, its fishing better than I can ever remember.

It was like 53 out there yesterday.  Few degrees higher than in the lake.

Got em….not sure if/when we’re headed out.  Eastern Ontario tourney next weekend.

Fwiw… it looks like the fall brawl is including all US Lake Erie water this year (including NY).  Closest weigh station is still quite a haul near Geneva OH I think….but might be worth it to the guys who don’t put their boats away.

21 hours ago, walleye chop said:

I have a Garmin 7610xsv and a transom transducer that works great at below 5 mph. I want to spot fish and structure at 10-20 mph. Should I replace the transom transducer with a thru hull or in hull type? I fish in Lake Erie max depth about 130 ft. Thank you for your opinion. Irv

fwiw I have a garmin gt54 transducer on the transom of my boat and after playing around with the adjustment angle I was able to mark fish/bottom at 20+mph with the scroll speed turned up.  (They just look like yellow dots). Think I just had to move it one click on the bracket….just can’t remember if it was up or down.

Couple years ago I caught a hen king in cattaraugus creek in November….full of eggs…she was 6-8lbs max.  Kings haven’t been stocked in Erie since the late 90’s.  That’s what genetics can do in just a handful of generations.

Actually I came away from the experiment thinking scent matters even less.  The fact that the yellow perch and white bass didn’t eat them to me says those bycatch species are keying on the worm.  The fact that the walleyes didn’t seem to know the difference to me says they’re keying on the blade.  This is confirmed I think by the fact that only a couple different blades were working….several blades wouldn’t get touched in what I would consider a “wide open” bite.  Of course these triggering factors can and do change….this pattern was consistent over a week.

Got these some solid runtime last week so wanted to give a review for u guys that run blades/harnesses.  They def keep bycatch down.  IMO this is the biggest drawback of using real crawlers.  Sheep’s, White bass and yellow perch did not eat them….walleyes did.  In addition way more durable, caught several fish on the same one.  When ur done throw them back in the gulp nasty snot water and fish them again the next day.  Colors are awesome…highly recommend the “smelt”.  Much easier to rig on the boat in waves than a regular crawler and much more consistent presentation.  That flat/thin tail has a great action in the water.  In a head to head comparison the fish prolly still seemed to prefer real by a slight edge but I caught plenty of fish on them.  I think they’ll really shine for guys that burn willow harnesses behind divers in the summer.  Will give the 4”ers a spin on Onieda the week of the 4th on a mix of small harnesses and slow death….will let u know how those fish like them.

There was a big whack of fish west of the harbor down by the PA border, and we ran into several pods of very active fish east of the harbor to van buren.  It’s a 12 mile stretch.  Drive around in 45-60’ and you’ll see them…unless they move….if the water temp stays consistent I doubt they will…the big west wind last week didn’t move them.  More active fish will be suspended.  Like I said the eaters didn’t want cranks so much last week, of course that can change as well.

Was out at Barcelona all last week for the derby. Lots of fish around.  20”ers wanted suspended crawler harnesses.  Big fish wanted cranks.  Lotta bycatch to contend with, but if it’s limits ur after they def can be had.

When I weighed a top 5 fish in at the Southtowns derby they had a metal detector they ran alongside the fish, then stuck a big metal rod down it’s throat to feel for anything solid, then I had to wrap and freeze the fish so they could autopsy if they wanted, then had to take the polygraph.  Every weigh station had this stuff.  Was shocked to see they didn’t do the same at the fall brawl last year with far more money on the line.  Polygraph clearly not a good enough test/deterrent.  

I tried using panoptix with a 7” screen and pretty quickly upgraded to a 9”.  Like others I would not recommend livescope for trolling.

I can tell you the commercial perch fisherman in Barcelona also sells smoked whitefish out of his processing shop.  I don’t know if he catches them there as bycatch or purchases from the Canadians, might be worth and inquiry.

https://www.amazon.com/Battery-Regulator-Milwaukee-Converter-Robotics/dp/B094QTY788/ref=asc_df_B094QTY788/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=533371127898&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=15852031927141180588&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9005754&hvtargid=pla-1396746722791&psc=1

is this what ur looking for?

Not a captain but a rec boater who has fished there with guides but never had the stones to go myself.  Interested in your experience with the 90hp.  I assumed that would be underpowered.  Most of the guys up there have larger outboards.

 Is there a specific line you like to take?

Seems like there’s a lot of bad water up there to be driving around with your bow up/transom down (not on plane).  How important is hole shot?/time to plane in that swirly water?

