LongLine

Welcome home. Rochester/SUNY Brockport/Army. Well, 2 out of 3 ain't bad. (Semper Fi) Welcome to the site. Tom B. (LongLine)

Fishing Report LongLine Launched early again. Clear sky, love the sunrise over the pier & CG station. Wind out the N, slight chop, maybe 1 ½ ft. Headed straight out to 110FOW & trolled out. Clean screen for the whole trip. Worked out to 250 then back in to 160 & went West. Found a major scum line at W36.2 in 160 & followed it towards shore into 90FOW. (between Russell & tower) Temp down 70 went from for 54/58F (E side) to solid 39.9F (west side). Fleas starting to show up. Anyways, 3 little guys, all with adipose fins (now 11 out of 14 for the year) Biggest about 6 Lbs. Plus a LT about 7 Lbs. Salmon on DW Dolphin 70 down, LT on bloody slvr/Blk flasher with Blk/grn fly (very short lead) at 45 down. Off at 11:30. 3 "million dollar yacht" convoy from Canada coming out the River. Wonder if Border Patrol hassled them like our guys have been? Border Patrol truck parked just above launch. (Great place for lunch.) Maybe 15 trailers in parkling lot. Luck to all, Tom B. (LongLine)

Never drive towards the fish, unless you have a very fast reel, especially fly solo. If you do, you're helping him get reduced tension on your line. Best to maintain steady tension on any fish. Tom B. (LongLine)

Towards Palmyra, there's a park next to the lock (on the cana). I've seen people fishing near the small falls but don't know what's being caught. Tom B. (LongLine)

Were you doing anything with lines when you see it? Was the boat turning? Did you rev the engine? Tom B. (LongLine)

1. Yes 2. Call them back & ask. (I don't mean that as a wiseguy but nothing in what they said tells you that. It also doesn't say if they had a ring on it) Sometimes guys give to much "credence" to what they overhear on the squakbox. Transmissions may carry a long ways over the water. What works off Sandy may or may not work off I-Bay. What works in 400 FOW may not work in 80 FOW. What works at 2 mph may not work at 3 mph. What works with a spn-dtr/fly may not work with a spoon. What it does tell you is that he was fishing off to the side and the fish were not coming into his rigg'rs. You may to post a poll and ask what the most popular size dipsey is. Tom B. (LongLine)

Those transects are interesting however you really can’t see much for water less than 150 ft deep. Remember the vertical scale is in meters (approx 3 ft) I’ve found the best use of them is to visualize the general pattern. What I do is click on the times, say -6, -12, -18, -24, -36 etc then click on the “back†arrow on the browser to see what the lake has been doing, then on the forecast for +3, +6, +12 etc. I also do this on the surface temps to visualize where the cold water is going and try to mentally connect the two together. Another thing to remember, especially in 50 to 160 ft range is that the water temps can be quite different 1 mile away from those lines. (Also note on surface temps map, if you scroll down they show what the bottom temps are doing.) After all your calculations are done & you think you have it all figured out, just use that as a start point. i.e start shallower then go out past it & adapt to what your screen/probe shows you. Tom B. (LongLine)

? Just Tom B. (LongLine)

Fishing Report LongLine Launched at 5:30. SE Wind & clear. Dredge heading out & toward the East. Headed out Slightly NW to 85 & set up. Lot of bait in 120-160 FOW down 75-90 Ft. Ran into this shaker at 75 over 145 on DW Dolphin: Of the 11 little guys so far this year, 8 have had adipose fins. I’m really wondering if something’s going on here. I mean I know the DEC trailer has great QC & all, but 8 out of 11??? Plus the fact I haven’t seen any Kings over 10# in this area all year? Anyways ran in to this chunker at 115 over 155 FOW – Bloody Blk/silvr R&R Found a major N-S scum line at W33.38 Down temps goofy to the west of it. Steady 45F down 100 East of it. Kind of interesting. Off at 12:00, Dredge coming back in. Ragboats on the way out. Ramp antics beginning. (Guess it’s summer time) 3 guys futzing with their boat on trailer at the 1st ramp so I pull into the 2nd ramp; tilt engine, make sure everything is off, move the rods, box, antenna down & he moves over to the 2nd then asks if I’d move so he can use #2. Okay, no biggie, I’m easy so I move over to #3 & tie up & go get the truck. A girl & 2 guys launching one of those ski-doo thingies in #4 & can’t open the console under the wheel. (How do 3 people fit onto something built for 1?) As I’m walking up, a guy pulls into #1 & another pulls into #3 & #4 ie truck cockeyed into #4 & trailer partially blocking #3. Both parties have to get explanation from security guard on how to use the parking/launch machine & the schpeel about being checked every hour. I squeeze into #2 & back down to get the boat. The guys at #2 dock now have their boat backed into #1. (Guess they were afraid to go in reverse straight out?) I have the boat on in less than 2 minutes & look at the ski-doo thingy and the 3 of them are in the water- Guess 3 really don’t fit on that thing. Oh well, that’s why I like to get off the water by 11:00. Luck to all. Tom B. (LongLine)

