tbromund

fwiw, before the fleas showed up and made it impossible, all I ever ran on my riggers was 12lb Trilene xt on Penn 209's and nice soft Eagle Claw Starfire rigger rods and those put plenty of 30+ lb Lake Ontario salmon into the boat, like this one: Tim

yup, your diver actually looks something like this in the water: the deflection to the side is more pronounced with each higher diver setting, but the lines at the boat will be almost parallel. Tim

What I've done for years on my rigger rods is fill the spool most of the way with 17 lb Trilene XT 300-350 yds or so, then splice in 120 feet or so of 30 lb big game with a back to back uni knot to cover the length between the rod tip and the release, then a small (50 lb test, #8 I think) spro power swivel and 6 feet of so of 20 lb fluorocarbon with just a snap to the lure. it's the best of all worlds, no flea issues and you have adequate line on the reel for when you get a serious screamer on the line. Works for both spoons and flasher fly rigs, haven't lost a fish due to break off ever that I can recall. My rigger reels are Shimano Triton TR200G's. I use these the same way in the spring for running the boards along the shore for browns, except I drop down to about 10' of 10 lb fluoro at the terminal end. The large diameter 30 lb keeps the stickbaits from diving too deep and hanging bottom in the really skinny water. Tim

Keep the freaking pinwheels out of the lakes. Why anyone would climb on board of the idea to vandalize our national treasures with these snake oil eyesores is beyond me. Put em on the land wherever you can find a farmer willing to lease his land, but keep them the heck out of the great lakes. Tim

10:00 am - 1:00 pm

You wouldn't think so if you were faced with the option of either pay a $1,000 fine, right here, right now or we're gonna confiscate your boat. Tim

sounds like a little payback for the uncalled for harassment and extortion that Canadian Customs/Border Patrol pulled on a number of US boaters on Lake O last season. And yes, it is a huge load of crap, regardless of jurisdiction pulling it. Tim

that would be because it is a fabricated myth.

There have been a LOT of Atlantics caught in the open water fishery on Lake O the past 3 years, particularly in the spring and early summer. Some in the high teens and pushing 20 lbs We got our first ever on the boat on July 31 last year 14.3 lbs. here are some others that guys have posted pictures of over the past couple years on other fishing boards. Tim

Depends on what fish I'm targeting out of Olcott on Lake Ontario. Browns I could spend all summer in 35-55 fow, Kings it would be 80-100 fow, Steelhead it would be 480-500 fow. Tim

I always seem to go against the grain here, but i absolutely HATE blacks style releases. I just find them very difficult and cumbersome to set. I use the Scotty Powergrips and find them much easier to set and they hold like crazy, I cal load the absolute crap out of the rod and never get a false release, yet with the long tether on the Scotty, shakers are very easily detected. That's frequently not possible with the blacks style. I mostly use Atommik torpedo weights, except for the 16 lb torpedo diver rigger weight on my probe rigger. I use the Scotty releases with the stacker clips on the cable just above the weight. Tim

I swapped out the 840 for my Depth Raider and sold off all of the components years before the X4 came out. I've seen the X4 on other people's boats and it appears that FH has addressed all of the issues I hated about the old model, but I still have no plans on switching back. I like the DR, coated cable and all. Tim

Here's a series of pics i posted on the LOTSA Website several years ago showing the knot most of us use, it's simply and half hitch and an overhand knot. I've had that knot go 3+ seasons on Lake Ontario Kings and not had to re-tie. http://www.lotsa.org/Wire%20Line%20Knot.htm Tim

I look for 42 deg to set the bottom of my spread and run the remainder of the program up from there. Other than that, as fishshiffer mentioned, I use it mostly for down speed. Tim

Yup, the coated cable issue is WAY overblown IMO and personally I'd rather have that, than drill additional holes in my transom below the waterline to install yet another transducer. I finally replaced the coated cable for my depth raider last season after getting 6 years out of the original one. Had it down over 160 feet last season with no loss of signal. I had an old Fish Hawk 840 and put up with that unstable POS for years before I finally scrapped that in favor of the much superior Depth Raider. Tim

ok the dyslexia kicked in there. the Atlantic was 14.3 lbs not 13.4 (weighed on a brass Chatillion scale by NYSDEC fisheries tech back in port). Tim

Here's our biggest this season 29 lbs even, weighed on a certified derby scale. Took 2nd in our LOTSA summer club tournament and 10 place in the summer LOC Derby 17 lb brown C&R'd my buddies 13 yo daughter Anna's 1st brown trout his 13.5 lb brown our boat's first Lake Ontario Atlantic Salmon 13.4 lb Anna's 20 lb king (all by herself) Dad with a nice one 5 man limit of perch (150) in an hour and a half out of Vermilion OH on Erie Tim

The antenna that comes with the Depth Raider is big enough diameter that the Scotty beads pass right through it. Tim

the large spots on the tail suggest pink salmon, but the rest doesn't really look like a pure hen pink salmon so I'd agree with the majority that it is probably a pink/chinook hybrid or "pinook". Unfortunately, it's really hard to see any detail in that pic to say for sure. Tim

Awesome, congrats on the first turkey. 16 lb would be an absolute monster of a hen, you sure it wasn't a jake? Tim

Good choice on the Scottys, I have had mine since 2003 and couldn't be happier with them. Can't help on the wiring. I have 2 combination batteries, one on each side of the transom and each of my 2 riggers is wired directly to battery directly below it. Tim

the Redwood Boards from Amish Outfitters are the hardest pulling boards I've ever seen. They put the modified otterboats to shame. AO claims their plastic boards pull even harder. http://www.amishoutfitters.com The descriptions page on the site is missing a lot of pictures for some reason, but I have the redwood boards and they absolutely do work as advertised. Tim

For years, one of my most consistent combos has been the white MD/Crushed glow spinnie with a green crinkle howie fly. For some reason the smaller profile of the howie behind that blade seems to make a difference as I've tried the same pattern fly from other manufacturers in that combo and not done as well with it. Don't ask me why. Tim

Dad and I hit Olcott yesterday morning. Took advantage of the new 3 rod rule to run our regular six rod spread. Cold water inside, we had 48-50 deg down 45 feet. Kind of slow for us, we went 2/4 with one smallish mature hen king (16 or 17 lbs) and a nice 7 lb brown landed. Our best water was 50-70 fow between the microwave and the plant. had 1 hit and run on the 150 diver green/glow opti inticer/green and silver fly (don't remember the pattern). The king came on the 45' rigger on a carmel dolphin SD/Crazy B!tch Atommic fly. Initially thought it was going to be a much bigger fish as it went on a big 150 yd + screaming first run, but that was all it had in it, after that it was done and just came right in. The Brown hit a mongoose pattern fishlander spoon tight to bottom in 70 fow (70 foc out in 70 fow) Radio chatter seemed to indicate that most had a slow day. The king Tim