Subaqua Adinterim

If you are looking to use a screw thread type set up, I would highly recommend the Owner Ultra Shakeyhead head jig in 3/16 or 1/4 oz. size These are ideal for small craws. I use them with the Gary Y. Mini craws and they work well as they can be rigged so the hook is in the plastic making it weedless. These will work well with any similar style plastic. You will get a lot of good advice on this forum; I have learned a lot here. Good luck.

I have had great success with the Owner Ultra Shakeyhead Head jig. 1/4 oz. is good This head is ideal as the twist in top part is fairly thin and secures the plastic perfectly. I pair this with the Gary Y. Mini craw that is about 3.5 inches long in pumpkin with green and black flakes or the watermelon color with red flakes. This can be set up to fish weedless on the shakeyhead. I think you should have great success with this and you really don't need that much tackle to have good success. Best of luck.

For a canoe, you will need to get a stadium style seat to strap to the canoe seat. Attach this stadium seat to the horizontal canoe seat. You can then attach the lumbar support to the stadium seat to get added comfort if the stadium seat is not sufficient. Search for a GCI bleacher back stadium seat. This or something similar should work for you. Best of luck, whatever you can do to get your father out on the water will be nice.

That is keeping with my theory. As I fished one of the smaller finger lakes several days ago, which is much deeper, the water was very cold. It wasn't until later in the afternoon with the sun out and the air temperature about 60, that the shallower water warmed up slightly and I started catching fish in about eight to ten feet of water. Hopefully things will warm up a little, however this cold rain may make it tough for a while. I'm scheduled to sub in a golf league Wednesday afternoon, so maybe Thursday or Friday I will head out.

Here's what it looks like

Here's an item that I find useful in making the seat of my kayak more comfortable. I also use this in my truck on long trips. It's the Big Game Lumbar support - Cabelas item # ik 463025. This has a lightweight frame and is mesh, so is not affected by water. Weighs next to nothing and makes my time on the water so much more comfortable. I started using this in my tree stand last deer hunting season, however, I find it is more valuable for me in making my fishing comfortable. I don't know how to post a picture, so you will need to look at the item number listed above. This is only $13 and is really a small thing that has made a big difference in comfort for me. Hope I can help someone else with this post.

I usually bring just two rods. Sometimes I bring three, the third is an ultralight set up to have fun with pan fish if I'm not catching any bass. I primarily fish with spinning reels since it's easier for me to cast from a sitting position. Used to bring a crate, now that's left on a shelf in the garage, as it's added weight and was one more thing to catch the wind if my poles were upright in the attached pvc holders. I have my net behind my seat and a nylon bag (the type that you can put groceries in) also behind my seat. That bag is attached with a clip to the back of my seat with a small diameter rope. Inside that bag is 2 small lunch box size foam coolers. Inside the coolers are two small 8 to 12 oz. water bottles that are frozen and keep my lunch or snacks chilled until they thaw out, at which point they are a nice cold drink. I start out with the poles rigged up and ready to go, usually one with a shakeyhead set up and the other with an EWG hook to Trig plastics with. I have a small plastic partitioned tackle storage box that holds about 12 lures, including some spinners, spoons and a few crank baits, hooks and jigs. I also bring a few bags of plastic worms and craws. I keep my tackle next to me in a small nylon bag also attached with a clip and small diameter rope to my seat. I cut up a pool noodle, the kind you can buy at the dollar store, to add floatation to the inside of the bags holding my lunch and tackle, in case they go overboard. I also use about a foot of this pool noodle foam to wrap my anchor rope around and I have a small anchor that has 4 fold out sides,that cost about $10. Also, I use about 8 " of foam insulation (cut from the grey foam tubes that are used for copper water pipes) and put that just above the reel seat before the first rod guide. It doesn't take much to float your reel & rod,and this has saved me a few times when I have had the pole slip overboard. I have two rod holders about an arms length in front of me, one on each side. I also keep my needle nose pliers on one side of my PFD and my small camera in a plastic bag on the other side pocket. As far as extra clothes, it usually warms up, so as I take items off I put them in a plastic bag behind my seat. I have pared things down over the years so I am taking as little as possible; as I have found that I only use a few things and for me, I am having more fun and keeping track of less stuff. Good luck in your fishing; with experience, you will find out what works best for you.

That rig (minus the white Mr. Twister) brings back some real old memories of hauling in salmon from the Port Ontario bridge near Pulaski. My college buddies and I would head up after dark with the beers, boom box and lanterns. We'd use surf rods, some hefty Mitchell spinning reels and 80# braid. Drop down next to the bridge piling and pull up and drop down until the rod almost got jerked out of your hand - fish on! Used to catch between 6 and 10 on a good night. That was over 35 years ago. Can't do that type of fishing any more because it's not legal, the beers and fishing til midnight are something that I just don't do any more anyway. But those were some fun times.

Great advice here, regarding PFD and to just get out there and do it. Also, you don't need to take a 100 lures and a dozen poles. There are those here that do, which is good for them. Any more than 2 poles is a recipe for disaster for me. Take your six or so "go to lures", and you will spend less time sorting out your stuff to go fishing, and more time actually fishing. I generally rig one pole with a shakeyhead rig and the other with a weightless T rigged senko or similar type plastic. Besides a few bags of plastics to use on what I start out with, I have just a few other lures in case I strike out with the plastics. Best of luck and have fun.

