Yankee Troller

We left the dock around 6am and meandered down to the bay setting up a quarter mile from the mouth. Water temps were in the mid 40's. Things started off great as I dropped the Otter Boat overboard the front of the boat cracked around the front hole. SWEET! Well, brother Craig broke out the drill and put it back together with a fresh hole while I deployed the other side of the boat. We ran 8 flat lines off our Otter Boats. One side pulled bright sticks, and the other side pulled El Natural! We also ran our three downriggers with a spoon program. The bite was just insane! A few times throughout the day we cleared everything with a flurry. Best sticks were Firetiger and Black and Silver. On our Cannon's we pulled a Stinger Sea Sick Waddler, a Dreamweaver Glow Frog SS, and a Dreamweaver Orange Slurpee. Corner riggers back 60' down 5', and the middle rigger back 15' down 5'. We were pleasantly surprised early on in the morning when a Chinook Salmon slammed a Storm Thin Fin in Black and Silver off a flat line and peeled off a hundred feet. That made the day! As fast as we could get the rods in they would go off it seamed. While we were turning around near the cross we swung out to 25' of water. I lowered the rigger with the Sea Sick Waddler down to 15, and a minute later it was screaming! With an hour left we decided enough was enough with the Browns. We wanted Kings! So we slid out to 25' of water and out went two slide divers and down went our Cannons. Twenty minutes into it we started to second guess the decision of pulling off the Brown trout. I started to clear the divers to go back inside and as I was pulling the second diver the corner rigger fires with the Dreamweaver Glow Frog. King number three for the day! All Browns were released to fight another day, however there are three less Kings in the ROC! A nice Brown Trout! Another great Brown Trout! The three Chinooks!

Fished for an hour before we pulled lines and went to work on the boat. Water was dirty except for a little patch of grey/green water off the point. No hits, no runs, and no errors! As Scotty B would say it sucked! I'm all set with our aluminum rig. Time for some glass. Goin' in on Friday, and it can't come soon enough!

I bought the Storm Thin Fins at Gander a few weeks ago in all white. A white Rogue has been HOT for us on BT. Well, that Thin Fin was on fire the minute we set it out. Last season we ran those orange with black strips thin fish from Brads. The Cohos couldn't keep their mouth off of them the first half of the month of May. We also had really good luck with the Challenger Lady Bug color for Cohos during that same period. About half way through the month the body bait bite just took a dive, and we noticed Honey Bees and Super Slims were the ticket. Sometimes the fish just don't want a body bait. Other times they cant keep away from them. I guess the point here is try them. If they aren't working get them out and change it up until something fires.

Get better man! Fish will be waiting for you!

I haven't gone through this whole thread, but one thing that bothers me is the future of the fishery. I'd love to do this full time, but the truth of the matter is can these lakes sustain this fishery we have until we retire? Will our governments continue to stock these fish with the state of the economy and all the budget cuts? If one of those things come true and you have no education what will you do? I went and obtained my Bachelors. While doing so I fished my butt off! I think I fished more in college than I do now! LOL I would schedule my classes around fishing seasons. Once I graduated I found a job and eventually they paid for my MBA. We fish tourneys or we charter every weekend from April-September now, and although I'd like to do it more I know that this full time gig I have M-F is what really pays the bills. Chartering pays for my obsession called fishing. No way could we afford the ride we have or the amount of days we fish each year without clients footing some of that bill. I know a bunch of guys who fish for a living. Not one of them has someone supplementing their retirement like I do. On the flip side if you can find a sugar mama with a wealthy family go full time! LOL Moral of the story is there is no reason you can't do both.

Thanks guys! It's tough sitting here at work knowing how good the BT fishing is right now. Get the right color water and hold on!

A few of us met at the Genny for a little side bet action Sunday morning on some Spring Brown Trout. Both boats took the run East to Irondequoit and set lines. Instantly, it was a blood bath. Some spots would yield doubles and even triples on Browns fishing flat lines with stick baits. We were running our baits 100’ behind the boards, and we probably could have shortened it with the amount of color in the water. Our best sticks were black/silver and firetiger. Our boat made one pass from Irondequoit to the cross and we did 15 fish, but they were all 3-5lb fish, and that wasn’t going to win us any money. We had to turn before we got too far down the shoreline. The SW wind was picking up and it was getting snotty on that shoreline. So, our decisions were to pick up and run back to Irondequoit and fish that same stretch with 8 other boats, or make a move to calmer water and possibly larger fish. Well, we made the move, and it was the wrong move. We went all the way to Braddock’s to find chocolate milk from the point to the Genny. By that time we knew the SW winds were making the troll in our morning waters tough, so we stuck it out in the mud and never took a shot. Lesson learned - don’t leave fish to find fish! Regardless, we had a blast! Can’t wait for this weekend!

