wrboz

It’s gonna be manuals for me. I can’t do the electrics because of the $$$. Plus my boat is pretty cramped right now and I wouldn’t want to have to add another battery. I have a suspicion we both fish the same lake fairly often.

I think just the pond is closed to private boats. Res is good to go for now.

I need some downrigger advice. In the past, I’ve knocked off my trout trolling about mid June and switched to stripers. This year I’ve decided to stay with the trout through the summer because it sure looks like the stripers need a break. I’ve been pulling lead core for decades. This year I’m thinking downriggers would be a better way to go. I fish inland lakes, and I foresee a lot of hassles pulling around 100+ feet of line between jet skis, waterskiers, and pleasure boats. Plus I could use lighter tackle. I target mostly rainbows and browns, and I never envision fishing deeper than 50 feet or so. Anybody have any thoughts on what would be good downriggers to look for?

Nice salmon! Here in Mass we only have a couple of lakes with landlockeds. I’ve never caught one trolling. I would have to go to Quabin to troll for them. The deer there seem much less wary than Mass deer! I’ve had them bed down in my backyard with fawns, but they won’t let you touch them.

That’s a beautiful part of the country. I haven’t been fishing in Maine for probably 20 years or so. Nice shots of the doe and fawn. Small Rapalas are definitely our number 2 lure to troll after spoons. They’re nice and easy to troll because they float! If I stop the boat to fight a fish they rise instead of settling to the bottom. Love flatlining them in the spring and fall. I’m going to try the db smelts. The lakes I usually fish are predominantly landlocked alewife-based forage, but I seem to do better with long, thin spoons. Not sure why. Same thing with the Rapalas. I had high hopes for Shad raps because their profiles look more like alewives, but regular Rapala minnows out fish them by a large margin. I guess it’s easier to go with what produces. You can’t argue with success!

Sounds like you guys had a great day! What kind of spoons do you like? I have pretty good luck with mooselooks and needlefish. I just use a stream thermometer tied to a 16 oz bank sinker. I let it down on a paracord marked every 5 feet. A couple of years ago I compared my readings to those that a friend of mine was getting. He had some $250 Lake Ontario temp checker and our readings jibed so I trust what I’m getting. You can see the rhermocline on your fish finder if you turn up the sensitivity. Just Google it- there’s a lot about what to look for with screenshots so you know what you’re looking at.

Got out yesterday, but not until afternoon due to too much fun on Saturday night. Surface temp was down to 68, had it at 71 the week before. At 20 feet the temp read 62, unchanged from week to week. Got some browns and some rainbows pulling 4 colors of leadcore, which is about what I would expect. Got a rainbow on a flatlined rapala in the middle of the afternoon, which I didn’t expect.

Got out this afternoon. 9 browns, 3 rainbows, 2 pickerel. 57 degrees at the surface. 55 degrees at 10 feet. Mooselooks and j7 rapalas behind 2 colors of leadcore mostly. Got a couple on flatlined rapalas.

Yes they will. I only had some rapalas with me today. A lot of the fish we saw this morning would rather have had something else!

Got out this morning for as long as 2 gallons of gas lasted. Cumbys was out of 2 stroke oil so I had to go with what was in the tank. Got 2 rainbows, 1 tiger, 1 brown. All on f3, f7 and j7 rapalas, flatlined. Seeing tons of fish at 10-15 feet, but only had tackle with me for shallower fish. I think leadcore rods are going in the boat for next week.

Nice! What were the surface temps reading?

What a difference a week makes! Went out for a couple hours yesterday afternoon. Surface temps were running around 61 degrees. Boated 3 browns, 1 rainbow, lost 2 beside the boat. (the penalty for going barbless). 2 fish from flatlines, 2 fish from 10 feet. I might be crazy, but it looked to me that like the lake is beginning to stratify.

16 today. About 2/3 browns, 1/3 rainbows. All in the top 5 feet or so. Flatlining f7 gold rapala and 1/4 oz black roostertail. Surface temp about 47, trolling 2.5 to 3.0 gps. Put them all back.

Nice Browns! When you say big spoons, are we talking like Michigan Stinger big?

I have total respect for Tbyrd and anybody else who can catch suspended Browns 50 feet down. I have a suspicion what lake he’s fishing, that’s all. Tbyrd was saying rainbows in the top 15 feet in his most recent post. The lake I have in mind was stocked with rainbows earlier this week. No disrespect intended. Just an observation.