cant pick just one, topgun coolwater and matty gun was good for me from ice out to about mid summer. db orange and black, and pearl, and a topgun greyghost for the middle of the summer. warblers copper, gold, and with or all orange for the end of the year. big orange mooselook caught my best salmon. others worked good as well, some of the old petes in monkey puke and the blueberry muffin were winners some days. my salmon lead core has about 40 feet of maybe 12 pound mono, and then a swivel with about 6 feet of 4 pound flouro. for lakes i just have about 6 feet of fireline for a leader as i drag that setup in the mud. if i had only one choice it would be a copper mooselook, one shiney and one tarnished, but fishing wouldnt be the same.

Salmon Stalker, not sure I can nail it down to just one either. I seemed to hit them best with DB Smelt in the spring, esp the dark green. Later in the summer/fall, the DB's slowed down and the majority of fish were on copper Mooselook wobblers, coolwater cruiser TopGuns and Fishlander size "0" spoons (esp Wonderbread and Monica colors) and flies. Flies seemed to fish best on lead as did the Wonderbread Fishlander spoon where the Mooselooks and TopGuns seemed to fish best on downriggers. Hope this is helpful.

Anything pink, especially AJ's Topgun #15. Was not my year with orange.

I have to agree with a few of the guys, DB's are hot in the Spring, Cool Water DB (rainy/****ty day) Green/Silver DB (any sky) Gold/Orange (sunny day) Pink/Silver, Pink/Gold, actually most any colors seem to work. Tandem Streamers work well too on lead core off the boards, anything with Orange or Red Grey Ghost and Cool Water Cruiser.

Early summer, Sutton 61 with some orange tape on both sides, copper, silver, bronze, no matter they all work and Smelt Guns, Yellow and Orange was best for me..

Mid/Late summer-put your DB's and 61's away and use Sutton #5 Silver w/Pink tape, Smelt Guns (my hottest this year) Orange/Yellow. Fly's off lead core, boards if needed, Golden Marvels, or anything Red, rainy days Cool Water Cruiser single.

Fall, same as above but some DB's work again, Cool Water DB and single Fly's, same ones Marvels, Cool Water, Red Ghost.

Overall my best Spoons for the season:
#1) Orange/Yellow Smelt Gun
#2) Cool Water Cruiser DB
#3) Sutton #5 (Silver/Hot Pink)
#4) Orange/Yellow DB
#5) Pink and Gold DB

Overall Best Fly:
Cool Water Cruiser/tandem or single
Golden (yellow) Maynard (small single)

Note best color spoons or flys were anything with Orange, Yellow (or Gold) Silver with any of them fits in well.

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Replying to:

what was the best salmon & laker lure you used this year????? and on a leadcore rig what would you guys recommend for leader lenght????

if you asked me what didnt work i would show you this box. on sebago i fished flies alot, especially at iceout and later in the season. i did not catch one salmon on a fly this year and all these patterns got wet. last year i caught some lakers here, but there was a smelt or golden attached to the fly. i do well with flies on other lakes, but not here

I wouldn't be caught dead on any salmon water without 1 NH Guide color something. (orange with black dots) Needlefish, or, top gun or, db smelt or, jims lures.

I also wouldn't be caught dead with out 1 grey ghost fly either.

favorite lure = silver mooselook
favorite streamer - Joe's smelt

I fished April through the middle of August this year. The NH Guide, black dots for Salmon and Lakers, Pumkin Head Top Gun for Lakers and the copper colored Mooselook for Salmon and Lakers. Pearl white DB's were hot for Salmon about mid season too. Early season, green was hot then purple and then pink in DB's and Top Guns.
Lead line set ups were about 50' of 8# test fluorocarbon knotted directly to the lead line with a good quality swivel added to the fluorocarbon line about 6 feet from the lure.
Good luck!

Flies for spring time; Red Marabou, Gray Ghost single and tandem with beads, Red/Gray Ghost, Red Ghost and 93 Streamer. Summer; Salty’s Special, Green/White YOTY and Orange Fatal Attractor.

WinniFlies

This year. nh guide topgun and smelt gun. Wonder bread topgun or jim's lure. Red head needle fish and red head smelt gun. Also and older siver with green stripe Db smelt I fished from april to sept and it caught fish most days and a couple speedy shinners brass/red stripe.

In my opinion anything orange with black dots is the best on lake winni. I caught more fish by far on smelt guns in that color. I would have to disagree about putting away the Db's and 61 guns in late summer. I was on vacation in mid august and I have to say I caught a 3lb plus rainbow and salmon on a db guide. With the 61 gun I was using a metallic red color with black dots the back side was copper, this lure did nothing all summer but in late august with a good salmon chop on darker days I caught several 3lb + salmon and those fish hit very hard. I also did very well with a smelt gun that was kind of a mix of colors metallic reddish purple with black dots and copper on the back got alot of nice salmon and lakers on that one. Last you need to have a watermelon chev chase this lure pulled through for me when all others failed. My set up for lead is the following I use 14lb leadcore with a 75foot 14lb mono leader these are connected with a uni knot; then I attach a small barrel swivel to the end of the 14lb mono and attach a rods length of 8lb fluorcarbon last I use a duo lock snap swivel at the end of the fluoro it makes for changeing lures alot quicker. These are thin swivels and are rated for 20lbs. Good Luck!

White/orange spook DB (Black tape cut with pinking shears) for salmon
Orange spook DB ( orange both sides) white tape cut with pinking shears, both sides, for rainbows
peckerhead sutton (44?) for lake carp.
Good year, no real giants, 3 lakers over 6, 2 Sunapee/1 Newfound...I 4.5 bow/Newfound
1 double yellow beaded fly/Winnie
Lots of new friends.

Popeye

Hey Popeye,

What'd ya catch the new friends on ??????

I agree 100%, I feel the friendship you and I developed will be a laating one and I don't even hunt.

John S.

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Replying to:

White/orange spook DB (Black tape cut with pinking shears) for salmon
Orange spook DB ( orange both sides) white tape cut with pinking shears, both sides, for rainbows
peckerhead sutton (44?) for lake carp.
Good year, no real giants, 3 lakers over 6, 2 Sunapee/1 Newfound...I 4.5 bow/Newfound
1 double yellow beaded fly/Winnie
Lots of new friends.

Popeye

Caught 1 on a DB (thumb) and a bunch more on film!!
Yah Captian, we had fun, with lots more to come. You will have to hang out on Long Island during the derby next year, that was a real blast this year hanging around Adriens dad and all the stories that got told.
Throbbin Rods puts on a pretty good bash.....Great jerky, but he knows who the chili king is!!

Love to hunt, more than fish, thats why I take the whole month of November off!!!

Popeye

Yo Bro - you don't seem to knock my chili when your mouth is full LOL, you know it is good, yours is good, just different.
I would have to say that the one lure that did best for me this year was the NH Guide with the brass colored back that I bought from Jason over at Paugus - I need to get me about 6 more of those.
I echo the sentiment of good friends, everytime we get together it gets better. Looking forward to the gathering, the coming spring season, and the derby, hopefully by then I'll have a job or a business?!?!?!?

Going out duck hunting tomorrow, got my first banded bird ever on Tuesday, only took me 28 years!
Leaving Tuesday for FL to meet my new grandson, that boy is a wall hanger at 9.5 lbs, 21.5 inches.
later, this old man is going to bed
Throbbin Rods out!

Hey Throbbin Rods, Did you ever get those emails i sent you??????????? If not let me know and ill send them again. Take Care God Bless and Good Hunting LOL Dave From up NOrth