chowder

Lunch at Kidders sounds pretty good! I'll buy the first round

Well, both batteries are good so I guess I'll have to check DC voltage from the kicker at typical rpms.

I have some issues to deal with as well, hoping to have my charging problem solved by the end of the day today & I should be out Sat or Sun, maybe both, I'll be on 68. Hey Scott, I'll probably have an empty seat on my Islander if yours is still down.

Ray/Glen; I'm suspicious of one of the batteries too and I pulled it out yesterday, planning to check or just replace it and go from there. -Andy

I'm starting to look for a culprit in my charging/ battery setup after having the batteries go dead after trolling w/ my kicker supposedly keeping things charged up. I've got a brand new Yamaha T8 which seemed to keep things charged up for the first 6 trips of the year, but the last 2 times out I've had the riggers, AP & electronics die for lack of juice. Fortunately, I can start the kicker manually if I have to or things would have been a lot worse! I would think that a properly functioning T8 would keep 2 'good' batteries charged for a day of running the riggers,sonar,gps,and auto pilot and that the batteries would then have plenty of snap to start up the main engine to run in?

Here's what I put together Whether you buy or build, it's important to make careful measurements w/ the top up in order to wind up w/ a unit that is easy to get rods in/out of and that the reels are accessible and easy to use. Note the angle of the rod holders- if you make them too steep the rods will hang over the fishing space which is not good (especially if you have a little 19' like mine)

On Saturday I was taught one of life's precious lessons from two 14 year old kids, an electrical problem and a porta potty. My son 'T-bone' and one of his buddies Matt wanted to go fishing on their first day of summer vacation. I'll admit I was whipped from a series of 16 hour days in the tractor trying to finish 2cd cutting and I really wanted to spend most of Sat. napping but when your kids want you to take them fishing- you just gotta pony up and do it! So I get up at 3:15 am (normal 'dairy' time) and rip through 3 hrs of managerial and semi manual tasks, get the kids up and head to the lake. The boys had managed to stay up half the night eating chicken wings and pizza bites so they were in prime condition. I get the boat in the water and get it started up and off we go out of Long Point at about 9:00 am. I get into 225' N of the point, shut down the main,start up the kicker, hit the AP and set some rods. I look at the screen and it's off! I had had some battery issues the last time I was out but charged em b4 going out. Long & short we got no electronics, and no riggers- so much for me impressing these guys w/ an awesome day of fishing! Well, the kicker was running so we decided to fish 'blind' for a bit. I got frustrated and couldn't really get much going and then the boys began to feel the combined effects of little sleep, and too many chicken wings and pizza bites. Neither one wanted to dampen their pride w/ an open air porta potty experience but eventually it became a necessary evil. Without out going into gross details I will only say that these guys totally depleted my stash of bags for the "luggable loo". When it began to rain I figured we probably out to head in before another disaster occured. But what happened next was beautiful! Relieved of their pressing issues, the boys rallied, I somehow found a way to fish with what we had, we drank some ginger ale, teased each other mercilessly, lost a nice bow behind the boat, and bonded in way that I just don't think would have been possible if everything had gone smoothly. We got back to the launch and the boys wanted to know when we could go again, "Tomorrow Dad, can we go again tomorrow? ". Once again I learned that when we go fishing, the fish are not really what we are after... My son Tristan,'T-Bone' ( on the right) with his buddy Matt on the left

10-4 0n the slider leaders! I often find that I can break a sliding cheater leader if it's got much age on it at all. Not exactly sure why this is but I've come to expect it.-Andy

Me & some of my brood will be out tomorrow & I will share dubious down speed info w/ who ever wants it, 68,etc. -Andy

Couple thoughts; 1. I think I would put the 2 HS units in the corners, these will be used a lot of the time and they will save you a lot of time if you use them the most. 2. I would put your coated cable on one of these corner riggers. You don't want to run coated cable on an out down if it's a Cannon- you will have trouble with pulley abrasion as the coated cable rubs at an angle coming up. 3. I think I mentioned it before but, I would consider mounting your corner riggers so they don't stick out too far. This will minimize conflicts w/ a 'hot' fish behind the boat.

Different species have their own temp niches, and different species also go 'out of temp' under different conditions & situations. The temp ranges that different species seem to utilize on LO are not the same on Cayuga, and there seems to some significant differences between different Finger Lakes as well. Although I will admit to being fascinated by down temps/speeds I must say that I don't feel married to any particular 'bible' about temps & speeds. I just think the whole ecosystem of bait/phytoplankton/predator fish,etc is too dynamic and fluid (or I'm just too stupid!) to lend itself to hard & fast rules. Having said this I know of a couple guys who use hard & fast temp rules and they seem to catch a lot more fish than I do. Here's some 'accepted' guide lines for summer fishing; Browns 55-65 Bows (if you can figure this one out YOU ARE A GENIUS) 48-60+ Lakers 44-48 Kings 42-46

Launch at Cayuga State Park (west side), work the developing weed beds up towards the railroad trestles rotating thru spinner baits, different crank baits, and super flukes and Texas/Carolina rigs. You want to find weed beds w/ open pockets. Every part of this end of Cayuga gets worked over pretty hard during the tournaments and weekends, so you need to keep working & moving. Not sure how familiar you are w/ flipping & pitching and techniques like jigging and drop shotting but there is cover and stucture all over up there and down past Frontenac Island (East side) and on over towards Aurora, that lend themselves to these presentations.

