chowder

Thinking about Sodus out of the Coast Guard launch w/ the 16' tomorrow. Noaa has the wind pretty good from the south but I think I should be ok fishing the shallows. Any advice from anybody who has been out of there would be appreciated. Thanks! -Andy

This what I'm talking about.

Anybody used this technique for lakers around the bar. Seems like it has the potential to combine the reaction strike action of jigging w/ plastics to the advantages of drifting w/ minnows.

I have 2 aluminum boats, an Islander and a 165 Alumacraft. I have APs in both boats and troll a fair amount alone. I believe you will have a learning curve to deal with when trolling these type of craft, alone w/ an AP engaged but eventually you will figure out the nuances of boat control. Like Rolmops said above, sandbags in the nose of the Islander,etc. One trick I use is to deploy a set of large planer boards when the wind is variable, seems to make the boat wander less & pilot compensates much less often.

Nice going!

Some fish! Nice work.

I pull the big boards from Auroralites and I use Spectra from Amish Outfitters. https://amishoutfitters.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=5&products_id=96&zenid=2e8673774ef090b57c6755f5fe6b47bf

Scott, not much of an antennae in the lil boat, sorry! Heading back out to Niagara/Bar end of next week. Good luck on Cayuga! -Andy

Wound up lingering over breakfast/conversation at Collegetown bagels till 9:00. Launched at Treman solo. Tremendous amount of debris on the east side for quite aways up kept me from setting lines out on the planers. took 2 smaller browns off a chute, flat line pulling a bright yozuri. Water did not have as good color when the debris cleared up but set out mix of bright & blk silver stix and dodged the mooring floats. Hit a couple more smaller browns on the outside lines on blk/silver. As I approached another raft of debris up near the salt plant I decided to cross the lake & check out deeper water. Crossed the lake running the flat lines + 2 spoon riggers @ 50'/75' a wire dipsy ff down 80' and a slide diver/ spoon setup @ 40'. This program was ineffective and didn't see much on the screen (except some deep bait & locked up lakers down 200'). I pulled the deep stuff and ran the planer program heading north on the west side for about 1/2 hour w/ nothing to show for it. Pulled in the stuff and shot up just south of AES. Reset the shallow program in the warmest water I had yet seen, 37.7. Again my outside bl/silver line hit a brown. I switched up my outside lines to a 2 color core and a 3/4 oz snap weight ahead of jointed blk/silver rapalas and these setups immediately yielded a pair of browns. After passing the plant I turned around but the same program was a no go. Moved out to 80' and put out a broken back herring on the 70' rigger and wire dipsy ff combo on the other side. Popped a couple lakers on the rigger, nothing on the wire. Really nice day to be out!

Way to go Pete!

I picked up a Okuma High speed 400' spooled w/ blood run copper at Narby's late last summer (the copper bite was hot and the penn gti was wearing us out) It is a pleasure to use and much easier to keep up with a king that decides to charge the boat! -Andy

Go with 2 separate units. You will be glad you did!

I put 200# sand as far up & low as I could go in my Islander. Made a huge difference!. Rebalanced it when I added the kicker. It's still a little, tin boat, but it handles and comes out of the hole better. -Andy

Raymarine SportPilot in my 165 Alumacraft. Simrad 14 in my Islander. Can not imagine fishing w/out an AP. You learn what they can can & can't do but to be honest w/ you there isn't much they can't do especially if you run a set of Auroralite boards which really help to stabilize smaller boats (and let you run more lines!)

After what I've seen launching on the Niagara this week, I'd have to say we usually have a pretty clean shot at the FLX ramps.

Pretty rugged today (Sat ). Only 1 drift on the Canadian side that held fish where we could get a good drift and everybody was in there so we quit early. Launch was completely covered with giant pieces of pack ice when we got back in. Major job getting the boat out but got it done. Looking forward to 'Blackend Steelhead' tonite!