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wow really? Both of my riggers have the same issues... do you run your riggers out to the side or straight back? I run mine out to the side and the wire constantly rubs... I'm very surprised you DON'T have the same issue? Maybe I have mine setup wrong or something? Nick

Where do you guys get the 2nd keel from? I'd rather not buy a $100 boat just for the keel? Nick

My Scotty pulleys on my downriggers keep getting chewed up. I broke off two balls on my one rigger in the past few weeks and thought it was just bad wire... but upon closer inspection it appears the cable has chewed a slot into the plastic pulley and the beads are getting caught on it... is there another option other than continuingly replacing the pulleys? Nick

Yeah it was even worse that the three boats we were fishing with were having very few problems keeping them buttoned! But we had a couple of inexperienced people on the rods which didn't help! I'm chomping at the bit though to get back up there! I saw on the LOC board today that the lakers only need to be 10lbs? I thought it was 15lbs or I would have weighed the one we caught in Nick

The kings have shown up in Sodus in numbers! 8/20 - Friday evening: We left the dock at 6pm and fished for a few hours. We hit two lakers down 100' over 200fow. We moved into 150 and the 500' copper started screaming... 14lb conook (coho / chinook)... at least that was my guess... white upper jaw, black lower... few spots on the top of the tail, few spots on the bottom of the tail... male and female organs! We also did a couple of small kings down 80' and missed a few good rips on the 350' wire. 8/21 - Saturday morning: Getting pretty tired of that hard south/east wind! We only had one major bite on the 325' wire, but had a couple of first timers on board this weekend that didn't quite have the hang of things yet. We took two browns on 200' 3 setting dipseys with purple spoons. I apparently forgot what a 10+lb brown looks like, because I threw it in the cooler at 6am and when I weighed it at 3pm it weighed 10lbs 14oz... oops should have had water on it! We were in first place for all of 30 mins... now in 4th. 8/21 - Saturday night: Hit fish all night long. All majors. We just couldn't keep them on. We landed 2 of our 9 fish ... almost all came 250' 2 setting wire with a glow frog spinny and green seaweek fly. 22lbs and 17lbs and lost some much larger. Sunday .. rainy as heck with an east wind... i'm becoming a fair weather fisherman! Friday starts our 10 day LOC marathon... see you guys out there! Nick

We usually try to put our high rigger in 50-55 and low rigger in 45-50. If I start hitting lakers, I know I'm too cold (or too slow). If I'm hitting dinks, I know I'm too high. However, this isn't a golden rule as fish tend to hit where fish want to hit. If I'm marking hooks on my fishfinder... that's where the lures go. Nick

Fishing would probably be good at Sodus right now if you could keep your boat straight! Friday afternoon we headed out around 3pm... our goal was to head out deep to search for the kings that have been missing for weeks. We had been told that the lake had flipped and was COLD in shallow. They weren't kidding! We setup in 70fow and pointed her north. We hit a brown on the 10 color core over 150fow on a green nbk. 200fow looked promising with some bait and some hooks, but they were all up around 15-20ft... I never have much luck when the fish are up in that range. Kept trucking north.... from 300fow to 600fow it was pretty much a ghost town. The 50 degree water slowly drifted down until it was about 80' down over 625fow. That was when the 82' rigger with a yellow NBK popped. It always such a nice feeling to reel down and feel that thud! Then Zingggggg! This was by far the strongest 28lber I've ever fought... it just didnt' want to join us. But we landed it and kept on going. We thought we had found the kings, but instead it was just a pocket of bait and fish. We circled back to the waypoint and took a shot again on the 82' rigger, but didn't hook up. A few secs later, the 70' rigger hooks up with a 5lb king on a green and glow spoon. It was getting late and I wanted to troll in instead of run in, so we left our spot. Around 250fow, the 100' 3 setting dipsey gets slammed. It was only about a 6lb steely, but it hit hard on an orange and gold. As soon as we land that, the 325' #2 dipsey starts RIPPING. The wife jumps on it and starts to reel it in... it's acting like a small brown trout. I said "that can't be, not with the way it hit... it has to be a good fish..." The wife goes on to tell me "you think all the fish we catch are b.... ZING ZING ZINNNNNNNNNNNG.... big" A good fight and we land a 26lber. It's late so we pull lines and head in. Saturday: It was an early bite and we were late to the party. From 5-6:30 people were catching fish. We setup at 6:30 while three boats we knew were fighting majors... none of us would take a fish after that. We lasted until about 8:30 as a South troll was NOT much fun with the hard hitting waves and a north wave would put you in 600fow in no time. We went for breakfast. Saturday evening and Sunday: The wind continued strong from the South and EAST... I know better than to bother fishing an East wind... and from the reports from the guys in our marina that went out... I didn't miss anything at all. Maybe mother nature will cooperate next weekend ... as I think the fish are finally showing up in Sodus. Nick

