Sk8man

Sampson yesterday just a few sheets of chunk ice floating at the ramp rest of south end and channel open water. If any south wind last night or today probably open right now.

Sure makes you feel better about Lake O fishing when 10 or 12 pounders are looking like big ones on Michigan

Nice going fellas! I am jealous....we went after perch from shore in a few places on Seneca and failed to score

I use a variety of pre-tied leaders for various things and I use a 1 ft section of pool noodle to store them usually 8 or 10 to a section with the ends of the swivel stuck in the noodle to hold them. For "sliders" on the downriggers I make them about 6-8 ft long with cheap but solid ring swivels at each end. I use cheap black colored swivels (with wide rounded bend) because I have experimented over time and they work in that particular application and I don't feel that action suffers in the way that they are being used and I've never had any problems. For all my other connections I use good quality ball bearing solid ring swivels with duolock snaps. The reason for using solid ring only is because the split ring type can cut your line with large fish when the knot may slip into the depression in the ring. For the flashers and dipseys I have some with a small Spro barrel swivel at one end and a ball bearing swivel/duolock snap on the other end at various lengths and wrapped on the noodle with the length and lb test ( and an F for fluoro and an M for mono) written near them on the noodle on a piece of white tape. I also use pre-tied leaders on my Seth Green rigs and for those I wrap them on squares of 1/2 inch styrofoam with a wire clip (spring clip) at one end and a quality ball bearing swivel on the terminal end and I wrap 5 each with a rubber band with the lures already attached and placed within one of those blue water proof cooler bags from Wegman's all ready to rock n roll.

What I was referring to when I said the perch were cleaned out concerns inside the marina itself. There has been intense fishing pressure on the perch there for months and some folks sell them so they don't toss ANY back. It is accurate that they are harder (but not impossible) to catch in clear shallow water and that they prefer cloudy water. To think that perch are a fail proof and unlimited resource is a mistake. One of the things that makes perch popular is also the very weak link in the viability of their numbers and that is the fact that they are a "schooling" fish. Their vulnerabilities can be easily exploited when they become vulnerable and human greed comes into play (or even the cormorants for that matter). For a good part of the season they are dispersed throughout their habitat in smaller groups but in the Fall and Spring they school up in sometimes massive numbers in very contained or dense spots e.g. when spawning or shortly beforehand. There are still somewhat large numbers of perch throughout the lake but the question is :"Will this remain so?" The numbers certainly are not what they were years ago and there are many reasons for this ranging from compromises to their spawning and feeding habitats (mussels clogging up the areas, predation of spawn by alewives, lack of cover from less dense weed growth etc.). Add to this increased fishing pressure for a variety of reasons (e.g. bass and pike fishing deterioration, allowable sale of perch and perhaps increased awareness of this, and a host of other things). All these things are combining to place their numbers in jeopardy and like everything else in life their numbers are not truly infinite despite the assumptions that many folks make. To think that perch fishing will remain good or even viable if this continues year after year is asking for real disappointment. It appears to be a good time to re-evaluate the 50 daily limit as well as the ability to sell perch commercially on the Finger Lakes. Nobody is going to be eating more than 25 perch in a sitting so why not make that the daily limit? These limits also need to be rigorously enforced as well as they aren't currently and there is a lot of fish being kept in excess of the current limit. I know this idea may not be popular with some folks especially those benefiting from the personal gain from the sale of a publicly owned resource but it would be nice if our children and grand children could enjoy the same quality of fishing that some of their forefathers have enjoyed.

Beautiful fish and great report....felt as though I was right there with you Matt.

I guess I stand corrected so much for the memory I guess

The reason nobody is catching is because the unreal fishing pressure has cleaned them out ....especially with some of the baboons keeping the 5 or 6 inch fish there. Way too much pressure (open water and ice) for such a small confined area.....really too bad to see it spoiled after over 50 years fishing out there.

I think it might be 2 prong for non-autostop and three if you have it if my memory serves me correctly (taking your chances there )

What about replacing the seat braces in the last bench seat with a sturdy aluminum or stainless "L" shaped (wide at the top to fit the downrigger mounting plate) angle bracket on each side and then just bolting or clamping the downrigger to it as well as bolting to the side of the boat?

