Gator

I've owned Costas in polycarbonate and glass versions, and my current 580G Tripletails are just incredible optics. If you do go with polycarb, make sure that you don't leave them in your truck or car; I found out the hard way that excess heat will cause some odd distortions to occur, even if the lens looks good. As for a tendency for glass to be heavy, I highly recommend the new CablZ ZipZ lanyard. It fit snug without being tight and is really easy to adjust length, plus doesn't "tickle" my neck like cloth or string lanyards. Very nice product, and I love my glasses. I think that they were ~$160 online, but with a 30% discount, you may as well buy local and try them on first, like Yankee recommends. The one recommendation that I've heard from multiple fishermen is to go with some form of the copper lenses and mirror finish for overall fishability. The Ocean Wave copper is called a backwater green lens, I think, and the Costa green and blue mirror 580s are base copper.

Great batch of fish! Those are fantastic for the table.

Glad the only promises I made were for frozen fingers and a cold boat ride! So much for my "freezer fish"...

Glad to hear that it was just "internet snafu"...I know that sometimes it's difficult to distinguish ball-busting from snarkiness on a forum like this. Of course, there's never any ball busting between the guys I fish with All's well that ends well. Consider the slack cut. Good luck out there. I know there's a few guys around who don't need it...but I'm not one of them. I'll be trying to fill the freezer tomorrow morning with meat fish. Look for a 17' Lund Mr. Pike with one of the guys wearing an orange Mustang suit. Stop by and say hi if you're out fishing. Just so long as the big motor's off and you're on electric Them perch get stage fright in the shallow water.

Hey APB Way to rain on somebody's parade. Maybe it doesn't mean much to you, but I know that a 2 lb+ fish was a personal goal that took a couple years to achieve for Steve. He's excited. Shouldn't he be allowed to get excited? Isn't that why we fish? I never trust anyone who starts out by saying, "with all due respect", because it usually means they're about to get disrespectful. You know how you were taught in Kindergarden, if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all? Well...just saying. Not trying to start a war or anything. Just saying. Gator

No offense taken, SK8man...I have no particular regard for my own skill at catching Seneca perch, and I greatly respect those who put in the time to figure it out. Every dog has his day, though, and we've gotten lucky at times, particularly when the fish are in <20 fow. My original comment was meant to point out that a very large gathering of males ten days ago means that things are about to bust loose, given the slightest provocation (ie some sun on the shallows). It sounds like more recently that the smaller females have now joined the males (by smaller, I mean 10-12"). The big girls are still not quite there yet... But, like you say, if you know how to fish them in the deep water and you know where they hang, then you're golden. I am unfortunately not that skilled nor blessed enough to have fished Seneca routinely when I was younger. So I am at the whims of the fish gods, for the most part. No doubt, no matter how you cut it, Seneca is a tough lake. I know a guy who could put a hammer on a limit of 1 lb+ fish most any day, except that he doesn't cast unless they're 2 lb+, and he puts his time in finding them. But Joe Average fisherman is going to have a tough time finding them on a routine day, unless they've moved toward their traditional spawning habitat. Like anything else, experience pays off...

We've been to Seneca twice so far this year...usually we do very well, but not so much yet this year. As noted above, small male perch seem to be on the flats already, but no bigger fish. I haven't heard from any of the usual suspects that the fishing has been easy. Of course, it never is at Seneca .I'm sure that perch are being caught, but they're not abundant in the shallows (ie <15') as of a week ago. It can't be too long before they move in, though.

This is the new normal. Last year we had no winter, this year we had a roller coaster early and now persistent cold...I know that the weather is supposed to fluctuate, and it's the easiest thing to b""tch about, but any sort of normalcy now is just unheard of. It's amazing when you look at the amount of time that the Great Lakes experienced ice cover fifty years ago versus now. And no water, to boot. Whether the cause is man-made or otherwise, I hope this isn't the tip of the iceberg.

Just sent a pm on the Catalina

It looks like your Evinrude ETec morphed into a Honda engine in the pictures?? And there's a kicker on the boat, too. Is that part of the package? Thanks and good luck.

A few years ago we went with a couple of divers that were supposed to re-set automatically when they tripped without a fish, just by giving them some slack. Unfortunately, they also re-set every time we dropped the rod tip to pump them in. And they pulled so hard that it was nearly impossible to reel them straight in. They were used all of once. I'll be interested to hear if these things work any better. I have a tough time seeing how to improve on a Mag Dispy, but I'm open to new ideas.