Pete Collin

Mike, I fished Saturday afternoon on Canandaigua. Wanted an early launch but the rain kept me off until 2:00. Trolled from Whisky Point north. Got a big hit that I missed, then soon after i got a nice 23 inch rainbow. This year I get more rainbows than lakers on that lake, and they come deep. With the rigger at 80 feet, rainbows are all i get. I am marking lakers on the bottom in 180 feet and up. With 12 colors of leadcore out, i got a smallmouth. So those fish are way down there this year. Can't wait for fall when things pick up and we don't have to fry in the heat every day. Pete Collin

Hello All, Busy, busy summer - with a week spent in California at my brother's wedding - has kept me off the water for almost 2 months. (saw a guy catch a big halibut off the pier in Seal Beach!) I began at the south end running a "two lines deep, one line shallow" program at medium speeds to try and cover my bases. Three rainbow trout into the morning, I ditched the deep lines and had 2 leadcores and a downrigger to go after the eager silvers. I was marking lakers on the bottom in 180 feet. At that depth, they can stay down there! Got 6 fish in all up to 25 inches. They pulled hard and jumped for me. I have never had rainbows turn the tables on the lake trout like that before. Might have to explore this further! Pete Collin www.pcforestry.com

I just got in from working. I wanted to join you tomorrow, but I am feeling pretty dead right now. A 3:00 wakeup call won't work for tomorrow!

When are you launching/quitting?

Indian, An idea....if you want to practice under low-stress conditions, why not find a buoy or some other stationary object, and practice pulling alongside it? That way you're not dealing with launch traffic. Be mindful of where the buoy's anchor line is so you won't wind it around the prop. I used to have trailer-backing anxiety, especially on busy days. Eventually I got used to it. Pete Collin

Flatfish are great for slow trolling lakers.

Mike, Nice to see you online again!

Just to weigh in. I have a 16 foot deep V. I take it on all the fingers. Watch the weather and don't go out if it calls for more than 15 mph of wind. I have ventured on Lake Ontario but I feel way too vulnerable out there. One day I trolled "O" in 3 foot waves and just felt really beat up by the end of the day.

Nice video, but boy my ears are ringing!!!

Snap weights will keep weeds from working their way down to the lure. Clip them on way ahead of the leader.

Sometimes you will hook a fish somewhere on its body. This makes it so you don't feel the typical throbbing, and you have to pull a fish sideways to get it in. So a small fish will feel big, and a big fish is very hard to bring in at all.

Nice job Chris! Those browns are a treat when you get them.

Nothing like a fishing derby to make a guy disappointed about 2 - 5 pound lakers! Glad you made it out despite the weather. If you ever need an extra man on your boat this year, let me know! Pete http://www.pcforestry.com

Nice job, idn! It's always fun to be in that stage of learning fishing where every catch is a treasure.

Steelydan, The Ambassadeur is my favorite jigging reel too. Reliable, and a million cheap used ones out there to choose from.

Is this Alec? I wonder how you have been! Good to see you are still fishing. It was your very detailed jigging tutorial that got me started, and I have reaped some nice benefits. Baitcasters, it seems, are quirky. I have owned 2 reels, by different makers, that had the annoying problem where the anti-reverse would not always engage, causing snarls and lost fish. One of the 2 was a fairly high quality reel. I had to quit using either one because it was too much bother. In your case, I suppose if you troll with it, you could start off on a light drag setting and increase it as needed. Take Care, Pete www.pcforestry.com

Jonboy, Don't give up on the flashers and flies, they can work magic. When I am trolling, I like to have different kinds of lures on my rods: a spoon on one, a F/F on the other, a plug on another. If you have located the fish, they will tell you which one they like. they can be funny. For example, I love using flatfish type lures for lakers. Last year, it was all I could do to get a strike on one. You can't argue with them. If they like one type of lure consistenly, switch the rest of your rods to that lure. I wonder if finding fish was your problem during those 20 attempts. they can't bite if they ain't there. Pete Collin www.pcforestry.com

Captain, I use those cheap little clip bells on my SG rods. The smallest fish will jingle them. I started using them so I wouldn't have to keep looking backwards, I can watch the graph and where I am going. www.pcforestry.com

A yearling doe, maybe? They get a shaggy, ragamuffin look to them this time of year as they shed their winter coat and change to their orange summer coat.

Yes, Dbutts, my boat has seen better days. The previous owner must have trashed it. But it has been an excellent fishing boat for the last 5 years, and the main motor is utterly reliable. I would love to tear it down to the hull and start over, but I would have to sacrifice an entire fishing season for that. And working on it in the winter in my unheated space wouldn't do. I'll probably resort to a quick and dirty fix to the decking.

