Gator

I'll buy the rainbow stickers for my sled

6 lb Berkeley Nanofil with a 4 lb fluoro leader. Ultralight setup with some length to the rod. Ready, set, catch!

Same thing here. We fished more toward Jewell and marked fish for the first hour constantly, then it slowed down some, but even when we had the marks and they were even chasing the jigs, we still couldn't turn many fish. I got three shorts, while the other guys got one keeper apiece. Nice day, decent ice.

There's not really any secret to Seneca...all you have to do is promise your firstborn Seriously, though, it's all attention to details and being in the right place at the right time. We were doing fair to middlin' til the wind picked up, then they started slamming. It was the right time. Steve was fishing lighter test line and a fluorocarbon leader with an ultralight St. Croix. I was fishing with frozen hands. He felt the bites somewhat better than I did at least til I was smart enough to put on some gloves. We know a guy who fishes a pool cue. He gets frustrated a lot. The guys who catch the really BIG perch don't look for #s. They fish the nomads like they're smallmouth bass. And for all intents and purposes, that's what a 2 lb+ perch is. The beauty of yesterday was that we had a huge # of perch over a pound, and a large percentage of them were males. That translates to meat on the table, rather than roe...although I guess some guys like the roe. Anyway, I'd generally rather catch a limit of 12-13 inch fish then a couple of 14+ inch fish. I go to Seneca to fill the freezer for the rest of the year. And we don't generally post pictures of the days we got skunked . You've got to put your time in.

Great reels. Some folks don't like the placement of the linecounters. Lots of information on a couple other threads here...search "Saltist".

We've run two Marlins on Nothing But Net for over fifteen years now. One of them needs some TLC this winter, but the other is still going strong. They seem to be almost as fast as our new Mag-10 STXs. If you don't buy them, send me a pm...we may need parts or an "extra".

We fished a tournament there yesterday. Most of the teams were weighing in with a 10-fish limit of ~4-to-4.5 lbs. There were hundreds of huts on the South end, mostly concentrated off Mack's and the boat launch. Only 14 teams in the tournament, though. The bigger fish that I saw on the camera were uniformly shy and reluctant to even mouth the bait. It seemed like it was necessary to move around to find the fish, as some spots just didn't produce, but other holes 20 ft away were decent. I had luck with tiny tungsten, bright colors, and a single grub, while Scott said he was loading his jig up. I wasn't impressed with either size or quantity, but at this point in the season, beggars can't be choosers. I doubt I'd make the trip again, though, as the bite seems to be a shadow of what it was a couple weeks ago. I think that lots of the bigger fish took a frying pan vacation...

Don't forget to factor the gas that is used to make the ethanol from corn into your equation. I see E85 like an entry drug. Pretty soon you're upping the dose and everybody's hooked. Maybe the transition to clean fuel is worth it? The gas savings certainly aren't.

Go get them! I'm out of town, too. Probably means you'll put the smackdown on them. Good luck!

We run a 200 hp Yamaha 4-stroke as the main motor on our 24' Wellcraft (~3200 lbs boat weight), and we troll with it as well. It shuts down several cylinders below a certain RPM. We can get down to trolling speed easily, and even to lake trout speed with a couple of bags. In wind, it's nice to have the big engine running. Okay, that's the good stuff. Now the bad. Gas consumption is probably >2 gallons/hr trolling. With seven years on the boat, we've put almost 1500 hours on the engine. Now, I don't know what an engine like that runs off-the-bat, but I'm guessing >15K. And if the engine ever breaks down, we'll be calling for a tow. My buddy and I own the boat together, and he's been reticent to put a kicker engine on because of the shape of our cutout, the fact it would have to be mounted pretty far off to the side on a custom mount, and it would probably interfere with our corner rigger. I guess those are valid concerns, but man if I had it to do over and the boat setup was conducive to a main/kicker combo, I'd go that route in a heartbeat. Bottom line is that you can do it with the two 115hp motors easily, but the 200/15 is probably a better option.

There's a thread on here about using butterfly jigs for Browns off Oswego from Chris Gatley: viewtopic.php?f=35&t=26898&hilit=butterfly+jig He may have several posts regarding this technique.

