Sweet Caroline

Interested in the 1K derby. Would I have to be present at the awards ceremony to qualify or can the check be mailed in the event that I cannot attend?

Hope the river keeps pumping that good water! Suppose to have a dry spell here for a bit

I'm a little concerned as well. When not in use my boat is stored in a pole barn up near the lake. I'm hoping that being inside the barn and near the lake that will help keep it a degree or two warmer. Being that it only suppose to get down to 30 or 31 I'm not sure that is cold enough to do damage. Would hate to find out though.

Bought a few Okuma Convector CV-15Ds for spring browns and I'm having issues with the line binding up when I try and pull some drag out by hand. The line cinches up tight and gets wrapped and bound underneath. I have had to strip all the line off two different reels twice now. Spooled alot of reels (Diawa and Shimano) this spring and these are the only ones I'm having issues with. Any suggestions on what I may be doing wrong with these? It is a huge PIA when this happens especially when you are just starting to rig in the morning.

Tony, You sound like me last year. You just never know what the new season will bring. I remember years ago fish the edge of the ice flow during the LOC and nailing laker after laker. Guys that went just a mile or two west in to Canada got in to some kings. Last year because of the late boom release I thought I’d be smart and bought a Canadian license. We fished down in front of Welland a couple days and got in to a few kings in the morning but it shut down by 9am. Had one good evening where we did 15 or so kings but they were all small. Didn’t go any further west than Welland but from what I heard nobody was nailing them down there either. Reports where that you had to be at least to Oak Orchard and east to get in to a decent number of kings. Not sure why the two years were different. I have a different game plan this year and with my luck they will stack up in Canada again this year. Why don’t we put tracking devices on a 100 or so teenagers in the fall so we know where they will all be in the Spring. LOL DR

If you are going this year target Olcott/Wilson area late May. Due to the cold winter and the ice boom not being removed yet it is going to be a crap shoot this year if they even congregate in numbers down there at all. They didn't last year and this winter was about the same. In most years mid- May is most consistent. I always go the first week of May because of tourneys and usually do well.

damn. was planning on entering my 18 month old! I guess in the past folks were bringing in 30+lb salmon and saying their 3 yr old caught it.

Keep your boards for sure. As long as the surface temps are in the mid 60s or lower browns will be in shallow. I have caught browns in mid June in 10 FOW, normally would be fishing 15-25 FOW in late May -early June. Some of the biggest browns I have ever caught have been during that time of year. Only problem is that is just about all you will catch as far as salmonids are concerned. Most other salmon/trout have moved out. Browns are a sure bet first thing in the morn though.

Thanks. What about an I/O. Wanted to summerize it in the next week or two but I'm afraid of the night time dips. Wouldn't be in the water but would be sitting in a pole barn when not in use.

Regarding Seaguar floro. In the tackle stores I see some sold in a blue/yellow box and some in a red. What is the difference between the two, besides price, and is the red any good since that is what I bought? Sorry in advance if this was already mentioned previously.

Came across this article http://www.nytimes.com/1989/08/20/sports/outdoors-bigger-and-older-super-trout-arrives.html and I'm curious if anybody knows why NY stopped stocking these browns? Also, was watching some videos of massive browns getting caught out of Lake Michigan and I believe this is a strain they still stock. Not that I'm complaining about our brown trout fishery but it sure would be nice to catch 15-20+ lbs browns on a regular basis.

Main problem with stocking later in the Spring is that cormorants will be there in full force and will decimate them within days. Need to do as much stocking before they show up.

I regularly fish both the lake and tribs. Is it just me or does it seem that more large browns (>10lbs) are caught out in the lake rather than the tribs? I have seen and caught many, many browns in the tribs but have always consistently caught larger browns out in the lake. Browns I catch in the tribs seldom exceed 10lbs but browns I catch out in the lake often exceed 10lbs. I see folks fishing the lake consistently posting pictures of 14+lb browns but I can honestly say I rarely see browns this big in the tribs. Would make sense that the larger browns should be caught in the tribs since this would likely be where the largest concentration of mature spawning adults would be but that doesn't seem to be the case. Just asking out of curiosity if anything.

Saw 5 bucks chasing a doe the other day. Is it still possible that does are in heat? Seems late

I wouldn't worry about having too much extra time for hobbies with a newborn. Take it from me a year in to it. Sleeping might be a good hobbie to take up:)

Still seems odd that we aren't seeing an abundance of legit 40lb salmon if there is so much bait around. Are all the salmon maturing early because of all the bait and not making it to age 4? In the 80's and 90's did they all mature late because there wasn't enough bait and many were able to make it to 35lb to 40lb by staying in the lake an extra year? Did the hatchery used to get all 3 and 4 years olds and now they get 2 and 3? I don't disagree that there seems to be alot of bait in the lake, but I just don't understand why the salmon seem to be getting smaller on average? I'm purely basing this from the salmon tourneys that I have been fishing for the past 30 years. Does anybody have any actual stats on the average weight of salmon over the last 20 to 30 yrs by age class? I would think that would be a decent indication on the health of the bait population.