Fishtails

Welcome to LOU ! I run a thumper rod often and on certain days it will out fish everything else. It consists of a wire line rod, and lead weights are the staple of the dodger/fly system... we often use 16 oz. weights. Your rod should have a soft enough action so that you can "read" the movement of the rod at different speeds. This allows you to judge when your dodger has the right action, then it can be duplicated over and over when fish bite. Dodgers are best for a thumper rod, as they are much easier to read then flashers are for this type of a rig. Basically, I run a three way swivel at the end of the wire line. I attach the lead to one and run a leader to the dodger/fly from the other. This is normally a tail gunner....run down the chute. "If" you can run it @ a 45 degree angle, It's a little easier to read the action of the rod.

WTG guys!! Great fish and congrats on winning some cash! I had to miss the Mustad in order to make the two upcoming Pro Ams. So Bill....I'm driving home today from working in NY the past 6 days and the wife calls me on the cell and reads me your email with your fishing report :shock: . She says she figured I was bored driving so she read me some fishing reports to keep me entertained.....what a woman!!!! She told me all about your fish....

I decided we are fishing the Pro Am out of Mexico this year instead of Oswego. Anyone know How it works with the Pro am in Mexico.....do the am's just leave from wherever their docked at 5:20? We are staying at Jellystone so the kids have things to do and I have one of their slips by the lake on the little Salmon......that works....right? Fishing the Pro Am out of Mexico is gonna be new to me, just wanna be sure I'm doing it right Anything else I may need to know? Thanks Guys!!!

Looks like we have an observer for both.......thanks!

That must have been fun!!!

Being one of the many who have already lost a full 600 copper to another fishing boat, I have a plan for the next time.....hoping the "next time" never happens. My problems seem to occur mostly when boats I was trolling along with, slow down and quickly turn behind me. If your paying attention (which I'm usually not ) and traffic allows, you can bump up the speed and turn towards their stern, thus pulling your lines out of the way. If traffic will not allow, and I'm pretty certain I'm gonna loose the copper rig, I have a 20oz lead drop weight which is attached to a 6 inch piece of copper wire on one end, and a snap clip on the other. I have never used it....hope I don't have to. I have it handy in the back of the boat and my theory is in an emergency, I will clip it on my copper line and let it go....then back off the speed as much as I can and have someone else start reeling That should drop it real deep pretty quickly...."hopefully"getting it out of the way of their riggers and saving the copper. Reeling it in will blow, but it won't be no harder than reeling in a king, and it won't be near as bad as getting a new copper rig. Anyhow...that's how your ridders can earn their keep

We are searching for responsible individual(s) interested in being an Observer for either of the upcoming Pro Am's. Please send me a pm or email me direct at [email protected] We will be fishing both Friday pre-fish derbies also, and you're welcome to join us and participate in a fun day of fishing on Friday as well. It's looking like the RV is gonna be full, but if you're out of the area you will be welcome to pitch a tent on our site or stay on the boat. We will pay $100 per Pro-Am. It's a great time and great way to learn new tricks and techniques. Dates are July 12 & 13 (Oswego) or July 19 & 20 (Sodus) Thanks!

Agree with you Tom on the split rings. You gotta twist them a bit till they pop in.....but they do go. That's my biggest complaint by far....and the black clips fall off too easy. I have to disagree on the Mag's though. The Mega fits Mag's fine on a slant, and I have one just for my Mag spoons. I like these boxes for my "go-to" spoons, but they are not the answer for the serious salmon fisherman with hundreds of spoons. It seems guys either love em or hate em, but they definitely have their place!

Tom, I use the Laurvick releases, but only the rubberband was in the release. I do recall that it did not release properly. As I recall....we had to pop it manually. I guess I'll never know exactly what happened, but it was worth bringing up cause I like the whole shower curtain clip idea. Think I'll switch over before my next trip......thanks!

Bill, I am in the same market and while speaking to Kevin Jerge @ Wilson Boatyard last month he suggested I consider the new Raymarine x series smartpilot. It's scheduled to hit the market sometime in July 08. I still have not really looked into it very deeply yet, but you may want to at least investigate it a bit. If you don't mind, keep us informed as to what you learn/purchase....I'll be interested in the outcome.

