Gill-T

Nice to hear you got out Adam, what mag spoons were working?

I agree with everything everyone posted, just wanted to try to simplify the process by thinking in terms of strong winds move the upper layers. The take on the east winds working against the normal current mixing all the water strata, screwing up the fishing is dead on. I do not go fishing on Ontario with a east or northeast wind unless it is a tournament or derby and you have no choice.

You can keep track of how wind and waves effect the water temps, by following N.O.A.A.'s site on the internet. You can pull surface temps and more importantly, look at the temp transects for the lake, which will give you a "slice" view of the water column. Follow it all season and watch what happens to the water at different wind blows. If you don't have a speed and temp monitor, the N.O.A.A. site is a must before heading out. Was that slow enough for you Ray?

Think of light warm water sliding over dense cold water. Think about what happens when a wave hits a shore line. For example, a strong north wind in the summer will push all the warm surface water in towards the south shore. When those waves tumble and mix at the shore the temps get warm from top to bottom. You may have initially the same temps from surface down 90'. Then as those warm surface waters are all pushed off the middle of the lake, the cold deeper layers of the lake further north are now at the surface and begin to push to the south. The result can be 40 degree water right off the shore in the middle of summer. So, when you are fishing the begining of a north blow, you may be fishing on the bottom in 65 degree water, and by the end of the day you could be fishing planer boards with surface baits.

would it be better to strip the insulation off the coated cable before running it thru the clincher? Not sure if that is the issue causing slippage. I am running a s/t probe for first time this year and got my clinchers from Cabela's. Any input above and beyond shown on the LOTSA site would be appreciated.

Studies by oil companies have deducted that the american driver will not change their driving habits until gas hits $4.50 / gallon. Europe and Canada have dealt with these prices for years. We will hit the $4.50/gallon soon. I looked into doing the right thing by getting a diesel tow vehicle and running on biodiesel. I checked the price and biodiesel is 6.75/ga!!!!!!!! It seems the infastructure pipelines for biodiesel don't exist, so it must be brought in by railcar thus jacking up the price. Now, I hear that biodiesel and ethanol demand is causing corn and soy prices to skyrocket and leading to starvation in third world countries. So, what is the answer? The oil companies have us by the balls! With China and India gaining middle class car owners....the problem will get worse. Thank free trade for that!!! If you think the Iraq war is not about oil...I have some snake oil to sell you. My short term answer is to have one tow vehicle and one car that gets good gas mileage to do the run around. You guys that like to fish a lot, and have to tow your vehicle, consider getting a slip. Some you can get as cheap as $900.00. If you drive the small car to the boat, and fish more than eight times a year, then you will save in the end. Trolling motor a must. I troll all day with my Merc 9.9 for twelve bucks. For the professionals......you will have to raise prices. I am sure you deduct your fuel costs. Many pros still troll with the main engine, pulling trolling bags......seriously a trolling motor will pay for itself in three years.

:x :x :x :x My wife was looking at my schedule of fishing events, and informed me matter of factly that we will be attending her cousin's wedding the weekend of the Niagara Pro/Am. Having gotten together a crew, and observer .....plus all the planning.......oh the planning......all to have to cancel!!!!! Oh, well.....family first. I will be at the next three events barring anymore last minute weddings.

How did you deal with your fish boxes and below deck storage?

How did you afford that with your giant spoon fund?

Olcott is open, but the bait has not come in yet. The boats are scatching a fish here and there. All the diving birds are patrolling at the mudline.

I think they would work on Lake O. When I was in Alaska, I rented a small boat to take out for some ocean trolling. The guy renting the equipment offered Penn trolling outfits with dipsy divers/dodger/herring as the method of choice. The wind was blowing 30mph inshore, and there was an outgoing tide. What a mess! At one point the dipsys got ahead of the boat due to the strong tide. We saved the day by ditching the heavy gear and just long lined trolled vibrax spinners on light tackle and lit up the silvers. What a riot. Cohos to 18 lbs on light spinning gear.

I hate the metal retaining clip on the Roemers. I always nervous about dropping it in the drink when rigging as a stacker. Very awkward esp. in waves.

