Gator

That is cool!

That seems like a lower take than normal for you lol!! I haven't checked any of the fields near my house yet, but I expect they are getting picked over quickly. We did find a carcass in the field next to our shooting house that wasn't there at the end of the season. It was a six point buck that we'd all seen several times over the course of the season - no idea what killed him. We are not near any roads, and it wasn't a hard winter. Perhaps it was an unfortunate shot during bow from one of the neighbors that eventually took him out? Not much of a buck, but folks can shoot at what they want to shoot.

Our towable Wellcraft 24' Coastal hardtop with a 200 hp Yamaha F4 trailers like a dream, sips gas, has good freeboard, an 8' 6" beam, and a medium draft - it fits all your criteria. An outboard can greatly extend your season, IMHO. That having been said, I wouldn't part with it short of an offer that included a supermodel and world peace. But they do show up on occasion, and would be worth a look.

We were there on Monday evening, and not a fish was to be found.

Holy crap. Is that in dollars or ruples lol?

Definitely a MacGyver solution!!! Cool to see what some guys do.

I've never heard of or seen such a use, but that doesn't mean much lol. I'm just good enough not to electrocute myself using the toaster. I'm not sure how you would attach the leads firmly, but I suspect that even if you could, most of the Milwaukee drills I've seen coupled to augers run on 18 volt batteries rather than 12 volts, so there's that working against you, too. Unless there's some way to MacGyver 12 volts out of the system (I guess there could be three six-volt batteries hooked up in series inside the casing). IMHO, the new Marcum 9 Amp hour lithium batteries are the bomb, and weigh about half that of a normal lead acid.

This was the South end launch yesterday (Wednesday) evening. We were dropping a bottle of wine off to a cottage owner who allows us access, and rode down to the launch just to say goodbye. The picture tells the tale. On a better note, the Birdhouse Brewing Company in town has good food and eats. A limited menu, but yummy stuff. And there's a fire pit as well as woodstoves out back to enjoy as you eat.

I always buy the stainless hinges and replace the plastic straps, regardless of cooler make. And I rarely need to keep ice for seven days at sea on L. Ontario, so I'm okay with a $100 cooler lol. Thanks for the heads up, Billy.

We fished Honeoye yesterday, and it had frozen over nicely the night before - enough that the ATV never broke through. Smooth ride out to 26'. Creepers are a must. We ended up with a mixed bag including bass, walleye, perch, crappie and bluegill. Not a banner day, but a few biggies from each species. The sun shut the bite down by 9 am though.

It is hysterical that decisions were made "based on fishing pressure and the survey" following two years where the Sandy ramp was closed due to the high water situation. That's like kicking a dog when it's down.

I will add that since ice melts from the bottom, having snow pack add phantom inches to the ice thickness can give a false sense of security, particularly as spring approaches, when in fact you're standing on mainly honeycombed crap. This is not shaping up to be a great late ice bite.

Must have been the day...we passed three youths who were fishing with open water poles and using a chisel to open their holes, about fifty yards off the end of Vitale point. I wanted to ask them what they had and if they'd share lol. But yeah, good for you LS to drill that guy a couple holes. I get frustrated this year with all the newbies who have decided that Nature is worth acknowledging, after years of ignoring it. Everywhere we go, everything we do, it seems like there are mobs. The ADK was a zoo last summer. The summit stewards were beside themselves trying to educate new hikers on the fragility of the ecosystem. I feel like it's this way all over. IMHO, the newbies haven't had enough experience yet with Mother Nature for her to have earned their respect. And so I try to be patient. But the googans don't make it easy.

Holy crap. That sounds really dangerous. I simply can't believe folks anymore. Tommy showed me a video of that shooting in PA last week, and it's unreal. And disturbing. Frankly, if the guys who moved in on us had simply said a few words, there wouldn't have been any issue. We're friendly. Mostly. We caught some perch on Conesus yesterday, but today was a complete bust. We figured that nobody did much yesterday when we were the only trucks in the lot at 6 am - yesterday at that time, it was full. Now, onto the snow. 9 inches tomorrow and the same on Thursday is going to add up to a very tough time. It won't help our late season ice, either. Anybody else notice that the ice hasn't really gotten much thicker over the past two weeks, despite the temperatures. Some white stuff mushed up crap air water frozen slush on top makes it seem thicker than it is, but when the melt happens, it happens from the bottom. That stuff that's on top now ain't gonna hold nobody for long.

So, with all the talk about folks setting up too close to you, I had a chuckle today on Conesus when a guy towing three shanties stopped his ATV between one of my buddies and his tip ups, right in the middle of where we were fishing. My buddy had to move his tent to see his flags! This guy on the ATV didn't even ask whether there was room or if we minded or even said boo. Not that we gave two craps (well, Scotty could have given them a crap, in a bag packaged nice nonetheless), but it would have been decent to acknowledge that there were other guys there. And it wasn't like we were fishing near other folks, just five of us in a group way the hell away from the crowd. Go figure.

We had the ATV on Honeoye this week, and I'm not sure that I would do it again. Simply put, the ride sucked. I don't think that we were unsafe, but I was surprised that these temperatures haven't built more ice There was still only 5-6" of black ice mid-lake with white ice, slush, and then snow on top. The ATV didn't get stuck...but the million gallons of icy slush that came over the handlebars when we hit a deep pocket at 15 mph was a real waker-upper lol. I'd like to think that the past few days since Tuesday have put some more backbone into the top layer, but I wouldn't count on it. Make sure that you have chains and a good way to get your ATV out of the slush if you give it a try. The bottom-line: it's doable.

Very nice!! That's some new, new ice - spud indeed. But good to know it's starting.

Scotty is, after all, the king of chit

I was going to fish this evening, but ended up putting the chains on my ATV. Won't be long now. I hope.

We were out deep yesterday evening, all alone, ~24 fow where I'd done a walleye the evening before. No luck looking for the repeat though. I've seen a few more walleye this year than years past, which makes me wonder whether the program they've been running at the field station may be starting to pay dividends.

Don't let Dave get his hands on that. It sounds like it could lose 8" lol.

Hey Devo, good running into you this week. We hammered them after you left, bunch of slabs, all still hanging out there. One kamikaze eye that tried to jump through the hole like a tarpon, busted my line and laughed at me.