Gator

Jax, Keith and I thought we saw you pulling out around 10 pm...and you post after midnight?!? What's the matter with you...does it take that long to get home? Or did you stop to put the boat away first! Just yankin' your chain. We did one fish in the creek below the bridge out of Keith's smaller boat on sacs, saw a few others caught, but our days of trolling are over for this year. The final wipedown was last night, and she gets pulled for maintenance this week. Sad days. On a brighter note, only a few weeks til bowseason. Good luck out there. Gator, Nothin' but Net.

How much did you reduce it by?

That sounds like a great deal; wish I was in the market. Gator

We fished from 300-400 fow tonight and found a good downtemp break from 61F to 54F, 35' on the riggers in around 350 fow to start; it had moved into 300 fow by the end of the evening. The final tally was two majors, two steelhead, one coho and a large steelie lost just behind the boat. Love it when they hit at 30' and skyrocket behind the boat. The temp is so close to the surface now that this little bit of North wind over the next few days may really cause some upwelling. Good thing for satellite temp maps. Almost no bait and very few hooks, even on the break. We stopped in 60 fow on the way in at dark to watch all the fish come off the bottom. Amazing. The screen was like demo mode. When this full moon is gone, it could be gangbusters. BTW, anybody try it after dark yet? Gator, N'BN

Scott, Here's your pm report. We fished from 4:30-8:30 primarily in <90 fow and managed three kings, all in the low twenties. There were very few marks around and almost no bait, but we hit a school of 6-8 fish and scored a double...thought we'd turn them on from there, but the next two hours were slow, slow, slow. Finally managed one more half-an-hour before dark. Then the marks started showing up, coming up off the bottom maybe, and the screen lit up like crazy. Keith and I were busting at the chops waiting for a rod to go, but nothing. Really frustrating. Thought for sure that as the moon came up, they'd start to feed. Everything was on spoons (we were trying for browns, hit kings instead) run around 60' down, or 180' on the wire. Maybe someone has some info on how it's been in that 300-400' range off Sandy? Gator, N'BN

The good news is that a great temp break developed with the East wind last week around 200 ft of water off of Braddocks. Friday night and Saturday morning were unbelievable. We went something like 29/35 from 6-11:30 on Saturday with numerous doubles and a triple (for four rods) and mostly quality fish. All were around 45 ft down on the riggers, 140 on the wire, with NBK Stingers and green SpinDocs working. The current was absolutely wicked. The bad news is that the West wind on Saturday nite scattered it, as well as the fish. We fished the same area on Sunday evening and only went 2/3, and that was on the bottom in 75 fow...where the temp break currently resides. There was a lot of funky currents, and the direction has switched 180 degrees, but its still cranking. Just a guess, but it looks like more "normal" August conditions will prevail now. Lots of dark fish around. One note of interest: the fish suddenly appeared out of nowhere (ie. off the bottom) around dark. Full moon? Anyone tried the nite bite? Gator Nothin' but Net.

Hey Tank, Glad you found a few. Sorry for the lack of a temp this time; different boat yesterday. We cast for smallies for awhile, too, and had LOTS of follows from small fish...not 14-16", more like 10-12". I'm hopeful that they'll move in soon. Otherwise I won't have an excuse to avoid the big pond and they'll make me brave the bugs and troll...and troll...and troll... Gator

Lakers 40-50 ft of water, with the biggest about 6 1/2 lbs. One smallie in 35 ft...nothing on beds yet (or is it too late?). Some nice bait clouds off Penn Yan. When the lake got flat, slowly moving on a one setting with the trolling motor produced some strikes. White fluke and Deadly Dicks were equally effective. Gator

Hey Tom, Hope you've had some better luck out of the Genny this weekend. The bugs were the little kind...one went in my nose and came out my mouth. I thought that was bad enough, but he was just a scout. And the area by the red can is anywhere from 40-200 ft, within a half mile. We hit it all, north-south troll, riggers down 90', boards on the surface. I'm entering therapy to try to forget about it... Gator

The lake was beautiful, but the fishing sucked almost as much as the bugs. 'nuff said. Gator

So, I guess we can blame our poor fish catching on the front? Any port in a storm... Half-a-dozen today, all jigging, but trolling for an hour with three guys/six rods produced nothing. We started to see some nice clouds of bait and fish, but they didn't want to hit white bucktail or blue emerald diamond jigs. Which is strange, cause in the past, when you find them, you wack them. Maybe it was the front. Water was 47.5 on the surface, 43.5 down 35' in the Penn Yan arm. Gator