I always wondered why they couldn't sell all the "excess fish" at the hatchery to something like a cat food factory? I'm actually pretty serious. Even if it only raised $50k, that's a lot of money. Nick

Bob, Can't say I ever want to be in 6 footers, but I know what you mean lol. I could really use a couple of days of real flat water! Nick

Try the 190 to 250 fow range. There haven't been many big fish out there, but a lot of action with smaller salmon, steelhead, and surprisingly browns. Lures 90-120' down have been productive. This of course can all change based on the weather... but that's been the most consistent this year. You could also try the 60-100 fow range with lures 45' or deeper for some browns. Nick

on the backup kicker! Also, Boat US has freshwater tow insurance for about $15. I haven't had to use it yet, but figure as long as I have it the boat prob won't break down It also amazes me on a weekday that the coast guard won't come out to help. I know it's not their responsibility... but I can't imagine most days they have anything better to do... and if an emergency happens while they're towing you in... they detach and they're just that much closer to helping the other person on the lake out. When we got the new boat, first trip out the lower drive blew... coast guard came over, literally laughed at us and left... luckily the DEC boat was there too, called the CG a bunch of jerks and towed us in (The kicker was at the repair shop as I learned the importance of using Stabil prior to winterizing a kicker ) Nick

Fishing remains downright lousy out of Sodus. Friday and Saturday morning were too rough to fish. Saturday evening: fished from 150fow to 550fow. Had 60+ degrees down 100' all the way out. We managed a 10lb male atlantic (huge hooked jaw) off the 500' copper in 190fow with a blue dolphin spinny and green/blue fly. We hit a real nice steelie out at 350fow on an oranage holographic spoon (no idea of the manuf) on a free slider off our 95' rigger. I'd guess the steelie was 10+lbs, but we lost it right behind the boat. We had another small steelie on the same setup out in 450fow. We also managed two small kings (one the same exact size of the spoon) down 120' on a purple frog. There were a lot of big hooks out in the deep water, but they wouldn't budge. Sunday: We held off going out a bit to see if the wind would calm down and the rain would pass. The rain stopped and we figured we'd give it a try. While the waves were only 1-2', they were pounding HARD and we had trouble trolling any direction other than North. Really wasn't much fun and the fish still weren't biting well. We did one 5lb brown down 120' over 190fow on a green frog and took a shot on a kevorkian down 95' over 210fow. We only lasted an two N/S passes (about 1.5 hrs) before we weren't enjoying the lake any longer. With the strong south wind we would have expected the cool water to have moved up... it didn't. We had a lot of large hooks in the 40' range though, but they wouldn't budge. All weekend we only heard of one 15lber being caught out deep (450fow) saturday evening, and one screamer lost on a deep wire diver Sunday afternoon. With all the big hooks out in 5-600 fow, my guess is the kings are out there either moving past Sodus or waiting to come in. If it ever gets calm enough for long enough, that's where I'll be heading. Nick

I'm nowhere near qualified to tell you if this technology "works", but I can tell you growing up on the Hudson that they have begun their PCB dredging which for years people complained would "strir up the contaminants" and I haven't heard one negative report of the river suddenly becoming polluted. And the Hudson is the direct water source for many communities, including the Poughkeepsie area that I grew up in. In the end... any new energy "source" will be driven by people trying to make money and blocked by people trying not to lose money (aka oil companies, property owners, etc). There will be side effects no matter where that source goes in. Do I believe the side effects stated in this thread are greatly exagerated .. yes. Do I believe the side effects of this "source" are less than putting a coal plant or nuke plant in NY... yes. Will it generate nearly as much power as the other "sources"... probably not. All in all, there are groups lobbying both sides with fear mongering, misconceptions, rumors, and outright lies. For every analysis that shoes wind power will save the world, there will be another that shows it will destroy it. It doesn't take more than me turning on CNN and seeing the war or gulf spill to make me willing to try something different... because it's hard to believe it could be any worse. Besides, if they raise the fishing license prices any further that alone may kill the fishing at the lake! They're talking over $100 for out of staters next year Nick

