Knotlost

Not sure about the rest but I use rubberbands for releases when fishing this way. Its hard to know how much pull will be on your lines and with rubberbands you just add them till you get the hold you want. I like running dipsy divers off mono with all kinds of lures mainly stick baits with the big lips, dipsy takes it down a ways then the lure dives below that (I use a 8 foot leader from the dipsy to the lure). But with current i cant get any other release to work all the time.

I have tried the trolling plates they are worse than bad, horrible is an understatement in my opinion. I also have a set of bags, and they work good. You don't need probably as big a bag as you think, two smaller ones will do more and give you more control than one great big one, like another poster stated get the one with the rope that goes to the bottom of the bag. I now have a kicker, 9.9 Yamaha and it is hands down the best way, but it would depend on how much lake time you get to make it worth it. I'm out on it allot and no insurance is worth what that kicker give me fishing. One other thing is if you have any fouling problems get some of the Bosch platinum 2 spark plugs at walmart and put them in your boat, that will help in a major way, and no they will not hurt your motor just get the right size.

I have been out several times and out to 150 feet its very sporadic, you can pick up one once in a while, right at the bottom, making me believe they are laker's, but there has not been anything consistent that I have found. I would try west of the port and out in deeper waters. I will probably go out to 200 to 400 feet and look next time I go out, but I want nice conditions for that. I have had no luck at all with the kings yet.

Boat sales are exceptionaly bad, right now you can get amazing deals on used boat, boats that are not used much that is. You would be paying dimes on dollars to buy one thats a few years old from they guys I have talked to.

There seems to me a lot of them this year, I would say that 85% of all the browns I have caught have Lamprey marks on them and we have had 2 on the boat after landing the host, both got killed before going back into the lake.

another way to do it is to use a downrigger weight, with a leader running off the back of the ball about 10 feet, then clip on the diver, and your line with lures. The diver will run below the weight keeping the weight safe from bottoming out. I heard this idia from the guys that troll in the finger lakes where the depths change extreemly fast.

Yes im sorry it is a fish hawk, fish fox just sounded right.... thanks for the info. Im realy hope we can do better with the kings this year.

What are the temps that Im looking for when fishing for... Steelheads Kings Lakers I just got my new fishfox and fish out of oswego mainly so what exactly am I looking for? thanks..

I just put a fish hawk on my boat and it works great, real happy no complaints. I have never used the other brands but I can say this one worked good the first time out.

First make up a rub, of brown sugar and Tony's seasoning or some other Cajun seasoning that you like (Tony's is a little salty, I make my own rub, and BBQ sauce, I got from the Smoking meat forum owner for a small donation that was well worth it). Mix the rub and brown sugar to you taste then take the de-boned filet's and coat both sides generously. Let them set if you can for as long as you can, now you can put them right on the grill but any time you can leave them to absorb the flavor is a bonus. Then put them on a hot grill, we have put down Alum foil on the grill and other times we didn't and both ways were fine, (I prefer using no foil and getting some grill marks on the fish and letting it dry out just a bit, as it can be ridiculously juicy) just make sure if you put down foil you poke a bunch of holes in it. You grill it until done, and some times you need to flip the brown trout to finish it so it cooks even. From start to finish if your not wanting to waist any time you can be eating in 25 Min's or less doing this. If you want to kick it up a notch cook it with some smoke! I use a smoker or put a smoking dish on the flames of the grill with some hickory in it to smoke up the grill and its crazy good! PK

That video is not rigged, its been out for a while, and it was made by Evenrude. The Etec is really that good. No one makes motors like bombardier especially in the 2 stroke category.

Fishing Report Your Name / Boat Name: Dive wench ============== TRIP OVERVIEW ============== Date(s): 4/19 Time on Water: 730am Weather/Temp: Wind Speed/Direction: out of the north Waves: 1 to 2 Surface Temp: 46 Location: east of Oswego LAT/LONG (GPS Cords): =============== FISHING RESULTS =============== Total Hits: 10 Total Boated:7 Species Breakdown: Brows Hot Lure:1/2 on stick bait red and green and 1/2 green and silver spoons Trolling Speed: 2.5 Down Speed: 6 Boat Depth: 8 Lure Depth: ==================== SUMMARY & FURTHER DETAILS Was an awsome day, although it was choppy. to choppy for me to run the planer boards so we just flatlined and used the riggers. ====================

Thanks for the report, it shure makes me want to go. Im thinking of planning a trip next year.

