Tackle Sizing

[Swinny19]

I have been fishing Seneca Lake my whole life (36 years), I have made the decision to move to the big lake where the fishing is still good. I have been on a number of Charters on Ontario but I am still trying to figure out what tackle I may need consider changing / upgrading (i.e. snap swivels, line wieghts). I know I need to go larger but how large? Thanks for any input!

[Shellback]

Unfortunately this site got hacked last Dec and lost the old archieves. There was a wealth of info there. I'm basically a rookie also who mostly fished Cayuga but have been making trips to Ontario. I would think your gear from Seneca should be fine for spring browns and such, then bump your mono line test up to 30#, come summer, that will handle the fish and the fleas. If you don't have wire diver setups, that should be one of your first buys for Ontario. For flashers and flies, check out Atomic, he can put together a package for you that's right for Ontario.

Go back over all the old posts here and also check out www.glangler.com and you should find some good info. I'm suprised no one responded to your post right away, because most folks here aren't afraid of sharing info. It may be due to tournaments running now. Folks due tend to be a little tight lipped when the tournaments are on. I hope some experienced guys will contribute more info for you.

[ray koziatek]

I run between 12 # and 20# ,, 12,15,17,works well with spoons use the big stuff 20# for spindctrs, and flashers,,, the one thing i always do is go with a little better swivel and test every knot with a 10# rigger weight you would be surprised how two seemingly identical knots can differ in strength 6'6" to 7' rods med to med heavy act. ill traid some lake onterio info for some seneca lake info Ray K.

[Billy V]

I didnt chime in on this thread right away because there are just so many different opinions on tackle. But I'll tell you what we do for lake O and hopefully that'll help. We fish out of Fair Haven, so we spend April & May chasing browns in tight to shore. We run 12# mono all spring. I think the swivels we use are size 1's. What you're using on the Finger Lakes will be just fine for browns. Stick baits like Dave's KA-BOOM Shiners, Jr. Thundersticks, and Rapala's in size 9 are our favorite body baits. Spoons in the 28 size are the ticket.

Once the Kings start to show up, we switch over to 30# Big Game. Like Shellback said, it'll be more than enough to handle the big boys, plus it keeps the fleas off the lines. I used to run 17# mono on Ontario for Kings and I really resisted switching over to the heavier line, but now that I have I'll never go back. It really does keep the fleas off, and we rarely ever have a fish break us off. And I'm actually catching more fish on the heavier line than I ever did on the lighter line. 28 and Mag size spoons are the norm for Kings. You'll want to run bigger swivels too. We also run a lot of flasher/fly combos in our king spreads. Flashers like the 8" Spin Dr. and the Pro-Chip are very speed tolerant and are deadly when paired with the right fly. I personally am a big fan of the Siggs Rigs flys, but you won't go wrong with ATOMMIK, Howie, or any of the other main manufacturers.

A wire dipsy setup would be a great thing to have too. We catch about 50% of our Kings each year off of the wire rods. There are several old threads on the site about how to rig up a wire dipsy and what equipment to use.

Hope this helps!

Best of luck this season.

[Swinny19]

Thanks for sharing guys! This is a terrific site! The information really helps and I would be more than happy to talk to anyone about the in and outs or I should say the ups and downs (depth) of fishing Seneca Lake anytime. Those of you fish Lake O everyday, I hope you know how good you have it! What a lake and fishery!