Jomat

Yeah gotta slide the weight forward a bit when pulling heavy snap weights especially.  Seems more sensitive to snap weights than leadcore...prolly from the line angle off the back of the board.  If running real light stuff like shallow running stick baits or spoons I slide the weight back.  This can keep the nose up and keep it from wanting to dive under in big waves...in calm water it doesn’t much matter.  Church boards def seem to sit a little lower in the water and can be a little bit more finicky to set up than the offshore boards.  I think they plane out a bit better/don’t drop back as far as the offshore tho.

https://stcroixrods.com/products/avid-glass-ice
 

this my favorite rod for fishing small tungsten jigs for panfish.  I would never pay full price tho....usually on sale somewhere.  I prefer glass even in deep water for detecting “up bites” without a spring bobber. 
 

jigging raps and spoons are a different story completely.....fast action carbon.

I’ve also got interstate group 27’s on my bow mount 70lb thrust.  I get maybe 6 hours before they start to dog.  I have them on essentially all the time during that 6 hours running 30-50%.  Not super happy with that performance.  Looking hard at lithium deep cycles as the price is coming down really fast on them.  Still will be much more expensive than lead but you’ll get supposedly 2x the runtime because they draw down completely as opposed to 50%.  Anyone make this switch to lithium yet?  Heard they charge much faster as well.

PA and NY can travel freely without quarantine....for some time this summer Ohio could not, and I know the state troopers out at Erie were enforcing.  Everyone’s infection rate is high now including NY...so not really sure what point there is in trying to restrict travel.  Not sure where you intend to go or what things will be like in the spring but right now infection rates up over 10% in many places....be very careful who/how many you come in contact with....if u care about such things.

Pulled the trigger on a panoptix livescope....can’t wait to get that out in the ice and then the boat in the spring.  For Christmas my wife hooked me up with a bunch of custom painted stickbaits/jigging raps from viper tackle.  Walleyes better watch out.

Walleyes in rivers are migratory and move around a lot.  I have caught/released limits of keeper walleyes on accident while bass fishing in the chemung....and the next week they’re gone.  Don’t disagree maybe less fish but if you stand on one rock in a river fishing for walleyes....not surprised you aren’t catching.  There are a lot of guys up and down the river that are on walleyes all the time....most in boats, many fishing at night....most keeping all their fish.

Also seems like walleye spawning success is very sensitive to environmental conditions and can boom or bust like what’s happened in Erie....might be even more sensitive in a river system.

water this year was mad low....I know it mad the bass fishing much tougher than usual

https://buy.garmin.com/en-US/US/p/735506
 

7” Garmin echomap unit with the full ice bundle.  Never seen the ice...bought it last spring and used the head unit on the boat over the summer.  Picked up a livescope and thinking about getting a 9” unit.  This is panoptix compatible and the cheapest option to get you in that game.  Asking 500$

Can’t wait for onieda to freeze.  Praying for polar vortex.

Most of the fishing on Cook Inlet/highway system pretty much sucks and is shut down more often than not.  You can get early run kings on the Kasilof...they are not 40lbers but hatchery fish so the season is usually open.  Bob Ball is the best guide , book him early.  Even the halibut limits are getting harder to fill and barn doors are rare unless you take a long boat ride out of homer.

I would tell you to pony up the cash and go fish the nushagak on Bristol bay...but even the fishing there has been quite bad the last two years with no snowpack and low flows.

unfortunately the fishing in Alaska is not what it was even 12 years ago when I started going.  Many of the guides,camp,lodges are not exactly forthcoming about that information either....they’ll book you, take your money, then apologize when you get there and the season is closed.  No one here believes in climate change but I can tell you the fish in AK absolutely do.  I won’t be spending the $$$$ to go back until the numbers start to come back.

Sick boat....is it tough netting fish around those outboard brackets?