Im currious as to what you have found out? IM in the same boat

I have an etec (60hp) on my boat, and run it at very low ideal setting decoys and it never miss a beat, its real powerful uses very little oil, really you can not tell hardly its not a 4 stroke. It has wicked power and I remember run mine in the most miserable conditions there are and very cold, it starts at 20 deg all the time in an instance. All around best motor I ever have had and I have had a few. I can say or find one bad thing to say other than the price is high but its worth it, I would buy another.

Those are fine reels, and will work for years. The Sealine are more reel and more$ so your just getting what you pay for. Rod length is preference but I like a 8'-6" or longer off the planer boards just because I can navigate the lines around one another easier but I have seen guys use 6' rods with no problem. You will be fine with any of those pole combos.

What chowder said is dead right.

It should be mandatory for each fisherman who goes out on the lake fishing shoot one of these miserable nasty creatures. I don't know what "study" they found that said they don't eat salable fish, but its wrong. I have dove for years and seen plenty of them catch perch, bass, and others that were not golbys. But seriously, they should open it up to the duck hunters to be able to shoot 2 or three as there daily bag limit, just to help control them and protect the environment. They now have DEC guys that chase them on Oneida lake to harass them to leave and go back to the big O. The government gets very little right, as its run by bureaucrats not real humans.

I feel your pain Ray, I'm waiting on a 9.9 yama kicker as well and I have been told that they will not be here realistically until about the 24th of April! owch.... At least it will be plenty warm enough to mount it out side.

You dont have to do all that pulling of the distributor, just pull the plugs, put a little oil in the cylinders let set a bit, then without putting the plugs back in just turn it over (with new oil) and let it spin for a bit. That will slop enough oil around so you will not hurt it once you do start it. Check the belts for "set" it will look like the belt wants to circle the pully even though its between the pullys, thats telling you the belts life is short. But they may be just fine, so dont over anilize it.

In my opinion remember I'm not trying to insult anyone, but the problem is it over complicates the break system. If you get a good break controller it will break the boat like it should be braked, very simply with . Now with that said sometimes people don't know how a trailer should break (the trailer brakes should come on just before the tow vehicle) and that little "bump" some people don't like, where an experienced driver is looking for the "feel of breaks coming on" so he knows all is right in the system. The other systems work, but have way to many parts and dozens of extra fail points. I have seen the hydraulic breaks go wrong in about a dozen different ways, but most common is the system gets contaminated by water. I'm not sure why but it seems like after they get 3 to 4 years on them they all leak both ways - oil out and water in. In my opinion they don't make them durable enough for the out door elements on the long hall. They are fine for 3 years thats all the warranty worries about it seems like to me. I if you have the perfect storage out of the sun, and rain, and are one of these guys that baby's your gear, it may last a long time. I don't baby anything, and want a system that needs no babying and the electric are the ticket for almost everything. all my trailers live out side permanently.

If anyone is converting going to electric is the best reasonable choice. I think the electric over hydraulic is a bad idea. I have a big history in the trailer industry, and have no idea how many trailer breaks I have worked on, but here is some truth. With breaks the application will dictate what style of breaks needed. The best break is the simplest one that suits its application. Most people have only limited experience with 2 or 3 systems on just a few application's for both, so its very limited experience at best. I would bet most people only have experience with 2 types on 3 trailers. There are many systems that have been used with all sorts of results from great to poor. But any break system will not be working like new for long, so what system is the best once its well used? That makes it easy electric for everything until you get into weights that need air breaks. Everything Else is junk in my opinion, with that said a bunch of crazy combinations have worked, sometimes for some, but not in a way that gives any real advantage to the puller. But they are overly complex and every failure point is a weakness. Now if anyone comes up with a story of how breaks made a "GREAT big DIFFERENCE" I will bet they were pulling to much load with to little of a tow vehicle. Do not compensate with a break system for a out sized tow vehicle. Keep your breaking system simple with electric breaks and a good quality break controller, that makes a big difference. You get what you pay for with break controllers so don't try to save a bunch one one. With a good break controller and electric breaks on any boat trailer you have a perfect system for the right sized towing vehicle and no break system will do a better job any more efficiently, don't let anyone kid you. Then spend the money on lures and have fun. Just my opinions, not trying to insult anyones boat trailer or preferences.

