justtracytrolling

Great fish! Don't beat yourself up too much...those of us who are honest about it will tell you we made mistakes in the beginning as well. Plan, prepare, research...all great, but when it comes down to it it takes practice. Doesn't matter how good you get at handling muskies there will always be some mortality though not handling and measuring fish is the BEST option. Bump boards and cameras are pretty tough on muskies too....Only way to protect them all is to take the hooks out and even then sometimes there eyes are bigger than their stomachs!

The walleye are suspended not on bottom for the most part, but spinners work. Everything works if it's done right at the right time in the right place....

Had to put my little squirty dog down this spring...he was 19! He loved walleye. I used to cook up the trimmings for him after filleting so often he knew smelling them in the net if it was an eye. Had to be careful or he would try to chew threw the net for a walleye, but would turn his nose up at a bass.

Sully isn't much of a good luck charm, but he loves "helping" with the riggers! He is definitely a troller NOT a caster! Lol

If you are even thinking about going in don't think about it.... act! My place is RIGHT at the launch and every single storm i watch idiots struggle with the weather and a crowded launch.

We never kept any fish out of Franklin falls pond due to the Mercury. I sure love the area where the rapids meet the pond tho. I never fished the rapids...in fact I usually emptied all the gear and ran the rapids empty. I was on a very tight budget and couldn't afford to lose gear...not that I ever flipped the canoe but better safe than sorry. I did the stretch of Hudson River heading into Harris lake without a paddlers map once and that was hairy...and absolutely no portages to get around white water I had no business being in with a kayak let alone my old canoe...barely got out of there with our lives. Ended up breaking a gunwale, punching a hole in the bow, and had to rent a canoe to finish our trip. Found out later looking at a paddlers map that section was only done by whitewater raft and 1 idiot that didn't do his homework! Anyone ever do the boundary Waters canoe area in Minnesota?

Absolutely right about closed water protecting walleye spawn. The river I look at out my kitchen window is closed then. I was being facetious about walleye guys don't want it easy...cheaters are everywhere! I realize that stream fishing is a passion for tons of anglers, but giving the fish a better opportunity to spawn by waiting a week or so isn't a bad idea and there are plenty of beautiful trout caught in finger lakes streams after April 15. The guy self stocking can get us anytime he wants and it's sad.....on the bright side those alewife fed eyes are beasts! I wouldn't say nobody can catch em after opening week but its a challenge beyond what a smart person would endure!!! I'm not sure how alewives ended up in Otisco...I assumed guys used em for bait...and figured that's what happened on Conesus...does anyone know?

Well said but the cost of that salt can't be the environment. It certainly doesn't hurt having watchdogs making sure they dot their I's and cross their t's. The individual DEC employees work hard and are very passionate like us...it's the politicians, special interests, and greed that make up our government that scare me as they drive the boat!

You guys have me missing the mountains! Spent a lot of summers driving back and forth every chance I had with my canoe and tent. Had my son's birthday up there every year for a decade camping, hiking, and fishing. No more canoes for me, but I better get my butt back up to chase those Tupper eyes at least! Thanks for posting...puts things in perspective about what's important for me anyway 😉. If anyone is a paddler do yourself a favor and do the Saranac river from Saranac lake to Franklin falls pond.... always caught smallies and pike in the river and jigged walleye in Franklin falls pond right below the permanent rapids. Then camp at moose pond...just over the ridge from lake placid. KNOW the rules though as the rangers take things seriously. There was never anyone fishing just the odd canoe or kayak.

The lakes are shared usage and it's not like anyone has the God given right to run a big spread when it's crowded...even charters. I tell anyone fishing with me past mid morning on the weekends there is no guarantee I can run a full spread and no guarantee we will even get near the water I want to fish. I fish a small enough lake everyone knows my boat and it's just easier for me and my sanity to stay calm and avoid others best I can even when they should giveway. Gotta share even with sailboats and jet skis....that being said it would be great if they reciprocated and made any effort to give a touch of courtesy. Other trollers are often just as bad as anyone. EVERYONE needs to think of others and try to giveway a bit more and stand on a little less. If I remember correctly this is supposed to be fun?

Bingo!!! Ding ding ding we have a winner!!! Otisco has what I believe to be the highest alewife density per gallon of water of any NY lake, and the walleye still manage to reproduce at a fishable level though....so without the tiger muskies and the alewives Skaneatles will be a free for all for walleye. Not to mention if 1 person can throw a bucket or 2 of walleye in and they become a fishable population on their own it says a lot about the future....

The reason walleye get protection is walleye anglers don't have any interest in making things easy at the cost of our precious, beloved walleye. We don't even wanna fish then. I know plenty of lifters and the ones that walleye fish enough to learn how to catch a walleye wouldn't consider lifting a walleye....weird how social paradigm dictates it's ok to slaughter spawning trout, spawning perch, but we leave walleye alone and have to fish artificials for bass and put them back...or is it that we think trout are only put and take anyway, but whats the excuse for perch?

See we can agree on many things! I don't have an argument for anything you said. Keep in mind the rainbows eat walleye fry and sawbellies hammer walleye fry. Everything definitely eats everything. I'd love to see walleye and trout seasons both get moved back at LEAST 2 weeks. My point is that if there is enough food we can have both trout and walleye. Sure I'll lose lots of walleye and you will lots lots of rainbows, but if stocking is good and reproduction is allowed what's the problem? If a species can't reproduce then it gets more expensive but still possible. Skaneatles is way different because of a lack of bait. The walleye probably will overrun the trout without a steady stocking commitment. No I don't have a single study to prove any of this but the DEC doesn't have the proof either, in many cases they have been 180 degrees wrong before as it simply isn't possible to put the money into these lakes the way they have Ontario and other lakes where fishing EQUALS dollars...and even then they aren't always right because it's nature and we aren't in control.

I'm not advocating changing a thing. I didn't put the walleye in either! I'm just saying that once they are there and doing so well, better than the rainbows, PERHAPS they are better suited to the lake than the rainbows. I didn't create the walleye/trout debate on owasco, but I'm sure the walleye are sustaining themselves to some degree. Keep stocking rainbows all you want, but those walleye are going to flourish. Lastly, the walleye aren't to blame it's survival of the fittest in the lakes and the waleye simply are better suited than rainbows and other trout in some situations. I've never once said trout aren't awesome to have in the fingers...I target them myself some every year from shore as well as boat, just don't blame the walleye for poor trout fishing. For starters, it's a horrible idea fishing for trout while they spawn and trampling every single possible stream when we struggle to keep a fishable population. Trout lovers?

Ive said it many times the DEC is a political machine. We don't question any of the lake studies they do from a fishery perspective, so let's blindly take their word everything is fine from an environmental perspective. I'm not saying they are always wrong by any means, but we have to stop drinking the Kool aid and start questioning things! I guarantee most every one of us cares more about our lakes than the DEC does as an organization.

Seems like an accident waiting to happen....

I get the predator prey relationship, but who picks the predator! Why pick a predator you have to stock every year when there has to be a species we could enjoy that would reproduce on its own saving the taxpayers and raising the catch rates. In this case the lake has tons of warm water forage for walleye to do well, and I'm fairly certain the same can't be said for the trout.

I used to invite the DEC to the little derby I used to host and the techs in region 7 are great guys. I'm not saying they aren't working hard or trying hard. I'm just saying the DEC is a political machine that has a very difficult job and they are so understaffed that the studies they do don't always tell the story as they just don't have the money to put much time into any one lake. They have just as many questions as we do and very few answers...