Great job grinding it out in def tougher conditions than I had.  I’d bet it was rolling pretty good out there 4 miles offshore with that south wind 15-25.  How was the night fishing?…..I wished we had spent some time doing that.  Friday looks like a heavy northwest wind….might blow some of that water back in.  Saturday and Sunday look prime….just make sure u get to the weigh in in time!

3 hours ago, wishinfishin said:

Waking up early (middle of the night) and leaving for Huron if wind still checks out to fish the weekend.
Im in both derbies . Be great to place but im going fishing !
What was your speed? Guessing around 2mph

Sent from my SM-A600A using Lake Ontario United mobile app
 

Gonna be a little windy but it’s coming out of the south and you don’t hafta go way offshore to get them.  Also if a good wind window opens up in the evening don’t be afraid to night fish.  Guys were doing good out of cranberry creek at night.  Our best speed was 1.7 down speed.

Got back last week from 4 days in Sandusky area of Ohio fishing the combo fall brawl/walleye slam derby.  Some pretty incredible cash in these derbies and u can weigh the same fish into both so I’ve been wanting to go play out there in November for a while and even tho we didn’t get a big one it didn’t disappoint.  Landed on some great weather with blue skies and southwest wind 8-20mph which meant it was fishable everyday all day….and tons of fish around to target.

First couple of days there was some dirty water blowing around the area from some high winds that hit the western basin….was really my first experience with stained water and once we busted out the “Ohio colors” from the crankbait box we were into fish pretty good.  Those wild colored baits that never seem to pull fish out in the eastern basin really shined in that 2’ type of vis condition.  Later in the trip when the water cleared up going back to some of those eastern basin patterns allowed us to keep pulling fish.

We went a little earlier than I would have wanted due to lining up vacation time with my buddy.  Water temp was 55 degrees and it seemed the 30”+ fish really hadn’t showed up yet.  Our big fish were in the 7-8.5 lb class.  Looks like they’re getting into some bigger ones this week…last year all the big ones were caught just after thanksgiving.  Great learning experience tho in a target rich environment….launched out of cranberry creek Marina just outside Huron which was excellent and would recommend to anyone going out there.  Did 40-50 fish/day except for the higher wind day and had no problems limiting out.  Best baits we’re reef runner skinny sticks, bay rat lxd, dhj14’s, and those WN reapers kicked butt out there.  My first time using them and I can’t wait to give them some run time when the southtowns derby rolls around.

Yeah I mean I fished the lake trout derby for about 15 years until the size and numbers got so aweful we started blowing it off and fishing the southtowns derby out at Erie.  The final nail in our coffin was when we won the browntrout division with a 4.5lb fish that we almost threw back.  I’ve fished the FL tribs my whole life.  The size , numbers, and health of the fish in Seneca is really poor…every fish we would boat the last few years before we quit were skinny, large heads, and multiple lamprey wounds.  Marking huge schools of bait with maybe 1 mark around them….usually none.  Same story in the creeks….really really unhealthy rainbows oftentimes still dragging lampreys 10miles from the lake.

You juxtapose that with Cayuga lake just over the hill where they use the weir and lampracide treatments after high water events.  Ur catching big, clean, healthy fish.  Phenomenal size, phenomenal numbers…kinda stupid actually.  I make it a point to look over every fish we catch for lamprey marks and I think I saw 1 out of 30-40 fish boated on Cayuga over 3 trips this summer.

I didn’t fish Cayuga from the lake in 2010-2014, but from my perspective u have two very similar bodies of water separated by like 10 miles?  One has had active lamprey management….the other hasn’t, and the fishing quality is night and day between them.
 

And the fishing quality is night and day.

Yeah, unfortunately this is about 10 years too late.

They’re pricey And on the west coast but Willie boats are now making a removable front walkthrough windshield.  Their tiller style sleds are what everyone drives on the west coast and basically bulletproof.  Hull design may be a bit off for rough days on Ontario but prolly any tiller would be.

https://www.willieboats.com/boats/power-boats/raptor/

Mine was steering a bit tough earlier this summer and I got down into my open gunnel where the tube is and noticed a I had a bunch of gear laying on top of it and pinching it down a bit.  After clearing it off and hanging it properly steering was normal.  Possible it could be pinched with a zip tie or something but seems you’d feel that even when not in the water.

I use the chamberlain release which allow you to set a really light tension for those dirty waldos, but still keep good tension on your line when with the rod…even then sometimes they just swim with the ball.  Good to hear u got into em.