JJBat150

Got a B-square saddle mount on a 12 gauge 870 - been on there for over 25 seasons of throwing slugs downrange. Never had any issues with it moving / loosening up. Can't speak about if it mar up the receiver - I've never removed it from the gun as it's a dedicated slug gun.

Sorry for coming to the kayak trolling party late. I spend a lot of time trolling the finger lakes in kayak. Started out years ago with couple of paddle-only yaks, and eventually upgraded to a Hobie peddle drive so here's my $.02 One of the biggest challenges you'll have is getting the right depth depending on what species you're targeting and what time of year it is; rather than try to cover all that, I'd suggest searching the site - based on people's reports, you can get a pretty good idea of what depth you'll need to be at and what lures / colors are producing action. I can pretty much cover any part of the water column from the surface down to 160-180 ft depending on how I'm rigged for the day. Starting from the surface working down, here's my set-ups: For flat lining, I run either mono or braid, and add split shots for added weight. I have rods with 4 & 5 colors of 15 Lb. Sufix Performance Lead Core with 20-30 Ft of a Fluro top shot. With this set-up I get approximately 7 ft of depth per color, and can use a deeper diving lure to get additional depth. Torpedo divers attached with OR-16 snap weight clips to braid (with Fluro leader). Full disclosure, I've donated a few of them to the lake bottom, because they are easy to lose when trying to disconnect. Down rigger - run either a 2 or 4 lb. ball with 150 Lb. braid line. Can get down to 180 ft with the 4 lb., but do get enough blow back that I can't see the ball on sonar. I can run 2 rods off the down rigger, with 1 release attached to the ball and 2nd on the rigger cable attached with a OR-16 snap weight clip. Have a rod with 10 colors of lead and a shorter 7 ft leader. In the earlier days, ran a 3-way swivel with different weights and lures to get down there. Have tried a variety of dipsy divers / slide divers / jet divers, but never really got consistency with the depth they run, so don't use them anymore. A few quick pointers: Lead core in a kayak takes patience - it's slow deploying until the first color or so are out and it gets enough drag to pull itself off the rod - keeping the rod pointed straight back also helps. Running multiple lines helps to vary your presentation and (hopefully) get more fish. It can be a challenge to keep from getting tangled up when hooked up. I try to keep the yak moving forward instead of stopping to land the fish. I also only use trolling reels for trolling- When I got into kayaking, I was running 40-year-old Penn Peerless 9's that I used as a kid with my father & grandfather. I've since upgraded to mostly line counters, but still use a couple of the Penn’s from time to time. Spinning reels are used for jigging or casting. I run a lot of 40+ year old Spoons from my grandfather. Sutton, Pine Valley & Miller are some of the brands I still have. Have a bunch of different stick baits – Berkley / Rapala / Kabooms / all shapes sizes and colors. Can't say that any one specific lure is a 100% catch-all, so I switch things up if not getting hits. One of the advantages with the yak is that if you find a spot holding fish or bait pods with fish under them, it's pretty easy to get turned around and keep running through them . Like others said – vertical jigging is a blast in a yak. Lots of you tube videos on kayak fishing. Lots of us have posted in this site about kayak fishing - use the search function to find the posts. PM if you have other questions.

Betcha a dollar that there's lakers down under the sawbellies. Year ago used to do this with my grandfather on Canandaigua - after we started getting sawbellies, we'd drop a Seth Green rig over the side and put the sawbellies on 5-6 ft leaders and wait for the lakers to start smashing em.

@Sk8man - Generally I use the Fish Hawk once per trip to give myself a general indication of where the thermocline is set-up ; Realize that what I'm doing isn't 100% accurate, but it gets me down to the general vicinity pretty quickly. Also, if I fished yesterday, I won't always take a reading today unless there was major weather event that may have caused a change. Also find it useful to check on lead cores and determine their actual sink rates. @trouthunter24 - Yes 48 degrees at 50 ft deep. One thing I've seen with Canadice and Hemlock is that you don't necessary need to be dragging the bottom to find temps that lakers prefer or catch 'em for that matter. One thing that I was told years ago is that the water is oxygen deficit in the deepest parts of the lake, and supposedly it pushes them into a narrow band of water just below the thermocline. Temp results from the past few years

Been having pretty good luck the past month on Cayuga (Sheldrake) and Canandaigua (Woodville), figured I would change things up and hit Canadice yesterday morning and try jigging lakers. Hit the water ~6:15 with a slight SW wind; as the morning went on the wind died down so that the lake was almost glass-smooth. Got off the water around 11:30 just as the recreational kaykers were starting to show up in full force. Dropped the Fish hawk TD and got the following temps: Depth 05 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 Temp 80 80 80 79 72 63 58 54 50 48 47 46 45 45 45 Started around 40-45 FOW looking for bait and marks and worked my way around the lake down to 80 FOW. Had a ton of followers that I couldn't get to bite, just a few quick grabs that didn't stay hooked - never landed a fish all morning. Mixed up my offerings with all kinds of jigging spoons and jigs with paddle tails in assorted colors. I even changed up my cadence a bunch of different ways , including dragging a stand-up jig across the bottom to simulate pulling copper for awhile. An enjoyable morning on the water, but man, Canadice fish sure can humble you in a hurry.

Looks like you've got yourself dialed into fish pretty good. I used to use WIllis knots, but the past few years either the lead core sheathing has gotten smaller, or my eye sight is falling, and I've had a hard time getting the flouro into the sheathing. I've been stripping 3-4 inches of lead out, and using an albright knot recently.

Biggest bow I've gotten in hemlock was 24". I would say average fish for me is 18-19" range.

Nice report and congrates on a sucessful trip. Hemlock is one of my favoriates - the tranquility makes it worth the time even if the fish don't bite. What's your secret for getting browns ? They never cooperate when I'm targeting them. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using Lake Ontario United mobile app

Sorry for the late report - I hit Hemlock both mornings (5/17 & 5/18) and here's my results. 5/17 - Launched from the North launch @ 6 AM and headed to the west shoreline. Ran down to south of the bluffs in 30-60 FOW. Fished marks and bait when I saw them. Lots of marks near the bottom in 50 FOW. Water temps were 48-50 on the surface. I top lined a mix of humdingers, flutter spoons and small suttons with only a small mouth bass caught. Also had 3 color and 4 color lead cores out. The 4 had a homemade cowbell-type flasher with a night crawler on a bare hook. The 3 color I ran a mix of smelt pattern trolling flies. Landed and released 3 Lakers ; 18, 21.5 and 23 inches. (2 on the night crawler 1 on a trolling fly) 5/18 - Launched from North launch @ 6:30 and again headed for west shore. Fog was pretty thick the first hour or so. Based on the marks that I saw Saturday, I stayed in the area of 50 FOW and only got a far south as the white building, as I kept circling and fishing the marks. I ran a down rigger with a mix of green & green-black spoons near the bottom and a "cheater" rod up higher depending on where marks were. Cheater used a mix of flutter spoons and smelt pattern trolling flies. Landed and released 2 lakers; 21.5 and 22 inches. both from the bottom spoons.

Was on Hemlock 2 weekends ago (5/3) in the yak for a few hours. Surface temps were 46-48. Ran a shallow program, no takers. Gonna try to get out as well this weekend if the weather holds.

this thread is making me jealous... I'm classified as essential at work, and have been working a lot of additional hours to support the increased need for remote access and other IT initiatives in our healthcare environment, so haven't had time to get out in the kayak yet. On a side note, I am in the process of stripping down and repainting the trailer I haul it around on.

TTT - price drop to $90