UpGrady

Way to go Anthony!

Rich, Maybe you've stumbled onto something here... A boat just plain needs to stink to catch fish, nevermind the owner (that's another story). So, that being said, you really need to get out there and stink up the boat, b/c as a buddy of mine put it... "The fishing is stupid" right now! Go... take the day off and get out there!

So far so good... Treated the boat, dock and ropes on Saturday, looked good on Sunday and Monday!

Definitely the Voltage Regulator. I have twins in mine, One has the after market alternator, the other I am biding time before the VR blows out. If you replace just the VR, you can do it yourself, pretty easy, just need about an hour of time. I would suggest that you find a mechanic who has done the Alternator replacement though, it is quite a job, esp. if you have limited space in front of the engine to diassemble and reassemble the belt. Also, it is likely that the coolant overflow will need to be repositioned as well. I did not tackle this job myself and am glad I paid a mechanic for about 6 hours of his time. I think I've seen the new VR's for about $300, the Alt Kit can be had on EBay for less than $400, but up to $700.

Fished from 6:30-11:30 from the Bay to Hedges 120-220 fow. 6 kings (8-18lbs) and an LT, few other no shows on the riggers, one busted off a new fly on the diver a few other dropsies on the divers. Riggers at 90 &100' NK NBK and Black/Gold, 300' wire diver with green e-chip/frogfly and 280' wire diver with a stealth spinny and Kryptonite fly, both on a #2. Tough work out there today with 2 greenhorns on the boat and 2-4's, but we managed just fine! Screen was not great. but the fish were scattered from 170-220'. We were fighting fish pretty steady from 7:30-10am.

T&S are beyond a shadow of a doubt affected by barometric pressure as well as moon phases. High pressure in town, crystal clear night with a bright moon... they won't turn on until late morning with a good bite, any bites you pull will be sluggish and lazy. (aka. Steelhead won't even jump...) As far as frontal passages, ahead of a cold front, T-Storm or band of showers, they will go on a heavy bite preceding, then the system will generally put them down for hours afterward, not to say you won't catch fish, but you will need to work harder for them after the passage of a front and subsequent wind shift. If it's a hard WNW blow the temps will be driven deeper as well. Another case in point to watch... the morning SW breeze in the summer usually dies out by 10am, the bite might be sluggish and then picks up drastically for an hour right before the wind dies, then the bite will slow down and pickup again right before the wind shifts to the NE around lunchtime. All results of pressure changes.

Slipped out for a few hours this AM 9-11am with the wife to scout things out for Sunday morning. Setup in 120' and worked out to 250', then back into 200'. Temp was 100-115' down inside of 180 fow, then began rising, outside of 200 fow temp was 85-95' down. Shallower was pretty desolate. Dropped one small king 115'/150', began marking some pretty good fish outside 200 fow and worked it over. Finally, the wire started smoking 280' w/Green E-Chip/Frog, nice 20lber and called it a day...

Thanks guys... it's funny, I found myself at Target two nights ago (against my own will), wandered around and found Ortho Home Defense mentioned spiders and was non-staining (good for around the canvas). So I picked up to give it a try, plan on treating around the canvas and all of the ropes at the dock... so sick and tired of destroying webs every weekend! I'll give a verdict in a few weeks!

All right, I'm tired of dealing with them... I think IBay is a spider hot bead or something... never had a problem at Sodus or the Oak in years gone by, but IBay has been terrible at two different marinas for the past three years... Anyone have any experience with the aerosol "Cobweb Preventers", dryer sheets or anything?!? Gotta keep the freakin' things off the boat...

That's an interesting thought... maybe the gobies will follow the weight before the bait... I've always used a simple bottom setup with the hook tied into the line about a foot above the weight... I might even try an old standbye walleye setup with a bullet weight and floating jighead a couple feet below... At least this might allow you to get down to the bottom for a short time before the gobies discover the bait.

Rich, I'll be in Columbus,OH visiting relatives this weekend wishing I was on the Big-O... the Fourth can't come fast enough!!!

Fished for a long hour, covered my usual areas just East of Hedges from 15-28 fow and found many gobies. Managed to mix in two real nice 16-17" smallies as well. I was hoping that the goby population might have peaked last year, but it looks like will need to wait them out a bit longer. Just like last year, the bass that are there are big but are few and far between on live bait or jigs. I suspect that if you troll, you'll find some action, but I refuse to troll for bass... defeats the whole purpose to me.

