chowder

A tough day out today! Zip from Longpoint up, crossed to Deans,got a couple smaller browns off Sheldrake. A tremendous T-storm boiled up from no where just as wire and rigger went off, netted the 2cd laker with the first one still stuck in the net . By the time we got the fish in the boat and cleared the lines, etc the situation was pretty grim, howling wind,hail,etc- could not see either side, ran the bilge pump all the way in, shipped a tremendous amount of heavy spray. After securing the boat my youngest son(10) says "Dad, that was cool, I like to be in the thick of the excitement". Yup- no problem...

I have not been over to the lake since 7/14, before all this heavy rain. I am sure some of you hard core Cayuga experts have been out in the past few days, whats happening? We are planning to get over there on Thurs 7/24, probably go out of Meyers.

I am trying to get some info/entry form,etc for 8/2 event- can anybody point me in the right direction? I did pm split shot , have not heard anything back-thanx

We lost both of our dipsy/snubber/flasher+fly rigs to wire breaks yesterday. We got into the lakers pretty good but had tough time at the boat when the tip would fowl with fleas , we tried pulling the mess down the line, reeling a bit more and repeating, but finally ended up shaking the rod some to free up the wire. After 5 such incidents the wire parted on both rods with good fish on. I must admit that on one rod I noticed a couple tiny kinks and I did cut this line out and retied to the snap. Now I have to get new dipsies, snubbers and spindctrs- but worse is the lurking thought that this will happen again if I do not figure out what is going on. Both rods are Okuma blue diamond roller guide- the wire is 30# Malin braid. Both of these rigs had brought in numerous good lakers on previous trips.

Smoke em is right, just did a batch,cooled em & made into a fish hash and its all gone. Pm for simple smoking/hash recipe.

Welcome to the the area, awesome hunting and fishing opportunities abound here! I have lived here for a while but I am just getting into the trolling thing.I am going to try to get to 8/2 Cayuga tourny (see post) as much to meet people I talk to on this site as anything else, unless there is a prize for coming in with an empty livewell. I am not sure what kind of crew I am going to have but if you are going to be between boats or boatless pm me.

I will kick in on this thing, is there a plaque for the biggest tangle?

If I am going to use the leadcore off boards are you kind of locked in to using all the lead core you have on the reel- which is to say, is the board always clipped to the backing? Also, I happen to have 600' roll of 7 strand 30# copper(0.028" dia.) What size reel do you have to have to spool that on,how much copper can an Off Shore (the yellow OR 12)or Church(walleye) handle? I have read that the copper is not hard on guides , is this actually true?

Is the 18# going to hold up if I get into something decent on the big O? Maybe this is a backwards way of asking how much backing I should try to get on. I got a pair of the Okuma CV 45 D, which should hold a bunch of the 30# Power Pro I have for backing , not sure what to do with the 200yd spool of leadcore- cut and go with 15 colors? It seems like if I wanted to go deeper than 15 colors I would be better off with snap weights or going to copper( which I was hoping to avoid till maybe my 2cd trolling season).

I am in the process of setting up two leadcore rigs(10+15 color) with the 18# cabelas line to run out on boards. I just came across a reference to doing this with copper and I was wondering what the advantages are to this technique? Also I was going to use either the blood knot for joining backing/lead core, is this the best choice?

Hey splitshot, how was the bite today(Sat)? We will be trying for an early start out of Meyers tomorrow.

I would like to make an attempt at trolling for lakers in Cayuga. We would probably put in at Meyers. Any specific info like locations,depth,spoon or flasher/fly ccombo would be helpful. Also I haave heard that time of day is important, is this only an early am bite?

I would like to make an attempt at trolling for lakers in Cayuga. Any specific advice would be helpful- Meyers is closest so I would like to put in there . Info on location, speed, depth( or temp @ depth) and spoon and flasher/fly colors would be great- also I have heard that time of day is important, is this a early am bite only?

I got the bulk spool of Ande pink 30#. Should I run a leader with this stuff? How long and what about leader differences for flasher+fly vs. spoon off the rigger?

I got a pair of lc 47s to use on downrigger rods for a first time attempt at the Kings. Whats the best choice for line?

I am planning to head up to Oswego next week. I have never been up before. Are the browns still near shore? My boat is only 16.5 so I will pick as mellow a day as possible. Any specific info would be much appreciated, especially speed, locations(west or east of Oswego?). I am set up for inline boards and or riggers/dipsy rigs. I have a Lake O map in the GPS as well as a paper chart but I do not know where to start looking for fish.

I am not a seasoned expert, however I put a Lowrance 525 C DF in my boat and it sure seems like it has a tremendous amount of capacity for the money(600+transducer). You can try it out online at the Lowrance site by downloading the simulator- you should do this even if you buy one,because by the time you go out the first time with it you will actually know how to use it.

I am planning to go up to Oswego asap. It will be my first trip. This is my first season trolling. I have been using inline boards on Cayuga lake since 4/19 and I would like to try Ontario while the same techniques still have a chance. Where are you guys launching from? Also how far out do you have to go to get a crack at the Kings? My boat is setup with riggers(with temp@depth),and a good gps/sonar but it is only 16.5'. In general how long will the shallow brown bite last up there this year?

It would be really good if you can get something with a 4 stroke vs a 2 stroke because it will idle down way better for trolling.

I cant seem to figure out how to really lock my Cabelas pro-troll plate into the down position. The latch/shear pin goes into the plate, but just at idle my 40 hp Merc 4 stoke pops it up. It seems like I need to put a wedge or a screw driver into the gap to keep it from popping out- anybody have a suggestion?

On wire(trident 7 30#) rig for use with divers is it ok to use a swivel to attach the diver? If so do you tie it or use a crimp?

I have a gas/water smoker that I use for venison,turkey,etc- What I need is some good info (time/temp/mops) for smoking fish. Any help would be great!

Well, my boat is finally ready... I am going to Cayuga tomorrow 4/18. I guess I am going to take Stingers advice and use 2 rods rigged with the baby dipsy divers. Last I heard chartreuse/orange was good . I think I have some smaller silver streaks in that pattern. Should I change depth or lure choice 1st and how long should I try either before making a change - should I make like a whole pass of the southern west shore down past the yacht club at varying distances out? I will probably try to get the short riggers out too-what lures can you run together- will spoons on the little dipsy rods be ok with small rapalas on the riggers or vice versa- Thanks everybody for putting up with my endless greenhorn questions.

I am not sure I understand all the implications of the stretch factor with mono.Will I get poor hooksets and diver action or what? I see the problem with spool capacity- I dont think I can get much over 180 yds of 30" ff on the reel - is this enough for the Finger lakes? Whats are the main things to be prepared for if I tried wire?

I am setting up a couple of dipsy rods (first trolling season for me) and I am not sure what to put on for line. I would like to be flea free so I figured I would put 300 yds of 30# flea flicker on these 9.5 med/heavy rods with the 27lc reels. Besides the fact that I wont get down quite as far with the ff line what are the other disadvantages to this approach. I am probably going to spend most of my time in the Finger lakes (Cayuga 1st) and I really dont feel like I want to deal with wire- I have enough other stuff to figure out.-Thanks for any advice.