Sk8man

Yes You use the backing for the release

I think as far as Honeoye is concerned you'd be wasting your time going there at this point in the season. Between the weed growth, algae and the recent rains there and mud runoff it wouldn't be a great option I wouldn't think.

I'd stick with 12 lb torpedo (troutman87) or fish shaped weighs that (bikinibottom) makes....they are both great. Manually hauling up 15 lb weights can be brutal when you fish deep or make frequent changes.

All the reading in the world will only get you just so far and it is much better for fine tuning your strategies and setups. As the guys have said the most effective (and cheapest and most effective in the long run) way is to go out with a seasoned charter in the area you'll be fishing in and transfer the knowledge gained to your own boat and setups.

The usual setup has been mentioned above. Another question to think about is when fishing deep such as 100ft and below for kings in particular do you want your setup to be perceived as one unit coming through the water rather than something "disjointed" by having too much spacing between the weight and your lure and potentially "spooking" the fish by it appearing unnatural? There are times when you may want to place the setup quite close to the weight so that it appears as a "unit" rather than discrete parts and the turbulence created by the weight and the flasher or spinney acts as "one" perhaps magnifying the effect of appearing as a school of fish or bait with something wounded trailing it. Often times lakers seem to like short leads behind the weight on cowbells as well and the action of the attractor and fly or spoon or bait will change behind an attractor also.....just another thing to think about

The length of your leads on the shallow ones could be a factor but turns should be gradual with that much stuff out anyway and normally there shouldn't be any problems. If running spinneys /flashers I'd be running them off the back deep riggers.

I'd follow G-Daddy's logic.

I'd say that answer is about as good as it gets Mark (the math guy )

Nick you can jig them but in the very deep water you have to either have a world class anchor line length or else perfectly flat water conditions to be able to stay with the fish OR have an electric motor device to "hover" during flat water conditions. The concept is similar to ice fishing for suspended fish (without the ice or surface movement). Certainly not the easiest way to fish for them

I'm with Mark on the 32 lb although I use both (2 rigs of each). The thing to remember with copper though as with most wire in general is that the thinner you go diameter wise the more potential there is for kinking and although it is less frequent with braided copper over single strand it does happen and especially when "bird nests" occur. Copper wire also stiffens up as the water temperatures decrease significantly and when kinking occurs then it can be more difficult to "correct" without cutting and the stiffer wire doesn't always seat as well on the spool either (e.g. late Fall/early winter - early Spring.

Some very good information and tips have already been offered here but additionally here are some other things to consider as basics. A major thing to look for is any change whatsoever in the color of the water especially where dark water meets lighter water on the surface ....that can often mean there is a thermal barrier or change present. Sometimes there will be feathering of the surface water on one side but not the other (wind plays a role in mixing and separating water). In the Spring this may be more apparent and the difference in temp may be only a couple of degrees and near shore there may be a mud line present and it pays to fish in and out of the edge of it making "s" turns. Sometimes these thermal change areas seem to "trap" the fish within a break. Sometimes you will also see seagulls located on or near a temp break and frequently a long way from land. There is often bait there and the fish may be nearby. There are also vertical temperature breaks which include the "thermocline" which is a dense layer of water that has a rapid change in temperature from the water above or below it. Often algae phytoplankton or zooplankton get trapped or reside in this layer so it can show up on the screen of a depth finder.There you look for the greatest amount of temp difference in degrees if you have something to measure it with. For years I have also carried a recording sheet that is set up in 5 ft intervals on a clipboard and before starting trolling I often take a temp profile (lately witha Fishhawk TD) for about100-125 ft down and record these temperatures on the sheet. It is much easier to make decisions when you can see the relationship of the temps rather than just looking at a temp meter and trying to remember what it was at a given depth or going up and down with a rigger probe. On Lake O and other lakes in the Finger Lakes for example there may be strong underwater currents that change and rearrange where the temps are at a given point or time and thus the actual place the thermocline or a temperature break is located is not static and moves from place to place as well as up and down in the water column. Wind can influence these relationships greatly and especially at different times of the year. Much of Lake O basically resembles a basin on the bottom with little apparent structure such as underwater outcroppings of rocks although there are places at the edges of the lake that do have usable structure so the currents although strong do not act the same as in places like the Finger Lakes where the steep drop offs and rocks strongly influence the path of the current as well as the way the thermocline travels up and down. You can often tell a lot regarding current strength and direction from the angles of your lines assuming a fairly constant boat speed is maintained.I've always had better luck going against or across current on an angle than trolling with it regardless of body of water I have fished. but others may view it differently or have had different experience. Everyone out there has days when they either can't locate the fish or if located can't get them to bite and it doesn't necessarily mean that you are doing something wrong but it does play on your mind and hopefully will make you pay more attention to detail and fish harder and experiment more and that is very important in accelerating the learning curve. It is also worth mentioning that some of the best fish I've caught over time have come when I wasn't marking them on the screen. Remember that the area the cone angle covers in the water is pretty small really and fish (e.g. salmon) if attracted properly may travel considerable distances rapidly up from the bottom or horizontally to grab something to eat.The information provided by the folks on LOU is largely based on that approach as many of these folks (including me) have been fishing for quite some time and years before the Internet etc. so direct experience is very important out there supplemented by the information gained here. An added bonus is the fact that a number of the generous charter captains on this website offer very valuable insights based on a much greater sample size of experience than most sports fishermen have accumulated because of the nature of their time out there fishing hard for their customers. Some of this stuff only comes with time spent out there experimenting and fishing hard and there truly is no substitute.

Sweet looking bow and looks like a female so lets hope more come from that gene pool