hermit

Wow, sounds like a great trip. Used to spend a fair amount of time at Forked Lake and canoed around there a bunch but never went for a multi-day trip. Love the Adirondacks. Thanks for sharing!

In a nutshell... today was rough for me. It was the toughest laker bite I've had all year! Spent the first 45 minutes casting for browns with nothing going on, didn't even see marks in the areas I tried (and had previous luck.) Then visited I think 8 good laker areas over the next few hours with very little to show. It's okay, just happy to be out, been a very busy month and fishing chances haven't come easy, but I've made time in August so that's good. First fish I lost at the surface, good size probably 8+ lbs. Next two were under 3 lbs each and they counted. By now it's 8:30. I found plenty of fish but could not get them to hang out with me. At least a bazillion looks, short strikes, and rod benders but only managed to get one more into the net around 9:30. Nice fish another ~8lbs. Maybe two bazillion lookers. 9:30-10:30 was smokin' hot if you like mangled soft plastics and hit and runs. I had countless fish follow the jig for 30-40 feet, even coming way out of temp to 20 feet down but very few solid grabs. Should've rigged up a stinger but I left my big tackle box at home, whoops. I've been using Gamakatsu B10S Stinger hooks, can stick it through the plastic which isn't really an option with a treble. Anyway, I saw a lot of topwater action early, bass were on the feed. Maybe that would have been a good idea instead of looking for the browns- actually given the way the laker fishing turned out anything else would have been a good idea! I sure hope somebody had better luck than I did today. Can't complain though, back at it tomorrow maybe with a different plan.

In place of the snap weights you could try Torpedo Divers, same idea but fancier and they have depth charts to help you figure out where your lure is.

Final Update: After some back and forth with Lowrance I got them to honor the original agreement and they will either repair or replace the unit. I originally wrote to just complain about the quality, they were the ones who offered to fix the out of warranty unit in the first place which was a pleasant surprise. What happened was the CS tech who got the unit did not get the info on what led to the offer, so they just gave me the standard response not realizing they were making an exception. This all took three weeks of messages back and forth before finally speaking to someone this morning. So, thanks for that! +1 again for customer service but the facts are two units died a quick death, one in 13 months and the other in several days of use spread over 3 years. Glad I'll have a backup now.

Update my "mixed" experience to downright crappy one: Now I'm pissed... just heard from Lowrance again- after agreeing to honor the warranty on the unit that was several years old but broke after maybe 10 hrs use, they are now refusing to honor it. And to send it back to me would cost 60 bucks! It was sort-of usable and would have been okay as an emergency back up. So not only did they make a poor product, they misled me about fixing it and are now holding it hostage. Now I'm about to return the new 5x-Pro I bought because they misled me, have crappy customer service, and crappy products to boot. No way do I want to support this company. I only hope Lowrance eats the cost of the return instead of BPS.

Thanks all, it was fun but a little distracting for me too. gf71, sounds good, enjoy!

UPS man rolled in this afternoon! Weather looks best today, hope I can get to it in a bit or tomorrow/Friday depending on rain.

I'm with Mosh, and it's easy to check/change and could work wonders. My Stihl wouldn't start once no matter what I did. Gas looked fine, no water in the bottom, but I put in new gas and it ran like a champ. Another time the lawn mower wouldn't go after sitting a bit, turns out the tank was rusting and the gas was red. If that doesn't solve it at least you know. P.S. Also once when playing with the carb on my outboard I put the float in upside down... definitely didn't work then!

Great morning out there jigging. Found fish 75-95, a little shallower on the west side. Same deal as usual, white and green and chartreuse flukes and paddletails. A lot of bait on the bottom in places. Fish wouldn't come very far off the bottom most of the time. One lamprey "released". Very calm until 10 when a light northerly came up and I had to go. Wondered if the big blow yesterday would do anything, seemed like a decent current as I was drifting pretty quick but without wind. Lot of weeds on the east side, almost none on the west.

Thought it might be fun to do a liveblog of a trip once in a while. If I had a smartphone I'd do it here but I can do it with regular text messages on my site http://cayugafisher.net/pages/repdex.php if you guys are interested. I'll post back here when I get home too. To take a line from ERABBIT, coffee is on ice is in the cooler...

Well I wouldn't use 10 lb line as a backing, if you get into it and something snaps it'll be that and you'll lose the fish, terminal tackle and all the braid. If you can afford it go all braid or use 30 lb Big Game.

3 miles down the west side.

Wild Willy's rub is from Smoke & Spice by Bill and Cheryl Jamison. Though if I remember right the original recipe calls for 2 teaspoons of cayenne not 2 tablespoons. Excellent BBQ book, only thing I ever made from it I didn't like was the Apple City Baby Back Ribs- junk. Otherwise highly recommend the book and rub! Dang maybe I can get my neighbor to give me some ribs one year.

I think they're a lot of fun, want to try eating one. Targeted them a few times with varying success. Here's the biggest I've caught yet (from Cayuga.) Got it on purpose, saw the fish in a hole in the weeds and dropped in, but due to the color thought it was a carp until I got it close to the boat.

Very cool! I've caught a couple, same thing first time, no idea... wtf is this thing?! They can get pretty huge and are supposed to be great eating, next one I catch I'm keeping. Nice catch.

Ah I wish, been trying all week but other stuff has made it too hard... was planning on tomorrow too but now can't go until next week sometime. Last time I was out was 8 days ago and found fish where you plan on going. Have fun!!

