McWally

Tried to get the kid her first ice walleye, had a few lookers, but buddy did get a decent laker for entertainment last night. She dropped two nice ones last year. Gunna get it done this year. 

Monster fish!

Have made this before but it came out so good this time thought I’d share:

crappie filets

crappie rib cages

Bacon

butter

celery carrot

potato 

garlic

tomato paste

salt 

pepper

italian herbs 

stock: melt 1/4 stick of butter and fry celery, onion, carrot and just a bit of tomato paste, teaspoon or less with salt in a stock pot. Put in rib cages, stir up and cover with 3-4 cups of water. Use the minimalist amount of water to concentrate flavor. Let it simmer 40-60 minutes. 
 

cook a couple pieces of bacon, reserve fat. 
 

add 1/4 stick butter and bacon grease to soup pot and fry onion, celery, and carrots, cook down. Add salt pepper herbs then minced garlic, chopped bacon and potatoes and cook a few more minutes. Add a little stock if it starts sticking. Add strained stock and simmer until potatoes are soft. Add chopped crappie 10 minutes before serving so they don’t flake off and stay chunky. 
 

I didn’t have several ingredients in house that could have made this better, but I’m glad I didn’t for this batch because it turned out so good. Best tip, use minimal water from the start that will cover all your ingredients in the soup. Nice break from frying all the time. 
 

Been out four or five times so far. Have had my daughter out on the ice since she was 2. She can really crank fish now. This season feels like it’s going to be a banger!

My ratio for getting ahold of them is 50/50. Don’t call around lunchtime is my best advice. 

30 minutes ago, whaler1 said:

I’m supposed to go on Thursday, going to be a cold one!

At least it’s not today. 

4 hours ago, ErieBuck said:

good call on the unimpeded fight with the big boards, makes it a lot of fun.  Are you speaking to the western end of the lake in early spring?  

This was the way we fished them in Hamlin NY back in the day and the way we fish them currently on the east end. I’m talking March through early April. We didn’t target chinooks, they were a by-catch if we got lucky. 

Early spring is mostly a brown trout game for me. I prefer big boards with sticks. I leave the in-line boards home because unlike walleye, losing a brown is no big deal to me and I am more in it for the unimpeded fight and sport of it. We run downriggers with lighter Michigan stinger spoons and 6-8 sticks on the big boards. We get the occasional silver, steel, pike, and bass doing this in 8-20ft of water. Some guys have great luck with divers close to boat. Maybe someone will chime in with that info, but early spring, that’s my spread. No leadcore, or snap weights, or anything fancy, if I want more depth I’ll go with a suspending husky jerk or smithwicks. I just fishing the colored water which is usually best in close. 

Stony creek launch might be possible in the dead of winter after some serious cold temps. I’ve seen those videos, looks very fun and have brainstormed this exact scenario. I’ve caught a few steelhead in black river bay by accident. I’ve caught a brown with a super shallow shoreline tipup in Chaumont by accident. The inlets of the sandy ponds could be the ticket. The two spots you mention, especially the estuary would probably be best  bet. Not the east end, but I’ve always wanted to fish the moth of the yacht club in Hamlin ny on sandy creek for whatever surprise comes through those holes. I’d say any scenario like that one would be worth a try just for the adventure of it. 

Fish on. Prayers to Mike on a safe passage. Sorry for your loss. 

2 hours ago, tuffishooker said:

Thanks for the post ! Where there others ? We got as far as the Queenston / Lewiston bridge when a swirl tilted the port stern to about 1 cm. of free board and that was enough for us to back off ! IMO once it starts getting scared it stops being fun ! been there too many times and do not want any others ! Again no fish is worth risking your safety for !

Another post that triggered a bad memory! This happened to us too!!!!

29 minutes ago, Chuck Smth said:

Your best bet is to design what you want and then have them made in Shenzen by one of the myriad for-contract lure manufacturers there. You'll need to work with an importer to clear the paperwork but trust me, you'll make a lot more margin by having the work done in a low-cost region.  With small items like this economy of scale is everything. 

 

You worked up a parts and labor cost but you left out the costs of packaging, distribution and advertising. The actual lure cost can be insignificant compared to the time and treasure you'll spend on the business side of things. Anytime you get involved in an endeavor that includes molten lead you're going to have a lot of (expensive!) OSHA requirements to meet. 

 

My advice: start small and then if the demand is there, offshore production. 

 

Don't forget people like Worth will sell you stuff wholesale you can simply repackage/rebrand too, as will the offshore suppliers. 

Great insights, thank you. You’re obviously spot on. My friend owns a bait shop and had a gentleman who tied all his own and had a large space for jigs and the family did not want to carry-on his legacy. I thought well  geez, why not try with a ready-made customer demand. He did everything in-house, but in a far simpler jig. My stupid ass was like I’ll just try to outdo Spro, rather than emulate his methods. There is one product other than these bucktails which is more for the locals that I have in mind for the millions of bass pros/college amateurs/wannabees that spend whatever and could have way higher margins. Truthfully, in this day n age with complete uncertainty in supply chain logistics/inflationary pressure I’m very worried about going both feet in and going your route, but no balls no glory too. Thank you for new insights. 

