Cayuga Cayuga 9/4

[WoodieBoater]

Cayuga 9/4

Launched early out of Myers and headed north to Milliken.

Had a little slow start. Didn't have good screens until we were inside 140 FOW. Marked a ton of bait and fish right in front of Milliken.

Picked up a lot of decent lakers 80 to 90 ft down on riggers and green spoons over 100 to 140 FOW.

We crossed over to Treeman and pretty much had the same thing goin over there.

Couldn't seem to get any silver to hit but it was a decent day.

Edited September 6, 2017 by WoodieBoater

[thork9]

Troll higher 50-60 ft

[WoodieBoater]

I had gear at 40, 45, 50, 55, 60, 80 and 90 all day. Ran a variety of spoon sizes and colors and a couple of sticks. dipseys, lead and riggers. just couldn't get anything to hit up high. varied speed from 2.1 to 2.8... Marked plenty of fish and bait in 55 to 60 just wasn't our day to get anything but lakers. im not complaining by any means, im just sharing the info and what worked for us yesterday

Edited September 5, 2017 by WoodieBoater

[kmiller]

Ditto that WoodieBoater, we covered the same depth/speeds and only picked up one dink LL on a 40' mini diver. Lakers at 80 and 90 were the only consistant bite we could manage and they seemed to only want Sutton spoons.  We trolled from TSP to Sheldrake...

[bandrus1]

We took one nice salmon down 90 over 150..... also did a really nice brown down 35 over 45 fow

[WoodieBoater]

I think the area had a lot of rain the day/night before and I'm wondering if that messed up some temp breaks or at least shut the fish off for a little while that were stacked higher in the water column. Either way we had a pretty consistent pick of Lakers which was definitely better than nothing.

 

Di you have any other luck in tight?

 

The biggest laker had about a 5 inch alewife in it.

Edited September 6, 2017 by WoodieBoater

[kmiller]

No luck in close for me,our fish came from 170-200 FOW.

 

Check out the 14lb 9oz LL that was taken on 9/3.... posted under the Finger Lakes Discussion

[bandrus1]

in tight was a complete accident.... hit one of those cliffs that went from 120 feet deep to like 50 feet deep in 10 yards..... was dragging one rigger which I popped and sent up and the other I just raced it up from 70 down to 30 down while I was reeling the other up and bam brown trout smacked it

 

 

I had 60 degree on the fish hawk down 70

Edited September 6, 2017 by bandrus1

[WoodieBoater]

Yeah I saw that. Incredible fish.

I saw another post a couple weeks ago with like a 10 pound LL out of Cayuga

And another a couple weeks before that with a monster Laker out of Cayuga.

It seems like there's a lot of consistent reports of nice bows and browns too.

That water has definitely been producing this year

 

and I gotchya. that's definitely going to be my next purchase is a fish hawk

Edited September 6, 2017 by WoodieBoater

[bandrus1]

keep lakers throw back others!!!!

[Xxx]

So WoodieBoater, you feel if you had a fish hawk you would have done better, why? You caught more fish than bandrus1 but he caught differant species. Reason I'm asking is the last time I was up I installed a Fish Hawk X4D it's killing me not to be fishing with it!! But I have family issues (health) that need to be addressed first, plus I got my kicker in 2 pieces also, but I'm on the road to recovery with my kicker, so that's a plus.

[bandrus1]

4 minutes ago, pap said:

So WoodieBoater, you feel if you had a fish hawk you would have done better, why? You caught more fish than bandrus1 but he caught differant species. Reason I'm asking is the last time I was up I installed a Fish Hawk X4D it's killing me not to be fishing with it!! But I have family issues (health) that need to be addressed first, plus I got my kicker in 2 pieces also, but I'm on the road to recovery with my kicker, so that's a plus.

 

 

Oh I just listed my non lakers that were ok

 

I caught 15 lakers and 4 dink salmon also lol

 

 

Edited September 6, 2017 by bandrus1

[Xxx]

1 minute ago, bandrus1 said:

 

 

Oh I just listed my non lakers 

 

I caught 15 lakers and 4 dink salmon also lol

 

 

 

I know your 1 hell of a fisherman, I kinda knew something was wrong with this picture, but honestly, could you give me some FishHawk 101 like how do you know where to find the temps, these lakes are huge!! I know you have to know what the temps your species prefer. But the temps move from storms ect. What would be a go to idea to locate such areas, using your chart plotter to find deeper water and head towards structure on the bottom? Thanks for any input!!  PAP.

[bandrus1]

I wouldnt say im a hell of a fisherman thats for sure.. I wouldnt even consider myself a good weekend warrior 

 

Truthfully on cayuga I dont even run my fish hawk.. I only did this time because I had issues with my prob on lake ontario 2 weeks ago and I wanted to test it out this past weekend..

 

 

On cayuga I have a rather straight up set up... 2 riggers each with fixed cheaters... If I say screw lakers I keep them up higher but if we are in catch # fish mode I run them 85 down with cheater 15 above it and 65 down with 15 ft above it... Dipsies out at variable distances and a 10 color lead out the back... Unlike many who have success I cant for the life of me catch a fish on cayuga with a flacher and fly or a 10 color lead.. Beats me?? If I have a good driving side kick I will use cowbells on bottom but that requires so much babysitting on cayuga because of the ledges

 

 

So fish hawk on lake O.... I put the probe at about 48ish degrees and put the 2nd rigger in about 52-54 degrees.      Truth be told I look at a lot of reports on here and talk to cptns on the lake about how far off shore fishing it but I am pretty sure the way it goes is a steady south win blow pushes warm water out and cold water comes in and a north wind blows warm surface water inshore

[magill270]

Brandrus I had all kinds of problems with my fish hawk on Ontario. I think it was due to rough conditions. As soon as the lake calmed down my fish hawk started working again. I did notice some moisture in my battery compartment. Another fisherman taught me to use Vaseline on the seals. Took care of the moisture but fish hawk still didn't work properly. I just fished the marks.


Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United

[bandrus1]

10 minutes ago, magill270 said:

Brandrus I had all kinds of problems with my fish hawk on Ontario. I think it was due to rough conditions. As soon as the lake calmed down my fish hawk started working again. I did notice some moisture in my battery compartment. Another fisherman taught me to use Vaseline on the seals. Took care of the moisture but fish hawk still didn't work properly. I just fished the marks.


Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United

 

I think if there is a ton of current it sometimes has trouble getting the temp reading back up to the ducer....... I run 15 lb torpedo with my probe and was having an issue... just my guess what was happening with mine

 

sadly I spent $200 on a new one before a test run hahahah

Edited September 6, 2017 by bandrus1

[magill270]

Now you have a back up probe. I always wondered why people were losing probes and weights,,,, then I started fishing Ontario. Now I know first hand how people lose expensive gear.


Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United

[WoodieBoater]

I would say the most attractive part of the fish hawk for me isn't so much temperature at depth... I can find the thermocline and fish marks with my sonar all day. I'm more interested in knowing what my down speed is in current.

 

Like has been said, not so much for the finger lakes but for Lake O when there's heavy current or even for deeper walleye fishing. Again I can guestimate what the gear is doing based on the hum or angle of the rigger cables etc. but it'd be a lot easier to have a probe telling you exactly what your down speed is. On days when fish are hitting everything everywhere at every speed it doesn't make a difference. But I think it would help a lot on days when fish are finicky (every day with walleye) and are hitting at 2.4 mph... not 2.3, not 2.5, but 2.4.. I haven't used one but id say it also makes it easier to target a thermocline. There may be places in the lake that it sits at 40 but a few miles one way or another maybe its at 60..

 

In my opinion the more consistent you can be with your down speed, down temp etc. once you find out what the fish want the more successful you will be. especially on marginal days. And that ladies and gentleman is how I justify how much a fish hawk will cost me haha 

 

 

Edited September 6, 2017 by WoodieBoater

[Sk8man]

Just don't do a comparison of the price with the price of fish in the store because you may be old and wrinkled before you break even....I didn't say that did I Dave?

Edited September 6, 2017 by Sk8man

[WoodieBoater]

hey you cant put a price on fun les

[bandrus1]

2 hours ago, WoodieBoater said:

I would say the most attractive part of the fish hawk for me isn't so much temperature at depth... I can find the thermocline and fish marks with my sonar all day. I'm more interested in knowing what my down speed is in current.

 

Like has been said, not so much for the finger lakes but for Lake O when there's heavy current or even for deeper walleye fishing. Again I can guestimate what the gear is doing based on the hum or angle of the rigger cables etc. but it'd be a lot easier to have a probe telling you exactly what your down speed is. On days when fish are hitting everything everywhere at every speed it doesn't make a difference. But I think it would help a lot on days when fish are finicky (every day with walleye) and are hitting at 2.4 mph... not 2.3, not 2.5, but 2.4.. I haven't used one but id say it also makes it easier to target a thermocline. There may be places in the lake that it sits at 40 but a few miles one way or another maybe its at 60..

 

In my opinion the more consistent you can be with your down speed, down temp etc. once you find out what the fish want the more successful you will be. especially on marginal days. And that ladies and gentleman is how I justify how much a fish hawk will cost me haha 

 

 

 

 

problem is trolling on lake O fish hawk isnt good for difference between 2.3 and 2.5..... there are many days you need to do like 3.5 surface to get 2.2 or need to do 1.2 surface to get 2.4 down... big bad current on that lake 

[WoodieBoater]

yeah I see what ur saying I think. it may not be accurate to the tenth of a mph in heavy current?

I guess my point is ill have a better idea of weather I have to do 3.5 or 1.2 on the surface vs. without a probe giving me some idea of my down speed... id just be guessing. educated guessing but guessing nonetheless

[bandrus1]

Just a personal opinion but I think a down speed unit is irreplaceable for a serious lake Ontario fisherman.... I was out 2 weeks ago ( I have a 19ft aluminum boat) and because of my fish hawk I concluded given the waves and current I could not troll west... just could not maintain speed given conditions. I trolled east 6 miles picked everything and ran back west and reset trolling east... with no probe i would have been completly wasting about 1/2 my day trolling back west

[signalman]

The price of the fish hawk is one thing wait until you start donating probes to lake o that will get your attention

[Xxx]

20 minutes ago, signalman said:

The price of the fish hawk is one thing wait until you start donating probes to lake o that will get your attention

That's why I'm putting slower riggers on my LakeO boat, the new mag20's are ridiculous fast. I broke the tip of my rigger rod the first time I sent the torpedo weight down, and I swear the boom was going to bust off when the ball does the auto stop thing, so I'm not putting my new probe on the mag20 rigger untill I become more familiar with this new fast riggers. I don't need to donate $250.00 on my first trip out with it.