Sk8man

Me too. It is interesting to me that like on Wicked Tuna folks see bait and marks and on the show they get a hit right after they mark the fish" and folks believe that the stuff they see on the screen is a representative sample of everything that is out there, and that the hits they get (or don't get) are totally related to what they see on the screen. The fact of the matter is that trout and salmon will come horizontally or vertically from way outside the cone of even the widest angle transducer to check out or perhaps actually grab your bait. Think about the 600 copper or the 10 color leadcore where the fish is 100-200 yds (one to two football fields or more) away from the boat when they hit vertically and horizontally. Probably not related to anything on your screen. Marking intermittent bait pods or areas devoid of bait on the screens of depth finders in given areas of a lake the size and depth of Ontario is even more "sketchy". It may possibly be a good indicator of what is in that particular area under the boat or near it, but to generalize it to the entire length, breadth, and volumn of the lake is not realistic nor is it any type of representation of the general state of things out there. A lot of people also forget that there are many species out there not just trout and salmon and they too show up on the screen (or don't)

We were out in front of channel but off to the west of the spread of boats starting out in 100 ft. Didn't mark much but saw a couple small pods of bait suspended about 60 ft down over 205 ft. Headed NW all the way out to 597 ft. without seeing much on the screen but a few skippies along the way. Got a king about 10 lbs in 545 ft on Spin Doc and white home made fly. Took a bunch of brief hard shots on the 300 copper sinking the board with a Dreamweaver Blue Leopard magnum but they were "hit n runs". A few downrigger releases that looked as though they were hitting the slider and maybe either grabbing the spoon wrong or getting some initial slack and they too were " hit n runs") Went through a lot of water without seeing much. My buddies off to the west of Hughes scored some good ones way out deep about our depth. We saw a bunch of boats early in front of the channel but they all spread out and none were left when we came back in in the afternoon and we only saw two out past us in deeper water so I think everyone was "looking" for them yesterday

Fishing out of Sodus yesterday we had several skippies and some were taking magnum Dreamweavers off a 300 copper....spoon nearly the size of the fish

ifishy is right I used to have 2 manual Riviera 4 foot boom riggers with swivel bases clamped to the bench seat of my little Whaler worked fine.

Probably remove the cleats from the corners and locate the cleats on the gunwale near the corner (i.e. in front of it) and beef up the corners underneath with aluminum plate. and brace if necessary. Then probably another triangular shaped 1/4 inch thickplate across the corner wide enough to support a rigger base and then mount a swivel base on each through bolted and mount the riggers (I'd get the extendable booms both to give you some options and for later on if you decide to go to a larger craft and the swivel bases will help when docking etc.) to them at both corners of the transom.With the swivel bases you'd be able to choose the angle preferred as well as avoid the possibility of getting into your motor with the wire on a real steep turn. That's pretty much "off the cuff from just the pics" It is always wise before permanently mounting anything to actually get inside the boat with the equipment you intend to run and check out out all the spacing and angles to make sure you don't have conflicts. If you need more height with the riggers locate them on pedestals but I wouldn't go too high as the center of gravity will possibly change.

They can be anywhere out there but often this time of year they can be out deep suspended in the middle portion of the lake. One of the difficulties here is that the recreational boaters are out in force during the weekend especially and this is the height of the tourist season. I don't even bother messing around here until after Labor Day or even into October/November. If you only have the dipsys for equipment you still may be able to use long leaders of fluoro say about 30 ft long or so but you will have to hand line in the fish which takes a bit of experience to do successfully consistently especially if you are fishing solo. Run them up high in that 40-50 ft range. If you have spinning rods with 10 lb test of so you could long line for rainbows with heavier weight spoons with weight attached to get you down (even if you had to load up a bunch of big split shot about 3 or 4 foot up the line from the lure but inline trolling weights would be better). The thermocline should be about 40-70 ft right now (haven't been out in many weeks now here) so you probably need to get down to about 40 ft or so but they will come up for something if they are hungry and interested. Need to troll 2.5 - 3.2 or so most of the time with a lot of turns and increases and decreases in speed.

Dan you may have trouble getting rainbows or browns on this lake using just dipsy set-ups. although the bigger fish may grab them occasionally they are most consistent for lakers on Canandaigua. Most of the rainbows and browns are caught on riggers or leadcore/coppers out here where the lures are running farther away from the boat and turbulence. If you really want to catch them you'll probably have to diversify your spread. Trouthunters advice is on the mark.

milk and egg bath and then a mixture of Panko seasoned bread crumbs and finely crushed Ritz crackers along with a little garlic and dill spice added

Back in the eighties (when I was even crazier than I am now) I used to chase steelies out in the shipping lane in my 13 foot Whaler and the foreign crewmen of the barges and ships would point and give the gesture for craziness to me as they had 23 foot boats for their dingies on board. Anyway, one day while out there way beyond being able to see shore with only a CB radio (totally useless for the situation) I saw the sky all of a sudden become dark and threatening to the west with dark clouds and lightning coming from them off in the distance toward Rochester. I picked up my 2 downrigger lines and and cranked up my 35 horse Johnson (had a 4 horse kicker too but would have been useless) as the wind came up nearly knocking me over in the boat and the waves started building. The waves became so big as I went along trying to reach shore that the only option was going full tilt from one wave crest to another (boat ran about 39 mph top end) and I was airborne most of the time with the prop winding high RPMswhen it came out of the water. When I arrived back at the Sodus Bay lighthouse the waves were going way over the pier and were hitting the lighthouse. There were people standing toward the shore end of it and they were clapping for me and hooting and hollering seeing me in that little boat as the big boats (30 ft or more) were struggling to get back in. I had about 3-6 or more inches of rain water in the boat, was white knuckled from the trip, and soaked but alive at least. On the news later they said that 12 ft. waves accompanied the storm there. It would have made a great ad for Whalers if someone had been video taping the arrival at the pier. That experience is the reason that I would never own another boat than a Whaler (despite an element of superstition in that decision perhaps). True story and the one time I have been truly scared to death out there.

Yep. The Pine Valleys worked well on Seneca, Cayuga, and Keuka (back when it was good fishing there). My buddy HOP on here knows those spoons very well and I believe he used to test them out for the guy that made them. Those look like the old ones too if I'm not mistaken. Send Hop a PM and he can probably give you the full scoop on them. I'm pretty sure he used every one of them at one time or another

you too.

Got to be quick Stix......quite a bargain right there. You're too dangerous on the Fingers even without them Stan