hermit

Still planning on it, "should" be there!

That's a go! Looking forward to it guys.

You'd need to take that 90 off to be legal on the lake. No motors over 10 hp. Having the big motor on the water is a big no-no even if you claim not to be using it. This is the last jewel of the area, for the love of nature please respect the regulations!

Nice fish! I see what you mean about the lamprey marks. Yup that was me. I started up at Taughannock (slow and flat calm at dawn), tried a few spots on both shores on the way down and one more on the way back. Think they'll produce later but didn't yesterday, the warm water was the place to be.

Hey good trip! I fished further up the lake, didn't do anything until I got down near the yacht club and only made one pass through the south end where I caught one nice brown 21". Water is only 38-39 up by the park, much warmer and much more fish friendly down south. Would've stuck around but I was on a mission to see parts of the lake I haven't seen. Saw them, but no fish there!

Carlisle 4.80-12 Sport Trail 5-hole trailer tire for sale- brand new, on used rim. $50 in Ithaca area. This is a load class C tire, the boys at the shop put on a heavier-duty tire than they should have. It's slightly larger than the class B tires on my trailer. Thanks- Alec

Okay fellas, here's the report I promised- finally made it out after too long. Good day, a bit breezy. My strategy to deal with it was to slowly bulldog way down the lake into the wind and work back to Taughannock, so that's what I did. Didn't find any concentrations anywhere, picked them off here and there, all nice fish, just one dink, a dozen browns and salmon. Water temp 38. 40 in front of the creek.

Scientific research shows that the eyes of lake trout are most sensitive to light of wavelengths between 550 and 560 nanometers. Not surprisingly, light of those wavelengths is a bright chartreuse green. So yeah... lakers are most sensitive to green, they see it best.... gives the most contrast in the deep water, where green is one of the last colors to be absorbed. Even a white lure looks green down deep. Any other color looks black. Now you all can go out with confidence knowing Ray's laker weapon has been scientifically verified. :roll:

Hey good luck this spring! (And have fun too!)

Sounds like fun fellas. How was the wind? I've forgotten whetherman's log-in password by now (hmm could be the same one) but I'll answer to either epithet! I haven't fished open water since I saw you guys at the park. Been trying to get some things done so I can fish as much as possible from April on! (IOW, I'm prepping to take that trophy away from rustyrat! ) Drove through yesterday AM and saw three trailers and lots of whitecaps, which nixed any thoughts I had of going out. I spent the afternoon redoing the bearings and seals on my trailer... went fine except somehow I broke my grease gun. Wasted a new cartridge too, oh well, still cheaper than paying someone else. I'll have a report when I do get out there, hopefully sometime this week! Later all- A

Single point hooks in the streams. If you want to use a spinner buy the siwash kind of roostertail (BPS sells them in Auburn) or clip the others off the treble. I'm with RR, go shorefishing now. Forget April 1, it's usually elbow-to-arsehole. Buy a boat!

I hear the drum taste just like the saltwater fish... if so that would be a good thing! Erbyjoe, sure thing... well I like the braid in 15 lb test with a leader. It would depend on the lake size and fish size too, but it can't be too different... Around here on the larger lakes I fish 3/4-1 oz lead head jigs or spoons up to 1 1 1/2, 2 oz if I need to. I prefer the jigs over spoons, I usually fish the heavy spoons on windy days. Hopkins Shorty, Bomber Slab (especially the smaller finger lakes), Luhr-Jensen Crippled Herring, the Northland rattle-slab spoons, I forget their actual name. Most kinds of soft plastics work well for the tails- any color as long as it's white. Well most of the time. Green is also good. Zoom flukes are great, tubes too, anything that looks like an alewife. Best advice here is experiment- I'd say flukes and tubes for sure, then get a few other things to play with. Finding quality store-bought jigs is very difficult, Do-It molds were the answer. Also take a look here for some more info... this may or may not help. http://cayugafisher.net/pages/resdex.php

I like crayfish but lots of guys also use sawbellies. I'm no expert by any means, I'd like to target them more often. I think that's only the 4th or 5th one I've caught out of here. C-snail, that was in Cayuga. I think summer is best, they like warmish water. They also feed a lot at night. I've seen them all around the lake but Sliderman is right about the powerplant being a popular spot in the summer. liderman, yeah I'm with you, all the others I've seen have been silver also, like yours! But one guy I talk to has seen lots of the orange ones in here. I have no idea what might do that, the food they eat? I'm gonna try to eat one this year but I want a 3-5 lber for that. Man I can't wait for spring!

What's up Sliderman... I was fishing for the drum at the time, but that particular fish I actually thought was a carp until I got it in the net! Had a glimpse and the size threw me off, figured it to be a carp, plus the drum was more orange than I am used to seeing... anyway here's a pic:

I've used it to drift crayfish for smallies on bottom and once a huge drum, both in the lake. Haven't used the reel in a stream yet, only used a float a few times (on lakers no less) so I'm not really sure about traditional techniques... but if you can effectively reach the strike zone and keep your bait there, go for it! Fun to use for whatever. Hope it helps, have fun.