I think I'm going to buy a merc 9.9 pro kicker set up, my question is what one? I have several options.. 1. Plane Kicker with no controls and rig my own controls. 2. A kicker with full controls from merc. But I'm not sure what this is or how much these options cost. Mercs remote steer and Throttle control are they any good, how do they work? Are they hard to set up? I'm leaning toward this one but its 600$ more than the one with a tiller steer and no electric tilt option. I like the tilt option this one has. I have no Idea what the factory merc controls are or how they work. The $600 is just the difference in the motors (tilt included) I would still have to buy the controls from merc for this model, I'm not sure they are worth it, but thinking this model is. I would like to hear from anyone who know anything about these, and there set up. I do know that I'm going to solid mount it to the back of my custom built dive platform on my Starcraft Islander (I can weld aluminum, so I will build my own). The boat has an IO on it as well, if that help with advice. If anyone knows of some place that sells them at good prices I'm looking as well, so far the only place I can find is Bass Pro. thanks for any who take the time to answer.

I have been not only a fisher man, but a scuba diver, who dives allot. I have logged hundreds of hours under water a year diving, and I can tell you the single biggest thing I see underwater is the the same cycle every year. When the time for little fish (minnows) are hatched in the shallows and weeds you will see allot of them, fairly healthy numbers about 5 years ago (its getting smaller). Once the minnows get about 2 to 3 inches long (very small predation up until this time) the cormorants can see them better and thats when the predation starts, as the year progresses you see the fish number (its easy to see the years hatch-lings from the rest of the fish) slowly disappear, and by November you are luck to see any minnows, or by now the small fish from the last years hatch. Now if you spend enough time under water you see whats eating them, and its the Ducks - Cormorants and they can eat 5 to 10 fish a day each! They make any other predator look ridiculous in comparison, and I have seen them go down to 30+ feet and swim fast as any fish and catch them. The will catch any fish less than 6 inches long. There is a huge gap in fish size because of this, you see small fish and then big fish but in the arias where there are allot of fish (there are always cormorants present) you will notice this size range very thin. What is happening is the big fish that are laying eggs are keeping the waters alive but when they die off there isn't hardly any to take there place, there being caught by the colorants before they can get big enough to lay good hatches. If you think the predation is by some other fish, thats a entertaining thought sitting in a chair or making up things in a class room, but when you dive in the aria where these smaller fish are, (I have spend hours in the shallows decompressing from dives) the bigger fish that would eat them don't exist, they have been eaten by the cormorants. So thats what the kids in school tell you but its not true, the cormorants are really doing a number on the sub-breeding size fish. It may be interesting to some to know that gobys stay right on the bottom, almost all the time, very very rarely have I ever seen one in the water column off the bottom more than 12 inches, normally within an inch of the bottom. The cormorants normal feed on the fish in the water column from 16 inches off the bottom and up, so I'm not sure if they find any gobys in cormorants but it would be interesting to know, as I have never seen a cormorant get a goby. I would bet if they do eat gobys they only get them in the real shallow water as they are very hard to see from the surface in water thats over 6 feet. I believe the best advantage to the rivers is the aria available for fish to hid from them is increased a million fold. The best help we could give the fish is a way to hide from the ducks until they get to a size the cormorants don't like. By the way I have never noticed how the zebra mussels have hurt the fish, not one way by observation is it noticeable, other than the fact the cormorants can see them better, but it also has made seaweed grow to give them cover in the shallows. So it hurt them in the water over 20' where the weeds don't give protection, but helps in shallows where it can. Anyway I know my observations do not account for everything but they are what they are; draw your own conclusions, but if you tell me the Cormorants are not causing any noticeable effect on the fish population your flat out wrong. I believe they are by far the single largest problem on the lake. P Komrowski

I have never fished cut bait, how dose one go about using it?