That is a good thought on sliders Ray. The singles on sliders are a lot easier to untangle after netting the fish also.

Trebles kill less fish, and hook up better. Singles work better on certain spoons. I like the action on Savants a lot better with a siawash (it comes with a treble). When running a spoon behind a flasher, run a treble....the extra kicking induced by the flasher makes the lure harder to catch (your hook-up ratio will suffer with a single). When you get a mature on a single siawash, it usually buries deep, and unfortunately the spoon will often get bent to sh*t. Test the spoon dockside. Adding a treble will add weight. You can use this to your advantage.......for example, if you want to run over 3 mph.....maybe a treble is a better option for good lure action because a single/spoon may be flipping over too much at that speed. Conversely, in heavy waves where you have to troll with the waves and with the current, if you strip the spoon down of all unnecessary weight it will stay kicking at resonable speed ( ie. replace treble with siawash single, remove split ring and use duolock swivel.

Break-in with regular oil, then you can use a synthetic.

I was hoping to get some insight when dodgers are deployed instead of flashers. I know dodgers run slower so obviously if you are running a slower program you might chose dodgers over flashers. What about time of year one vs the other? What about time of day? I wonder if the "rules" we make up are just educated guesses. I know last year we took a double on matures where the second fish hit a spin doctor while we throttled down to almost a standstill to make easier to land the 25#er we had on the first rod. This off-season I bought some Optidodgers that I custom painted and would like to know if I should be running these first early in the season when the water is colder and a slower presentation would be better or is it just a crapshoot and I should just deploy both dodgers and flashers and let the fish choose.

Blue Knight .......you really are over the top with your Hotspot plugs.....on ALL of the internet sites.

The lower metal loop on the Roemer...not really a clip, but it has a small bump to keep the line in the release. After a few releases, I found that little bump puts a kink in the line. I am going to try to figure out a way to make the Black's work as a stacker....I just can't find a stacker on the market that I can fall in love with yet.

I think a lot of those takes were with meat by the way the bait rolled. The steelhead was a fly for sure.

I agree, you may be able to reinvent some of the old spoons. Get rid of all the old stickers, and get back to just the blank. You can go on any spoon manufacturer web sites and use the pictures of their color schemes to reproduce on your spoons with new stickers. Lazer flash ladder back stickers, glow crush, hologram die tape etc. etc. will be able to bring your old spoons up to speed with what is working now. Sometimes, your invention will be different enough to what everyone else is using, that you may stumble onto a "hot" pattern all your own. Great for cabin fever.

Did you see it in person or web cam? The live webcam at the falls shows the river free and clear. Modis lake erie sattelite view shows most of the ice is breaking up on Erie, but it is backed-up at Buffalo.

If you run them, don't put extensions off them of wire or mono, just attach the attractor item (grub body, willow-leaf blade, or spoon) to the eye on the spreader bar and you will have less tangle issues. I didn't like the blow back or weight of the rigs. Pop-eye charters I think run a similar rig called a six-pack ( I think).....similar with fish shaped spoons without hooks. I would think if you attached an umbrella rig to the back of a downrigger weight and ran a release 6-8' above with a deep diving stickbait back 20' the bait would settle in behind the rig and stay out of the mess. Blow back will be an issue. I have had downrig hits on mature fish that went straight down.....you will have a serious FUBAR if that happens. Good luck with it......just not for me.

I tried them this past spring. They were a pain in the arse to say the least. I used willow leaf blades on mine. The problems are tipping, tangling, and netting. Not worth the effort IMO.

I have noticed large yachts mooring overnight in the back area at Wilson, near the state launch. Mostly Canadian vessels staying the night before heading back to Toronto. Is this legal? I am wondering in case there are no slips for the Pro/Am....instead of having to re-launch each morning.

That would be awkward as a stacker. You would have to have the release already on the downrigger wire, and then hold it with you hand as you release the ball down until you hit the desired spread from the main line, and then grap two toothpicks and jam them in the holes......all while bouncing in waves? There must be a better way.