Having replaced the old type wires twice on mine over the years I can tell you that the new set of wires is MUCH improved and is the way to go if you decide to keep the riggers but the motor situation is a different matter. As Lucas mentioned those downriggers are often found in the classifieds here and usually for a reasonable price. Maybe try to get one in good condition and either go with it or use the motor in it and keep the rest of one or the other for spare parts. As far as the old wiring it deteriorates badly in the UV light and I had one that was bare wire in spots prior to replacement with the new ones.....not worth taking a chance on in my view and I was glad I bit the bullet for the new ones.

If you have a pic of the inside of your particular boat looking toward the transom it could be helpful in making suggestions. Also will the holes line up using either the Scotty or Cannon clamp since they aren't specifically made for the Penn?

They can be good late season when aggression strikes seem to play a larger role than feeding responses. The Silver one with a red nose has been a good choice.

In offering the spreadsheet Mark has presented a way to figure things out in a thoughtful rational way as contrasted with the pure "guesstimation" and trial and error methods many of us have been using right along and I for one commend him for taking the time to do so. There can be many variables dealing with this stuff that no matter how conscientious someone is in figuring there will always be some things that come into play which can affect results. One of the things I discovered long ago in dealing with ss wire line is that it makes a difference whether you start out putting it on the spool straight with the level wind vs. starting randomly on the spool. Possibly things like letting your wife apply the tension to the spools vs. using a line minder type input device could make a difference as well . The assumption of .22 for the 30 lb test might be a potential factor because manufacturers may use different processes to make the line some giving potentially smaller or larger diameters for their particular 30 lb mono. The point is that these calculations and the spreadsheet are meant to help in the "estimation" process and rather than looking at the spool of copper and of backing and saying " Geez maybe all this s#$%t will fit" it is instead a starting point to get a good idea closer to the result you might want. Using 65 lb braid or 30 lb is going to give radically different result on how much copper will go on a reel and deciding on how much backing you actually NEED will also come into play. For my Finger Lakes setups I can get away with 450 ft of 30 lb braid backing without problems running a 300 down the chute but on Lake O I have a different setup with 900 ft of backing for the same 300 ft of copper and it is very important whether you intend to run the setups off boards, what type of boards or as "chute" rods as the amount of line you HAVE to let out is different.

OR buy a 32 pack and take your chances estimating after going half way through it and when you look at what you did the next day say "DILLIGAF" Great advice Mark. Thanks for taking the time to do it and putting it up here

You might want to give the folks that make EZ steer a call to find out what the exact tension is supposed to be set at.

I'm with Brian., I gave up bass fishing years ago because I was totally burned out on it for the reasons he stated. After watching those videos in this cold drab weather I found it pretty exciting feeling as though you were right there in the competition and looking forward to getting out there again this upcoming season. The basic lack of a decent ice fishing season has made it even more poignant. The thing about fishing in general and trout and salmon fishing in particular that is exciting is that you never know what may be one the other end of the line, whether it is fully hooked, whether you will be able to get it to the boat or be able to net it or how big it will be. That part of the equation is the same for most of us whether in a tournament or not. After doing this many tens of thousands of times (or in the case of charter guys maybe 100 thousands of times) we may become a bit desensitized to the process...sort of like the compulsive gamblers pulling the lever on the old style slot machines time after time and not being impressed by the results even when they win substantially on a given pull All you have to do to judge the true excitement value of trout and salmon fishing is to turn on a kid or someone brand new to it and watch their behavior when they get onto a big king. Even seasoned fishermen who aren't doing it day after day as their living find it exciting. Admiral Byrd and I had a neighbor of mine (serious walleye and bass fisherman) with us after kings this Fall who had previously caught large fish of other species (e.g. 58 inch Musky etc.) and we thought he was going to pizz his pants for sure with a 26 pound king which he decided to have mounted I think a lot of the difference in $$$$ in our sport vs. the bass tourneys etc. is the level of extensive support of sponsors and the highly organized nature of their tournament circuit that reaches across many states appealing greatly to national sponsors. The salt water tourneys are a whole other dimension as they involve things nationally and multi-nationally so they attract huge sponsorship and the entry fees are on a different level as well.