larry

You will notice the effects of the color of line choice more in certain conditions of water clarity, stained water will hide your line better and make your line choice irrelevant. Clear water makes it tougher for you to reproduce the realism of a bait if the day's light is magnifying your line to look the size of a mooring rope. I would definitely recommend the green line or clear fluorocarbon for spoon and body bait presentations, stay away from fluorescent line. Haven't used any pink line so can't comment on it other than to read the box and see what it claims to do, it may be invisible in water and appear pink when dry since red is the first color to be absorbed by water. Let us know how it performs.

Congrats on the your new "Fishing Machine" it should provide you the perfect platform for a wide variety of fishing pursuits whether trolling, casting or just hanging a line over the side. Also realize that you are taking on a HUGE responsibility at a very young age to be the helmsman of a motorized maritime vessel. That is why your Dad wants you to have the safe boaters course and get your card. You won't be the only boat on the water and the course will give you a better understanding of what to expect the other boats to do and what they expect you to do. We all want you to be "safe" first and then have all the fun and fish you can handle. Good luck with the new ride and study hard. Capt. Larry

Check out the maps section of this site, sometimes a picture of the area will help you choose. Click on additional port information and images

Welcome to LOU Dominic!! Congrats to mom,dad and especially Grandpa. Spoil him good gramps.

Some past years "State of the Lake" minutes are posted in the "Articles" section so you can get a feel of what the context of them is like. You will hear from the experts what's happening biologically and politically and how they prove it statistically. Many of LOU's members will be there trying to make a difference in how to shape the future of the fishery and trying to decifer what the experts are really saying. It should be a week long summit but it's crammed into just one fun-filled and informative night.

Happy Birthday boB, oops, I spelled it backwards, sorry, you probably didn't notice anyhow . Have a great day and fantastic fun filled year. Larry

Glad to hear your ma's making the best of it and you've found a way to deal with the circumstances. So how are the paddles working from that canoe? did you bring the right one's? Prayers sent for ma.

SB, don't be scared, this is really a new beginning for the Great Lakes. If you could have seen how bad this lake was 40-60 years ago, real scary, you'd understand how far we've come from what had become a wasteland from the industrial revolution. It's up to each generation to leave the next a better place than they found and certainly the positive progression is noticeable or you wouldn't have enjoyed the fishery that didn't exist just 40 years ago. The "hay day era" was really the result of pollution (phosphates) causing huge algea blooms that fed an abundant population of alewives in the lake, which by the way are an invasive species as well as the primary forage of trout and salmon. Atlantics and lakers were the native species to Lake Ontario, Kings, Browns and Steelhead are all exotics, non-native species that were introduced to the lake to control the population of the alewives which would have huge die-offs and stink up every inch of shore line on the lake. The experiment worked and a thriving fishery was created. It worked too well though and with a couple of bad winters and cleaner water (less algea for zooplankton to feed on which is main diet of alewife) the excessive alewife population had declined and was getting weak, it's protein value down to 20%. The stocking of the lake had to be cut back to a support level that wouldn't collapse the forage base and allow for some balance between predator and prey. So you are correct that there are less fish being stocked but the ones out there are healthy and fat. There is a lot more information available (shameless LOU Ad ) now to help catch greater amounts of fish than ever before. This man-made ecosystem will always have new challenges and threats to be addressed, so keep up the vigilance and voice your concerns to those that have been empowered by the people to listen and act on our behalf, so you're kids will have the opportunity to enjoy this fishery the way you shape it.