I have no affiliation to Traxstech, but they make the nicest bird tree I've seen.

Amen brother! I have no affiliation with them, but they get a lot of my coin when it comes to meat rigs!

Thanks guys! It scratched the itch for sure, but it wasn't enough! This weekend is looking cold! Might be a few weeks before we get back out unfortunately.

With such great access to the Lake and it's bays we decided to take the girls perch fishing Sunday morning on Sodus. We got there about 8am and hit the water. We moved and moved and moved, but we just couldn't get any schools on the graph. About 10:30am Captain Jack's breakfast was calling our names. Over breakfast we decided to head out to the lake and give it a go for a little while. None of us had ever fished this early in the season. We hung a left out the chute, put her on plane, and ran a few miles West. We sat down and started to rig. We ran six flat lines using baby Z-boards. Boy are those things nice for Spring Brown Trout fishing! We used various Rapala, Rebel, and Smithwick stick baits run anywhere from 100-150' back. Once we were set-up we felt that one fish would make our day! The water temps were cold and all we found was 35.9-36.1. We were also able to locate some colored water. The first fish didn't take long, and not long after that the second one came. We quickly found our troll and worked the colored water, which was moving West, for about 2.5/3 hours. We ended the day with close to 30 bites. One pushed 10-11 pounds, a few in the 6-8 pound range, and then your typical cookie cutter Spring Brown Trout. Many doubles, one triple, and we came close to a quad. We worked 7' of water out to 30' of water off one of the points a few clicks West of Sodus. Speed on the graph was 1.4-1.7 on the paddle wheel, but I think we were a little faster than that on GPS. Either way it was a blast, and we answered a question many people have been asking lately. You can catch them out there in the dead of Winter. You just have to be able to get out there to experience it! Here is some Brown Trout Porn!

I use it more for down speed also. However we typically find where the temps drop below 60 degrees and plant the probe there. We fish everything else under that. Ever so often we will check to see where 48/49 is because we like that for big kings.

We've got a light line set-up we put out on occasion. Its a 9' ML Fish 307 rod with a Daiwa 27H loaded with 10lb test. Biggest fish it's taken was about 15 pounds, and it was a blast!

We used to run 4 riggers, and when we did the ones off the back were always deeper. Now we run 3 and the center one has our probe on it. We find where 60 degrees is and fish below that with the two corner riggers. So, in essence an inverted 'V'. Keep them spread out, imagine what your spread looks like under the water in a 3D like effect and be careful on turns. If you do this and they are spread apart you should be fine.

We ran the non-linecounter version the first year it was available for our 10 color reels, and we were blown away by how nice the reel was. My father who wouldn't even touch a 10 color fish turned to me and applauded the reel. The drags are super smooth and the high speed retrieve really changes the game when it comes to junk line fishing. The next season the line counter version came out and we switched all our downrigger rods and our wires out for these from the old stand by Sealines. We were blown away again how nice the drag was, and the fast retrieve was no match for a Coho that hit a slider. Currently, every reel on our ride is a Saltist except our 400, 500, 600, and 700 coppers, because those wont fit on any Saltist currently offered. Shimanos and Okuma are both making some great gear right now, and we are all spoiled with the options we have. We grew up fishing the old Sealines, so Dawia has been on our boat for a long time. We now have 3-4 years worth of use on these reels and not one of them has gone down, and we run them 3-4 days a week April-September. The drags seem to get better with age and the big handle is a very nice improvement over the small one on the Sealines. Just like the old Sealines I think you will see these on boats for many years to come. One gripe people have with these reels is the line counter placement. I wasn't thrilled with it either, but we have become very comfortable with it. For me it lays right against my wrist nicely. Another thing you might want to do is hold all of these reels in your hand and see which one feels best to you. When you spin the Tekota, which is a very nice reel, it has a wobble. Spin the Saltist and it is a very stable reel. I have no experience with any Okuma's.

We called it the Disco Dan which consisted of a UV Green Kingfisher paddle towing a UV Purple Twinkie rig. Ran it deep when the sun was high, and it just slayed the big boys. The A-TOM-MIK Bobble head fly was hot for us in high sun behind various green dot paddles also. However, you still can't beat an A-TOM-MIK Ultra Green Glow or Hammer fly! As for spoons the Moonshine Carbon 14 was a good one early in the AM, and our NK Sea Sick Waddler was good to us too. Dreamweaver Moon Cricket and Gators took their fair share also.