Trust me when I say EVERY person who comes up to fish with us ****es about getting the $25 derby ticket. Most of them **** about getting the $75 fishing license. Some understand better than others and offer to buy dinner or pay for gas. Many don't offer anything. Some hand us $20 and act like that should more than cover it. At the end of the day we enjoy having friends and family on the boats and if they give the "we won't fish if you make us buy that" we usually end up taking them anyways. The two cases we've had this year where it mattered were both last minute decisions to have fellow "captains" out with us... in that case we don't ever ask for $ as they have their own boat costs. But we probably should start to make those guys get derby tickets Oh and Rick the wife was too cheap to mount it. I offered to split the costs with her as I would have really liked to replace the other steelie with this one (you know that story) and yes we definitely would have brought it to a different person! Nick

Amen! It's getting harder and harder to find the time to get on here and bicker with you guys Nick

Yeah buddy I'm the one twisting facts... the webpage clearly states 262,000mgal/day for surface and 83,400mgal /day from ground. But hey you don't twist facts do you... 262000 / (262,000 + 83,400) = ~.75 = 75%. I suggest you learn to use your reading glasses and a calculator prior to commenting on another person's math skills. You "sir" are nothing more than a politician.

Loosen your drag Seriously. Most knots will work just fine. If your line isn't old or worn, your drag might just be too tight! Nick

Rod, Could be very true about fishing other pro-ams... all I know is catching 6 fish in 10ft waves is tough! I think everyone knows my true opinion on the 6 vs 9, but I'll state it again just to be redundant redundant.... I hate how the Sodus ProAm has become a brown fishing tournament. This year I was phsyched to be hitting kings so well up until the first day of the proam... then the wind blew and the bite shut down. If we hadn't lost a couple of key fish the first day we would have been in first with only 7 fish, but day 2 fishing for kings was near impossible without a bigger boat (kings were out in the 200-300fow range where the waves were ungodly). I know people will say that fishing for browns on days like that is more strategic and while I don't disagree I still don't like I would like to see a tourney where it's biggest 6 with culling allowed. One that seperates pros from ams. Out of Sodus. With a low price tag for ams (~$200) And I nominate Rod to start it lol. Nick

Shade, I have to disagree with you on showing people's votes next to their name. I believe it should be anonymous so as not to sway people's votes. Tom, As I'm sure you understand as a business owner.... at the end of the day this is "their" tournament to see run as they see fit. I don't believe they're taking advantage of their participants, but doing what they truly believe is best. It just doesn't always mean what they think is best is what everyone else thinks best. It would be kinda like the majority of the LOU board taking a vote for you to support the Pro-AM again Even if 100% of us said you should, you may not think that is what's best for you and your company. PS... if a vote would sway you... I'll start the poll right now Nick

Yea I'd like to see it too. That being said, I'm not sure a simple majority should be enough to overturn a rule. If it were my tournament... any rule would require a 2/3rd vote... simply because ANY change comes with risk. So even if they did put a vote out, it may require something greater than a majority... not sure. While we're on the subject... I'd also like to see a vote to go back to 6 fish instead of 9 Nick

We used to stay at the Yogi Bear campground in mexico and launch out of Mexico st. park. I haven't fished there in quite a few years, so I'm not sure how much the area may have changed. Old standby lures.... pop a green frog spin doctor with a seaweed green fly down 100'. pop a green dolphin down 80'. Fish between 100-200fow. Obviously both of these things can change depending on weather, current, yada yada... but it's a good starting point. Nick

Tom, I can't speak for the pro side, but the AM side you only have 8 teams out of the usual 30 or so. Also, why not include people that didn't fish last year? My thought would be to include a "vote box" on the registration form. Then when a teams registers they can check, open or closed. That way the voting is anonymous and people aren't pressured from the LOU board bullies. Then the following year any rule changes could be implemented (in case someone like me decided not to fish the pro-am due to the rule change). Nick

Boy now that I look at my pic compared to yours are you sure that's only 19lbs? Mine weighed 14lbs 10oz on my digital... but yours looks more than 4 lbs bigger than mine... I think the state record is only like 24lbs... Nick

I agree. The 15lber we caught fought like a brown... Nick

Beautiful fish, definitley a wall mounter ... although next year there may be bigger ones (40lbs I hope!) Nick