I use a small spro barrel swival instead of the albright knot. Have for over a year and never had even one problem that I can remember. The albright knot really isn't that hard to tie though. I used it on the 600 rig this year just for the heck of it and it's held up fine............so far. Tom.....during the Niagara pre fish, we had a fish ripping on the 500 copper.... into the 50lb power pro and then.....everything was gone :shock: fish, lure, copper and some backer. The power pro broke in the water. I use the hi-vis yellow power pro. It was not the knot, it was a clean break and it was beyond the knot anyway. We had the backer attached to the board clip with a rubber band.....can that weaken the power pro? We were at a loss as to what happened ?? Was it just a freak thing, or have you heard of that happen before ? Thanks

I won't be getting out till July, but It don't sound like I'm missing much, eh Bob? Not sure I ever thanked you for hooking us up in the Niagara Pro Am with our observer Marcus......He's a great kid! Last I spokewith him he was planning on fishing the Oswego pro am with us.

Normally....I know the guys I use do it, but I'd ask to be sure!

It might pay to leave the toys up there...that's what we are doing. Either way the cost has gone way up, but I'd rather put the $$ into the local economy than give it to the oil companies. When I'm not using the RV, I'm keeping it in storage in Oswego. Get in touch with me later in July....maybe we can combine some lake O trips. I'll be up there as much as possible. Have a good vacation!

Don't think I got that Rick. I was out in Niagara half of May. The Mrs. probably got your email and forgot to mention it to me. We were talking about fishing the Hook this month, right? Turns out the wife has plans for me every freakin weekend in June except this one.... and I've Got the Jimmy Buffet concert with a buddy this weekend down at the Linc in Philly.... I also have to get up to our summer camp and get that ready to put on the market.....so this month looks tuff. I may have to push that trip back till fall. If You have plans to get after the strippers this fall.....I'm your man !!

Another important thing to remember with I/O's is to pull the drive and grease the spline every 100 hours....esp. if you use it to troll. If you don't use the boat that much....once a year may suffice. I put 60-70 hours on one motor last month....it happens faster than you think. I pulled one of my drives and the spline was DRY....even though it was greased only a month earlier. No grease = bad coupler, which results in pulling the motor for a coupler replacement.

Wow Rich.....your right, that's nuts!! I didn't think you had a 110 tank seeing you burned almost half of it going to Wilson. I see your point I'm only a foot smaller but I only got a 60 :?

Rich.....besides the time constraints and such, I was wondering why you didn't choose to gas up on the way back and just finish your run to the bar....but you can't, can you? You can't enter any other port during the competition....reguardless of the distance, etc. Guess you'd have to take extra 5's on board if you lacked the range? I have a similar situation, as I only hold 60 gallons.

You have a pm Clarke.

Great report Rich....how long did that ride take to get to Wilson? See you In Oswego.....

Your right on the browns....I've yet to really get into that fishery yet. We'll talk about it more when we get some time on the water in Oswego. Having a back up brown plan is always a good idea in the Oswego tourney(s) and that's right down your alley. You and Jeff win this one....me and my black eye will head to Cabelas this week for swivels and to exchange those two rods we broke.... :roll: looks like we are set for the Oswego Pro Am....Myself, You, Jeff and Marcus are all in. For the Sodus Pro Am....It's myself and Nick (aka Bobs_boy) so far. Still need to talk to Marcus on that one, but I think he is entering their boat in that one?

