Billy V

NK or Dreamweaver Glow Frog, Die Hard, Mulatto, Spook, Watermelon, Dolphin, Monkey Puke, and NBK are all good choices. I really like some of the new DW Icicle series colors too.

You're welcome any time Dan! But I suspect that it'll be good out there real soon!

Musky, Way to help out a fellow fisherman. That was absolutely the right thing to do. Props to you. Sorry it wasn't a better day for you. I hope you SMASH the fish your next time out. You deserve it.

Dan, I'm not sure what my plans for the coming weekend are yet. I may head West or I may spend some time in Fair Haven working on the boat. You headed west?

You would know a LOT more about that than me!! And it looks to me like LG isn't holding that fish out.....

Today LevelGreener and I got out after a derby fish or two. We banged the beach for a couple of hours and managed to hook up quite a few times. Our biggest fish of the day was a healthy 6 lb brown, and we boated several other smaller browns. We dumped a big one first thing that we both felt was a potential derby fish. All of the fish were released. Hot spoons today were all Dreamweavers. Their 42nd spoon and Glow Frog all took multiple rips. The top producing stick bait (actually, the only stickbait to fire) was once again a Dave's KA-BOOM Shiner in Firetiger. We were trolling in 10-18 FOW for most of the morning. Best bite was at first light. If you're going...get on the water EARLY!!! Once the morning bite began to slow down, we took a troll out as far as 200 FOW looking for Kings. We didn't find any that wanted to cooperate, but we did find a few nice hooks on the sonar that made me think that there are a few out there. If I was going out tomorrow morning, I'd probably opt to skip the inshore fishing and head straight out to 120FOW and give it a whirl with the silvers just to see if they'd cooperate at first light. All in all, it was a great day on the water.

Billy Baroo is an old Jr. Thunderstick model that was a big hit here on Lake O, but not many other places, so it was a limited run. Dave Storm just told me recently that he was going to paint up some of them on his Shiners and make them available in our area. When I hear more from him about them I'll be sure to post it here. Best of luck to you this weekend!

Nice Bro!!! Hope that water warms up for you guys this week.

Shellback, There has definitely been an evening bite, although the water color is beginning to clear up with this nice weather, so that may slow the inshore bite down jut a bit. Hot sticks for us have been Dave's Ka-Boom shiners in firetiger and black/silver. Also J-9 Rapala's in GFR, charteuse, and black/sil. Channel 5, 68, and 72 are the channels you'll find most of the local chatter on. We'll be up tomorrow afternoon and then again Sunday afternoon and all day Monday. Feel free to give us a shout. Good luck! Bill

Woody, Run either spoons or stick baits off of those riggers you have (50-75ft leads), and flatline a couple more stickbaits off the back of the boat. Don't be afraid to send them a ways back either...150ft. or more if there's not much color in the water. Look for the stained water and have fun!

Joe, I fished in a 19' Penn Yan for years and I'm still here to talk about it. Lots and lots of guys fish very safely in 16' or 17' boats. Just keep an eye on the weather and choose your days and you should be fine.

Chappy, I'm gonna have two Bert's ratcheting rod holders for sale as soon as my Traxstech's show up. Bert's fit into the Traxstech tracks. Let me know.

Nice job Scott! It's been unbelieveable up there this spring!!

I've only ever owned boats that were already bottom painted, so I've always done the work myself. I've just sanded them lightly and then re-painted them. If I had a new boat and was planning on keeping it in the water, I'd definitely have a barrier coat put on it first to help avoid osmotic blistering, etc. I think Yankee Troller had a barrier coat put on his boat a year or so ago by someone in Rochester. Maybe he can help with a referral.

Glen, No, I won't be headed west. You gonna be anywhere near Ithaca?

Mark, Just curious what you ended up getting?

Another consideration is the excess drag that all the growth on the bottom of the boat will create. It'll ruin your fuel mileage and slow you down quite a bit. I'd paint it. Just my $.02

I have a new Fentress cutting board that fits into a standard flush mount rod holder. These retail for $94.99 at Cabela's. I bought this new last fall and never used it. It measures 12"x32". I'll let it go for $75. Buyer to pick up either in Fair Haven or Ithaca. PM me or email me at [email protected] if you're interested.

There have been a few browns over the minimum caught. We weighed in several over 9 lbs in our brown trout derby in Fair Haven over the weekend. The winner was just shy of 12 lbs. I heard of several more caught over that weight from guys on the VHF.

I had a custom rocket launcher built for a Penn Yan 288 Predator that I had intended to buy, but that deal fell through, so I have a rack that I can't use. It was built by a tool & die maker out of Michigan, and is built to be easily taken down for storage. It's built for a boat with an 11' beam, but the builder tells me that it could very easily be modified at very little expense to fit a boat with a smaller beam. The rack is currently at his shop in MI, so the modifications could be made very quickly. It's built out of stainless steel and aluminum. It doesn't show in these pics, but there are support members that attach to it as well for added support. The pic shows the planer reel mounted to the rack 90 degrees off kilter. The builder just threw it on there for the pic. The reels will mount on the ouside of the rack like you would expect them to. The rack is built to accept Big Jon planer reels and pulleys, but the reels and pulley are not included in the price. Most any planer reels will fit on it. The pulleys will mount up high on the rack. I'm asking $450 for the rack alone. The rack is also set up to accept two spreader lights. I have the spreader lights at my house and will let them go for an additional $40. I also have the Big Jon pulleys (brand new still in the package) at my house and will let them go for an additional $40 as well. PM me or shoot me an email at [email protected] if you're interested.

Gotta go fellas...taking up space in my garage!!

Dan, Glad you were able to come up for the weekend. It was nice to meet you & your crew too. We haven't put a king in the boat yet, but your bruiser got us all pumped for what's to come! Wish I could've fished today, but I had family obligations all day. How was the picnic?

It's on the bay. Good luck tomorrow Ray!!!

Good! I look forward to seeing you this year. Insane day for browns, huh? :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: We had a riot today.

Ray, You'll really like the launch at Fair Haven Beach State Park. Let us know how you do!