I believe there is a law that you must have an anti-siphon valve on your tank. Best to replace it rather than remove the ball. They're not inexpensive. Tom B. (LongLine)

Size doesn't matter as long you know what you're doing with it. (or so she said) Tom B. (LongLine)

FWIW - I have a small open run-about for chasing the T&S (18 ft’r) and I’ve often been asked how I keep it under control when setting up or fighting a fish while fishing solo on Big-O. My 75 Hp Evinrude and steering system are not adjustable for tension and even though at WOT I can take my hands off the wheel with no problem; at trolling speed I quickly go into circles with the bigger engine. An auto-pilot is out of the question for me as the engine doesn’t put out a lot of current & those units aren’t cheap, so this is how I use a $0.79 bungee-cord: I installed an eye-bolt (not a screw) on the side of my console then simply loop the cord thru the steering wheel. Both ends of the cord simply hook to the eye. What happens when hooked up, is that the engine turns slightly and the wheel turns but the bungee tightens when it hits a spoke on the wheel. If the boats turns in a slight arc path, it actually helps you bring the fish in if you land it on the outboard side of the arc. The important thing to remember with this set-up is that the idea is to keep the boat from going into circles and not necessarily keep the motor perfectly straight. Many factors will determine how straight your boat runs other than how straight the engine is. Basically if you have anything causing more drag on one side of the boat, it’ll swing you in that direction. i.e. You have only one rigg’r down; you have 2 down at greatly different depths; you have 1 planner board out; 1 dipsey; 1 lead core, etc and of course the wind. Initially, I loop the cord in a space on the wheel that keeps the engine straight. After gear is deployed, I’ll change which wheel space the cord is looped thru and observe how straight it runs. While driving the boat, the cord is unhooked, as I like to zig-zag. When a fish hits, I’ll turn the boat slightly down wind and hook the cord. Only takes a second or two. Hope it helps someone. Tom B. (LongLine)

Winds push the waves directly in the direction it is traveling; however other than the top inch or two of water, the water does not move in the same direction. I am thinking first that you mean a “bad day†means caused by big waves & a rough ride. (?) If this is the case then check out the following website: http://www.weather.gov/forecasts/wfo/se ... neWeek.php You can get a pretty good correlation between wave height & wind direction by toggling back & forth between the wave height screen and the wind direction screen. (click on “more†& use the pull down) The little flags on the wind speed screen point into the wind. For any of the locations on the map, you can only depend upon it being protected from waves by the shoreline. For example Olcott is only protected by the South and somewhat by the SE. Watertown is only protected on the East & NE, hence it has the most “rough†days. On the other hand Rochester/I-bay are in a slight coastline cove thus is protected on the South, SE & SW and is very often the calmest place on the lake and very fishable when everyone else gets blown off the lake. (Be forewarned, Rochester gets very rough during a North or NE wind) I would not expect much change in the waves at Olcott due to a West wind vs a WNW wind unless there was a change in wind speed. Normally wind speeds increase around 10:00AM and generally begin to subside after 3:00PM. Of course with fronts or thunderstorms moving in, throw the generalities out the window. One more comment, generally beginning this time of year thru August, when the wind picks up out of the west, WNW or NW, it generally stays that way for 2-3 days. If on the other hand, you mean a “rough day†because the fishing went someplace in a hand basket when the wind shifted, that’s a different story. (With a little longer answer) Tom B. (LongLine)

Gokudl3 - use a bunge cord. (I'll try to get a pic later to show you how) Tom B. (LongLine)

Lake Ontario covers 7,340 sq miles. In comparison NYS covers 54,556 sq miles. So that's enough to cover NYS with .13 inches of water. Big whoop....according to USGS, there's enough water in all the great lakes to cover the entire US with over 8 ft of water. Tom B. (LongLine)

