luv2fish

My bet is that you were on the north east side near the dragon wall. There is a crazy contour there that we call the stove pipe. Goes almost straight up all the way around with a total distance of maybe 50 feet wide on top. Drops right off all the way around. There are also two hills running north-south up there that you need to watch for. I have a humminbird 800 series which is the newer version of the 917C and I like it. Have used the navionics units on some other boats and they seem to be pretty good. That north end is really tricky, I've lost a spoon or two around there! As a rule of thumb I don't go much farther north than the water pump house, that should help you a little till you learn the lay of the land below the water. Good luck! [ Post made via iPhone ]

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Boat is sold

I was right here, but needed the boat through September, figured I would wait to list it . Sorry! I hope your right and it doesnt take long, I dont want to have to winterize and store 2 boats!!!

2002 Grady White Tournament 223 22' long, 8.5' wide 2002 Yamaha 225 four stroke, 311 hours Full canvas, including eisenglass front and sides, canvas bow cover, canvas seat covers Hydraulic trim tabs Upgraded deluxe Pompanette pedestal seats Upgraded seat cushions, including bow backs and bolsters Sony am/fm/cd/mp3 stereo Livewell/baitwell Galvanized Loat Rite tandem axle trailer Lots of other Grady White quality features and accessories This is a very well cared for boat, with very low hours for the age. Boat is stored on a lift in a boathouse during the season--not exposed to sun, rain, wind weather, etc. Stored on trailer in enclosed barn during winter. This is an outstanding inland lake or bay boat, with capability to handle moderate weather on the big lake. Dual purpose fishing/family boat, make everybody happy! You could buy a new one for over $80k, or grab this like-new one for $29k or b/o. Pm for more pics or phone number for info. Thanks.

Any interest in a 2002 Grady White Tournament 223? Original Yamaha 225 4 stroke, 290 hours. Nice clean boat in great shape with a nice load rite galvanized tandem axle trailer. Im in a similar position as you, except I already bought the next boat . I wont be able to let the Grady go until the end of the season, so you have plenty of time to work on selling yours.

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Water is still very high, 5mph speed limit in effect to protect lake property from damage due to boat wakes. Still plenty of debris around also, so be careful.

First thing I would check is the scroll speed, increase it to maximum. That will cause the fish mark to elongate. Check the sensitivity settings and the cone settings. If you just installed the 'ducer, check to see that it is aiming where it should be too. I dont always get true "hooks" but I do get good solid long marks with my 858c.

Yup, what Ray said. 22" and 6-10' behind the ball, or as long as you can handle with the wire diver.

There's been a lot of weeds and other debris floating around for a couple weeks now due to the storms and run-off. Probably snagged em while trolling, that could explain the low catch rate. Sounds like you are in the right depth range, seems to be a ton of fish in the 50-100 range. First thing I would suggest is to slow down, way down. Try 1.8-2.2 mph. Also dont know what you are running for lures, but flasher/fly on the lower rigger and diver rods is good (any kind of green has been hot). Upper rigger or sliders try suttons in size 22, 41, 31, or nk28 green/black. Keep an eye out, there are still some large logs and branches around......

Things were slower today, as expected I guess. Lines didnt even touch liquid until almost 7:30, with a steady North wind blowing and me looking for logs etc from the storms. We went 5 for 9 today, 4 lakers and a smallmouth. Fish were not where they were yesterday, moved in shallower following the bait. The same e-chip and fly took 3 of the 4 lakers on the rigger set at 80', the other came on a dark green/black dreamweaver spoon down 4 colors. Had 3 kids on board, 12, 10 and 8 years old so they were reeling with the rods in the holders not much you can do about that! Earlier start tomorrow, will be on the lake by 5:30 hopefully. Will post results if I get a chance before heading to Sodus for the weekend.

Pretty good day today, nice temps, good company, good fish too going 9 for 13. First lines in at about 6:00, had 3 lakers and a short 'bow in the boat by 7:00 working the North end between German Bros and Tichenor point. Picked up 4 more lakers, another good rainbow and a pickerel before we packed up at 10:00. Yes, I did say a pickerel. He hit on the seth green rig, 2 colors out and second leader down over 180' of water! That was a first for me, and Ive been doing this for better than 20 years. Fleas were real light today which was a bonus. Everything green was good today, light green e-chip and chartreuse/white fly, dark green/black spinny with green/yellow fly off the 175' wire and rigger down 80. Silver/green/white stinger took both rainbows, Sutton 35 bouncing bottom in 110' got the last two lakers. Back at it tomorrow, but a later start in the morning combined with the bad storms today will make it a little tougher going.

A little better fishing today, early bite seems best. Lines in the water at 6:15, first rod to go was the wire out 225, mtn dew spinny and white/purple fly brought a 3lb laker to the boat. Downrigger went next, 140 down with chartreuse paddle and green/yellow fly. Thermocline rig down 5 colors took the next three, 2 smallish lakers and a 15" 'bow on the top leader. Sutton 35 took 2 and a green/white stinger took the bow. Ended up 7 for 8 and was off the lake by 10. Fished all deep water today, 140-190', not a lot of bait around but the deep fish were active finally.

