i usually fish winnisquam the most because it's so close, but i also do winni as well, went there yesterday actually. the problem is, more often than not, i get skunked. and it doesn't matter which lake i'm on. so far this year, i've caught 2 small 15" lakers and 1 15" rainbow (all in winnisquam btw). but that's it. and i'm out there every weekend. i'm a novice salmon fisherman for sure, but you'd think i'd catch one once in a while. catch something anyway.. anything.. i've done all kinds of research to educate myself both on here and on myfishfinder. i do the same things and use the same stuff as everyone else, but for some reason i don't catch anything.

example.. yesterday i launched in meredith. I started fishin a little ways out in meredith bay where it pinches down a little bit. then hit the weirs area. then gov. island, and then around bear island. fished from 5am to 1130 w/out a single hit. i tried almost every db, guide special, and top gun i had. streamers too. started out at 18ft. and 25ft. first thing in the morning, and then 25-30 and 35-40-45 as the day went on (riggers). i tried varying the speed as well from 2.3-2.4, down to 1.8-1.9-2.0. nothing seemed to work. my rods are spooled with 10lb. clear mono with a 25ft. 8lb. fluoro leader. i do use a silver snap swivel on the end.. not sure if that matters. i could use some help here.. what am i doing wrong?

Doesn't sound like you were doing to much wrong, yesterday morning was a bit slow for a lot of people. We managed to do ok however and the late bit from about 10 am on was pretty good.

I would make the following suggestion to you. Frist lose the snap on the end of your leader and tie your lures on, these are very leader shy fish and our water is very clear. 8# fluro is ok. I like 6# better and in my experiance I have a much higher strike rate with Segar fluro leader than the other bands. Right now I'm running my riggers bewtween 25' and 35' down with the most productive depth being 27 to 31 ft yesterday. I like to troll at 2.2 mph with lures and will adjust a couple of tenths up or down until I fine what speed is working best on a given day. Remember orange is always a good color on Winni and the bright colors on bright days and dark colors on dark days rule of thumb is a good one to remember. Yesterday for us orange/ purple were good as in the Cool Water pattern, also orange/ gold/ silver, and red and white all produced fish for us. Hope this helps a little good luck and keep at it

Glen
Island Fishing Charters.

thanks for the tips. what do you do about line twist when using spoons though? they must twist the line up pretty good, don't they?

Just use a small barrel swviel on the end of your main line and attach about 5 or 6 feet of flurocarbon leader to it than tie your lure to the other end you won't have any twisting problem. I'm asuming you are useing levelwind reels not spining reels

Glen

ok i'll give that a try. yeah, using level wind reels so i don't imagine line twist would be as much of a problem as it would be with spinning reels.

i also have to wonder about the locations i'm fishing as well. one can be doing all the right things, but if there isn't a good number of fish present, you aren't going to catch many. or any, in my case.

Meredith Bay is good I like the east shore towards spinndle point this time of year and over the deep water right down the center The Wiers not so much right now. Try the Broads off the west and south side of Welch island next time out.

Glen

Yep ditch the snap swivel like Salmoneer said.

Try a spro sized 10 barrel swivel between running mono line & the fluro leader.
http://www.spro.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=SPSB-ALL

Also you may want to try adding a smelt scent.

my .02

great tips, thanks a lot guys.

should i be primarily looking for about 100ft. of water?

Just so you can compare... I use 8 pound main line to a small barrel swivel (I think its a #14 - it easily slides through my guides) and then 10-15 feet of 4 pound seaguar fluoro ended with a very small duolock snap (no swivel on the snap). I found that when I dropped to 4 pound leader, even compared to 6 pound, my catch rate went up. I use the very small, red, Eagle Claw duolocks for quickly changing lures. I have tried tying direct to the split ring of the lure, but noticed no difference in catch. I think the red duolock is so small that it doesn't scare the fish. Red is also the first color to disappear as you go down the water column so that helps too. Its nice to be able to change the lure quickly and not have to keep retying and therefore shortening your fluoro leader.

You're in good spots. No doubt about that.

Leadcore at 6 colors was our best seller on Friday. Riggers only produced one fish. So, you may also want to be sure to have one line a leadcore, assuming you're fishing solo and can only have two lines. Big difference in presentation between a leadcore and a rigger rod.

Sounds like you live close by... I live in Laconia. If you're going solo some day and want company, I'd be happy to go along and try to help out. Maybe do an evening troll? My email is attached.

Best of luck.
Craig

thanks craig. we've met before.. you bought my ice auger for your brother. i'm game for an outing whenever you are. my rig or yours, doesn't matter to me. -Derek

Oh. I didn't know it was you with the different screen name. Stealth mode, huh? Haha.
I sold my boat last year and have been on the water only on friends boats this year. Keeping me sane 'til I purchase a new one - hopefully next year.
Yeah, that auger was for my cousin and he's got a lot of use out of it.
Long day on the salt today, so kinda beat. If you get a free day and want to troll, let me know. Evenings will work best for me, but with a bit of notice I could re-arrange my day for a morning troll.
We've been meaning to get together... 'bout time we do.

sure, sounds good to me. maybe sometime this weekend.. i may put the boat in winnisquam and dock it at my folk's house. they live right down the street from you. that would make for an easy outing. or we could always hit winni. i imagine the launches will be pretty this weekend though, since it's a holiday. i'm fine with either. i'll email you my cell number, gimme a call if you want to hit the water.