I had a mixed experience recently. Had two identical units, bought 2 years apart. The first one stopped working. The second I used once, then didn't touch for three years as I didn't fish. Stored indoors. Went back out and the third day half the screen goes bad. So I get in touch- they say they can't fix the first one as it's too old, but the second one they will honor the warranty because I didn't use it. (They can check internal memory to see usage history to verify my story.) Points for fixing an out of warranty unit for free, but the older unit they won't touch even though it's the exact same model. Huh?!?!

Yeah okay think you're right about the face structure, I'll give you the possum, never seen one with coloring like that though. Also never seen a wet one either so there you are. Or I am. Ray how'd you know I live on a mountain?!? Oops an inside out mountain, I mean valley, but it's a high valley on a tall hill off the beaten path... arrggg it's late! Still vote real but I'd like to know. Almost seems like you can see the last bit of hook in the skin.

If it's shopped it's a good one. Hard to photoshop a blurry pic though I guess you could blur it afterwards but what makes it look real is in the clear pic. It's true you can see all the hook points, but one of them appears to be hooked just barely in the cheek of the fisher, pulling it up and giving it that snarl, also a whisker goes over the hook which would be hard to fake, and finally the fly leaves a shadow on the water. And the fly is hooked on something as the line is taught. There are no obvious jpeg artifacts either. How about it Captain's Cove? Real or fake?

If you tie a uni knot against the overhand knot it's known as the 'Red Phillips' knot and is easier to tie than a nail knot. Never used it with wire but recently been using it for heavier mono to braid or leader.

How about if the fish is within the net but still in the water when it gets loose? The only step left is lifting the net out of the water with the fish in it. Haven't had any breakoffs but several times have had the hook pop out at this point when jigging for lakers. This should still be legal, right? Thanks.

You're very welcome, that's what the site is for and the rest of us here on the BB too. We all start somewhere and I got a lot of help in the beginning, I just like to pass it along. In that vein I'd like to thank the late Toby Wood, who was really responsible for starting the laker jigging in the Finger Lakes region. It's a shame he isn't around to see how popular it's become and to share in the success. Others who helped me get started back in 05 I think it was were Copperliner and Laker, back when he posted here, and the rest of the jiggers who shared info back then, when we were ALL figuring this out. (It may be worth going back and rereading the old stuff, I was 'whetherman' back then.) I was pretty green to fishing the lake and learned a lot from a good number of folks. (You have Guff to thank for prodding me into getting the web site back online.) Anyway, congratulations on your success! As for where, as you noticed they usually don't stay in one spot and you often have to go looking. Even if you aren't seeing them under bait, it's worth stopping and dropping a jig down in various places- they're often just resting on the bottom and the FF won't pick them up until they swim up to take a look at the jig. The fishing is often good enough around LPSP that you shouldn't need to make the run to AES. Around Long Point, just North in front of Aurora is still good this time of year, as is the area where the deep water comes up to the Northern shelf. I haven't been up there at all this year but it usually holds fish until late summer (and then again in the winter). I caught one of my biggest lakers ever the third Sunday in July up there. South of LPSP is also a good place to look (it has different structure) as is right across the lake near Dean's cove, both N and S. As for the demise of your fish, probably time out of the water. I don't usually burp them and crank them up as quick as I can, get the hook out, and back in asap. Haven't had a floater in years, only problem is sometimes you get a heavy bleeder then I keep those. Often they're burping in the net but I don't do it myself. I try to leave them in the net when in the boat with the net suspended across the seats, then stick the net back in the water to release them. I use a rubber net too. If I do take one out to measure I drop them in nose first and that's usually enough to get them headed back down. You may not want to spend the cash for a few days of fishing but a rubber net helps a lot with tangles and is much easier on the fish. Congrats again!

ManOverboard, well 1/0 sounds big enough, I think the ones I tried had relatively small hooks and that was a concern of mine, scratch that idea then. Guff, missed the part where you said you use them on the Keuka fish, have you tried this rig on the Seneca beasts? You're right that tubes can last a good while, the flukes and paddletails often come back missing a tail and it can get expensive quick, a few short strikes in a row and there go a couple bucks. I was hoping you guys had some good way of getting around that problem. I guess the bait needle is it! I am faster at tying knots than I used to be so gonefishing71's method would work better than it used to as well. Maybe I'll play with some ideas again, thanks.

ManOverboard, interesting, where are the fish usually hooked? I've tried a few of those styles but not a whole lot but generally find short-shanked hooks like that work better than longer shanks like jigs as there is less leverage. Maybe the assist hooks are a little small and the fish are barely getting hooked and are ripping loose versus popping off.

Are you guys rigging a bunch of those up ahead of time? I'm curious because I've tried those rigs before and after the tube gets shredded it's a pain to put a new one on. I had the same problem with running a hook behind the jig whether it's a tube or not. Best solution I came up with was having pre-rigged stingers using braid with a loop so I'd just do a loop connection around the hook/swivel/etc. Not too hard to take off and put back on but still awkward (the braid is easier than mono I felt). That's why I generally fish spoons on Keuka, don't do it often enough to make up new lures but the spoons work fine, maybe the plastics are better though- they are on Cayuga. Also never tried using a bait needle I'm sure that helps a lot. Maybe I'm just lazy.