Let me amend the above by saying that I don't know whether there's a stove or sink in this particular boat. My only knowledge comes from three years of fishing off our 24' Wellcraft Tournament Costal. Still, looks sweet! Gator

This is exactly the same model, hardtop and all, as the "Nothin' but Net"...sounds like it's rigged a lot nicer, though. I've never fished with this guy, but here's what I do know: its a hard core fishing boat; we've been out in true 6-7s and fished, albeit not comfortably, but who's comfortable in those kind of waves? The boat handled it. There's virutally no pounding when running in 2-3s and she gets up into the low 40 mphs with that kinda hp. Great family boat, too. The cabin sleeps 2 adults and a child, if she doesn't wriggle too much. Theres a stove and sink, so it qualifies as a second home (=tax relief). I'm half tempted to buy the boat myself and sell ours for the price. His toys are nicer than ours. Gator (Nothin' but Net)

Ditto. We just got back from three days there. No concentrations of fish; scattered lakers, with some lucky guys pulling in a smallish salmon once-in-awhile. Temps around 41.5-43.5. And the dropoff is a minefield. There's submerged telephone poles, sticks and bags everywhere...Coast Guard was busy today. At least one boat got "holed". Looks like great weather for flyfishing, though. Gator

Hey Tank, Up an off to Honeoye this am to see if the crappie are in. The water temp at Keuka was a fridgid 38F; might explain the lack of bait. The smallies were off a rock slide in about 15-20 ft of water and hit an oak leaf grub combo meant for perch. As for the big momma, she didn't fight very well with the cold water. S'okay, though, it let me get a quick snapshot and weight and still release her alive and kicking (I'd be kicking, too, if you released me in 38F water...) Gator

Well, that explains why we didn't get a single hit...I don't think that we ever got that deep. The PennYan arm bottoms out around 90-100 feet until you're a couple of miles past the college, and we didn't think that it would be worthwhile to drift aimlessly around in the middle of the lake without at least seeing some marks for encouragement. Should have kept going south and hit up the deeper water off the points. Live and learn. Thanks for the info, and good luck if you get out again. Gator

Laketrout 6, I guess it's all where you find them. We worked the bottom hard with 1 oz diamond jigs throughout the day on Sunday, tap, tap, tap, even dragging them over the bottom with a little flutter...easy to maintain contact with no wind, superline/fluoro leader, and the slim profile of the lures...just no luck. First trip with a skunk on board. Some days you get the bear, and some days... Glad to hear that you got into them, though. Any particular depth? Gator

The LL was around 3 1/2 lbs, not too big. Because it took right next to the boat, first jump and he never hit the water...Bill had the net underneath him. Next time out may not be until mid-May. We'll be at the Niagara with the Nothin' but Net for the spring LOC. Hope it improves for the lakers. Several other reports by phone from friends who fished mirrored our results. Gator

The water up at the PennYan end is still too cold to have brought any bait in, so we ended up jigging deep. To our suprise, not a single laker, and we fished hard, from 6am to 6pm. Actually checked inside of 30' to outside 90' and trolled the surface with in-lines for an hour, too. Jigs, Deadly Dicks, we threw it all at them. "Them" being the fish that we never marked on the screen, of course. I guess it's all about finding the fish. The only salmonid we caught, though, made up for it: saw the fish breaking on bait, cast an X-Rap, no take...but wait, the fish followed...so, even though the motor is running , I swing a figure eight with the lure and HOOKED UP. One landlock, nothin' but net. We stupid'd into a large school of perch down from the Bluff Marina, but they weren't anything to write home about. Couple of them were over a pound. Casting oak leaf grubs for the perch, we also caught three smallmouths--promptly released, of course. One of them was 5.7 lbs. Nice fish. Gator

Two years ago jigging the Niagara in the Spring, first year for the new "Nothin' but Net", K2 hooked up with what we thought was the granddaddy of them all. Had the engine on and ready to race to the weigh-in before the net was out of the water. Now, since he'd already landed an 18 and a 23 earlier that day (the latter won the division that year), and he said that this fish was "significantly bigger", we figured we might have a shot at winning the whole thing. It was a sturgeon. Maybe 45 lbs. He got his picture in the Derby Gazette last spring, at least. Nice fish, exhilarating but a letdown at the same time. Coolest thing though...last year it was my turn. Same thing, but this time we had some idea of what might be on the end of the line. Prehistoric looking beasts. I guess DEC recommends that you don't even bring them in the boat, trying to establish a breeding stock. Anyway, it's a new year. Anybody want to go jigging? Gator

Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Rochester. I run a lab that studies molecular genetics and integrative physiology. And that's probably enough geek-talk to get me hit up side the head next time I'm out... Gator (Nothin' but Net)