jimski2

Tuesday, at the Fallsview, I saw the ice bridge below the falls disappear along with some fishing money.

The fish were there at 10:30 this morning.

It's not Lake Ontario but get down to the Coneseus Lake Inlet and see the walleye and northern pike spawning run. It's a great scene for catching fish with a camera, go, run, right now.

Tohatsu makes outboards less than 25 HP, Mercury, Nissan and Tohatsu brands.

Fort Niagara State Park has two sets of ramps with good docks. Also a restroom facility and a fish cleaning station. From the mouth of the river, it's about three miles to the red can on the dropoff for the bar. Four Mile Creek has a campground and an Empire Pass, $59 + $50 for your boat will do you for a year. Camping is probably extra. Last year it was $6 a launch. Youngstown has some nice places to wash the dust down from a long day on the water.

Premium grade fuel is required on alot of I/O's and older inboards. You'd be surprised that it's also required in a lot of the expensive new cars.

Cabela's sells an electronic throttle control for the trolling speed, it's said to be very good, I have a cable control on my Honda and it's kind of touchy.

2 part epoxy fixed mine once, lasted for years.

On our 31 ' Marinette , It has an 440 Chrysler, pre 1976 and we add an additive to replace the lead these older engines ran on. If you don't, you'll burn the valves out.

Warning-----BPS is a crack house. I just got back from Cabela's in Wheeling, WV, another crack house.

You should consider a used Crestliner, welded aluminum. I ran a Lund Tyee for 18 years and had good luck, laid it up when I picked up a used Crestliner. Crestliner makes a good boat also. There was an 18'er for sale last month for $3800, a lot less than $30,000 for a new one. The Lund is gone to a friend now. If the lake is too rough for an 18 footer, it's too rough and you'll save a lot of fuel and it's easy to tow anywhere.

A-1 Bait and Tackle shop in the silo at the ramp in Lewiston.- 716 754 1895

When you hook up the cable to your unit, make sure you have a strong connection and don't use too heavy a ball, their cable can break and they'll sell you a new probe for big $$$. Use petroleum jelly on the O-ring for the battery cover, leave the cover off so the inside stays dry and disconnect the battery when not in use. Walleye seem to like a temperature zone of 53 to 65 degrees, but if the sun is strong they go deeper and colder water slows their metabolism and the bite.

My priority is a depthfinder so I don't hang up on he bottom. When I see fish on the sonar, I don't really know what they are and if they're feeding. My best fishfinder is my rods when they have fish on them. Gravity and the angle on my cannonballs tell me the action I have down there. If the balls are too far back, I'm going too fast. If they aren't angled enough, I'm too slow. If there are no fish on, change lures, then if it continues, be happy I'm not looking at this stupid computer screen.

Engine stringers rot? When you lose a couple universl bearings in your I/O, check your engine mount stringers. If they're bad you need to replace them. Alignment is very important so get a guy who has done them.

I'd like to get a temperature at the ball unit and a dissolved oxygen level monitor at the ball. My speed I like to determine by the angle of the cables. Any ideas out there?

"Power wench"- that's good.

Lewiston is at the end of Rte 104, the boat launch is at the river. Drift 20 foot of water with 6# mono and a dropper sinker. Long leaders are better using sacks or Quickfish. Get in line with the other boats as they drift down stream. You'll figure it out then. The Lakers are best fished at the Fort off the Coast Guard Station. Using a minnow instead of a sac. Twister tails will work also. A Canadian license is needed for their side of the river. If we have a thaw, the water may get turbid but with the lake frozen, clear water conditions are generally what you find. Keep the motor running to get snags off quicker. Give the guides some room and they'll show you what's going on. Don't try the gorge with all the ice in the river.

www.outdoorsniagara.com Check out the photos and slideshowand see what you're missing.

Cabela's Masters Walleye Circuit will be in town these days. www.masterswalleyecircuit.com

The early braids had a wax coating that wore off and the line fuzzed up and became flea magnets. The newer braids have a different coating systems that shouldn't fuzz up, but I can't say there is not a problem now, we'll just have to see.

The ice off Sturgeon Point is about 15 inches and reports from Ohio have 15 inches plus there are huge shoves of ice all over the lake from high winds lately. The ice breakers of USA and Canada are having a tough time out there this year. If the breakup occurs all that Ohio ice will blow down to the Eastern basin and take a long time to melt. Be prepared for early fishing west of Port Dahlousie when it warms up. The canal systems will be flowing ice cold Lake Erie water into Lake Ontario for a long time this spring. When the ice disappears, the bar will turn on as the warmer Ohio waters will flow out of the Niagara River then. The Welland Canal will warm up first and the fishing off Port Weller will be good then.My plans are to have the boat ready by March 15th to head to Port Dahlousie and launch at the St. Catherines Game and Fish boat launch.

The simplicity of 2 stroke outboards [no camshafts, valve train parts] have made them very reliable. The lighter weight on your transom is also desirable. When you add in the oil filter changes and maintenance of a 4 stroke O/B [$84 at a dealer], they are competitive.

I started replacing rivets on a 20 year old 21' Starcraft after I noticed a dozen leakers. We pulled the carpetting and floorboards, chiseled off the heads on the leakers and drilled out the holes to fit a larger rivet that I purchased at a hardware supplier. With a helper bucking the underside of the rivet, a "rivet set" which had a hole in it to fit the rivet shank was hit with a hammer to set the sheet metal to the rivet shank. The rivet would not spin in the hole and then the rivet was peaned over to secure it. The dozen leakers turned out to 68 new rivets installed. I replaced the plywood and installed new carpeting. No more leakers but after a couple seasons the brace on the transom below the outboard motor cracked and my engine was flopping the transom where I gave up and bought a new boat. After my new boat, a Lund ,developed a popped rivet due to a dent on the bottom, I replaced it with a "wellnut" and a lot of silicone. It lasted 5 years. Other weaping rivets were sealed with a 2 part epoxy coating and that seems to work. If the rivet spins in the hole, the epoxy will flow between the rivet and the hull filling the space and bonding well. Good luck.

I've had a Garmin Handheld for years, along with a plotter/fishfinder permanent on my boat. The handheld, I've used for waypoints, excellent, motorhome trips, good, it doesn't have minor roads, my brothers floatplane in Alaska, it worked well on our return trip, hunting, you must have a hand compass still as its compass reading needs to be moving and searching our properties boundary points. They are good but on your boat get a chart plotter as the humps, contours and harbor mouths are easier to find and if it gets foggy, you'll really like it. You'll save a lot of time and fuel and catch more fish since it'll keep you on fish when you find them.