Pete Collin

Mike, You guys are gluttons for punishment! I had to work Sunday and we saw snow where I was. Glad you got some nice fish to reward your braving the elements. Pete

I'm in western NY

Hi. I need spin doctor flashers, or a similar type. Color not important. If you have a good sized batch you want to get rid, of, I will buy them all. Pete

Hello All, I must admit I was confident as I head to Woodville this morning. It is my favorite time of year on that lake, I knew where the fish were, and the weather conditions were perfect - slight south wind and partial overcast. threat of rain that never came while I was out there. I have been banging at rainbow trout, but didn't want to miss out on the lake trout bonanza. So I ran two bottom bumping rigs and a lead core with a rapala to start. I figured i would troll my way along a contour until I reached the big rainbow spot and then switch to a rainbow trout program. My first fish came quickly and led to a small disaster. The tiptop of that rod is a roller guide that needs replacing. The line got pinched between the roller and frame as I went to land the fish, and it caused a breakoff of the 1 pound meatball plus my last spin doctor. Poor fish is down there dragging around a ball and chain. Re-rigging a Seth Green setup takes a long time and isn't fun while piloting a boat. The leadcore fired with a dink brownie. Since there were no more spin doctors to use, I rummaged a big paddle-type flasher to put ahead of my fly. The fly was kind of special. A relative of my Mom's was a commercial fly tier. When I was nine, he gave my brothers and me a big pile of flies, among which were some tandem hooked trolling flies. I have a few of them still. This was one of very few times I trolled with them. I hoped the paddle would work as well as a spin doctor. Next fish was a lovely 18 inch rainbow. Aha - catch a laker, and I will have my very first grand slam. Next fish was another brown - a bit bigger, maybe 16 inches. I can count on one hand the number of brown trout I caught on Canandaigua before, so that was kind of cool. So here I am targetting lake trout and 3 of my first 4 fish are browns and rainbows! I quickly trolled my way into a big group of lakers, and the action began. They were all big - 20 to 26 inches, and hungry. I had a double at one point. It's a wierd kind of triage, deciding which rod has the bigger fish to reel in first! Nearing one big point, i hooked one and cut the wheel deeper to concentrate on the battle. Right after that release, came the BIG BITE out in deep water. It hit that antique fly from my childhood (what am I saying?) and we had some give-and-take with the drag. It was a 26 ich rainbow, a tie for my biggest in the finger lakes, that hit the BOTTOM leader, 60 foot down. I can't get over how fat they are this year! I went back to the concentration of lakers and tried jigging. They weren't that responsive, but I did get a 26 inch laker that really swallowed the lure. I went back to trolling through the same pod, and got 3 fish before making it out the other side. I quit around 1:30. I expect no sympathy whatsoever when i tell you that I caught so many they threw my back out. Pretty hunched up and sore right now. I landed 12 fish and lost several others. That's a lot of times to lean way over the gunwales, pulling those heavy rods out of the holders with thrashing fish. No wonder it hasn't happened before, tweaking my spine like this. Still, one of my best days ever on Canandaigua. I bet they would have kept on biting until dark. So there was one last really cool thing to happen today. i see jumping fish on the fingers all the time. Most often, they don't show themselves and you wonder what it was that made the boil. Every so often I will see a small salmon or rainbow jump clear of the surface. On my way in, while under full throttle, a big rainbow, maybe 5 pounds, did a fantastic "Free Willy" style of arcing jump, two feet high, right in front of me. What a show! Pete Collin http://www.pcforestry.com

Choo-choo, Is this Steve R. who took me on an awesome drift down the Deleware? I haven't seen you since Stothard's funeral! How is everything? Pete

Hello All, I was going to launch yesterday at sunrise, but when the alarm went off, I couldn't get roused. Saturday my wife and I went down to help her brother, who lives near Owego, clean up after having been flooded. His street looked like a smaller version of Hurricane Katrina. Anyway, I was too exhausted to wake up at 4 AM. Launched in Woodville at noon. Woodville is pretty busy now that they are the only public access to the whole lake. Many pleasure boaters out and about. I wanted to target the rainbows because they have been biting so well lately. Ran a two leadcore and one downrigger program. Got a bite right away from a 16 inch rainbow on an orange Mooselook Wobbler. Wanted to test the "bright day, bright lure" motto. Went some time without another strike. Got to the spot where we hosed them last weekend and had another hit on the same leadcore rig. He came off halfway to the boat. I had a couple of taps that didn't stay on, when I made a discovery about my new kicker motor. It has a small internal tank. When trolling lakers, I can put-put along all morning at a mile an hour from just that little bit of gas. So I got in the habit of leaving the external tank home to save space. Well there is a big difference in fuel consumption when you are going 2.5 MPH for rainbows! So I was a little suprised when she dried up and stalled after a couple of hours. My main motor is a fuel hog, so I opted to jig for a while. While bringing in the lines, I discovered a very dead baby rainbow that I had been dragging around. Pity. It seems like all the lakers have come in along the 55-70 foot contour. Just about anywhere on the lake you will find bottom-hugging blips at that depth. This is typical for fall on Canandaigua. Makes finding the lakers much easier. I got chases and taps, but couldn't connect, save for a spunky smallmouth bass that hit when I came in a bit shallow. Lakers hate calm cloudless weather, and I didn't have much confidence or patience. It is a lot of work keeping your boat in that narrow corridor. So i went back to fast trolling, off the main motor this time. got quite a few hits that came off. The downrigger was very active this time. Had a dalmatian spin doctor with a "Grey Ghost" fly behind it. (Mike, if you are reading this, a Grey Ghost was in that packet of flies I gave you. Google it for a picture. It is a popular pattern.) Finally got a very fat 18 inch rainbow, then a real nice 21 incher that zoomed all over the place and ripped drag. I was ready for a big rally, and the action just quit. With so many other kinds of fishing, you get a big burst of action right as the sun goes down. With Finger lakes trout, they never seem to do much once the sun comes off the water. Strange. So I didn't get the huge rainbows everybody else seems to be getting, but that's OK. For so long I targetted the lake trout, so it's a bit quaint to catch the prettier and harder fighting rainbows. It's refreshing to use something other than Seth Green rigs for a while, too. There's plenty of fall left! Pete Collin http://www.pcforestry.com

