cdgn troller

Nice fish! have heard alot of reports of big browns and big rainbows this year from canandaigua. I can attest to several good browns this year.

Pete, nice to you see you join the forum. I find alot more info here than sanders!

Ray and Billy, that is great info. This is my first year using flies and have good success, but you always want to be better! I also have 2 new wire dipsey rods but haven't used them. I'm afraid that my plastic pivoting cannon rod holders will break if a big fish hits! which leads into my next dilema, which rod holder setup to install! I need to get this house bought so I can start hiding money from the wife! Thinking back on the fish that I lost, they were all really good fish, and I think Ray hit it right on the head, over excited fisherman! Does anybody run the smaller peanut flies? I've had really good luck but again, one treble and a few shake offs. thanks again guys!

Ray, i also trim the fly when i take out a bead or two, so the hook is in the right place, my preference is a little smaller fly. I should of stated that I fish the fingerlakes mostly. But do you think that a lighter line would produce more fish?

I was wondering who reties their flies with lighter fluoro? I have retied many of my flies, mainly to take a bead or 2 out and make them shorter, I really have not used a fly that I have not altered in some way, or one with the 50# fluoro. Does the weight of the line make a difference? Also I have been losing alot of fish on the spindoctor/fly combo, they all have a single treble hook, it feels like its pulling out. Any suggestions or has somebody had this issue and figured it out.

Sean, just wondering what depth your finding the bait at?

lavarock, thats a great fish!, what did it weight? from the pic it looks 9-10 lbs.

just curious why almost everyone picks cayuga lake for the trout fishing. if you compare the weight of the fish from the seneca derby to the weight of the fish from the past few years in the red cross derby, the seneca fish are bigger. Is it because most of you guys fish cayuga mostly or maybe because seneca just had a derby, just curious.

haven't fished this derby in a few years, but if the closing of our house doesn't happen by then, I'll be fishing. Just wondering who will be fishing and what lake? I also finally installed a radio so I'll can listen to all the fish stories on 68!

some of the committe members and contributors are talking about adding a 2nd and 3rd place to the brown and rainbow division! I belong to the club that donates the rainbow prize and we will be bringing it to our club for support! It was brought up at the awards ceremony and sparked some interest.

thinking about staying at the t-falls campsite for the Red Cross Derby. Just wondering if anybody has stayed there or knows of a better campsite close by. I've never been there or even on the lake for that matter, any info would be great!

is it worth the money?

Mongo, I just talk to Tom Mitchell with the rainbow and he doesn't have a digital photo of the fish. Are on the derby committee? Tom is and I'm sure he can get you a pic by next year.

I'm looking to buy a new depthfinder. anybody have or heard anything about the lowrance hd-5?

FLX, would love to go, but during the week is out the question right now. if you have an open seat on a sunday i'm in! it's always good to see how other guys are doing things, never can stop learning!

Mongo no problem with using my picture. I can get a pic of the rainbow. Tom is in my conservation club. do you want me to email it or just post in this site?

callahan, i see your port is seagers, does your boat have a name? Just wondering if I saw anybody out their. What kind of boat do you have FLX?

believe it or not, the brown came on a tamiron spoon with an 1oz snap weight in 90-100fow, which was the same set and lure that we caught the rainbow in the seneca derby. (it's my new favorite lure!) we actually fished deeper due the boat traffic, btw the fisherman in this derby were the most inconsiderate out of all the derbies I've ever fished in! We stayed in about 80-120 fow, lakers in the bottom 20 with sd and flies. browns came on the top. No rainbows this year, we were trolling to slow I think. I put a new distributor in my boat and adjusted the timing myself and I've got the boat to idle slow enough w/out having to use the happytroller, but is faster than i was trolling last year. we have been running about 1.8-2.2. I really think we should of slowed to 1.1-1.4 and i think we could have got a few more lakers. FLX i think the good fishing on this lake has pasted us by. in past years the last 2 weeks of may and the first week of june is usually the best, for me at least. typically between those weeks you will have 20+ fish days often. this lake gets overused by boaters and the fish move deep. dont get me wrong we still do good, but you can only fish till about 10 on the weekends. need to play hooky and go during the week! if your new to the lake let me know, I know the lake well and its got tough contours in close, easy to lose gear, but due to experience I've found most of them!

here are the final results

we'll I must have a horseshoe around my neck this year. fished in three derbies and have 2 seconds and now a first! We caught the biggest brown of the derby 10.48. Caught him first this thing Sat at 6am on the north end. people must of thought we were crazy, because there was alot of high fives and hooting going on! we fished the north end all weekend with 12 fish and 3 lost on Sat, with one being another brown very close in size to the one landed. this fish charged the boat after jumping 4 times, turned west, ripped line off the reel, jumped at about 20 ft behind the boat, and spit the lure at us. we fished Sun with 2 caught, 3 lost and 1 on till 50ft behind boat and then the leader broke. not a bad derby but the fishing was slower than usual. my buddy from high got second with a laker 12.86. btw the kid in the picture with laker was on the boat when his dad caught that 18lber. I saw pics, awesome fish!

I wasn't taking anything away from the fish, anything over 10 is a nice fish! As for the story I finally saw it. What a fish!

you can probably still catch some lakers in about 30-40 fow with the boards. I like to use smaller spoons with about an oz weight, at 1.8-2.5 makes them run about 10-15 down. in the seneca derby, blue j9's were catching fish. we caught two lakers in the seneca derby on top lines in 200fow.

hey mongo, that story of an 18lb, i hear that every year from someone about this lake, but no one can ever produce the fish. if you ever go into capt grays bait shop, some oldtimer will tell you about the 18lb laker just caught. They tried to show me a 14lb last year, that they had in the freezer, I told the guy that it was no more than 10, maybe 11 and that i had a digital scale in my boat, that pretty much ended the conversation! hey cheers, 10.5.

if you can't download a form, they are at Roy's marina in geneva, the chamber in geneva, yates county chamber in penn yan, the beverage center in penn yan, suttons spoon co. in naples, seagar's marina, sutters marina, and capt grays bait shop and the chamber in canandaigua, pelican point marina on the east side is taking registrations till 8pm on friday, the outdoor store in bloomfield. that should pretty much cover someplace close to where you might live.

I'll be there, don't have a radio though. Where are you launching out of? doesn't matter you fish the whole lake from whereever you launch. I'll be keeping my boat at my grandparents house on the east side right next to pelican point marina. Good luck and don't be surprised if you see a 14lb laker win it. Rememer you can enter any fish for the $1000 prise, not just lakers. A brown has won it and placed second a few times in the past few years.