Holy cow, beat up by a stripper!!! I knew about the rest of it, but that takes the cake. Did she have all of her teeth? I really enjoyed being out on the ice for most of the trip, at least until the winds came up Saturday afternoon and the fish completely shut down. I fished my butt off and managed one 4.5 lb walleye on Saturday morning, otherwise I was happy to be there. Great group of guys...thanks for bringing the Grand Marnier, Scott! I figure it can only get better and I'm looking forward to next year. Might be next year before I get out on the ice again, the way the weather is going...

Excellent. I'll have my mosquito BBQ'd, please!

With the number of guys that were there, if you fell in you could just stand on their shoulders to climb out No snowmobiles crashing through the ice either

My nose hair is going to be like Metz saddle hackle after American Idol made hair-extensions the latest viral craze. I'll be able to put it on ebay and buy a new boat (or two). I'm going to get Keith to pose with one of the flies and exclaim (in his best Fabio "I can't believe it's not butter" voice), "All the guys from LOU nose that the secret to catching big fish is the Nostril Nailer!" (big grin).

We are leaving ~7:30 from Fairport to fish the afternoon. Got to say, I'm concerned about the half inch of rain that's predicted for today up there. Along with strong winds, it could really limit the areas we can get to. No big freeze between now and the weekend, so when it's gone, it's gone. This winter sucks.

Should have come to Honeoye! There were some fantastic walleye caught there this weekend and the bluegill were on fire. The way I figure it, HamBone is a black cat when it comes to ice fishing.

I already have an appointment to have my nose hair trimmed that day, but I suppose I can move it

Mike, 4lb braid seems awfully thin. Is this the "size" of the braid (ie 12lb test, 4lb diameter)? That's about what I spool for up there on Tica Cetus reels. Just don't want anybody to get confused and show up with a rig more suited for panfish. Have you made the trip yet? Schizophrenic weather has the shorelines around here a mess. I may put on the Mustang and take a walk this weekend, though. It looks like maybe half the Bay will be safe by next weekend...hopefully the half that we're on. Gator

Definitely a wire dipsey setup first. Then copper. You can get by with a shorter copper and complement it with Dive Bombs to achieve greater depth. 200' of copper will generally fit onto a smaller reel. Not so much agony reeling it in, too.

Drifting with either three-ways or 1, 1 and 1/2 or 2 oz. bucktail jigs. The guides from the river slow their drift with electric trolling motors and fish Quikfish in the current, just like for steelhead.

The Dicks at Marketplace didn't have any when I looked after work last nite.

In that case, Scott, we'll both be lighting it up!! A few more sticks of those Costanza Slim Sticks wouldn't be over the top, either. If I have time this weekend I'll whip us up a batch of Gator's famous flaming jerky...my daughter got me SIX bottles of Ass-Kicking Hot Sauce for X-mas, all different flavors, and I'm itching to see how it works on venison in the smoker. If I'm lucky the end product will smell like those nuclear red Tijuana Mamas that make Steve sweat to even look at.

If that's the part of you that's ready, then I'm glad I'm not your roommate. Comments, Rob?

July is absolutely prime time and you shouldn't have to venture too far offshore to find fish. If you're set up with an electric trolling motor, there's lots of options for days when you get blown off the lake. The Niagara river holds some great smallmouth, as do most of the Finger Lakes. There's also excellent trolling and jigging for salmonids in the Finger Lakes, particularly Keuka, Seneca and Cayuga. As for trolling the big pond, you may want to invest in a couple of wire diver rigs to complement your downriggers. A great two person setup is downriggers stacked with two lines apiece and a pair of divers off the side. 9' 6" rods (Daiwa Heartland works as well as any), Daiwa 47 linecounter reels loaded with 1000' of 30 lb seven-strand wire (no backing). Tie a big swivel onto the end and run Mag Dispeys on a 2 setting anywhere from 100' to 300' back, depending on where you find the thermocline. Don't set the drag too tight or you'll be short a rig when a king strikes. Also, good rod holders...stainless, like Bert's ratchet or Big Jons...that can be used to position the rod horizontal to the water will help. The cheaper rod holders might not stand up to a wire dipsey hit. Oh, and plan on two weeks, not one