GAMBLER

Happy B-day Bob. Hope it is a good one.

bloodshot, I would go with the FL18. It has bottom zoom. It works great jigging lakers and smelt.

5 tip ups and 2 handlines per person and the fish populations are just fine.

Bass minnows for tip ups and a single spike on the smallest jig you can find for the gills and perch. They have been tough.

Still don't agree with your T-ball thoery HB. A batter only has 1 bat. We can have 2 per person right now and soon to be 3. If you covered the plate with extra bats, you are more than likely going to hit the ball. LAW OF AVERAGES. A newbie will not go out there and put the rods all in the same section of the water column. He will spread the rods out. Once he finds fish, he can change things up and (as you would call it) "wait for his pitch".

Deep water is the game on Honeoye this season. Fish are hitting the smallest jigs you can find and you have to really intice them. Gills and perch are the game so far. I have not heard any good reports for walleye yet this season.

Come on Tom. I fished in Feb. on year and it was cold like this. Break out the boat and get out there.

Joe, I use leadcore rods for my coppers. They work great.

Nice pictures Steve. Did you kidnap someones kid?

No one said the third rod had to be an expensive one! Law of averages. If a newbie has more rods to run, the more chances he has of catching fish. That also makes it more likely that he is going to continue with the sport we all love. We all know that running the wrong speed or wrong depth will still produce fish. So if they are doing it wrong, more rods will increase their odds.

Jimski, I now own Fred's old boat. My father is good friends with him. Small world.

The Wegmans or Tops smelt are not legal. They have to be packaged and perserved in means other than freezing (ie salted) by a COMMERCIAL bait dealer. It sucks. VHS has come and gone and we are still left with these laws. Like Cheers says, Mitchels has some good dead bait. I still have 15 dozen left to get me through winter.

I don't worry about contamination in perch. Big pike are older so I would worry about it a little. Just keep smaller pike.

I will be fishing it. See you guys at the weigh in (you will not find me fishing around here).

Happy Birthday Jason.

Happy Birthday Time Out. Hope it's a good one.

I am very satisfied with my camera. I keep it horizontal. It is amazing what you learn from the camera.

Most cameras are not day time viewable. You need to be in a tent to see the screen good. If you buy a camera, make sure it is daytime viewable. I own a Marcum black and white camera and it is great inside the tent. It is an older model that is not daytime viewable. A lot of the newer ones are daytime viewable.

Marcum, Vexilar, Hummingbird, Lowrance, and the Showdown are all good units. Some have more bells and whistles than others. It is like the Fishhawk, Depth Raider, Subtroll, and Cannon speed and temp units debate or the Ford, Chevy, or Dodge debate. It is all about personal preference. I have a Vexilar FL8 SE ultra pack and it's fine for me. I only use it in dirty water or laketrout jigging. All other applications I use the camera. My reccommendation is to find people with each brand and watch them or ask if you can try theirs before buying. That way you can decide which unit best fits your needs.

The water was up to within a few inches of the edge of the road near Cresent Beach Hotel. On windy days small waves would wash over the road. Old Edgemere, farther West, had a foot of water over it for a while in '72. I can remember spearing carp on the road and filling sandbags. And the people that live on Edgemere Drive complain about the water levels now. My wifes boss would be out of his mind if the water was that high.

In the 80's and 90's it was awesome for pike, perch and crappies. If the channel stayed open to the lake more, we would get more fish off the lake throughout the winter. We used to see browns and steeleis once and a while too.

Mike, Those lakers fight awesome in the winter becuase they do not get beat up from warm water.

Most of the derbies I fish all winter, not many pike come to the scales. Last years Avon Anglers derby on Conesus had 140 participants and only 9 pike were weighed in. The Mitchells derby had 100+ and only 7 pike came to the scales. Catch and release derbies will not work. In a perfect world, they would but people are not honest when money is involved.

Nope. It will still pick it up. Mine is about the same distance and still works fine.

I was on Conesus last week and did really good. Iced some pike 31-37". Ice is good on the North end out to 10' of water. Gills are running even bigger than last year and plenty of them. Hoenoye has been a deep water fishery so far this winter. Long walks are producing good fish. Like always with Honeoye, you have to work for them. I will be on Honeoye on Saturday. The ice is good all over Honeoye except creekmouths. Good luck.