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Bullhead fishing on the pond seems to be really popular at night. Even if you aren't into it, its really neat to see lanterns lined up around the pond. Some people get there before dusk with their lawn chairs to get their spot.

Thats a good tip. I hadn't thought about that. A mess would be an understatement. I'm sure there would be plenty of lost or damaged gear. Not to mention the poor guy in the back of the boat who might take the post to the back of his head.

Thats the plan. The measurements match, but its almost too good to be true. Does the post just slide into place with no other adjustments? Also, is the seat base strong enough to handle the stress? I'm wondering if it makes sense to do some kind of guy wire back to the bow.

I bought a set of inline boards a couple seasons ago. I love them and they changed my fishing for the better. But can anyone who swears by them honestly say that its fun to fight a fish with a board attached? Thats why I'm trying this. I'm a DIYer, so my biggest investment will be time. I've been reading this site for a long time, and it seems its about 50/50 between inline and big board guys. So its really just one respected opinion vs another. There's absolutely a time and a place for inlines and I'll still use them. Just doing a little experimenting.

I guess the general consensus is that my original plan isn't going to work. I had always planned on using the seat mount, but figured that farther forward might perform better. It never really occurred to me that handling the tow lines and setting up would be harder. As for the rod storage being in the way, most of those slots are full, even if we have 6 lines in the water. I like to have immediate replacements ready for breakoffs, tangles, or just a quick program switch. So shifting stuff around on turns isn't really practical. I think ifishy's suggestion of just breaking them down is my best choice. Its really just a few seconds added to the process to put it together. Thanks for your ideas, guys! Keep 'em coming if you have any more.

We're considering installing a planer mast onto our boat. Its a Lund Rebel 1625. I'm just not sure about whether its going to be possible with our setup. I marked up this floor plan I found online to show my issue. On the port side of the bow, I made a vertical storage rig for extra rods. The plan would be to mount the mast on the front of the bow, where the stock trolling motor would have been mounted. So here is my main question: Would the rod storage interfere with the tow line? Its been several years since the last time I was on a boat with big boards and I can't really picture how much blow back to expect. I'm guessing I could get away with it on a straight run, but how about if I need to turn towards the starboard side? Aside from installing a tower and storing the rods overhead, I haven't really come up with a better way to store any number of fully rigged rods. Any other idea for a different mast installation? Or maybe a rod storage solution that i haven't come up with yet?

Any Finger Lake guys into Crazy Ivan spoons? I picked up a fistful of them this fall in my favorite Ontario patterns. I'm hoping to get those into the mix.

I give streamers a chance every now and then for a number of species. Never seems to work for me. Flutter spoons are always somewhere in my game plan. I don't have a lot of Suttons, but a whole box full of Hinckleys. They're made locally, so they're a lot easier to find than Suttons.

Thanks for the tips, guys. Lots of good ideas here. The main forage here is smelt. Not sure if that might change anything. We also have ciscos, but they seem to be a little much for the salmon. The lakers love them though. In fact, we target them while jigging, just so we can put them on our tipups. A lot of the lakes north of here and some of the smaller ones to the south are freezing and fishable. The perch grounds in the bays on George were almost ready to go before this thaw, but it takes a lot to get the main lake to freeze. We need a few nights of sub zero and windless nights to make it happen. We have plenty of years where it doesn't come together right and the ice just doesn't happen. Even in a perfect world, theres still a month until the main lake freezes. And I had no idea about rainbow stocking. I guess its been a few years since I've looked at the stocking lists. I've heard about extremely rare cases where people have caught rainbows while trolling for salmon, but I guess I just assumed they were getting washed in from the stocked streams. Looking at the lists, most of them seem to be pretty small and probably become food pretty quick. We're still waiting on the forecast to figure out when we're hitting the lake, but I'm looking forward to it.

Next weekend, I'll be be going for my first winter salmon trip. I've come up with a pretty decent summer program, but that might not won't work right now. We won't be in the Finger Lakes, but we'll be in Lake George, instead. I figure there are enough similarities that any tips I can get here might at least get me pointed in the right direction. First, the basics. My instincts are telling me to use stickbaits and smaller spoons in the top 10 feet of the water column. Probably slow, maybe less that 2.0 mph. Does that sound right? What about colors? The water will be clear and the skies will be over cast. The bigger question is what type of water am I looking for? I could stay relatively shallow with structure and stream deltas. Or I could fish over deep water, out in the open or I could be in 150' fow within 100' of shore in some areas.What kind of habitat would they hang out in this time of the year? Any suggestions would be helpful. The salmon fishery in Lake George has just started to come back a few years ago, and its hard to get anyone around here to spill any information. Thanks.

I'm just going by what she said, not something that I know for fact. But it definitely didn't seem like a number that she was just guessing at. I believe they do it to control the flow of the river for the hydroelectric dams and/or for the shipping lanes.

On Saturday afternoon, a park manager was at the launch and asked a few people what could be done to make things easier for when the water level comes up another 11 inches. We told her that they'll need a some kind of ramp to step from the launch ramp onto the floating dock. The whole conversation gave me the impression that they're planning on keeping the launch open and want to be ready for it.