Sk8man

Nice footage and nice action on the lure too One of the things I have been interested for a while now in the underwater footage is how nearly always the salmon come from underneath the spoons or pretty much straight on from the back. When flasher/fly or spinney /fly are used the fish are forced to go laterally or sideways to get the lure and they frequently seem to have a more difficult time catching it going horizontally and that seems to jive with my own experience of the "hit and runs" on the FF or Spinney combos. I tie my own trolling flies and I have purposely made them a bit heavier in the head to slow them down without having much effect on the attractor itself to see if this helps with hookups.So far the results are inconclusive but I also use different materials for the fly itself so that could mess with results too but since I am catching with them I am reluctant to change for the sake of experimenting

Dan makes a great point. It is worth staggering your lures to the extreme sometimes when the streaking occurs (along with varying the speeds turns etc.) with something set further than your usual distance and something close to the ball. Whenever this happens to me I think in terms of them either not seeing the right action of the spoon or fly or maybe the fact that the distance/action indicates something unnatural in the setup. It could be for example that when the spoon or fly is closer to the ball they perceive it as a natural "unit" eg. the ball and turbulence or vibrations of the weight being something like a school of bait moving through the water and the "tag along" (lure) as being wounded or vulnerable and the closeness or proximity of it as being more "natural" to them. If set at a long distance on the other hand the lure may be perceived as a loner bait wounded and struggling and vulnerable after the turbulence and vibrations of the weight and prop commotion etc. goes by. Obviously this is total speculation but making these adjustments when the streaking happens often works. It can also be a good time to change out your spoons or flies

It is hard to tell from your post exactly how you fished, specifically what you used, whether you have temp monitoring device, and specifically what setups you were using and where you ran them in the water column. You mentioned squid and although they are occasionally still used the more commonplace lure now is the trolling fly used behind either a flasher or Spin Doctor usually run behind a dipsey diver or from a downrigger. Sometimes folks can "luck out" just trolling around for them when they are active but everything from specific temperature range to depths of the existing thermocline and lure speed at the weight can make all the difference in the world in terms of success rate...AND you can be doing everything right and still not catch them on some days. Welcome to LOU.

I believe you will really love the action Dave.

I guess you had a good go of it Ed. That food looks great. I guess we will be heading out here on Canandaigua in a few minutes to give it a try....not real optimistic but maybe when the sun goes down....only after the rainbows and browns anyway.

Put a hurting on em Ed Those browns are probably shaking right now seeing you lowering the boat in the hoist

Use weak rubber bands to attach the leadcore to releases such as those girls use on their hair which can be purchased at "dollar" stores or most department stores or Michael's or Joann Fabrics.They even have them in fluorescent orange and lime green for easy visibility

Both are too small (capacity) for using with copper. The 27's are often used for downriggers with mono or braid.

Kempie hit on the critical part of it. I've used Canon wire as well as Mason etc. with good results. The main problem is not the wire itself at that 150 or 200 lb test it is the terminus connection. There are many ways to do it some of which don't use crimping but I've always crimped and have never had a problem but care needs to be taken in the specific way the crimping is done and to a degree the size and type of crimp used. In my view this is much more important than the brand of wire used. I have one downrigger that still has the original Canon wire on it from 1985 (looks brand new but with a couple feet of wire missing due to re-terminating over time). Muchof the time problems relate to using the wrong size crimp sleeve when terminating. If the inside diameter of the crimp sleeve is too large the compression on the wire can be uneven and ineffective. Also if the walls of the crimp sleeve are too thin and then pinched at the very ends the wire can bend back and forth under weight especially when dangling out of the water during wave action and possible spinning of the weight can contribute to separation of the strands of wire or actually break at that point. If the correct diameter sleeve with thicker walls is used and a crimp is applied such there is one near (but not at) each of the ends but on opposite sides of the sleeve you shouldn't have problems with it. As I recall a size number 4 or 5 black sleeve (Jann's Netcraft) is the one for the common 150 lb SS wire.

Landshark makes a good point......regardless of what you use for backing or leaders etc. with walleyes you almost have to think of the board situation as using bobbers as potential indicators. I always watch the boards and rod tips very closely for clues about what is going on out there . A lot of time the boards will dip down at the back end and bob up and down slightly in between the waves with a small fish or one that is conserving energy by just riding along when they should be a little bit slack at that time. This is especially evident when pulling something that is fairly steady through the water like a worm harness rather than a diver or something with erratic action. They can be a little better detected when braid is used because of the lack of stretch.

30 lb braid such as Power Pro as backing (small diameter yet very strong and little to no stretch so light hits show up better than on mono). If running from boards replace any plastic pins or releases with metal ones (e.g. Calumet marine has them for the Church boards) because the braid will cut into them over time. If not using the full 5 colors consider using small rubber bands such as those used for girls hair found in most department stores and should break easily with a decent walleye hit unless the fish just swims along with the lure in his mouth

Put it on one of those orange plastic wheels that you roll up electric cords on. Faster than other options but two person solution