Brett, You sure know how to get the rainbows! Pete

Mike and Kurt, Thank you again for an awesome day! These message boards are a great way to hook up with fellow Finger Lakes enthusiasts. I told Mike that it was a strange sensation finding myself on his boat using his gear after several years reading his posts and seeing his pictures. That big fat copper line reel is rather unique and I have seen many shots of people cranking in that heavy rig to land a big one. Today was my turn! I never knew that Canandaigua could yeild such wonderful rainbow trout. Between our trip and Brett's yesterday, we might have to forsake the lakers for a little while. Mike, your photos are just as good if not better than what I took on my camera. No need for me to add more. This is truly one of my most exciting and enjoyable days on the Finger lakes. Mike's boat is way bigger and comfier than mine - it's like fishing out of a limousine. I hope we get to form a rainbow posse again this fall! Pete Collin http://www.pcforestry.com

I saw the pix of those monsters you got. Amazing. I haven't had a stellar season. But I have a few reports on Sander's board if you want to see what me and my boat have been up to.

Brett, Glad to see you are getting some good fish this year. I thought of you the other day when there was a tornado warning in your area. Haven't heard anything since, so i guess nothing happened except for thunder and lightning. Pete Collin www.pcforestry.com

You can mail order from Sutton. I ordered a bunch of spring clips from them over the phone, because I am always towing a boat through Naples and there's nowhere to park! www.pcforestry.com

Hello All, I didn't think I was acting any different, but my wife said to me Saturday, "Will you PLEASE go fishing!!! You're being miserable!!" The weather this spring has made it tough for anybody to get out and do much of anything. Yesterday (Sunday) I got up, read some reports of fast action of Seneca from the previous day, and decided to torment my wife no more. Never mind that I'd miss the good early morning bite. I bought a brand new kicker motor that I was dying to play with, and it was time to go. I have never launched at Severne before and have always wanted to try it. If you were to draw a straight line from me to Seneca, Severne is the closest launch. But like any east-west trip in the finger lakes, there are many big hills to pull and the odd body of water in your path. It did take me through some really scenic country that I hadn't travelled much. The dock at the launch was a few inches underwater: A helpful guy offered to operate my truck and park it while I drove the boat off the trailer, then he threw me the keys. Funny how i trusted a complete stranger with the keys to my truck but he seemed like a nice guy and , hell, his rig was worth about 10 times what mine is! On the return trip, I had to remove my shoes and socks and roll up my pant legs to bring it in. The water is still so cold it hurts. There were lakers on the bottom in 100 feet. Not a lot, but enough to make it interesting. I got 2 up to 25 inches and lost 2 that felt so big that I wondered what I had on. You know when you get a laker that physically wears you out by the time you get it to the boat? One of those fish was only 10 feet under the prop wash before it broke me off. I never got to see it and my shrink says I will someday come to terms with the loss. Those two big strikes made me pretty trigger happy. So later when I snagged somebody's copper line, I was ready to believe it was a 10 foot sturgeon that was ripping the line out! All these reports of people's success with landlocked salmon and brown trout have been intriguing. I rarely targeted either species. There was all day to play around, so the Seth Green rigs were switched to a lead core and a flat line behind a planer board. Within an hour, I got a very satisfying strike followed by a jump: 21 inches. My first Seneca brown and biggest Finger Lakes brown. The only trout I got in the Fingers, for the most part, were flukes that came while targetting lakers. Always cool when you reach the epiphany, "hey- this stuff actually works!" You get away from your launch point pretty quickly when doing a fast troll. I decided to troll into the brisk wind back to Severne. Not the best idea. You couldn't take your hand off the wheel for a second. So when a brute of a smallmouth hit, it was bedlam in the boat for a couple of minutes: Amazing how that critter jumped and fought in 42 degree water! So I am very pleased with the new motor. I can troll at idle speed without stalling, and peg the throttle so my speed won't creep. No more fatigue in the rope-pulling arm. And my fuel consumption is almost non existent! So I didn't catch a boatload, and my last minute decision to go kept me from taking anybody along. But at least my wife can stand me now. Especially tonight when I serve fresh broiled brown trout filet for dinner! Pete Collin http://www.pcforestry.com

In general, it is a good idea to add rings to spoons that have none. The idea is that the drilled hole has microscopic metal burrs along the inside edge that will fray your line over time. If you are trolling, you always want a ball bearing swivel attaching it anyway. Pete Collin www.pcforestry.com

Someday gas prices may get so that we ALL go old school!

I am intrigued that you troll from a rowboat. I have always wondered if the rhythm of paddle strokes would get more strikes. Do you have a speedometer to gauge your rowing speed? Do you row mainly with the wind? how long do your arms hold out? As far as your breakoffs are concerned, there is definitely something wrong. I run 15 pound mono on my seth green rigs and RARELY break anything off - and when I do, it is usually when it is thrashing beside the boat with very little slack. And dipsy rods usually have plenty of spring to cushion headshakes. i think you must have some old or frayed line, or maybe you locked the drag on you reel. Pete