If you are talking something like a Panther Martin, mepps or rooster tail, there are many variables involved, even more so when fishing rivers and streams with running current. Hard to explain, you just need to get a feel for it. If fishing rivers, I like to cast upstream and let the current take my spinner before I begin reeling, so that the lure actually comes close to or tumbles along the bottom before I start reeling. My favorites are as follows: Panther Martin - silver blade with yellow body and red dots, gold blade with black body yellow dots (Those are the old standards). The blue holographic is a newer design that has provided great luck for me recently. Rooster Tail - black body with black dressing and silver blade and the white body and white dressing are the standards. I also have good luck with the watermelon body with the green and pink dressing. I have used Mepps, but that was a long time ago, for northerns in the St. Lawrence River and used the #4 size in Red and white blade or the longer silver blade. Some also swear by the Blue Fox Vibrax type, however, I don't have any of experience wth these. You will most likely need to get various sizes/weights if you want to have the best chance for getting your spinner in front of the fish in different water levels and current speeds.

Absolutely agree with above. You will definitely have better hook ups with the treble. Crimp down the barbs and it will make releasing the fish easier.

You can purchase a publication, I think it's sold at Walmart - put out by Sportsman's Connection, which covers the various regions in NY. I think there are 4 or 5 separate books for the different regions. There is one with a Lake George map in it along with tips for fishing the different spots on the lake and what lures and bait to use. You might also check the NY DEC web site as well as the Adirondack Forum for additional information. Hope this helps. Good luck on your June trip.

Went out Monday in my 12' Hornbeck canoe on one of the smaller Finger Lakes. It was quite windy, which made paddling and fishing tough. It was good on the shore though because the small black flies were insane, there were thousands and the wind at least made it somewhat bearable when putting in and taking out. Fished from 11 til 5 with a few breaks to go to shore to stretch and have a snack. Caught 4 LMB in the last 1.5 hours all on a shakeyhead rig. 2 small ones about a pound, one about 2#s and one over 3. The water was cold. I think my luck changed when the water got a slight bit warmer (that's only my theory, as I'm far from an expert and more of a trial and error guy). Anyway it was good to catch a few. Next time out, I will stick with the shakeyhead rig on the one rod and switch from the senko on the other rod which didn't catch anything, to something like a lipless crank bait. there are no weeds yet close to shore where I'm fishing so I will give something like a red eyed shad lure a shot.

Don't know about this particular kayak, however, I think it's fantastic that you saved up for something to get out on the water. Enjoy and be safe, make sure you budget for a PFD. Wear one at all times. These are always important, but more so when in a small boat.

I agree about the inline spinner effectiveness. In one upstate NY creek, I have had fantastic success on a rooster tail spinner, gold blade with rainbow trout color body.

You can eat a NY crawfish if you had to, however, these are not the same species that are caught in Louisiana. I doubt you could catch the quantity or quality to equal what you could purchase at a seafood market. Again, I suggest Palmers market in Henrietta on Jefferson Road where you can pick them up if they have them, and then look into the other place suggested if you want to have them shipped to you. Good luck and please update us on how your search turns out.

I live in the Rochester area (Penfield) and have lived in different parts of NY off and on for most of my life. I have never heard of anyone catching crayfish for consumption in NY. They are a popular live bait for bass and you can get these at various bait stores or catch them in streams, lakes and ponds. The NY species of crawfish may not be the same as those in Louisiana. You might try Palmers market on Jefferson Road, they sell seafood and meat products delivered from all parts of the country. Good luck in your search.

This site is a great place to learn. There is no substitute for actually getting out and trying things. You may want to go out with a local guide that can provide you with tips and techniques. Remember that a small percentage of lures will work to catch most of the fish. Find out what works the best and use that rather than buying dozens of different lures that will seldom get used. Remember to have fun, enjoy just getting out and trying. You will not always catch something, that's why it's called fishing and not catching. Good luck and have fun.

WW2 Thanks for the updates. I can't wait to get out soon in my canoe on the 2 smaller finger lakes. Your reports provide great info.

Very nice. I think you made a great choice, for the money you can't beat the value of the Feel Free. (I have no affiliation with any manufacturer)

About 25 years ago, when I worked in Florida for a year, I accidentally hooked into a manitee when I was fishing in one of the canals near Cape Canaveral. I was really overmatched for that hookup,using only 10# test. Reeled in as much line as possible and then cut it off. Then on one of those party boats that go out of Port Canaveral, I hooked into something that felt like a refrigerator. The crew on the boat was really excited thinking I hooked into a huge grouper. After strenously reeling for quite a while, it surfaced behind the boat - a giant sea turtle. Very disappointing. Another endangered species that I had to cut the line on. My earliest fishing memory of was with my father, some cousins and uncles from the bank of the Mohawk River under a bridge, near Utica. I think I was about 5 years old. No one caught a fish, however, my uncle pulled in a record. Literally caught a record, a large LP record. Whenever I see an article about an angler catching a record (referring to a fish of course), I think about that dirty plastic record being dragged from the water under the bridge and laugh.

Correct me if I'm not up on the new lure, however, I think that they added an electronics area in the most recent upgraded models. I tested the Lure out last year. I'm torn between that one and the Nucanoe, since I'm looking to add a trolling motor.

I highly recommend the Tite-Lok with C-mount holder. Cabelas item # IK-012180 I use one of these on each side about arms length in front of me. Also, use a piece of shoe moulding about 4 to 6 inches long underneath the clamp so I can really tighten it down under the rail without damaging the side of my Kevlar canoe. For additional protection for the side of the canoe under the clamp, part of a yoga mat or similar material will work. If you use your wife's yoga mat, make sure to cut it straight across and just take a little off at a time so she won't notice right away

Just saw this floating fishing net in the online kayak angler publication. Looks like a good idea for use from a kayak. You can see the video at wind paddle.com. Please note that I have no affiliation with these companies, just thought the concept was a good one with some potential.

Please do not get discouraged, there are bigger ones out there