Sk8man

I think Skipper19 said it all and injecting some humor is a good idea here too. This issue kinda reminds me of some perch fishermen I knew on Seneca....."Hey you're taking MY fish"

I was kinda wondering that myself and is one ofthe reasons I posted.....wanted to get others take on it.

Pretty cool Cody Wish I lived closer.

I'll be eternally grateful to him although he did bust me rather severely by putting a sign on the back of his huge cooler (which sits on a swim platform on the back of his boat that everyone can see for miles) that read "Les' Savior"

Dead Perch in Lake Michigan http://www.foxnews.com/great-outdoors/2017/04/12/dead-perch-washing-up-in-lake-michigan-by-thousands.html

Rusty you bring up some really good points of concern. Unfortunately I am not an outboard mechanic. Mine is a 135 Merc Optimax 2 stroke. The primary time I troll with it is if the wind cranks up and the 9.9 becomes marginal in the wind/waves without really pushing it. I have tried to keep the hours down on the big motor. The fact that the oil isn't mixing with the gas sure could be a different case with the 4 stroke. My 2 stroke will troll down to1.8-1.9 at 550 rpms but I norlmally like to troll at about 620-680 and I know the oil injection makes automatic adjudtments for the slower speed etc. In 2013 I had the impeller go on my 135 during a derby and the winds were gusting at 40-45 mph. My 2 stroke 9.9 couldn't overcome the wind and I could have been totally at the mercy of the waves ending up miles and miles from where I launched or even crashing into the shoreline. I couldn't even anchor effectively in shallow water with 40 pounds of anchor to try to ride out the wind. Luckily, my buddy Admiral Byrd was out there too in his Penn Yan and saved our butts by towing me back about 16 miles to the launch. I have towed folks in the past but that was the first time being towed myself and hopefully the last. The moral of the story is even with two motors you can get caught short out there and total reliance on just one engine or perhaps in this even case on two can get sketchy. Although this is a bit embarrassing to talk about after spending the majority of my life out on the water....the point is it can happen to ANYONE and hopefully sharing the experience here might help someone avoid the same thing. You can NEVER totally rely on any engine while out there and always have to keep in the back of your mind "options". I now include carrying a tow rope on my boat too . Mother nature can be relentless and very unforgiving.

Seems as though there are a lot of "value judgments" going on here. It is akin to the issue of catch and release. These fish are described as a "resource" in various contexts. Resources can be used in many ways some popular and some no so popular but whether a person chooses to eat a fish or use it for another purpose (say feeding salmon to your dog team in preparation for the Iditerod) it should be up to that person . As long as a fish is harvested legally and not over harvested or disposed of improperly it should be up to the person catching it what they choose to do with it. I'm sure many folks would have a BIG problem if for examplethe government were to tell you what to do with the fish and it is no different. By the way many commercial fertilizers for plants and flowers contain fish components

Pretty good result for just "practicing" Chris

Believe it or not I caught one out in nearly the middle of Seneca lake on a flutter spoon via the Seth Green and down about 80 ft. They are a really peculiar fish True story.

BossHoss I think maybe pap thought you meant $9000 for a trailer when he looked at the wording that came before the price

Best of luck with your situation Frank.....you sure have the sympathy of the rest of us. Most of us boaters have been through stuff and it is never fun being surprised by stuff like that let alone the financial end of it. Lets hope thisends up being a "blessing in disguise"

I think I'd be thinking twice about removing the kicker if it works well for two reasons: 1. safety - having a backup motor at this time of the year when sometimes there aren't many folks out there is smart , and 2. your big motor wasn't really designed for slow trolling for hour after hour and will probably "load up" at some point giving you potential problems and the kicker should be better on gas.Just something to think about.....

Just a couple of additional things to the good info above. As you can see from the depths mentioned the strategy of fishing just one particular depth regardless of where you are in the lake is of limited value - especially at his time of the year as much of the bait is deep yet and that will primarily guide their locations. Lakers are creatures of habit but they are also opportunists with a somewhat varied diet. At this point in the season some of the big ones may venture into shallower water to scrounge because they don't fear other predators (such as big pike in the Finger Lakes that they actively compete with in the shallows) but for the most part groups of lakers can be found out deeper especially around any bait (which is often very bottom oriented at this time and sometimes present but hard to see on many depth finders) and the lakers are most often also found very near the bottom as well because of this rather than suspended as they can be in the warmer water temps. So this pretty much guides the strategy. You may want to start out at the 70 ft mentioned and work outward on diagonals from there to the 2 hundred range and then back with your setups very near bottom (e.g. peanuts and Spin N Glows behind cowbells) or downrigger weights with short leads on the setups. They are often curious about any commotion near bottom probably thinking it is an active school of bait on the move or something.

I may be mistaken but I think the Switchfire Max mode is using standard CHIRP technology

Kinda depends on the wind direction that day too. A stiff southwest wind and the ride with be bumpy from Sampson but not from Severne. If out of the north the opposite may be true

I don't believe it is available anymore.

Severne at Severne Point and Roy's Marina south of Geneva. There used to be a private one right in Dresden for smaller baots at a cottage there but I don't think is there to be used by the public anymore.

DELETED info. big mistake.. intended as PM ....guess I'd better pay closer attention to what I'm doing.

Canandaigua is high but not like Seneca and Cayuga

Region 8 went out in February or at least that is when they were dated. It was a while ago

Nice looking fish good going The second one looks as though it just came out of the stream.

Jason you have a PM