chowder

I'm always ready to fix stuff w/ the 'fire wrench' too! Good to see you made it happen & that what happened is going on the grill -Mission Accomplished! -Andy

Solo style this morning on Cayuga. Very intense action from T-Falls to Sheldrake. I put the divers away after the first lakers went into the box. Just ran spoon riggers and later 1 rigger & one 6 or 8 color. Nice mixed bag today w/ some real good fighting salmon, 1 crazy bow on a cheater and way too many lakers to count. As usual a lot of short salmon on everything I ran as well...I'll be back tomorrow w/ my posse but look out, I think my radio is toasted! -Andy

I might be solo. Shoot me a pm if you want to get out. I'll be launching from Myers @ around 5:30 or so.

Launching out of Myers both days, not sure when but gotta get out of here & out on the water, it's been over a month! I'll be on 68, Blue/White Starcraft Islander 'Emily'. -Andy

250'+ power pro. Make sure you got a big enough reel if you are making a 10+ color rig!

Divers w/ ff combos and riggers w/ ff combos behind short leads are very effective presentations for aggressive fish. If you are catching more fish on spoons, especially w/ long leads or on copper & core then either you are not in the right zone w/ the divers & ff riggers or the fish may not be as aggressively feeding. There is tons of sonic 'signature' w/ flasher combos behind a delivery device (diver or rigger weight) and aggressive fish will often be very attracted to these presentations. Less active and negative fish will often ignore or even be spooked by a 'noisy' presentation but may smack a spoon, stick, or crank especially if its back away from a weight or diver or on core or copper. Now, If you are getting hit on ffs off riggers & not the wires then I would have to think the wires are not where they need to be. Well, that's my 2 cents anyway, might be just a bunch of B.S. -Andy

Get this book, read the whole thing & then go back & read the chapter for the season you are in. http://www.amazon.com/Great-Lakes-Salmo ... 522&sr=8-1 Then book a charter w/ one of the best guys in the area you plan to fish the most-it will greatly shorten the learning curve and really flesh out the book (and even though it's few bucks look at it as the best way to maximize the huge investment you have all ready made in all that gear). -Andy

New LOU-ALL rule: All licensed charter captains must compete in the pro division.

I have no opinion on rules for weighing in fish for the simple reason that I do not have a set schedule of 'time off', so I don't attempt to fish in any of the Ontario tournaments but Elliot & I would like to fish again in the LOU-ALL and hopefully we can make it over at some point in the day! -Andy

There are at least 2 species(or subspecies) of these critters. The Finger lakes species are worse and there are times when they truly makes things unbearable and I just stop running lighter high lines for cheaters etc. On the other hand, the species I typically run into on Ontario (around Port Bay/Sodus) are not near as hard to get off the line as they typically slough off at the top guide. Both species seem to come & go due to factors that seem difficult for me to understand but start anytime now and seem to peak sometime in July/Aug. Sometimes they come & go more than once in the season.

Sounds like a good time with Dad to me! As Ben said, the north end concentration of active lakers will start to dissolve very soon, it's time to really start watching down temp for masses of cold & warmer water and begin to search the mid lake areas.Without having been out since the B&B, I would imagine that the lake is trying to set up and will probably change a lot from day to day, especially if the wind is variable. -Andy

P.S. Ray, we need to go fishing together again soon! I could really use some comic relief.

WTG Tim! We probably won't be up that way till the week b4 labor day weekend or so but maybe we'll catch up then.Kindest regards to you and the better half. -Andy

hmm... are we starting another round of this? P.S. It's 'politician'

Tremendous report from the Bow Squad!. I got to spend that same morning going over mid year projections with my man at the bank, gee I'm not sure whether I would rather have been out on the lake with that kind of action or staring at pages of squiddy lines of numbers.

We are planning an unprecedented 5+ day stay w/ my wife's mom in Lockport at the end of the month or early in July and we will take the Islander out with us. I'm planning to fish where stuff is happening but I need some pointers to get the thinking process rolling, like; 1.) direction to head in for what species,etc 2.) Likely depth range/temp zone to start in 3.) likely speed ranges & some good setup choices. Thank you. -Andy

Thanks for the heads up on temp situation. Sounds like you just crushed em,WTG!

I also use Tim's strategy of raising the rigger w/ out popping the release when you want to clear a cheated line, it's a good tip. One pretty important thing I don't think I saw mentioned above is the need to respond very quickly to a trip on a cheated rigger rod. There is a lot of slack in a slider & you need to get that line tight quickly if the strike is on the cheater. In general I like to reel down on any rigger fish w/ the rod in the holder as long as it is located in a spot that's easy to crank on and then remove it from the holder just as I'm approaching a tight line. If you are king fishing I like this cuz sometimes I need to loosen the drag a bit on my rigger reels if I had em set too tight to keep them from creeping out line, and having the rod in the holder gives me a free hand. Mark, on the FLX, a lot of times a non fixed slider will out fish a fixed cheater, especially on LLs that are out of temp, and they are much easier to use if you are fishing alone w/out an a AP. On Ontario I usually use Roemer Liberators to fix the cheater so I can bracket temp zones precisely. Good luck & don't be afraid to experiment! -Andy

Nice multispecies mission

Outstanding as usual!

Have a good one Mister! -Andy

Woody, good to see you are out & after em! I like to hear steel reports, can't wait! I still owe you a jigging mission & I'm almost freed up a little. -Andy

I'm sure there is nothing wrong with fishing a lot but there is certainly nothing wrong with putting your family's needs first either. Speaking for myself, I'm putting in 100 to 120 hours a week right now but when I get done with 1st cutting & get caught up with other stuff and get back on the water with the kids I know I will truly enjoy it. Family, work, and some recreational time = a balancing act (screw it up brothers and the road back from that place looks like a long one).

I fish w/ my 3 boys often (13-17). They are not all fishing all the time by a long shot but I try hard not to over do the fishing when the fishing ain't happenin - when things are really 'off', they (and I) start a chorus " Dad sucks, Dad sucks",etc - the focus changes to who ever is running the program. Even when the fishing is on you need to remember you are all sharing each others time and space so I always do the following little things; 1.) XM is key, check out each others music interests (I'm learning stuff about 'dub step' that is very cool!) 2.) We always make lunch on the water (something about cutting boards, smoked goose breast, sour dough bread and ranch dressing balanced here and there just goads reluctant fish into action) 3,) Always keep a good pair of binos on board - my crew is always intrigued by a flesh colored bikini (mind boggling true story from last weekend) or even just some weird looking boat. 4.) Cayuga lake creamery (or some kind of good ice cream) after the fishin is done. 5.) board games & a deck of cards. 5.) Let em pick the spoons n' flashers. 6.) I always grill burgers & make real russet potato fries for dinner after we get home (it's all about identifying fishing with other good stuff!)

Super nice silvers Sean!