Pair of Jacks

We fished Henderson Bay May 14-21 all with 16’ deep Vs (Sea Nymph, Tracker Laker Guide V-16 DLX, and a new Lund Deep V16). Weather sucked and we got blown off the lake almost every day. Definitely review marine forecast as we did to ensure you have a good sense of what to expect and when to head for the dock. If you don’t have a marine radio use your mobile phone to get both forecasts and updates while on the water. Also many good weather apps have a radar map which is especially good at giving direction/storm paths as well as lightning strike data. Wind and wave increase will generally be ahead of the actual rai/lighting. PoJ

Google Lens say definitely a milk snake.

My dad had a 1990 Sea Nymph 16 ft. After about 5 years he had a similar leaking problem. He eventually had the entire transom replaced… the dealer found a serious defect in the brass transom drain that allowed water to penetrate around the drain and the transom. As someone else mentioned… before I would jump to catastrophic issues like a bad transom I would replace the transom plug. Good luck Pair of Jacks

My 3 bothers, my youngest son and my nephew are staying in Henderson Harbor at the Morning View Cottage (Airbnb) for the week and our first fishing foray to Lake Ontario. So Sunday -we went 8/8…7 browns and one nice smallmouth. Only kept two Browns released rest and of course the smallmouth. All 6 browns were on a watermelon stinger on a downriggers at 25’ in 30-40 FOW at 1.6 SOG. We are still learning😎😎😎

Luke you mentioned your second pike was “quite beat up.” Lampreys or fighting with other pike? Respectfully Scott

FF34--many thanks!!!!

FF34--yep we have a large rubber landing net and practice all the same TTPs for stripers except we use rubberize fishing gloves to hold the fish along side the boat...please post orPM info/photo of your plastic clamping fish grips tied to a rope solution. Respectfully PoJ

FF34…thanks for great insights. Here is a follow up question…landing/boating the fish: what is the best technique for our safety and health of the fish? We will likely catch and release 90% of our fish.

Great way to pay it forward and introducing a new generation of fisherman. Keep on keeping on!!!

Here is the error I get:

Finders Keepers— I don’t do Facebook for personal reasons, but tried their website multiple times and a goofy error. Do you know if they actually run a non-Facebook website for those who prefer not to use Facebook?

First is there a rule of thumb on setting planer board distance? I will like have two Yellowbird inline boards per side plus two downriggers on the stern. Second, how do I determine how much line to let out past the planerboards and downriggers? I will be running spoons, Rapalas, Cordell red fins, and Thunder stick jr. Some deep divers others not so much. Thank you all for your wisdom and insights. PoJ

Thank you so much…we are experienced walleye and striper fisherman and so trolling is our strength. The flying fish are going to be something different albeit our favorite northern Ontario walleye lake has a great SMB population and we get some awesome tail walkers, but typical these fish are 5lbs and under. We are going with downriggers and planer boards…copy all on planer boards adding a level of finesse to landing larger fish. Stripers tend to smash the stickbaits with a head butt which tends set multiple hooks. So we do not usually lose them to hook pulling out. When we lose a fish it is the result of line or knot failure. In Canada we go almost exclusively with worm harnesses spinner rigs for walleyes and to avoid losing hookup to short strikes we don’t set hook on the first hit…we allow the fish fully take the bait before setting the hook. For our LO trip, we are hoping to target those shore lines like you are doing. Our setups are not really configured for going deep for lakers. I will provide daily reports May 14-21. Respectfully PoJ

Wasn’t dissing you…we are (my youngest son, 3 brothers and my nephew) heading to Henderson Bay in a couple weeks for a week of walleye, browns, etc. It is our first try at LO. So we are seeking the wisdom and experience of fisherman like you. Thank you for your insights. Question—should we “set the hook” at initial hook up? Thank you PoJ

What is the biggest reason for losing hook ups?

Did the bite change as the waves got bigger?