LongLine

I don't get this. Are you saying the lower unit wanders all over the place like the steering is loose or are you saying the steering wheel says put but the boat goes all over the place like the wind & waves push it around? Tom B. (LongLine)

Have you tried a "down & out"? Tom B. (LongLine)

Worked another weekend so took today off & went fishing. (Yay Me!) Slight wind out of the south. River temp 73F. Some big-butt logs just outside the jetties. Went around them and to the left again. Actually got on the water a little later than usual today. 71 ½ on the surface. Put in around 120 ft - 70F down 75. Clean screen till I hit 185 FOW, then it was like I was in 75-80 FOW. Bait all over the place! I have never seen so much bait. Stayed basically 180 to 215 FOW. Probe down 105 & in the Thermocline and 2nd rigg’r stacked at 85. Dodger-fly on top of a clean spoon - matching Bloody-Butt Blk/Slvr w/ clean BB Blk/Slvr on the probe. Short leads, 2.5 down speed. 3 out of 5 in the boat. 1 King, 1 Rainbow, 1 Brown. All on the spoon below the dodger. Nothing more than 7 Lbs. # 4 is either resting on the Canadian shore right now, dragging a couple hundred yards of line or was the SUNY Brockport submarine. Here’s what can happen if you’re not too careful with the spoon –Dodger trick. i.e not enough distance between the lines. (Only took ½ hr to straighten it out – then ended up cutting it apart anyways. Off the water around 10:00 and had to take a field trip to go find some more line. 5 trailers in the lot including the SUNY Brockport Bio group. Beatuiful day to be on the water. Luck to all. Tom B. (LongLine)

To our favorite plumber – someone who really knows his cr@p. (Cakes are becoming like a pair of pants – harder & harder to find one that fits….) Happy Birthday ray. Tom B. (LongLine)

Beautiful place. Suggest you turn the gain down a bit tho. Tom B. (LongLine)

Well....1 for Mustad...1 for Owner...Personally I like Gammy's. 3/0 for NK 28's. Tom B. (LongLine)

I used to have a silver Evil Eye with an orange lightening bolt on one side that browns loved...until a 12 lb Northern destroyed in I-Bay. Tom B. (LongLine)

WTG. Water was really moving. Tom B. (LongLine)

Congratulations. Definitely a keeper. Hope momma is doing well. Tom B. (LongLine)

For Mono, reel the line up till the wad of fleas is 10-15 ft from the tip; put tip under water and whip it out of the water. Surface will cut them right off. I tried smacking the tip against the water & guess it was one heck of a smack as the rod broke. Tom B. (LongLine)

Had the day off so in the water around 5:00. Had a little scare with the engine so turned back and had to tightened up some fittings. Ran fine after that so headed out. Boy that flash really lights it up. (heh, heh, heh) South wind, pretty clear sky.. Don’t know where the clouds were that the weatherman was talking about. River up to 74F. Nice to have some high water for the launch. Took a left & headed out to 90 FOW. (There's the clouds) Surface 72F. Warm water here so worked out a little. Found 54F with about 110 ft of cable out over 120 FOW. Very thin Thermocline. A little turn to the right pulled it up to 62 & a little turn to the left dropped it to 49F. Worked the area over pretty good from 110 out to 180 FOW. Lot of bait in 160 down 75-85. Anyways, two of these guys between 125 & 140FOW. (Browns) Both rigg’r. 1st with 115 of cable out on NK Wonderbread: 2nd on Purple Spook with 85 of cable out. Down speed 2.5, both short leads. Had three other knock-offs on stacked Bloody Blk/Slver but nobody home. Found a N-S scum line around 38.4. Surface 70F. Oh well, felt great to be able to get out again. Pulled them up at 10:15 & burned some gas. Maybe 6 trailers in the lot. 1 was DEC, 2nd was USGS. (small boats) Lenny’s doing a great job at the launch. Wasn’t one piece of driftwood there. Luck to all, Tom B. (LongLine)

Ditto Gammies - sharpen on 3 sides with a fine file. Tom B. (LongLine)

Jim, The amount of blowback you get in the cable depends on the weight of the ball, the diameter of the cable, the speed of the boat and the direction/speed of the currents. There is no readily available table to tell you these things. The amount of bow in you fishing line also depends on same. If the amount of bow in your cable causes sleepless nights then next time you're trolling in 100 ft of water, let out 100 ft of cable. Then let out 105, then let out 110. (make sure you're over sand bottom) When you see you rigg'r" bounce" you'll know your touching bottom and the amount over 100 ft is what you're losing to blowback. You can also watch your line counter. Some guys fishing for Lakers will let out enough cable to bounce their rigg'r then crank it up a couple feet. That way they know their lure is on the bottom. The absolute best way to know where you ball is, is to adjust your transducer so you can see the ball on the screen. If you have a multi-frequency transducer, sometimes one freq will show it while the other won't. Tom B. (LongLine) Make sure you're over a sandy bottom when you try the above. I don't want you to snag up your rigg'r.

Welcome to the site. You can't go wrong with Yank or off the hook. Tom B. (LongLine)

Now that you have a probe use it to find where the water changes temp real quick. This is the thermocline. Put a lure below it, one in it and some above it. (54F is the temp of the thermocline) Let the fish tell you where they are. Your probe ball will not ride at the same depth as the other due to increased blowback. That's why they recommend running at least two lbs heavier on it. You can't eliminate that bow in your line. Put enough tension on the line so that you have a good bow in the rod when you're all set. Some guys bend it all the way over. When I put my lower rod down, I just loosen the drag a bit & let the ball take it down. The cheater is free on the main line, it will find it's own depth. Average speed is probably fine. Suggest you don't troll in a straight line with a mixed spread. I tend to run clean spoons a little faster. Tom B. (LongLine)

Make sure you're not fishing below the fish. Also, sometimes it is possible to have too much glow. (regardless of what the tackle salesman says) Tom B. (LongLine)

It's trial & error. Generally the closer you can go the deeper you are. Some guys never go more than 30 ft back when below 60 ft. I believe a lot depends on your spread. i.e some low, some high, some close, some back. Tom B. (LongLine)

Keep an eye on the weather & go for it. Good luck. Tom B. (LongLine)

ooops....14803.

http://www.charts.noaa.gov/OnLineViewer/GreatLakesViewerTable.shtml Chart 14813. Zoom in on area you want then do a “print screenâ€. Also look at next chart in series. Tom B. (LongLine)

Longitude/Latitude. That's how far North they went. Rather that say how deep they went some guys give hints as to GPS coordinates. Can be different depths of water off different ports. Off the Genny, that's way the heck out there. Tom B. (LongLine)