Sk8man

results and report. The last pic sure reminds me of times past

Regardless of the actual results those kids look like they had a lot of fun

Dre, I've been using Black releases since they were white in color (true) over thirty some years and have never had that happen on Lake O or any of the Fingers and Seneca has some strong currents as well. When you say "ball" does it have a guiding fin of any type on it or just a "cannonball" weight? Is the weight spinning on your swivel if you run it at the side of the boat down a few feet with and without the line actually in the release so you can view what is going on? It sure sounds like either the release itself or the ball is spinning and with your main line fixed in the release it is "winding" the upward portion of the line around the wire (braid loved to wind on itself and knot up on spinning rods at least). Strong current might be the ADDED factor to something that is otherwise a "borderline" condition at other times. I also wonder about the release freewheeling somehow while you are lowering the weight rapidly? I let mine down very rapidly compared with many other folks because I don't ever use the down button on my riggers I use the drag/brake and I don't encounter this problem and I also use sliders all the time too. I also have a crimp on the wire located midway between the holes in the release to keep it from going too far up or down.

Nice going Although the jig and equipment is bigger in this case it happens fairly frequently in ice fishing. The fish is milling around the bait and may bump into the jig and thinking it is a hit you pull on it and whamo you have one hooked in the belly.

Great pic...should be on a culinary magazine cover

I just saw your response Mark...good one!

Thanks Mike. He spied a couple in one of my boxes but didn't say much

Ah.... I forgot about the tournament Ted ....man....I hope today's boat traffic isn't a sign of things to come for tomorrow ( but you know how the weekends are at this end) . I hope they see more fish and bait on the screen than we did today....I 'll be in Ithaca tomorrow but will be interested to see the results of the tournament. Thanks.

WTG Marty nice rainbow.

Thanks Ed and Marty. Seems like a lot more work than Seneca here anymore

Signalman and I hit the lake about 6AM in my rig and we started on the west side at the water plant drop off and trolled south with slight south wind which became more intense as the morning rolled on. We went with 5 rods as I didn't feel like screwing with the boards....two downriggers with cheaters set at 40 and 45 ft respectively, a 5 color leadcore with spoon unweighted, a wire rig with green and glow Echip flasher with bluish white home made fly, and wire rig with wonderbread Spin Doc with white home made fly. In short we nailed a couple small lakers on the flies in about 50 over 120ft or so and trolled to the condos and the wind died down on the way we also had a savage hit obn the flasherfly which bent the rod over real good and took out the drag and then off before we could pick up the rod (about 200 ft. and out120...think it was a nice rainbow from the looks of it). We turned and trolled north on the east side and put a couple 5 leader rigs out while going toward the middle and angled into 100 ft or so and then back out and when we hit 206 ft the side rig bent and the drag went out and Mike got it and it headed for bottom so I was thinking good sized laker but when it did finally come up it was a nice about 5 lb rainbow which hit a doctored up (nail polish) Sutton 35. We were trolling in the 2.7 to 2.8 range. We trolled north for quite awhile without marking much or seeing any bait. In fact we didn't mark hardly any bait and just a few fish mostly up high and could have been anything and a couple lakers hugging bottom for dear life and that was it. Mike and I had a great time chatting about old times and fishing stuff and he intuitively did whatever necessary whether driving or handling the equipment...a real pleasure fishing with someone who is very experienced whether rigs or any of the other stuff and without having to say anything...he just took up the slack naturally as though he was on his own boat...cool! Things on Canandaigua are still a puzzle and it is far from the lake I have fished in the past...few fish and bait seen very strange. We had to keep the rainbow as he was hooked deep and out through the eye which probably explains why he didn't jump. We quit about 12:45 PM P.S. I forgot to mention the weeds were mostly intermittent and located out toward the middle and the fleas were there but not too terrible

WTG guys! Hey Bob maybe that's what I was referring to when I mentioned to you about the pluses to getting off to a "new start"

Nice fish and report. Looks as though Owasco is "alive and well"

If you mean the major point north of Danny's place it is Menteth Point and often the fish you mark suspended there especiaily straight out from the creek mouth are large smallmouths that school up there and and occasional rainbow.You can troll back and forth for hours without them hitting.....been there done that