Hello All, All the posts about landlocked salmon have intrigued me. In my life, that is one species that I haven't caught anywhere near enough of. For the last few years I had so much fun getting lakers that I didn't try for much else. And you won't get much else by chance. So I decided to spend a couple of days in Watkins Glen hoping to get the biggest landlocked salmon of my life. (that isn't saying much). I didn't really know what I was doing. All I knew is to go shallower and faster. With my 3 lines I was covering 15, 30, and 55 foot depths. Friday night I found the 15 foot (3 color) lead core with small rapala was a fingerling killer. Every time I checked for weeds there would be some poor 9 incher attached. The 30 foot dipsy was left alone. And the 55 foot downrigger gave me fits. It kept popping and I would keep losing whatever was attached. Twice it seemed like there was something big on. When fate finally let me reel one all the way in, it was a 19 inch salmon. Not the biggest I ever got, but I'll take it! I had assumed that it would tailwalk like other salmon I had hooked elsewhere and years ago, but not so. Maybe the water has to warm up yet. Cloudless sunny days aren't my favorite fishing weather, but I figured the early hours of the following morning were a better bet. I camped at the KOA in Watkins Glen. "Pitch your tent by the pond," the lady who checked me in said. "It's really nice over there." It was in fact very nice. It also turns out that nesting geese honk all night long. No problem rousing myself early. So today I had my lines out at the crack of dawn in the places where the missed strikes came yesterday. Pretty quiet morning, really. Got my standard dragged fingerling on the leadcore, but otherwise not a tap......until the dandy hit. Not the biggest landlock like I was after, but the biggest brown I ever got in the Finger lakes! About a 6 or 7 pounder. Anything that compares with a Lake Ontario fish is alright with me. Watkins Glen was pretty busy with fishing boats today. They were trolling pretty much the same places I was, so maybe the trick is simply to be there when they are biting. Pete Collin http://www.pcforestry.com

I slow troll, successfully, with spin doctors all the time. There are 2 holes on the front of it that the swivel clips into. The front one is for a fast, the one behind it is for a slow troll. Pete Collin http://www.pcforestry.com

The most prevalent brands are Cortland and Mason. Both are fine. Most people get either 18 lb or 27 lb. Supposedly the lead core is the same weight in either. Which would mean the lighter line, in theory would get just a little deeper due to lesser water resistance. I have caught fish on either. 10 colors is a good amount to go by. Depends if it will fit on your reel. The slower you go, the deeper it will be presented. As a guide, I have slow trolled 10 colors in 60 feet of water and scraped bottom. Rule of thumb is one color gives 5 feet of depth. This will vary greatly with speed and how often you make turns. In practice you are likely presenting at a range of 5 feet up and down from your target depth. Put backing on if it will fit on the reel. Loop-to-loop connections work fine. Bear this in mind: ANY amount of weeds will mess you up. If you put a snap weight well ahead of the lure, it may catch the few strands of weeds that work their way down the line. But midsummer, you may become frustrated with lead core.

Steve, How far are you from ithaca? You could join me in my boat for some jigging.

idn, I have had some success jigging Canandaigua, so I will tell you what I know. First of all, Canandaigua is by far the most difficult lake to jig, so know that when you venture out. It has a lower population of fish than the other lakes, and you have already experienced the challenges of keeping your boat at the desired contour. On Keuka, Seneca, and Cayuga, there are large spots the size of several football fields where fish hold for months at a time. you drive out to these spots, throw out a drift bag, watch your graph, and jig until you drift out of the productive water. Pull in the bag, motor back upwind, and repeat the process. Cnandaigua Lake fish don't conentrate anywhere near as much. Sometimes they aren't bottom oriented at all, and the big expanse of deep water is a lot to swallow whole. if you discover that lakers are sitting on the bottom at a particualr depth, here is what you do. Get a bow mounted electric motor. If the wind is out of the west, get on the protected side of the lake. If the wind is blowing down the lake, throw your drift bag out the stern of your boat and use the electric to nudge yourself back into your target depth. Work yourself down a length of shoreline. In the fall it gets way easier on Canandigua because the fish get bottom oriented. you will have an advantage over guys trolling with downriggers, because they fear snagging bottom of that steep-sided lake. Good luck, and post your progress on this board. Seriously, if you want to be easier on yourself jig the other lakes to get used to the feel of the techique. Pete Collin http://www.pcforestry.com