Sk8man

That is a boat even a confirmed Whaler guy could love

Yeah when I was a kid I caught one a little bigger than that in the Canandaigua Outlet outside of Phelps and I set it down in back of my house and I took my little sisters kids type broom and put it near its mouth and it snapped the thing in two. They are nothing to mess with whether in the water or on land

Sounds as though you have something running in the background like an antivirus program either updating itself or scanning while you're typing.

Don't complain about mosquitos and bugs....hopefully the frogs are eaten because despite the number you killed looking like there is a surplus the opposite is true a lot of scientists are becoming very concerned about all species of them ..looks like overkill in terms of table fare.

Great report Bob and glad things worked out well. The most important part of it is the father and son bonding that occurs out there regardless of results

Frogger is "the man" in the "Do it yourself world" (That transom he replaced looks like a brand new boat) and a great fisherman as well.

Nice going John. encouraging report too as far as spotting bait etc.

The A and S and the single spring type pictured above have just enough tension from the spring to take up the excess wire as you are retrieving it. The multi spring units have a little more zip but aren't a problem really. I'm not sure on the multi gear motorized ones as I have never owned one. By far the biggest danger to your fingers is either hooking a big laker that decides to run for it, a big rainbow, or snagging up on an unforgiving bottom or structure. It is why I always have worn a thumb and forefinger cut out of a heavy leather glove to protect my fingers and have been glad plenty of times I did A couple years ago I saw a guy at the Watkins tackle show that was selling victrolas but it was crowed there and I didn't get a chance to see exactly which type they were from a distance.

I probably also should have mentioned that the learning curve for jerking copper effectively is probably the greatest in terms of time and practice of anything I have encountered in fishing fresh or salt water

You are very welcome 2lbperch. always glad to help out if and wherever I can. There are many methods of jerking copper. One of the earliest done by folks like my grandfather on Seneca in the early 1900's was done by having a wooden device that had two handles that were connected lengthwise and the wire was rolled up on the center part while a lot of old timers also just brought the wire in and piled it in careful coils in the bottom of their small often aluminum boats while retrieving it or letting it out....nice, simple and effective ...until a big laker thrashed around in the boat and messed up the copper wire There are many versions also of so-called "automatic" approaches and probably the best known is the "victrola" named that because the early versions used components (e.g. internal gears a strong coil spring and the wind up handle) to make the boxes used to reel in the copper wire as you were retrieving it. This saved space, kept the wire from kinking ( a major irritant with single strand copper), and freed up a hand. Te original victrola rigs were pretty primitive with one main gear and spring and the spring after much use would weaken so two and 3 gear models with stronger springs were developed. Then someone got the bright idea of motorizing them with DC battery power. Every one of these methods had their own strengths and weaknesses but jerking copper wire for lakers has been and still is one of the most deadly effective methods of fishing for them second only to "still" fishing with live bait. Some of these victrola rigs are actually fine art objects these days and the cases have been made out of beautiful tiger maple, burled wood or exotic wood of various types and are sought after by collectors. Another lesser known "automatic" reel approach is the A and S automatic reel which was mainly used with monel (a soft silver colored wire also prone to kinking) and used in the same way as copper to either use the already mentioned spoons or also to pull what were formerly called "flashers" but now usually referred to as "cowbells". Here is a pic of both a primitive one gear victrola (with many years of use) with wind up "key" and an A and S automatic reel for folks to see and get a better idea of what these things looked like. The object on the left is the A and S reel (pictured with a Barracuda spoon on it ....another good spoon I forgot to mention above) .