Sk8man

It would seem that if you leave the skin on and the fish is considerably over the minimum length when you fillet it leaving the fillet to be larger than the minimum length you shouldbe OK. You can't dispose of the rest of the carcass or entrails anywhere near or on shoreline though. I think the main concern is to be able to identify the species and that it meets the minimum length requirement.

Regardless of the actual number of entrants and the poor fishing for many entrants the new committee is to be commended for paying out the money and honoring their commitment to the derby. It was the toughest derby I have ever fished in terms of results out of the more than 40 of the Seneca derbies I have fished. Seneca is in a questionable state right now and I'm sure that the increasingly difficult fishing over the past few years was a large component of the decrease in entrants. I also think that the committee may need to look at the advertising component to see what else can be done to entice people to fish the derby from this point on. Those of us that fish the Finger Lakes would be well advised to become more involved in doing whatever we can to support the derby as well (e.g. notifying anyone we know that might be interested or on our email address lists etc. The derby is a wonderful family bonding experience (e.g. many families and friends camp at Sampson etc.) and has a number of positives attached to it aside from just catching the fish or the prize money. I certainly hope the derby continues into the future and the lake recovers and returns to more productive fishing....but in both regards patience and understanding will be required. One of the revelations I had this time was that possibly the playing field may have been leveled a bit and lady luck may have a bigger role now in the derby because despite all the fancy gear, very knowledgeable fishermen using the latest techniques, you still had to somehow run across an interested fish and when thing are thin out there everyone may be a little more dependent on luck being the deciding factor so the person in the little rented boat or kid fishing with his Zebco may have an increased chance of pulling it off

Look where 58 degree water intersects with the bottom especially where a dropoff occurs.

18 -24 inches from end of loop to hooks depending on what I target

Just another option but you may be able to pick up a couple Diawa 27H or 47 H's on here inexpensively and go with either the Daiwa Wilderness or Okuma GLT's. The reels have decent line capacity for using boards etc. and good drags and work well for fishing eyes. Both those rods have pretty flexible tips for detecting light hits. The 47H's can also double for salmon use n case you needed extra lines..

They are usually an "incidental" catch on Lake O but they also usually have some size to them when you do get them trolling for salmon and steelies. Although they are most closely related to browns their habits on the Finger Lakes at least are more like rainbow trout in both places Lake O and the Fingers in fact. They roam around alot... part of their nature and it is probably why most are caught trolling rather than say stillfishing. Although they are most often caught in the first 100 ft from the surface sometimes they can be found in "Lakerland". Most of the time having your lines set way back and out to the side (e.g. outriggers or boards) is most productive as in out of the turbulance and motor noise varying your trolling speed and making turns. They seem to be fond of orange, green, chartreuse, purple and black and silver spoons in Seneca and Cayuga but they also like stickbaits trolled back a ways (e.g. on leadcore or 200-300 coppers especially off boards). They can be vulnerable as well to sliders on riggers with lightweight flutter spoons.Light fluoro leaders can help on the Fingers as with browns but is more risky on Lake O when the kings are active.This might help get you started

I'm pretty sure they will work then. Usually the herring are prepared to stiffen up by various methods. If artificials work then something like that with natural scent should. certainly worth a try.

Ah OK I haven't used them that way. Are you actually able to get fresh sardines anywhere but near salt water? I should think canned ones would be way too mushy to try. I've used sardines live and dead in salt water with various rigs but not meat rigs per se for salmon. .

You might want to specify exactly for what type of fishing I know your name might suggest a use but not sure if that is your question

Why not just run from a separate 3 gas tank and eliminate the problem?

Check your PM Mike

Cool thx

Thanks guys I have a bunch of different mounting gadgets including the paint stick one. Question I have is how do you know whether it is focused on the right area when it is up there as I can't get up that high in my baot without a ladder?

I'm with Brian on this. One important difference between this guy and the average guy on the street doing it is that by signing on for and getting his Captains license he is held to a different standard because in that the position he holds a degree of public trust and credentials of professionalism (as does say a teacher) and he violated both aspects.

Kinda like biting the head off a herring ...