I fished the North end on Friday and Saturday, best action was early. Still bait balls around but not a lot of fish marks. The fleas were really getting bad though. Any line in the water longer than about 20 minutes was covered with them. Several times we had to stop reeling to clear the fleas as they were coming up in 15-20 inch strings. Takes the fun right out of it.....I'll still try it again tomorrow though

cowbells with a peanut or a hemlock spinner and sawbelly/smelt just off the bottom has produced for me. Hemlock and smelt has been a good combo so far this year on the downrigger, set the spinner close to the cowbells-not more than 3-4 ft back. Chartreuse has been best for color on the cowbells.

Finally got out for the first time this year! Got the new Mag 10 and the sub troll hooked up and working, so my first goal was accomplished. Love those Cannon Dual Axis rod holders, man they are awesome !!! Worked the North end for about 3 hours total, including set up time for the sub troll. Fish marks are pretty scarce. Marked some on the bottom in 160 feet and then moved in shallower. We marked more fish in the 100-130 range, near the bottom but occasionally suspended. No bait anywhere. We went 3 for 3 on the lakers, all cookie cutter 3lbs. The first one came on a sutton 35 two colors down over 100 on the seth green rig. The next two fish were on the bottom leader on the other rig, both over about 110 feet, and that was a sutton 71. No hits on either wire dipsey/fly combo and nothing on the new 'rigger either. Beautiful day on the lake and my son and his friend at least got to reel a couple in. Hope to get out some afternoon this week, but definitely Saturday morning. Ill be monitoring 69, so if your out there give me a shout! Dan

Thanks for the tip on Severne, Sean. I have never used that launch, or even knew about it. If I get down there I will let you know how it works out. Oh, and FLX and blkdog; take it easy there kids-play nice or the fish gods might dull all your hooks

Well guys, thanks for the insight but it appears I wont be hitting Seneca this week. I drove over to geneva to check the launch sites and they are all iced in. I thought the North end public launch might be free but its not. The ice is about 3" thick for the length of the dock, then open water. Probably wont take much to get it open, but its not ready just yet. Looks like I might have to give Canandaigua a shot instead! At least the launch at Onanda park is open there. Ill keep you posted if I get out.

I bought two of the depthmaster gold (dmg30) 3 years ago. I drove to the Cabelas in Hamburg Pa so I had the opportunity to check out the standard depthmaster and the gold series. The gold series felt much more solid and smoother so I went with those. I use them for wire dipseys and am really happy with the reels. They are smooth, the linecounter seems to be pretty accurate, the clicker is loud and I am really impressed with the drag. With that said, I have only used them on the finger lakes. I havent had the opportunity to see how they hold up to a 25lb king, but I expect the gold series would be up to the task.

Hey guys, I got the boat out of storage today and hope to hit Seneca later this week for perch. I have fished them in the summer over there, but never this time of year. I know perch fishermen are sometimes more tight lipped than the fish are, but does anyone have some suggestions for me? I will be launching on the North end at the public launch (i hope), and can probably only fish them for a day or two this spring. If the weather is good I will hit anywhere within the first 10 miles of the lake if its worth it. Ive heard glass factory bay and possibly reeds bay, but thats all I know. Fatheads, jigs/spikes or what??? Depth 15-40??? PM me if you dont want everyone else in on it Thanks in advance! Dan

Sadly, no. All of the fish are DOA when they get to shore. They are then measured, weighed and a scale sample is taken to be viewed under a microscope over the winter. They are then opened up to determine gender and mature/immature age class. The stomach is opened and all contents are recorded. They are then disposed of.

I was there when they brought the fish in on 4 of the 7 days. They had some very good nets, and some poor nets. All of the nets were set on the bottom, targeting lake trout, with the exception of one. That net was set high and near shore to try to net sawbellies. They were successful in that endeavor and came in with a net full. I would estimate that they netted over 400 lake trout....one of the mornings I was there they had almost 70 fish, and almost all of them had empty stomachs. All that tells me is that in one part of the lake on one day the fish hadnt fed yet. As a matter of fact, I talked with the DEC biologist on site about why the fishing has been slow this year and his response was "It appears that there is so much food that the fish are gorging themselves and dont need to chase lures or eat as often". As far as bows and browns go, they werent targeting them and as far as I know didnt get any. They did have several nice fish in the 8-10 pound range over the course of the week. All of the fish appeared very healthy and the biologist told me that many of the fish appeared to have larger than average girth compared to the length. What does it all mean? I dont know, but it appears that we have a very healthy fishery from what I saw.

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Hey FLX. The DEC is netting trout mostly, but probably some fleas too! All of their nets are set on the bottom and are only 8 ft tall, so they are targeting lakers. They set the net end closest to shore on the bottom where the thermocline starts, roughly 70ft right now, and run the net straight out into the lake from there. They set one shallow net near shore just North of Menteth the other day and got the sawbellies. They will send some of those to PA to the lab to test for VHS. I dont know how many hundred fish they took out in the last 8 days, but it was a lot. They also took several thousand zebra and quaqa mussels too though! They set up on the North end yesterday, one off the pumphouse, one just South of the dragon wall and two others a little further South on the West side. I couldnt get down there today to see what they caught though...