chowder
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Everything posted by chowder
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What Gambler said. Also, go with the weighted steel, way easier to work with than copper, though you do really need to go to super braid before you can attach a flouro leader. -
Not usually a huge problem. usually try to do days >30 but even on the real cold ones the lines are usually moving enough in the guides when trolling so that's not a big issue. Not stepping on ice that's formed on deck usually a good idea but have never had much in any critical spot. Very important to drain motors and give a quick start/shutoff. Personally, I keep a bilge pump with leads and hose in a gym bag, stays in house between trips, and never leave tackle, or gear wet and exposed after a trip. Frankly, I think trailering creates more challenges than fishing in the winter -
I've forced my way into T-falls/Cayuga, Lewiston/Niagara River and Bear Creek/Lake Ontario more times than I can count. Finally got a little smarter about transducer casualties and Hank Searles (L&M) installed a sliding transducer mount on the outboard Crestliner last January. It's a pretty slick way of getting transducers out of harm's way when launching thru ice.
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Yeah, me too, I know him from somewhere!
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Never give up
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Aluminum boat recommendations
chowder replied to greenhornet73's topic in Welcome to Lake Ontario United - Fishing Forum
Like most things-The devil is in the details. A hull is not just a hull, dead rise characteristics and how weight distribution is or isn't taken into account, overall length and freeboard make all the difference and so obviously does weight . I have a 245 Crestliner Eagle hardtop IO/kicker that I consider the equal of most glass boats in her class and most days she's more than enough boat- when it's too rough for that boat I am not gonna beat myself to hell in something else. I also have a 2105 Sabre 200 outboard/9.9 kicker that I use on the Niagara, early spring on the Bar and for browns and for walleye on Erie. It's obviously not quite the heavy sea tamer that the 245 hardtop is but it too is more than enough boat for most days( I don't have to pick really carefully). I think you will find there is a big difference between what I will call the late model 'tracker' style of boat and boats with a long standing tradition of structurally superior hull design, significant weight, and high freeboard like Crestliner, Starcraft, Lund , Alumacraft, etc. Not trying to badmouth anybody's boat but look at what guides and charter guys run. Our boats have to be safe and reliable every day. -
Check Dean's landing, maybe Reel Doc will chime in.
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True but weather lately is increasingly favorable for freezing at least the eastern portion of Erie and that's the key! -
Well said! I haven't been over in a week, and now I'm coyote hunting for a bit, but when I was last there, the bite was tough due to Erie has not frozen and the water clarity isn't where it needs to be so the steel are negative and very finicky. It's getting colder now and conditions will likely improve. If/when this occurs the steel and bonus fish will be more active and targeting them where there is less pressure is going to pay dividends. This should enable guys and gals to work slower drifts where they can get a handle on boat control and tapping bottom carefully without risking life, limb, vessel and the safety of others. So, before you go: make yourself familiar with tying sacks with different colors and floats, rig a rod with a bead, and have some other bead colors, get your minnow hooking technique down, and get and learn rigging maglips and other plugs. It's an adventure, but it's not a joke!
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Yes. As it turns out you were right about HDS Gen 3 prices. I found a lightly used HDS Gen 3 9" that came with a total scan transducer (not sure what I'm going to do with that yet). So, my plan now is to leave the HDS Gen 2 9" with the outboard crestliner . The gen 3 9" I will link to the big Gen 3 unit in the wheelhouse of the hardtop crestliner will be connected via ethernet and nmea 2000. The big HDS in the wheelhouse is linked to the autopliot unit and a Airmar TM-260, so I was planning to share that transducer with this new to me HDS 9" in the back of the boat. Since the other component of all this is the addition of a Garmin PanOptix Live setup side by side with the Lowrance HDS, I'm not thinking past the issues I might encounter with TM-260 and the Garmin PS30 sending pulses simultaneously to 2 separate screens (Iam hoping that a huge difference in the frequency of the 2 different transducers will minimize problems)
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LOTSA Salmon School Registration Is Now Open
chowder replied to Instigator's topic in Open Lake Discussion
That last posting was utterly unnecessary. If I wanted to hear uneducated drivel I know where to go to get it. This is a fishing forum not a soap box for your right wing bs. Please focus your thoughts on those of us who actually live here here where the LOTSA event takes place and understand I can't afford to transmit COVID to my 92 year old mother in an assisted living facility because I went to a fishing Expo with people from all over. We, all of us, bear a huge responsibility to everyone else on this- Remember- It's like driving drunk. Just because you want to do it, doesn't make it a good idea or mean it's your right to do it. -
Last year I had contemplated the idea of 'cloning' my HDS gen3 display thats in the wheelhouse of my larger Crestliner with a iPad untill it was pointed out to me by another LOU member that the AP functions were not amoung those that can be controlled by a cloned iPad. So, now I'm wondering if I can network the HDS gen3 in the wheelhouse to a HDS gen2 unit I could make available from my outboard Crestliner. Does anybody know if a HDS gen2 can network with a HDS gen3 to the extent it could run the Lowrance AP from the back of the boat?