Center rod is the one I use for pulling boards/bottom bouncers with braid and snap weights.  I was looking for a telescoping rod that would fit in my 7’ rod locker and these TFO’s were on sale at Sierra trading for 50-75$.  Notice the real soft tip...that is helpful especially with braid to absorb the head shakes while keeping the hook from pulling.  It’s really the middle of the rod that allows it to pull the boards in rough water.  Have a couple Denalis too with leadcore...they are nice.  My braid reels are low profile cold waters and convectors.  The new low pro convectors have a “flipping switch” which comes in real handy when running boards with snap weights.  Not as nice as shimano but I don’t get to fish everyday....good enough for weekend warrior and 100$ less.

1 hour ago, Zimmy4209 said:

They do let fish up past the ladder. If no one is going to be running it they just bypass it. Not sure if they do anything in the fall or not but back in high school I worked there a few days through a school program. It was very cool. Any trout that go up the ladder get hung up in a waiting pool. Every day we went in there we would net the trout put em in a tub and sprinkle this powder they called "angel dust" on top of water. Within seconds tge fish was floating belly up. We would measure gurth length and weight and document male/female. Biggest fish in 3 days i was there was a 13lb 4 oz female bow. You don't see too many rainbows that big anymore!  This was '93-'94. 

 

Salmon creek whenever there's enough water also gets loaded

zimmy, 

thanks I know this is the case in the spring time.  In the fall/early winter oftentimes you’ll walk down to the weir to see a gate over the bypass, the ladder closed and a pile of fish rolling below the weir, and the creek is empty despite good flows.  Then magically a week before the season closes in December there are fish in the creek.  

Anyone know why they won’t let those fish in the creek in the fall?  I thought the weir/fish ladder was for lamprey control and lampreys spawn in the spring?

anyway got the boat out for the last trip today.  My buddy and I did 2 nice rainbows, 3 lakers, and a couple dink landlocks between Myers point and Taughannock on the east side.  Started the morning down in Ithaca and got no bites down there....tons of bait marked all day.

On 10/24/2020 at 8:20 AM, Fat Trout said:

I thought they always drained the canal and through those streams....granted my recollection was it started in Nov. Was this just an earlier start?

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Lake Ontario United mobile app
 

It usually is a 1-2 week pulse around Veterans Day/thanksgiving.  Big wack of water and if ur lucky enough to be able to fish those weekdays it can be very good....if u go on the weekend it’s packed.  Then when the water drops the fish are left high and dry or they drop back out. Spreading the water out is a really good opportunity for both fish and fisherman.  

Throwing in a plug for the outdoor shop my uncle works at in north Tonawanda.  Niagara outdoors on Whitmer rd.  Mostly a bow hunting shop but a lot of good gear for fishing the river. If ur in a pinch they have a vending machine stocked with all seasonal bait (salmon egg sacks in the winter, leeches/crabs in the summer).  Usually have emeralds in the winter for ice fishing/river fishing.

I got a great deal on a 17.5 alumacraft and I love it....but if you want to spend significant time on the Great Lakes (I do)...I think you gotta look at Starcraft fishmasters, or crestliner commanders.  The Midwest walleye boat/crossover is just not the best aluminum design for Erie and Ontario, and the reality is....the best fishing in the state (maybe the US?) is in Erie and Ontario.

https://www.fish307.com/fish307-com-downrigger-trolling-rods/

these seem to be very popular with the New England guys fishing for smaller trout/landlocks.

https://www.lamiglas.com/products/cg-70-dr

Here is the west coast version.

October is the time to target Atlantic’s high in the water column near creek mouths

Was up there last week...opposite side of the lake than you but a ton of fish East of messenger shoal in 35 to 40 fow.  They were preferring smaller shad sized baits and crawler harnesses, over big cranks.  Good luck!

I think frank Campbell (lower Niagara’s guide) is pulling those maglips

3 color leadcore on a downrigger?....did I read that right?

That’s a big bait for big off color water I wouldn’t use it in small creeks like the ones u mentioned.

I don’t use them in trickles

Bobber.....u need a bigger bobber for those heavy senkos

5” bubblegum yamasenko if u want to catch the big ones!