Mickey Finn

Got the bass trolling in the Harbor. We went over to Snowshoe and trolled along Association. I tried to stay in about 10 to 15 feet of water. I ran 4 rods with J-9 sized stick baits in fire tiger, perch, black/gold and black/silver. Ran them back about 130 to 150 feet off the planer board with one small spitshot. My plan was to follow that depth right out along Lime Barrel Shoal and then slide across and pick up that depth along Bass and Gull Islands but I didn't get that far. We were in the Harbor because it had been very windy that day and once we got out to Six Town point, there was a lot of grass in the water from the wind, so I couldn't troll out any further. We only fished a couple hours. I think we had 4 bass that were just about legal (all released) and the one big one and one perch.

I run a 13 pound torpedo and like it.

My wife is just good at holding them so they look big. I taught her well. It was a little over 22 pounds.

Fishing Report Your Name / Boat Name: Mickey Finn ============== TRIP OVERVIEW ============== Date(s): 7/18 to 7/26 Time on Water: Weather/Temp: Wind Speed/Direction: Waves: Surface Temp: Location: Trench, Lighthouse Wall, Off the finger. LAT/LONG (GPS Cords): =============== FISHING RESULTS =============== Total Hits: Total Boated: Species Breakdown: Hot Lure: Trolling Speed: Down Speed: Boat Depth: Lure Depth: ==================== SUMMARY & FURTHER DETAILS ==================== Returned home yesterday after a great trip to Henderson Harbor. It was just my wife and I for most of the trip but we were joined by my cousin, Alan and his friend/boss, Pete for the three days of the Salmon Spectacular. I can't start to say how many fish we caught. We caught Kings, Browns, Lake Trout and Bass. We got lucky and captured both 1st and 2nd place in the Lake Trout division with a pair of 18 pound, 8 ounce Lakers, one on Friday and the other on Saturday. One day we went down South of Ithaca to Robert H Treman State Park and hiked the gorge viewing all the waterfalls. I want to thank everyone who made suggestions of things to do in my other post. We didn't get to any of those places but we will visit some of them on future trips. Caught some bass in the Harbor on the 18th. Storms and wind kept us off the lake. This one that my wife caught would have won the Bass division of the derby if we caught it a few days later. On the 19th we fished mostly along the lighthouse wall catching a mix of Browns, Smaller Kings and Lakers. Best spoons were NK28's in Black/Silver, Lemon Ice, NBK, and Nuclear Green. Also ran the white glow/ green spot echip flasher with a pro-am fly. On the 20th we stayed in the deeper water between the lighthouse wall and Calf Island Shoal. Our bigger Kings came from the colder water down 115 to 120 feet even though the temp break was up around 80 feet. Black/Silver NK 28's and the white glow/green spot flasher with the pro-am fly did the King damage. My cousin, Alan caught this Laker in the morning on day 1 of the derby. I had him at just over 19 pounds but at the end of the day he weighed in at 18 pounds, 8 ounces which held on for 1st place. Alan also had 3rd place in the Brown division at the end of day 1 but got bumped off. Some of our fish from Day 1 of the derby. We fished all around on this day but most our fish came from on top of the flat between the end of the lighthouse wall and the tip of the finger. On day 2 of the derby we headed out and fished the south edge of the finger, staying mostly around 140 feet of water. Seemed like us guys were zoned in to lake trout but my wife seemed to get a salmon or brown every time she was up. Most of the damage that day was on the NBK and a silver echip with a green stripe and the pro-am fly. At about 3:30PM, we doubled up. The first fish was a laker at about 16 pounds and the second was another one which weighed in exactly the same as our first place fish from the day before. It was .75 inches shorter, so it took second place. Below are the two fish from the double: Pete with his 2nd place Lake Trout at 18 pounds, 8 ounces. The fish we kept on day 2 of the derby. On day three of the derby, we headed back out South of the finger but other than one small king, all we could find was Lakers. My wife did get one over 16 pounds but not good enough to place. We ended up the day with just a limit of Lakers and released the small king and lots of other lakers. Pete accepting his 2nd place Lake Trout prizes. Alan accepting his 1st place Lake Trout prizes. On Monday and Tuesday this week, it was too windy to get out very far in my 22 footer so my wife and I fished Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning in the trench. We caught a few browns, a couple small kings and lots of lakers including the one above that hit one spoon and then before we got to the rod took another spoon from the rigger that was 10 feet higher. Guess he was hungry! One of the great sunsets from Henchen's Marina. Had a great trip!

Wow...Thanks for all the great ideas.

My wife and I are headed for Henderson for about 10 days for our annual summer trip. Every year we try to plan one event and take a day to go do something other than fishing. We've done Niagara Falls, Bolt Castle and last sumemr we went to Utica and took the Train ride and boat tour. I seem to be having a hard time finding something for us to do on this trip. You guys who live around the lake or guys who vacation there, have any suggestions?

Hope so. I was hoping he could answer my first question. I would update my Fish N Chip if there have been any changes, assuming that the Fish N Chip can be updated. It would be nice if there were a place to check if updates had been made to the charts similar to the way lowrance lists their software updates with dates.

So what does the PC app do?

Does this include the Great Lakes Fish N Chip? How do I know if changes have been made to this chip?

Yes, It also could be connections. I've had trouble before with bad connections (Corrosion). I'd look on the wire though and see what size it is. Especially, seeing as the further one is tripping more. My riggers are wired with #10 wire. Longer wire runs, too small wire and bad connections all cause voltage drop, so theres lower valtage at the rigger. This will cause the motors to work harder and they will trip quicker. What you are describing sounds like one or a combination of these things.

