Visiting This Week: Any tips?

[rickyu10]

I am making a trip to SML this weekend into next week with my girlfriends family. We were down last summer and I had a little luck thanks to some tips I read on this board. Unfortunately, my boat is docked on Lake Ontario and the rental (I'm assuming) will not have any electronics.

That being said, my gameplan is to flat line a 5" swim shad and then run a U-rig down 10-15 and a leadcore down 15-20 to cover as much water as possible. I'm thinking a dark alewife spoon, maybe with some blue/green.

Any tips would be greatly appreciated! I must say this board was critical to my success last year and you all are very helpful and I have been very entertained reading your posts over the past year and a half.

Here's last year's biggest fish...
 

[johnr]

Your game plan should work, provided you know how to work the urig and leadcore to the correct depth. Since you fish Lake Ontario, I'll assume you know how to handle each of them.

Our trees top out around 18-20 feet, so going any deeper than that can be hazardous to the wallet and tackle box. Without electronics, it's tough to know when the coast is clear to run deeper, so staying around 15-18" down should do it. The stripers will come up a good ways to eat.

I prefer silver or hammered silver spoons. I have caught some on glow spoons, and green spoons also. I'm a fast troller (4-5mph), most other guys are slower (1-2.5mph). U-rigs are always good.

Below the bridge will be best. The state park is one of my favorite trolling areas in the summer.

[smlmike]

You could always use the Navonics app for smartphones to also see contours. Points and humps can get real skinny real fast and hang you up also. I have a Garmin car GPS that had a boating mode. That's what i started out with for navigation. Hope you catch a couple.

[rickyu10]

Thanks, johnr smlmike.

My brother designs and paints most of the spoons we use on LO so i was just seeing what color patterns I should have him put together for me.

I appreciate the feedback and will post reports on the board this week.