I fish for recreation, not for hassels. The only way I'll ever go to Canadian water is if my engine dies and a south wind causes my boat to drift the 25 miles there. Tom B. (LongLine)

84 Evin & John's 70 & 75 (same engine) are unregulated. My 75 runs up to 16v when cold but settles back down to 13-14 when warm & trolling. (Changing the cables & new battery helped mine.) If you figure it out please let use know. You may want to ask on Iboats.com. Tom B. (LongLine)

LongLine Launched early today. Clear & calm, barely any wind. Headed west & played around with the kicker in 20 FOW. 1 “real little†guy (King, clipped 8â€r) Quite a few fish swirling in there. Headed out a little & went back to the main engine. Lots of bait in the 42 to 52 FOW range. Seemed like every 100 yds there was a bait cloud on the screen 15-20 ft down, some pods were huge. Anyways lot of shakers in there. Caught 5 as I moved thru the area. 3 had adipose fins. 54F down 35 ft between the doldrums & that’s where they were. Blk & slvr R&R, 2 ¾ downspeed. Moved out & worked 60-75 FOW. Clean screen out there, but got this little Laker at 12 ft down. (go figure…) on a DW Grn Dolphin. Wind came up out of NE about 9:30. Headed in around 11:30. Mud on the west side is gone. Couple Sheriff boats out there, guess they knew about the nice weather. Parking lot now has a launch ticket machine. Have to use coins or credit card. $5 during week & $8 on weekends. (Like who’s going to carry 32 quarters on a weekend????) Sign says it takes mastercard but mine wouldn’t work – but it did take visa. Harborfest is this weekend so 5 carnival trailers in lot. Luck to all, Tom B. (LongLIne)

Zeke - The original proposal was intended to help increase the number of fishermen on Big-O by increasing the number of return trips made to that fishery by trollers for T&S, specifically by the "little guys", out-of-staters, retirees etc The original proposal was to eliminate the "Line" law and allow recreational/sportsfishermen anglers (not commercial) on Big-O to use 3 rods for T&S just like out in Michigan. i.e lines must be attached to rods. (note: commercial fishermen are the guys licensed to sell their catch ie charters are not commercial fishermen) The orig proposal was to try it & see if it helped the sportsfisherman fisherman and the economy. (Michigan tried it on the Lake-M then expanded it to all waters) It specifically had no affect on creel limits. However, - Some guys wanted to continue using just "line." - Some guys wanted to use it on the Fingers & statewide - Some guys were afraid it might lead to overfishing The original proposal was, obviously in a way, too much of a complex change for a complete overhaul of existing law and for many to understand, so politically the bill was written to simply change the existing verbiage from "2 lines" to "3 lines". As you said, some downstaters were worried that some saltwater piers might become too crowded so they ammended the bill to be for freshwater only. The longevity part of it is that it is to be in effect for two years. i.e expire on Dec 31 2013. If you remember back in the 90's when snagging T&S became illegal, the number of licenses sold dropped dramatically and many tackle shops closed. This two year period will give the state some time to see if any overall numbers change or not. Tom B. (LongLine)

If the asian carp needed miles of water, they wouldn't have thrived so well in those Arkansas farm ponds. They were in the ponds for a few years before the ponds were flooded. Tom B. (LongLine)

It will go into effect as soon as the governor signs it. Man, that was a lot of work! Tom B. (LongLine)

3rd on Jay-Vees. Very good for DW, NK's, Stingers& Spin Dr's. Also very good on the live stuff. Tom B. (LongLine)

Docks just south of the old ferry terminal are about 1 1/2 ft above water. Very solid. Concrete ramps that go quite a ways into the water. I've seen many boats over 24 ft launch there. Couple yrs ago I saw Homeland launch their big boat (35-36 ft'r???) there. Couple weeks ago there was a 4 axle trailer parked there that was longer than my trailer & truck put together. Can launch 4 abreast & lot is probably one of the biggest on the south shore. Tom B. (LongLine)

Ditto Tim. Remember this started out as "fishermen on Lake Ontario trolling for Salmon & Trout." Tom B. (LongLine) p.s. It's "consequences" & "bright"

Ditto what gambler said. I caught a bull head one late spring on the surface over 30 ft of water. I always thought they strictly hugged the bottom till that happened. And their "fins" will make you swell up something fierce. Tom B. (LongLine)