Yes, you can catch browns and lakers in April and May close to shore as well as Coho, Kings, bass, perch, rainbow steelhead etc. Everything that swims is looking in the warming near shore waters for forage. You don't need a sophisticated arsenal to catch fish during this period. If you're in real close 1'- 6' of water, small or lightweight spoons, (Nk-C5, D2's, Southports, northports, pirates, stingers) will flutter above the bottom allowing a shallow water presentation with lead lengths of 80'-200'. Size isn't as important as the speed you run it but typicallly the smaller spoons will work better this time of year. Often times the extreme shallows may hold the only warm or stained water and will work well. Planer boards or wally boards will increase the width of your spread and allow you to get a lure very close to the shore without putting your prop in danger. Color choices for stained water are the bright variety chartruese, yellow, green orange and red all stand out well in muddy or stained water. When the water is clear black and silver or gold, copper are better choices. Best chance is on the edge of the color change. Beyond 6' of water you can start to run body baits, typically these will dive at least 7' so you will contact the bottom and snag up if you run shallower or go by a rock ledge. The floating body baits with diving lip offer more action than spoons at the slower trolling speed you'll running in spring and are the easiest to deal with since if you do hook a fish and have to slow down or stop to fight it they float up and don't snag bottom whereas the spoons will sink and catch ( check the bait in the water for proper running side to side motion if it rolls up on its' side you may need to tune the lure by bending the eyelit where the line attaches, this is especially true for rapalas). As far as line choice for a beginner, 12lb-14lb should be plenty with light drag setting on the reel, either camo-green or flourocarbon will keep the line from spooking fish. Good luck out there and be safe.

Hi Vince and Mark, glad you came aboard. Hope you find the site a valuable tool to find and share information. I know you will have a large audience for your posts here so jump in whenever you can offer your sage advice. Have fun and don't let Mark talk you into giving up too many secrets, one or two but that's it. Larry

Keep both cheeks on the seat, cause if you lift one you're goin' over. 8 rod holders in a canoe? 3 rod rule can't come quick enough

Too funny Ray, should be a cartoon or 2 stooges episode. Hank, you're the best, 25 ran fine the rest of year, thanks. Larry

Start gathering the animals 2 x 2 and get to work on the ark. Forecast doesn't sound too good so you might consider a visit to the east coast for some hard water action, no mud slides, very few feet of snow. The storms should at least put some much needed water back into the drought stricken areas you had posted earlier. Nice pics Stan, stay safe.

Happy Birthday fly guy, have a great day and phenominal year!! Larry

Happy Birthday Tom, have a great day and great year, keep on them law makers for us it's much appreciated. Larry

Congrats Tom and thanks for your continued sponsorship of events lake-wide. An Atommik Challenge amid the Nuclear Power Plants is a very suitable and ironic twist, I think they should pony up for the name as well. Please don't change the name to wind turbine lures as that would not bode well for the future. Good Luck and keep it growing.

Priceless!!! Hope you pirates can get LOU from your cell block.

Done #108 hope it helps or I'm going to need a lot of new equipment and recipes

Thanks for the birthday wishes, my goal was 50 so I'm in the bonus rounds now. A quick explanation of the photos, Hurricane Agnes - I didn't think the big pond could reach up and take a boat out of the sling 6 ft above but it can get pretty ugly. The 70's - fishing was tiring, the 60's - the fish were heavy and the hole in pants was just another lure, uh fashion statement. Jerry's childhood bout with anorexia has been cured . As for the shorts, I hadn't met Musky yet so my fashion sense was not what it could have been . The best times are still ahead as I start the approach to the speed limit (55).

Nice wok Tom, you'll need 2 more once the 3 rod rule goes through and another 3000 to supply all the people on this site.

I would say bring it all, for the same reasons you bring them all to the lake, the one you leave behind will be the one that works. If you want to save on weight, there might be some other items you could leave behind that won't have a negative impact your fishing success (I'll leave open for suggestions). I hope you and the misses have a great time down there, stay safe and keep us posted on what's going on in the warm waters.

http://www.space.com/spacewatch/091230- ... lipse.html Happy New Year!!!! Since it doesn't happen again till 2028 I think we should all treat ourselves to something special that we normally wouldn't "once in a Blue Moon". Great excuse, with scientific backing, how could the missus argue with that. New shotgun here. (hope she don't use it on me)

Happy Birthday Scott, hope you had a Merry Christmas and dad traded in some cans and got something real nice for ya. See ya on the water. Larry

Good work LongLine, (Tom B.) I thought they could just cross out the 2 and make it a 3 in the rule book but I guess if it were that easy a lot of people wouldn't have jobs. Hope they can make it a reality. Should a public option of 4 rods be included so they can concede something to end up with 3 rods?

That's great progress for that type of trauma. Great to hear. I think you may be on to something with the "Spin Nurses" try shortening the hem with glow back and see if that generates more action. Could be a whole new tackle selection. Larry