Greg, my kids like the fighting belt mentioned above, especially for copper & core. Here's the net we use on Cayuga http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templ ... rch%2Fsear

Here's a point you may want to consider; the farther back you mount the kicker, the harder it's going to be to link it to the I/O so you can steer from the wheel. What happens is that the farther back the kicker is, the more the link arm is moving mostly front to back instead of side to side so it becomes difficult to synchronize the two motors for steering purposes. Just my 2 cents & good luck!

Not too sure about bass fishing in the S. end, but could give you some pointers about the N.end for sure. Maybe somebody can chime in if you are determined to go out of Treman.

Frisco, wait till you get 2 different down speeds at different depths! Especially on LO but on the FLX as well you will encounter several different currents at different depths which will cause the same lure to run very differently at 40' down than at 80' down. It's this situation which causes the "I catch fish only when I'm trolling going this way today" statement. There's a good article about it in this months GLA. I've been running 2 depth raiders since I 'inherited' my 2cd one last year. Mostly I use them to bracket temps but I've also noticed the 2 different down speeds at times as well. There's no such thing as too many gadgets (especially if somebody gives them to you!). -Andy

You guys want to be using 30lb Seaguar floro from your diver to the flasher. The constant twisting is very tough on line. On my rigger spoon rods I use 30lb Ande to a 10-20' stretch of 15-20lb Seaguar floro. On my flasher spoon rods I tie the 30lb Ande right to the flasher. Junctions between main and leader; on every thing except for core & copper I have gone to the Spro micro swivels. Knots are key, use the Palomar. For my steath rigs (slide diver, core,copper- I like to go w/ long (60-100') stretchs of 20lb Seaguar Floro (on long coppers for pulling big flashers I use 30lb Seaguar). Since I started using these leaders two years ago, I've never lost a fish to a break off on the FLX (lots of 13lb+ lakers, 10lb+ browns, & 8lb+ bows & Salmon. I use the same rigs on Lake O and although I've had a few 'freight trains' snap off, those fish were probably 30lb+ Kings and you just are not going to have to deal w/ them on Cayuga. A couple other thoughts; Keep socks on your rods when not in use, I think a lot of leaders and main line abrasions occur when not fishing, especially in trailer boats. Always, always check your leaders by trying to break the line and or knot (don't just feel along the line w/ your fingers-this does not tell you what you need to know). Just my 2 cents! -Andy

I like 6'6" and 7' ugly stiks in ML,M,MH, and H, for riggers,core, and copper. I like the 7' Talora med rigger rod (fast action) w/ a Twili-Tip for wire divers. If I'm running 4 riggers I use 10' Eagle Claw Diver rods for the divers. Only time I really like to use anything over 7' are my flat line/planer rigs, which are 8'6" Eagle Claw Starfire L rods (rated for 6-10lb). I do also use these for running spoons off the riggers on the FLX in the spring for browns and in the fall for Bows, they are also good for 'eyes'. I fish mostly w/ Kids and greenhorns and a 7' rod is much easier for either one to handle. On the other hand I do like to use the 'noodle' rods w/ the light line for browns & bows b/c they are very forgiving w/ the occasional lunker on the other end.-Andy

The old saying still rings true; "If you want something done right then take it to the busiest guy you can find" (that would be Hank). -Andy

I have not been able to get out since June 2cd. At that point it seemed as though the spawn was still in progress (I thought at that point it was winding down). I'm figuring the alewife spawn is done & over at this point but I'm curious if anyone knows where things are at? Hoping to get back on the water Sun. Thanks! -Andy

The welder that does repair work on our farm machinery and I cooked up a design for an arch using the Cannon planer board masts that came w/ boat and it turned out pretty nice, but let me give you a couple words of advice on this whole arch topic; First, it doesn't matter whether you buy one or build one, it will only work well if it is installed w/ proper backing plates on the upper and under side of your deck. Look at this issue 1st b/c the bigger the backers, the more stable the arch is going to be (making and or buying and installing the backer plates can add substantially to the total cost of whatever you do. 2cd, I'm not sure you can really put together a cheaper alternative to the manufactured arch setups unless you have access to 'free' materials and don't charge yourself for, and have a bunch of unspoken for, time spent welding ,getting specs and chasing down 'this , that and the next thing'. 3rd, if you are bound & determined to build one I would consider mounting Berkley plastic rod holders on it. I used them and really like them and at $10/ 3 holders (I used 4 for a total of 12 rods up in the arch) you can't beat the price. Whatever you decide to do you want to include planer reels in the setup- Do it right and do it once! I'll try and find time to get a pic up here of what I put together but again I think maybe a manufactured unit might be the way to go ( because remember; there is no wrath like that of a wife who runs around taking care of all kinds of things while Hubby works on the boat ) -Andy

The shakers are a real 'PITA' on sliders and other presentations in the 40' and up bracket.Cleaning these hitch hikers off high lines is a price you have to pay to 'search' the upper parts of the water column. It's pretty easy to drag these little guys around w/out knowing it - so check your spread frequently (some days are worse than others). Remember Cayuga LLs have to be 18" to be legal. Bigger Salmon and Browns are usually to be found over structure/bait pod combos. I don't typically run baits in just the top part of water I'm working, I like to offer presentations throughout, though this can get tricky over structure. -Andy

Greg, sounds like a pretty good fathers day outing to me . I'm jealous (spent Dad's day chopping 2cd cutting but we should be done soon ) -Andy

Chris, it made my day to know you are back on the water! -Andy

Vic, my thoughts & prayers for you and family. -Andy