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I did just get a great tip about a movable transducer strategy from Shannon Littlefield, who, if you don't know is the regional rep for iTroll iTroll Precision Throttle Controller. His suggestion is to level and mount a piece of Cannon or Bert's track on either boat transom and make up a plate for the transducer so it can be moved like some people move rod holders and trees on the tracks up on the gunnels. I thought this was hell of a good idea! -
I have gotten comfortable enough with my rig (22' Sabre/ 200 Optimax) to go up there but only after help from Vince Periloni (Thrillseeker charters) and others. That's truly treacherous water and there have been fatal accidents. Minimum boat requirements from them that know (not me) is 18'/90Hp. Do not go up there without going there first with an experienced guide. One thing people don't realize about the fast drifts on the lower Niagara is that boat control and being completely organized in terms of your gear are not just a good idea but flat out essential. When you start a fast drift you have to be really ready because seconds later you are either out too deep, oriented wrong, snagged, broken off your sinker or all of the above. Don't try fishing the river green, it's dangerous and frankly pretty complicated.
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Burbot are excellent eating! I picked up 1 trolling off Oswego , wondered if if came from Oneida. We got them there icefishing on and off.
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OMG , I guess so!
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I'm guessing you aren't familiar with the PanOptix technology. The PS30 Transducer is over $1400 alone. I'm a cheap bastard and that's enough to get thinking very 'creatively'.
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That's a very clever and interesting approach, do you deploy that aluminum angle iron when you start fishing or do you have it like that when yer steaming out/in.?
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I'm trying to figure out how to make a Garmin PanOptix system composed of a PS30 transducer and a Echomap 943 XSV into a setup I can transfer from my one boat to the other. The main thing required to accomplish this ,or so it seems, will be to make the transducer movable. Anyway, I saw this thing Transducer Mount – SeaSucker . anybody with experience something like this, or anything like it, I'd like to hear it.
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I have one on my 245 Eagle Hardtop (so the windows are much taller than on your boat). It's on the starboard side not the other, but it may have been installed aftermkt. Actually it needs replacing (stops and goes irregularly) and I'd like one for port glass too so please let me know what works for you and I'll do the same . That boat is totally covered now so nuttin happening there . Very easy to stand up and reach over to wipe my 2105 SST Sabre's windows with a squegee which is good cuz they get really funky hauling it this time of year. -
This is tantalizing! We have caught a pile of whitefish on the reefs on Sturgeon Bay near Green Bay icefishing. The whitefish we target are caught on slider rigs, usually a single small snelled hook on the bottom baited with a minnow, then 12" to a swivel . Above the swivel a 2nd presentation is allowed to slide on the line. typically this is baited with a gulp maggot or similiar profile bait. Alternatives to this arrangement is a meegs jig on the bottom, a rapala jig on the bottom, a small jigging spoon, etc. Sometimes a sabiki rig is used as the slider. Whitefish have a notoriously light pickup on either the main or slider bait and one must be very diligent to get hookups, main line is light Nano. It seems like targeting them in Erie should be more common but despite looking into it, I've heard very little real precise intel. I am going to reacj out to the study noted above and see if I can get some bathymetric information. Oh- another thing ; Whitefish appear to be sensitive to sonar, the hard core guys in Wisconsin discourage using vexilars especially and quite frankly I did at leat as well and usually better when I didnt evn run my Lowrance ice setup. -
As I said in my post, we went to Simcoe twice and were unsuccessful using the Meegs jigs . After talking with folks there it seems like the whitefish bite can be rather fickle on Simcoe. Consequently we shifted our efforts to Sturgeon Bay on Lake Michigan. There is a local operation that has a fish processing line he uses during the fall to process his own catch that is sold commercially. During the ice season he uses the equipment to custom pack icefisherman's catches. He does a brisk business.
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I've been there before, he get's his whitefish from Canada.
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I decided to 'stoke' this discussion because i just discovered it. We go out to Sturgeon Bay in Wisconsin every winter to icefish for Whitefish after 2 trips to Simcoe with poor results using the Meegs jigs and some other presentations.. We like to target them when they are 'on the reefs' in 60-80' fow with what's called a 'dropper rig'. They are a hard fighting fish with a very subtle jig bite. They are feeding mostly on gobies there. I clean them very carefully, rinsing and drying before vacum sealing in Wisconsin and transport back in a large cooler full of snow. i am a Swede and my entire extended family looks forward to my annual smoking of these fish the week before Christmas. I have attempted to figure out where on Erie the Canadians catch Whitefish with no success. If anybody has any hard intel on Lake Erie Whitefish I'd really like to hear about it. I have a part time charter biz for Walleye on Erie, and Trout/Salmon on Ontario. I do keep a Sportsman License for Canadian water.
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I love the days when I can barely keep 2 board lines in the water but doesn't happen enuff. I think you have a good perspective on fishing and life - 'many men fish their whole lives without realizing that it is not the fish that they are truly after' But seriously (or not) , if your gonna only run three lines then make sure you have a shallow spoon rigger and a color and a natural stick off the board lines an let the fish do the talkin bout what they want...
