Jomat

Stealth can matter a little bit too when the sun gets high and a lot of boat traffic gets on the water. Having a little more line in the water isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I find that some of those bluebird days around 10 am ish my leadcore lines start out producing my shorter snap weighted lines. Strictly talking about walleye fishing here.

Ive run the suffix advanced for two years now. I touched down in 45’ last year with a #9 shad rap on a 5 color going 1.8....was pretty impressed with that. Gotta use a uni knot to connect though the sheath is very thin and u can’t use a Willis knot. Fits on my 200 size convectors so that’s why I went with the small diameter/high sink rate. Had a teener sheepie eat a crankbait and pull my board under and everything held. Pretty happy with it, this year I’m gonna try out the 12lb....even smaller diameter.

Damn those are hot....wish I saw this an hour ago.

Yeah pretty impressive that fish is still out chasing down spoons. Those wounds look like they’re from gravel, but handling fish with gloves on in the creek can remove slime and make them susceptible to infections.

I gotta put in another pitch for the targa. I think tracker has kinda a bad name for whatever reason, but really all these aluminum boats are cheapish build quality when u really get poking around in them. My buddies 18’ targa is much wider and much heavier than my 17.5 alumacraft and much nicer to fish out of IMO. I don’t love the huge casting platform in the back but if you do more casting/jigging than trolling you probably will. I think the price point on them is quite a bit lower too than a new Lund/alumacraft. Storage and live wells are awesome and again much better than my 17.5 dominator.

Flew over Lake Erie on the way to Detroit on a clear day Wednesday. Very spotty/little ice all the way past presque isle. Only the far western edge of Erie is really “locked up”. It’ll be another early spring with regards to Erie and Ontario.

Yeah gotta slide the weight forward a bit when pulling heavy snap weights especially. Seems more sensitive to snap weights than leadcore...prolly from the line angle off the back of the board. If running real light stuff like shallow running stick baits or spoons I slide the weight back. This can keep the nose up and keep it from wanting to dive under in big waves...in calm water it doesn’t much matter. Church boards def seem to sit a little lower in the water and can be a little bit more finicky to set up than the offshore boards. I think they plane out a bit better/don’t drop back as far as the offshore tho.

Pulled the trigger on a panoptix livescope....can’t wait to get that out in the ice and then the boat in the spring. For Christmas my wife hooked me up with a bunch of custom painted stickbaits/jigging raps from viper tackle. Walleyes better watch out.

Walleyes in rivers are migratory and move around a lot. I have caught/released limits of keeper walleyes on accident while bass fishing in the chemung....and the next week they’re gone. Don’t disagree maybe less fish but if you stand on one rock in a river fishing for walleyes....not surprised you aren’t catching. There are a lot of guys up and down the river that are on walleyes all the time....most in boats, many fishing at night....most keeping all their fish. Also seems like walleye spawning success is very sensitive to environmental conditions and can boom or bust like what’s happened in Erie....might be even more sensitive in a river system. water this year was mad low....I know it mad the bass fishing much tougher than usual

Can’t wait for onieda to freeze. Praying for polar vortex.

Most of the fishing on Cook Inlet/highway system pretty much sucks and is shut down more often than not. You can get early run kings on the Kasilof...they are not 40lbers but hatchery fish so the season is usually open. Bob Ball is the best guide , book him early. Even the halibut limits are getting harder to fill and barn doors are rare unless you take a long boat ride out of homer. I would tell you to pony up the cash and go fish the nushagak on Bristol bay...but even the fishing there has been quite bad the last two years with no snowpack and low flows. unfortunately the fishing in Alaska is not what it was even 12 years ago when I started going. Many of the guides,camp,lodges are not exactly forthcoming about that information either....they’ll book you, take your money, then apologize when you get there and the season is closed. No one here believes in climate change but I can tell you the fish in AK absolutely do. I won’t be spending the $$$$ to go back until the numbers start to come back.

Sick boat....is it tough netting fish around those outboard brackets?

Center rod is the one I use for pulling boards/bottom bouncers with braid and snap weights. I was looking for a telescoping rod that would fit in my 7’ rod locker and these TFO’s were on sale at Sierra trading for 50-75$. Notice the real soft tip...that is helpful especially with braid to absorb the head shakes while keeping the hook from pulling. It’s really the middle of the rod that allows it to pull the boards in rough water. Have a couple Denalis too with leadcore...they are nice. My braid reels are low profile cold waters and convectors. The new low pro convectors have a “flipping switch” which comes in real handy when running boards with snap weights. Not as nice as shimano but I don’t get to fish everyday....good enough for weekend warrior and 100$ less.

zimmy, thanks I know this is the case in the spring time. In the fall/early winter oftentimes you’ll walk down to the weir to see a gate over the bypass, the ladder closed and a pile of fish rolling below the weir, and the creek is empty despite good flows. Then magically a week before the season closes in December there are fish in the creek.

Anyone know why they won’t let those fish in the creek in the fall? I thought the weir/fish ladder was for lamprey control and lampreys spawn in the spring? anyway got the boat out for the last trip today. My buddy and I did 2 nice rainbows, 3 lakers, and a couple dink landlocks between Myers point and Taughannock on the east side. Started the morning down in Ithaca and got no bites down there....tons of bait marked all day.