HB2

We all struggle sometimes . I have been doing this since the 70s and I still have bad days . I can tell you this , keep it simple . Less can be more .I don't know what you have for equipment . But riggers are the center of it . One spoon on each rigger, 25 ft leads for me , and maybe a dipsey or 2 should be plenty . I run 5 rods max . Make what you have work . And I generally do as well as anyone out there . Use proven spoons . My favorites are, glo frog, Lazer spook , black silver , 42 second , NBK , carbon 14 . DW reg and Mags , Stingrays , Moonshine . Been doing better with reg size lately. Location is the first piece of the puzzle . Follow the pack. Don't get to close . Speed is relevant to your monitor . But generally 2.1 to 2.8 is good . And that's on a fish hawk or depth raider NOT gps , that's SOG or speed over bottom which is totally different . Direction of troll is important also so note that on the hit . Patience , you have to let what you have work . I use to change stuff constantly and wind up with a mess down there . How you drive the boat is critical IMO . Straight with slight S curves . Good luck

I have noticed that our Canadian brothers seem to catch on occasion and consistently over the last so many years the biggest fish of the season during the fishing year . Now why is that ? Either they are better or more lucky than we are . Or something to consider are those are North shore naturally reproduced fish that don't stray far from the breeding grounds .

But there were some which may be the few bigger fish . And how big were the avg returning 3 year olds ? Probably those 18 to 23 # fish . Or so I would guess .

Also has it occured to anyone those 25 and 26 # fish maybe 4 years old ?

Well , it ain't nothing like it use to be 20 + years ago . And we are way better at catching them . And average size is not bigger . There is not nearly the amount of alwives in the lake like there was back then also . Can't deny that . Are these low to mid teens kings we are catching small 3 year olds ? I'd like to know that also .

We were wondering how the kings weight would be this spring . I guess we now know . But there sure are a lot of them

Where are you located ?

If the probes go bad and are out of warranty , would you want to risk buying a used one ? Especially if it's a lot of money . Got a depth raider last year for 525 complete shipped to house . Good so far .

If nobody else wants it , my weight station cooler has about had it .

20, 40 , 60 , 200 k , really isn't the issue . With all the state and political pensions that have to be paid , where is that money coming from ? The combined amount has to be shocking. The long term ramifications of that can't be sustainable . What happens when there isn't enough money funded to pay ? Personally , I'd like to see more emphasis put on saving and investing and self reliance at the high school level . Teach kids to save and take care of themselves long term , be forward thinking . Yeah, that will work . What am I thinking ?

Is that 60 k before the benefit package ? If a lot are making less than a lot are making more if that's the median . To pay for that retirement , 1 million dollars + would have to be invested to fully fund that at 6% return . Does the state have that ? We all know that answer . So who pays that 42 year old till he lives to 100 + the way life span gets older ? Sure he earned it but it needs to get paid for . Where does that money come from ? There are only so many rich people the state can shake down . And they are leaving in drpves and taking their state income tax bill with them . Which leaves it to the rest of us. Tom Gallisiono took 11.5 million to Fla. For just one .

Being a self employed person all my life , I have made my own retirement . If the economy of the country goes south , it greatly affects my retirement situation . It seems that state or government employees have it better benefit / retirement wise as than most everyone else .Set for life . The retirement / benefit based on the last 3 years of employment seems a bit much ( for lack of a better word )to me . Teachers with seniority take on coaching or other position or other employees nearing retirement work the overtime that is saved for them by others so when it's their turn they can do the same to up their dollars so they can get more in retirement . Politicians court the union vote and give them these great benefits to get their endorsement . Basically buying their vote with taxpayers money . Like paying off school debt . When the economy gets bad , taxpayers still have to fund these guaranteed benefits . The population is living longer and the better health care we get has gone through the roof . And a huge portion of the population is retiring at the same time . So taxpayers are paying way more for many years longer and it's only going to get worse. Social security is broke and these pension funds are grossly underfunded . Wages are down . I can't see taxing our way out of it . Especially when we are sending gazillions of dollars all over the world. Every person that moves out of the state , and a lot are ,leaves the rest of us who stay footing the bill . There sure looks like there is a financial train wreck coming .

I agree with you 100% I would hate to see the current administration of this state look any more anti constitutional than they already are ,if that is even possible . But they seem to push that envelope more each day .

I fish a little most every day , sometimes 3 times a day , certain times of the year . Sometimes it's great and sometimes it's not . When it's really good , it can become quite tiresome hauling all those big fish in . When the kings are in I got tendonitis in my left elbow 3 years in a row . But I guess we all have our crosses to bear .

The pictures are all in my mind Besides , if I got all the big fish I caught in my life mounted , I'd be broke and need to put an addition on my house .

Well I guess we will never know for sure , not that it matters much . All I do know is I feel fortunate to have hooked and landed it and get it back in the water to swim away . If I would have measured and weighed it ,it would have most likely died . I'm blessed that I have a place where I can fish that whenever my float drops , It could be a 3 " perch , a bass , trout ,salmon, carp , sunfish , or a nice pike . And that's fun .

No I did not measure it but I think it was 44" or so but it was fat . I have a hard time judging weight of pike as some are skinny so you can't go by weight. I say it's all of 15# . I almost didn't take the pic . I wanted to get it back in the water . It's our there for someone else to catch .

And no , you didn't here me shouting .

The clouds made it a bust but it still was pretty cool . I fished through it and caught a few . But I could not see my float for a few minutes . A stiff NE wind started blowing about 1 . When it started to get a little dark about 20 min before it calmed right down . The rooster across the creek started in . Also all the creek dogs started to howl .A bunch of fireworks was blown off. Then it was over. Highly overplayed . Wife and I took a drive through Brockport and the college . More traffic for graduation . Pike was caught on a 1/32 oz chart curly tail under a float 4# tippet.

Sure started off right !