Yes, It sounds like your wire size is too small. What size wire did you use for them? Also, the longer the run of wire, the heavier wire you need due to voltage drop in the wire.

That is what I like to do also. I real till I get the rod bent back down and then remove the rod from the holder and set the hook all in one motion.

Did you sharpen the hooks or use them right out of the package? I sharpen all my hooks. I use a small hook file and then carefully slide the point across my thumb nail. If its sharp it will stick or scracth my nail. If it's not sharp, like most new hooks, it will slide over the nail. This goes for all hooks, not just the ones on your dipsy's. I can't think of any one thing that will increase you catch rate better than sharp hooks.

I had a problem with mine when it was new that sounded pretty much like you are talking about. He sent me a new antenea and it's been great ever since.

There was a proposal to due away with the subsidy for ethanol. They were supposed to have voted on it in late June. Does anyone know how tht came out?

I was surprised at how fast they got to my call. I was only on hold for a minute or so but then to hear him tell me that this was normal set me off a little. I think he could sense this and then decided that maybe the standard "this is normal" response wasn't going to work this time. He also told me "We've never had this problem reported" and then later in the conversation told me he was going to check to see if anyone had ever reported this problem. WTF? I'm sure this is a software issue but getting to talk with someone who can understand that isn't possible I guess. Thats why I was hoping someone else could verify that this is happening with all the HDS units. Then I'd call them back again. I don't want to call up and create a riot if it's just my unit. I also don't want to send it in if there's nothing wrong with it.

I'm wondering if someone might be able to help me out. Lowrance added "Phantom Loran" to the software udate for the HDS units a couple updates ago. It allows you to see your position in both Lat/Lon coordinates and the old Loran coordinates. Older units like my LCX15MT and my LMS520C had this option and they worked fine. The problem I'm having with the HDS unit is that the Lat/Lon coordinates and the Loran coordinates displayed on the screen are about 5 miles apart. In some of the areas I fish we use the loran numbers becasue they line up with structure in the lake better than the LAt/Lon numbers do plus the guys I fish with learned the structure of the lake by these loran numbers and prefer to still use them. I don't think many of you use the loran numbers any more but I was wondering if anyone has noticed this or if I might be able to get some of you to check your HDS units to see if they show this same inaccuracy. If anyone has the time to check this out, I'd be very thankful. You can turn on Phantom Loran in the Navigation menu. From the chart screen, hit Menu, then settings, then Navigation. From there you should be able to turn on Phanton Loran as long as you have one of the recent software updates. After that, just select loran settings right below it and select the GRI of "9960 Northeast USA. Under preferred stations, I'm using the numbers ending in "W" first and "Z" second. IF you zoom out and put your curser on Stoney Point near the light you should see Lat/Lon numbers of about N 43*50.325, W 76*17.871 and loran numbers of 15810.00 W, 60155.00 Z. My lat/lon numbers are accurate but my loran numbers are 15783.52 W, 60129.29 Z which is about 5 miles away in a location about half way between the foot of Stoney Island and the foot of Galloo Island. I called Lowrance on this and the 1st responce was that it was normal because there would be some discrepency between GPS and loran but when I asked how the coast guard was going to find me looking 5 miles away they agreed that maybe it should be more accurate than that. So after much time on hold they told me that there was a difference between loran and GPS and there was nothing they could do about it but I could send my unit in to be checked if I wanted. I'm pretty sure its not a unit problem. I think they have a calculation problem in the software updates. I just wanted to confirm that other HDS units were having the same issue before I send it in to be checked. Maybe if one of you have a chance, you could check this for me. Send me a PM if you want and I'll give you my cell number. Thanks in advance. Steve

For Lake Ontario, you can have two lake trout but only one can be in the slot which is 25" to 30". It's ok if they are both outside the slot though.

1st thing sounds like either thomocline or a fish swimming along under the boat. It also could be a school of bait. Second thing sounds like interferance from someone else's fish finder. Were there any other boats passing by you at the time? If so, it should have gone away as soon as they passed.

Nice fish...and an even better hat!!

My 8 horse Honda is not running like it usually does. It starts ok but warms up hard and I have to leave the warm-up button pulled out a little bit for it to run. As long as I do that it will troll all day long just fine.

I believe I have heard that the Berts Tracks and the Traxstech tracks are interchangable. Is that correct? Also would there be any problem with butting two tracks of the same brand together end to end. I'm thinking of adding a 6" track on each side right now and then later being able to add a 48" on each side?

Thanks to both of you Lakebound and Sean. That width should be fine, although I'm now considering putting on a couple bigger tracks. I've got a stainless rocket launcher being built which will go over the new top that will be put on in a week or two. Because of that I have to move my tite lok rod holders that I've always used for my dipsys, so I thought as long as I was taking them off, I'd replace them with a couple Berts holders. In the picture you can see that I have the tite lok adjustable holder next to the net holder right behind the canvas. Then I have an open area to enter the boat and behind that my three ram tube holders which I use for planer boards. I thought if I replaced the three ram tubes with a berts track and three berts holders, I could just do away with the tite lok up by the canvas and run my dipsy rods back ahead of the riggers. I've seen pics of some of your boats running your dipsy rods back there just ahead of your downrigger. Do you ever have problems with the dipsy rod or line hitting the rigger on a strike? My dipsy rods are 9 footers. Also, will three berts fit on a 17" track or are they a little to close together? Would I need a 24" track?

That looks way better than the older mercury ones and cheaper than the full blown units. Still, if I had the money to spend on that and I was in Mark B's spot (no riggers), I'd spend it on a used rigger. I think that would be a much better upgrade for him. I just saw one on here for $125. viewtopic.php?f=10&t=23519