1 hour ago, jimski2 said:

My experience is that when the stream water temperature reaches 45 degrees F. the trout return to the lakes where they inhabit till next fall when the stream temperatures reach 45 degrees F.

It was a sneaky move, but I swear this dude was catching big hens in may off the bank. 

There was this guy who use to always win the spring LOC centerpinning Niagara shoreline for bows. I tried it from boat with a slip bobber and all that got me was a huge migraine. 

So, all the way from melting lead to powder coating to tying to all the weird little hangups in between I think I can make these at about .35 cents an hour. That’s about 14$ a week at 40 hours and thats a 728$ salary. Not bad if you live in Nigeria. There’s a lot of little tricks to this crap and I bet if I worked at this for a year I could get good, but man, this is tedious. A lot of messing around in catalogs and stuff. Fun little hobby I guess. 

Chowder’s post just triggered so many memories of our trials n errors. Good grief, he’s so right. 

What was the hot bait? Emeralds?

I think state record is out of Black River Bay. I would just love to figure them out for the summer as a complete challenge. 
I swear if I can come back to dock with a cooler of them things in July, I’d be the talk of the town. 

Unbelievable, you sure it’s burbot and not bowfin? 

No kidding! What time of the year in the little salmon? Like in the mouth or up the creek?

Has anyone dragging gear for Lakers or whatever ever caught a burbot? Can anyone tell me anything about warm season burbot habits? 

Ive caught one ice fishing in Chaumont. I know there is a black river bay ice bite. I know there are some great Henderson late ice spots, but the warm season haunts are a complete mystery to me. Anyone fill in any life history info on east end burbot??
 

On 12/14/2021 at 6:47 AM, tuffishooker said:

No fish is worth risking your safety for !

I swear, walking down that cliff to Devils Hole was as deadly. When we walked it down, I remember casting a hairless silver mepps 3 and letting it sink for a long while then just close the bail and let the current swing it. Did great on bows and Lakers, good times. 
 

it is true though, Artpark is good enough. That dam is wicked and the whirlpools that just form out of nowhere are wicked. 

7 minutes ago, fisherdude said:

Only two things you can only rely on death and taxes my property taxes came in the mail today I'm vax. so I hope death is a long ways down the road

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So did mine, I guess my taxes are pretty cheap being way off in the north country, but have no reference having only ever lived here. I hope you have a 100 years of great health in front of you, truly, cheers. 

1 hour ago, Gator said:

I will weigh in on a point that McWally made which I agree with entirely. It is beyond belief to me that the FDA is making decisions without consulting its advisory board, or even ignoring their recommendations entirely, My lab works on Alzheimer's, and the latest drug that was approved in spite of the board's reservations is IMHO a breach of both confidence and contract with the experts who are supposed to oversee this stuff. If you claim to follow the science, then listen to the scientists. The danger here is that Joe Public loses faith, as is obvious from this conversation. 

 

On a related note, the heads of NIH Institutes (and even the current head of the NIH itself, our own home-grown Larry Tabak from URMC) are tasked with serving as a conduit between politicians and scientists. If their messages aren't well-received, then they need to moderate them in order to have any impact whatsoever. It's better to have a seat at the table than not. But this means that they need to be somewhat circumspect in what they say and how they say it. That whole thing about judging not until you've walked a mile in a man's moccasins? Yeah, I think it applies.

Several prominent FDA folk with solid decades long track records have resigned. I am speculating here, but I’d guess for moral quandaries. I’m excluding Janet Woodcock here, that lady is partly responsible for Purdue getting its OxyContin mainstream and into the hands of pill mill Dr.s who got kickbacks galore. She’s just running away with her dress on fire, but I digress. Mandates and unethical practice will weed out the critical thinkers/moral objectors from the police, hospitals, FDA, Universities and armed forces before too long. If that sort of consolidation of obedience /thought under duress doesn’t spook you, you have failed History 101. And Gator, Joe Public needing faith as you put it, points to the fact that this is irrational, because what else is faith reserved for. We need to contend with the fact Totalitarian politics are a form of religion. After fleeing Nazi Germany Waldemar Gurian wrote: “ The totalitarian movements that have arisen after WW1 are basically religious movements. Their aim is not only to change political and social institutions, but also to remodel the nature of man and society.”

Carl Jung wrote: “The state takes the place of God...The socialist dictatorships are religious and state slavery is a form of worship.”

These man-made institutions are inherently irrational because they are built upon force, fear and lies and the lies grow larger. In a free and open society you build Joe Public’s confidence, not faith, through meritocracy and hierarchies built with competence, not power. With pundits like Cramer on CNBC Fast Money openly calling for forced vax through military intervention, well, that’s the power structure tipping its hand, and many faithful agree....

14 minutes ago, fisherdude said:

How many people are out there drink and smoke do recreational drugs and they think the government is trying to feed them a vaccine that will change their DNA forever. Have another cigarette it won't hurt you one bit lol

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