Setup around 4pm about off Webster Park in 230 fow on a NW Troll after finding a few nice smallies at Hedges. 60 foot rigger fired with a a decent 7lb King- my Mother-in-law's first salmon ever. Made it out to about 330 fow and turned SW back into 250 and began marking some more serious bait and fish. Fireline diver at 150' with green E-Chip and Green frog firesd and needless to say after a half hour of my wife, Mother and Father-in-law battling this 18lber.... they were done, so we headed into the beach. I think I got them hooked after their first Big-O trolling experience!

You're in a great location to concentrate on the offshore waters from Mid July thru Labor Day time period. Expect to find mixed bags of catches... teenage kings, steelhead and coho. On certain days pods of mature kings will find their way into the open water as well. I've spent alot of summer days in the past 20 years fishing 8-15 miles offshore from the Oak on charters and with my dad and plan on doing the same this summer off IBay now that I have a bigger boat. Generally, you will be able to fish alot shallower the further offshore you go, but NE blows will invert that generalization. On the average 40-70 down in August would be normal off the Oak beyond 8 miles out.

Is Buck still around?!? What about Giddy for that matter... I saw the old "Microwave" for sale in Palmyra on Rte 31 most of last summer and Fall...

My brother is in Charleston, SC. Myrtle should not be a whole lot different in terms of backwater around the intercoastal. Any areas that open up into the ocean with wide bays and have some deeper water you should find flounder and all of the back water should be loaded with reds and sea trout. The trick will be staying away from all of the boats cruising thru some of the same water. If you can afford the bill to get offshore on a charter, there should still be Mahi and Wahoo 40-50 miles offshore or headboats going out 20-30 miles for grouper and snapper.

Jason, Way to go! Glad some ideas worked out for you... keep you coming back for more... Rich, Sorry... he was fishing Sodus Friday AM and I had some old Brown trout haunts for him to check out and it looks like it paid off... I don't have any brown trout areas for this time of the year off IBay.

My best guess will be a ways offshore... I know that Friday AM the inshore 100-200 fow was desolate and I'm sure pretty warm... I'd go out until you find a surface break and troll north from there... at least get the surface temps into the 50's... otherwise it might be a long day in under 200 fow. Good luck!

Rich, Guess I'll finally be washing and waxing the boat on Sunday!

We had a sloppy sea after a weeklong Easterly blow. There was a 3-5' ground swell from the NE and then 3-5' from a SE breeze at 10-15mph. We ran out at 19 knots in his 25' Grady on an ESE course, so it was pretty tough, took us about 2 hours from the end of the Charleston Jetties. His dock is back up the Wando River, so we had to run about 10 miles thru the river and harbor and then another 10 to get outside the jetty. So, about 60 miles total. Needless to say we burned 140 gallons of gas, so none of us should EVER complain about having to fish 15 miles offshore to find fish!!!

My brother and I sucked it up on Sunday after a weeklong Easterly Blow and decided to make the run 40 miles offshore to the ledge of Charlseton on Sunday... we knew it would be worth it... ended up with 6 Mahi (Up to 23lbs), 2 wahoo and a King Mackeral, dumped and missed at least another dozen fish. I attached a few pics and a video clip of the trolling at 6 knots and actually captured a few Mahi bites which was pretty cool! My Bro with a King Mackeral Small Wahoo Me and a 23lb Mahi 22lb Mahi The end of The Day! Fish on!!! Video http://s33.photobucket.com/albums/d74/h ... 1062-1.flv

Jeff, Good to have another IBayer aboard! Your story sounds vaguely familar.. fishing the lake for almost all of my 37 years, married a few years ago... not changing diapers quite yet though and I opted a long time ago not to go for the captains license!!! 25' Grady, twin I/O's, you can find me on 16 usually.

I second that one... STAY AWAY.... saw first hand what saltwater did to my dad's 19' Crestliner once he moved to SC and used it for a few trips in the saltwater...

Loaded question... millions of responses... Sticks- at least 50' off a rigger, esp if nearshore for browns, 100-150' off boards. Dodger/Flies- there are times for 3', there are times for 60', start with 5-8' and work from there. If a full set of dodger/flies are going out. Deep sets generally 5-6 with the higher out and downs maybe 8'-15' range to start with and adjust as you see fit. Spoons- nearshore for browns 2' down 60' back, offshore deep sets generally 6-8', higher set out and downs generally 10-15'. If out and downs are running above 30', I usually try to make sure one lead is closer to 30' to start with. Adjust everything as necessary for a given day. Off boards 60'-120'.

I have had cold water years where I've taken kings off the boards and long lead slide divers with sticks in early July (15 miles offshore at the Oak in 57 degree surface water). Temps will dictate your ability to use these techniques, but the bottom line is that sticks will take kings, just chose to use them wisely.