Wishing your Father the best Ray!!!!! Here are the final results on The Orleans Pro Am (as posted on attheoak.com).... Congratulations to all who placed......now let's here some details!!!!!! WOW....Are these numbers for real......must have been some TOUGH fishing!! Orleans County Pro-Am Winners (Courtesy Capt. Mike Waterhouse) Pros: Vision Quest - 229.91 Reel Excitement - 221.57 Tracker - 197.81 Rebel Charters - 196.83 Irish Pride / Cannonball - 196.58 Candy - 187.50 Intimidator - 179.96 Cortland / A-Tom-Mik - 158.26 Wharf Rat - 157.98 Cold Steel - 149.57 Ams: Dodger - 162.07 Double Play II / Dreamweaver - 133.78 Liquid Plumber - 132.10 Screamer / A-Tom-Mik - 117.32 Fish Nuts - 111.87 Rock N Reel - 110.86 Agitator / North Of The Ridge - 99.81 This Is It - 88.57 Flat Top - 70.61 Triple J - 67.98 Western Challenge Cup Winners Pros: Cold Steel / A-Tom-Mik 545 Cortland / A-Tom-Mik - 525 Reel Pleasure - 510 Ams: Rock N Reel - 565 Dodger - 549 Screamer / A-Tom-Mik and Lit-L-Bit Cra-Z - tied @ 538

Thanks....I took a real beating on this one! I'll start using the #30 sampo swivels. I figure if guys join me for a trip and are used to using swivels, it will more comfortable for me to switch to swivels than for them to tie knots every time. Just never gave it thought cause that's what I've always done. Thanks for all the input!

Okay Okay....I admit defeat!! Thanks for the input guys. It will be small snaps at the lure from here on out.

Sorry for the late report.... Fished the Niagara Pro Am with our new team last weekend. None of us had fished together before, so all in all it went well. Started prefishing with Jeff Jackson on Thursday. We set up out front of Wilson where I'd caught fish the whole month pretty much at will. We took 3 fairly quick kings so we decided to search other water. Trolled up to Olcott and picked up a small king out front. Continuing our east troll, all hell broke loose once we got close to the power plant. It was one after another till we had no polls left in the water We ended our first morning fishing together 14 for 14. No real pattens....just about everything we put down got hammered. Here's a pick with me and the big fish of the day @ 21lbs. Came on 400 copper w/white & blue spinny and a hammer fly. Friday we were joined by our Observer. We saw Cold Steel head to the bar and we all looked at each other knowing we should follow cause it was obvious they knew something. We chose to go to the plant, and caught a slow pick of dink after dink. Just couldn't find any size at all. We finally headed down in front of Wilson and started marking a lot of fish in 80fow so we set up but they had shut down by then. We managed two more of fair size, with Jeff's 19lber coming on the 400 copper w same white spinny & hammer fly. Saturday....WE SHOULD HAVE HEADED TO THE BAR ....but we didn't :? We thought we'd do fine out front of Wilson. Caught fish there at will all week. WOW....did I eat a big giant piece of humble pie Sat! Feeling pretty good that we could hit fish, we took our time in the am and set up a light spread in 50-60 fow. Marked bait and fish. Fished wire and copper only for the first hour or more trying not to limit out on dinks right away. Our plan worked....to well!! Took an 11 lb Coho and then couldn't move a rod the rest of the day :x Probably the most frustrating day I've ever had on lake O. I threw everything at them....just couldn't turn em on. Didn't help that our driver couldn't keep his mind on driving :x The coho took a white fly behind a white spinny w/ green dots. We should have left and ran to the bar....lesson learned...if the big boys go there....I'm going there too!!!!! Sunday....new driver (Thanks Jeff!!) headed to the bar and got into fish right away 150 down on the rigger over 150. Same spoon took 5 fast hits in a row....a Denny glow frog. Lost several of them till the last one tore off the spoon. Took a small king on the wire out 330 on a white spinny and a lil boy blue fly. Took our best (still only bout 9-10 lbs) on the 500 copper. Took one more on the rigger 100 down over 180 fow. Found ourselves with 5 small fish real fast so we pulled everything and fished 2 copper rigs only (500 & 600). Within 15 min we were hooked up on the 500....not a big fish. Greg (aka playpenn) played it slooooow and YES, the 500 screams. Damn...gone after two short rips. Had to land the one on the 500 and that was it for us. All in all, we had a great time and I made some new friends! We showed poorly due to our crap day on Saturday, but we'll only get better. Least we didn't set the bar to high for The Oswego Pro Am