Gill-T

You can run your flys with a glow stick as the body instead of beads. It will glow REAL bright. Just thread a piece of clear water line tubing behind the fly head, insert the glow tube and slide the fly down over the glow stick.

When expecting to change lures....Optitackle's duolock snap, married to a spro SOLID ring swivel. If I know what I am using, I just use the spro barrel swivel on the split ring.....less to break...no clasp to open up on you when the big boy hits.

Classic!

I run them a lot. Use a longer leader from the flasher than you would with a fly......three or even four feet if you want. You can use mono instead of a fluorcarbon leader. I like the smaller 3.25" spoons like R&R's, NK's, or Northport Nailers. I run these on Ontario also and placed a steelhead in the ESLO with a chrome e-chip with a blue dolphin/glow cup R&R last year.

In heavy waves I run one pancake deep, and the second ball is a shark or round......no problems tangling with this set up, even with Niagara currents.

My home port is Youngstown, so I fish the bar all year. There are ALWAYS shakers to deal with. The currents and bait there make it an ideal rearing ground for the little ones. I have tried Mag spoons with large siawash hooks.....that just ended up killing more dinks. If I had to pick a pattern that was more for large fish it would be paddles/flies, paddles and whole herring, or size #5 J-plugs. Otherwise, you catch what is bitting.

You answered your own question. They prevent line creepage on the dipsys. You want the drag light enough because wire or braid has no stretch and you will tear hooks out easier than mono, so the releases allow you to keep the drag lighter than normal without the reels bleeding line while trolling...esp. in waves. The releases also help keep wire tight on the reel when fishing is done or when changing a wire swivel.

Since the new no cull rule was designed to save fish during later warm water events, maybe, the Niagara and Orleans should allow culling on the amateur side with the water temps good for releases.

I spent approx. 40 hours on boat projects this weekend, and while cleaning up and organizing my boat wires, I realized I did not have the bare ground wire on my Lowrance fishfinder attached to anything. What should I do with this wire? The wire is too short to run to my behind dash mounts. Do I splice in and run it back to the engine ground or can I just wrap it around any present mounting screws?

Now that actually looks like a Goby. Dreamweaver and NK's version look NOTHING like a Goby.

I hit a 30' log that was submerged just below the water off Niagara, and I was REALLY watching. It broke my drive shaft on the outdrive. The good news is insurance will pay for these things.

I run 30# fireline...no problems with fleas on the west end, but I mostly fish the Niagara water plume which is water from Erie. I would imagine on the east end of the lake with the prevailing SW winds, the fleas get pretty thick over there come summer. Try running the braid off the inside divers and the wire off planer boards to get them away from the downrig lines.

Quality fish!!!!!!

We discussed those old Mag NKs on my boat last year. I still have two left from the early 90's. Thinner, silver face, bronze cup......it will be a sad day when I loose my last two. I wish NK would still produce those blanks.

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.