Sk8man

The fishing traffic usually isn't the concern it is the recreational boat traffic especially jet skiers and the twice per season types after 10 AM or so and the sailboats when they have a regatta.

Now that much of the heavy duty perch fishing is over there are usually guys fishing for trout out there (downriggers included ) so I don't think it is anything to be concerned about relative to the derby other than the fact that they may have a little "edge" in terms of where the fish are or aren't

I'm pretty sure it sounds like unburned oil and gas mixture my older two stroke 9.9 Johnson does it sometimes but mine is usually a darker color than above

Dave I was out there Saturday and there were some limbs and debris out in the middle of the lake going south but level is OK now and north end was clear of other than occasional small stuff not sure about the south end.

We're entered and looking forward to it...I always do whether I'm actually able to fish it or not....as was said the money goes to a good cause (Camp Good Days and Special Times which had serious flood damage this year) Here is the link to the Chamber and entry form there http://canandaiguachamber.com/

Mark astutely picked up on the fact that you may have been referring to the fixed cheater (or slider). His version is the most straight forward but I use a slightly different version because I found that the rubber band sometimes slips up the wire with more active lures. I've been using trot line clips ( for catfish set lines etc. I believe Jann's Netcraft still has them) with a duo lock snap shrink wrapped together with a rubber band attached to the main line. It snaps onto the downrigger wire at one end and holds the cheater tight to its intended spot until the fish releases the cheater leader by breaking the rubber band but when the downrigger weight comes up it will slide under that type of pressure at the tip of the downrigger and stay there for retrieval. See pic below P.S. This same release can also be used as a "stacker" release for additional rods on the downrigger

I've been using cheaters since about1979 successfully and most of the time without tangles. I think a lot of it may relate to boat a speed and possibly radical turns and possibly lure selection. I use an approximately 6-8 ft of either 12 lb test fluoro or mono for Finger Lakes (20lb for lake Ontario) with regular inexpensive (not ball bearing) swivels tied to each end of the leader. I keep several of the cheater leaders wrapped up on a small section of foam noodle in case one gets messed up. I send my weight with my main lure on it down to about 10-15 ft and then hook the one end with the cheater leader swivel (other end from the lure) on the main line, fasten the swivel and let down the weight taking the cheater down with it where it generally hangs in the bow or arch off the main line and depending on boat speed, current, lure action etc. moves up or down the line at random. I try to select lures that won't potentially "fight" each other (such as a crank bait and stickbait combo might do for example). I usually use lighter spoons on the cheater and put the heavier spoons or a stickbait on the mainline. The reason for using the 6-8 ft length of the cheater is so that I can net the fish OK as I often go solo and I use 8 1/2 ft downrigger rods. I have also used shorter length as mentioned above but the 6-8 ft seems to get a lot more hits.

Don't shoot the wrong fly Mark! That thing could be dangerous in the hands of an irate wife

You know we get kinda used to folks posting pics of big salmon and walleyes etc. but it is really neat when you see something out of the ordinary like that and it is another reminder of the world class diversity of the fishery we have here....Cool! Thanks for posting it.

Congrats guys....a little different lake to fish than Seneca size wise eh? Nice going with the fishing.

Thanks chuck....those fish of yours were great too. WTG derby time it's quality over quantity anyway

I took another look just now they are different pics than yesterday....there was only the one pic then of a guy holding up a bow. That is why I was a bit more confused than usual....

Nice fish Andy....although the best part is that you messed with Ed's mind....he probably thinks you're taking all HIS fish

Nice fish and congrats on placing.

Zack...I wonder why they posted the pic of the guy holding up the big bow on their website? usually it is the winners pic.... all nice fish anyway.

I didn't realize the winning 10.16 was a rainbow because the species weren't listed on the board....but that is one hell of a nice fish for the Fingers! I think I may have screwed up fishing it for lakers instead of my usual approach

Nice going folks....doesn't get much better than that kind of action (or the eating for that matter )

Good luck on Owasco....great little lake....

I decided to fish it at the last minute and still hadn't straightened out my stuff from the three day Seneca Derby so I spent much of my time looking for stuff on the boat messiest it has ever been. Not sure how many LOU guys fished it but a couple boats looked familiar.... I trolled through a lot of water and debris wasn't bad at north end but when I approached the southern half of the lake there were some scum lines and a few branches floating around out in the middle. I started at 57 ft near pump station with the riggers and sliders and a TX 44 board with a dipsey set out 175 and never went shallower....never a touch and didn't mark much. I then headed out to deeper water and dropped down 2 Seth Green rigs with 5 leaders each and a 5 color lead core down the chute (spoons, sticks and even a small dipsey with just a fly and never a hit the whole time). Didn't mark any bait (has to still be in shallow) and only a few fish all morning (a few smaller ones were in 203 ft. up at about 40 ft looked like either small rainbows or browns from where they were situated near Notre Dame and a few really large fish just off bottom in 257 ft. I trolled the west side down to the condos and turned east and then north and on the turn picked up a 5 pound brown on the first leader down (running about 40 ft or so Sutton 22). Trolled north and went into about 130 ft and back out to 200 plus range and picked up small laker on same rod and spoon. Ran a deep rig nearly the whole time without anything with mixture of spoons constantly adjusting it up and down to no avail. Trolled back south without anything but looked like guys near me pulled in a heavy laker (maybe a money fish as they seemed to struggle lifting it.) The north wind then blew up with white caps and rolling waves and at 1 PM I said the heck with it and took off for the ramp. I stopped in at Seagers and looked at the board and it looked like they had three or four10 pound and change fish the biggest 10.16 I think and the second one at 10.02 not sure how it ended up. The reason I posted such detail for little results isso that hopefully you guys doing the derby next weekend will have a clue about what NOT to do A lot can change in a week though.Water surface temp 58.6 in most places both sides. The brown fought his heart out and didn't revive I gave him to some folks at the launch that looked like they could use him....