Hey... I do use a centerpin for the lakers around here, I jig with it. Even down 150+, though reeling up all that line with a 1:1 retrieve can get tiring. I'll probably buy a baitcaster to do the deep stuff with soon. It shines for the early season 60-80 fow stuff. Casting isn't easy but it's not required for jigging. Just drop it straight down to the bottom. Jig! I like that you have complete control over the line, it's easy to make the lure dance. And when you hook a fish it's a ton of fun b/c there's no drag. (Wet your hand if the fish dives hard, it'll save you a friction burn.) If you can jig with a regular reel you can jig with a centerpin. stick it on a 7' MH or H spinning rod (depending on depth) and you're in business. I use mono backing, several hundred feet of PowerPro (15 lb) and a 8 foot leader I fish down to 3 feet. Don't fill it w/ PP it could probably hold 100 dollars worth. The mooching reels are a little different, they have a drag. Basically a cheap baitcaster but they aren't for casting, line storage and drag, that's it. They're made for drifting bait to Kings. I did stick out the CP and trolled with it one morning for kicks. Jammed a rubber lure in there to hold it, and lo and behold caught a 8 lb laker on it! Big fish, no drag, and a moving boat was a bit much though, not as much fun.

That all sounds pretty good, keep in mind I'm new to this winter stuff and relatively new to the lake. I really don't have anything to add with confidence except I saw plenty of lakers down 200-250 with the bait, also from 120-160 or so, even a few in 80-100. I haven't seen much on the screen so I think most of the fish are deep and high, stay in the top 20 feet or drop for bottom. Long leads and stealthy. Set drags light because there are a bazillion dinks out that you don't want to drag around all day. Hope it helps, sorry I didn't have more, oh I like the natural colors mostly, green, blue, white, red, black, purple, etc, think ROYGBIV I guess. Good luck everyone- I won't be around online much from here out- PMs will go through eventually if anyone feels the urge. Happy fishing! Today: lots of dinks. A few keepers for sure, but I'd guess the past several weeks have taken a toll on many of the nicer fish in the area for the time being. Or, I can't fish, which is always a good possibility. The browns were less plentiful but bigger. Like the guys have said, just about everything worked. Didn't fish deeper than 20 feet.

Hey howdy, well, I didn't mean all at once! More like a ratio, just saying the average size isn't huge. I've only been out once, a buddy a few times, seemed to be fish in most weed beds. I don't know how to catch the big guys, I didn't. Not sure about what guys usually use but jigs and soft plastics were good, I even used a 12" rubber minnow, that was fun. I don't like the sticks b/c all those hooks can mess up the pike pretty good. Oh they eat a lot of perch and sunnies. I'm starting to get visions of everyone going out and bludgeoning off all the pike, they can't take a huge amount of pressure. So be good fellas.

I don't know much about Conesus, but here's what I can tell you about the pike in Seneca. There are good numbers, you should have little trouble catching fish, but the average size is going to be 22-27". You can catch 20-40 of them without getting into the bigger fish.... if you only target the big ones I'm sure that ratio would change. Also, taking a small boat out on Seneca is just as much a challenge as on Ontario. A North or South wind really gets things moving out there and the weather often dictates where you can fish. There are pike all around the lake in the weedlines, either end has plenty of fish. If you haven't fished any of the Finger Lakes it's definitely worth your time to do so. Good luck!

Hey, good to see you again and nice to meet you Huntfrisco! Sounds like a good trip. I did finally make it out, see the thread below, mostly played w/ the motor though. Ray, there's 9' give or take under the bridge, too be safe say just under, less on the side, maybe 8'6' it depends on how pointy your roof is. Take a look here and compare should help in the future: http://www.nyscanals.gov/faq/oswego/netdata/cayuga-levels.pdf and Seneca too: http://www.nyscanals.gov/faq/oswego/netdata/seneca-levels.pdf

RR good looking dock. Finally made it on the water from 4:30-5:00 w/ no takers. Doesn't matter, motor runs, and better than before! Took a bit though- no fuel to carb. Took the fuel pump apart three times before I figured out I installed the carb float upside down! Put it together the right way, redid the shift linkage b/c I screwed that up, and finally everything was working just dandy... like I said, better than before. It doesn't bog down out of the hole anymore and there's a lot more water flow. Hope the weather keeps cooperating! p.s. hey Ray, as I went under the bridge I thought "better measure that on the way back" and when I came back I thought "better measure that before I leave"... sorry, had a lot on my mind w/ the motor and all. I'll stop by tomorrow and take a measurement just be nice in the future.

I should be out tomorrow! It may be too windy to fish w/ my little boat but I'm going to the park anyway, might get in some time on the water. Seen a few boats out every day the past few days. Just finished (10 minutes ago) rebuilding and reinstalling water pump, fuel pump, carb, few other little things so I'm ready to make sure everything still works! Woohoo!

Sliderman, yeah I know what you're saying (and why my post was what you meant), I wasn't trying to push any buttons and it doesn't sound like I quite did, probably a post that should've been left unposted, but it did strike me a little funny that you guys were posting about not posting. That's all... sorry about the poor humor. Don't mind me much, sometimes I open my mouth (start typing) without thinking. I'm glad you guys are sharing, I'm usually out there a lot, been wishing I could be now, so thanks for the reports... happy fishing!

So you are willing to keep your info to those who already know... but aren't willing to share with everyone else... then what are you doing posting here in the first place? I'm not looking for info, just curious, why bother posting your report if it's not going to help anybody else? I'm not saying stop posting, actually the opposite, more fishing talk is good, but I find this conversation a little funny... sorry, must be bored. :roll:

Last year (first year trolling) I ran all mono (20 lb Ande and Fleaflicker) and it was fine until I started letting out lots of line, then I hated the stretch. Just bought a huge spool of 50 lb PowerPro to rig everything with this year. "Everything" is dipseys and the like, I don't have downriggers. I'm either going to use snubbers or else be cheap and run 50-100 foot mono "pre-leaders" to take the shock. Like a leadcore setup I guess. I used some fluoro leaders (Seaguar Inviz-x) last year, also Spiderwire XXX mono, didn't really notice a difference, both worked great. I think with modern manufacturing checking your knots, leaders, and drags is more important than which exact line to use... just my opinion though.