We set our drags fairly tight. Especially in the late Summer/early Fall when the gums get hard. We are also right there to back the drag off after the initial few throbs on the rod, which I think is setting that hook home. Getting the rod out of the holder smooth and fighting it smoothly will also help increase your landing percentage. Sometimes, no matter what you do, there will be a day where the landing percentage on the wires just sucks. However, those days it seems the wires are just hot and everything else is much slower. So take it in and be happy your presenting your bait how the fish want it. Currents, aggressiveness of the fish, and lure action can all play a roll in how they are hooking up. Just my $.02

We have the Amish Outfitters Beefy Buggy Bags and they are 100% quality! We have a season worth of use on them and there is no signs of wear.

On our tournament/charter boat we run Daiwa Saltist on every reel except the long coppers. These reels are a great upgrade, and the high gear ration makes them sweet. All of our rods are Daiwa Heartlands. We run the 8' model on our riggers. Our wires are both the 9'6" and the 10'6" models. For our long cores and coppers we use the 9'6" divers rods. For the price you can't beat the heartland rods.

I have fished with all the new (and old) Furuno, Raymarine, Humminbird, and Si-Tex units. Whether they are on my boat or a friends. During the Spring of 2010 we purchased two Humminbird units for our Bayliner. I have no doubt that the Humminbird stuff will stand it's own next to the units mentioned above. I have had people who run the Furuno 585 on their boats comment on how nice the Humminbird stuff on mine is, and that is supposed to be the top dog when it comes to Great Lakes fish finders. For what you get for the price alone puts Humminbird at the top of my list. The ease of use in the menu's, and the great GPS makes them even sweeter. We are currently running an 1157 for our FF and a 958 for our GPS. Humminbird is also very good at rolling out updates as they improve their units and capabilities. I am currently playing a role in one of these as I just sent in a recording of something I didn't like. Once they figure out why it is doing that they will probably issue an update, which is super easy to do on the Humminbird units. Just knowing that a company is pro-actively working to make a great product even better makes me want to stick with them. My units are creeping up on 1000 hours of use, and I have not had one ounce of problems with them. Also, as mentioned above their customer service is VERY good, which should also carry some weight in your decision. If you have any questions about the Humminbird units feel free to PM me.

LOL...tell me about it! I guess I always focus on the fish when taking pictures, and never pay much attention to the faces of the people. I can assure you they all had a great time, but thanks for tipping me off to making those guys smile at the end of the day when they are getting their mug shots!

9/3 (Morning) – We left the dock around 6am with hopes of staging Kings on the brain. We shut down in 50’ of water and headed E/NE where we would work the 60-90’ range. The picture in the morning was great, as it’s been the last few weeks, but that 6-7am period is pretty dead for the staggers. We fished a simple program. A meat rig fished on our deepest rigger which we tracked bottom with keeping it no more than 5’ off the bottom. On the other two downriggers, and our two wires, we ran flasher/fly type baits. Lastly, we put a 10 color and a 300 copper out on our Otter boats with either a plug or a flasher/fly combo. About 7am, like clockwork, we make the turn to go back through that great screen we just trolled through, and as the boat pointed north we doubled on majors. A meat rig went on the deep rigger, and a black/dew Spin Doctor with an A-TOM-MIK Live TG fly went on the rigger 10’ above the meat. We would go onto pick fish from 7-11am pretty regularly. However, our batting average would be right around .500 for the morning trip, which can be expected this time of year given the hard mouths of these staging fish as they transform. We also took a fish on a #5 Lyman plug out on the 10 color, which never made it down the planer tow line before a King rocked it. You would think with that type of reaction, and such a little soak time, that it might go on to be the MVP of the day. However, that would be the only shot it would take. 9/3 (Afternoon) – We left the dock around 3:30 with the intentions of heading offshore for some Steelbow and immature Salmon action. After the stroke-fest we witnessed from 11-2pm we wanted to put our clients on some fish, and not just look at them on the fish finder. On the way out of the harbor a phone call changed our plans, and we found out that the bite was on in the 45-55’ range. We set up in that water a touch west of the chute, and had a slow pick of fish the rest of the afternoon. We worked the pump house to the park area, and we ran a similar program to the morning minus the copper rod. Our best presentations were a meat rig, and a green glow sushi fly fished behind SmartFish. Our batting average for the afternoon trip was worse than the one we experienced in the morning. We could hookup with them, but they would either break off or just come un-glued. 9/4 – We had the same group of clients from the night before. They had entered in the derby, and we had entered in the Johnny V tournament at the Oak. We went back to the same water from the night before and set-up, but we just weren’t seeing the fish. We quickly realized it got warm in there, and pointed the boat NW. When we hit 75’ feet of water the screen started to get better. We would go on to work the 75-85’ a majority of the morning. We felt we had a very good morning program so we didn’t change up anything, and kept it the same as the morning before. We would pick fish for a good portion of the morning, but about 10:30 that bite would die. We knew we weren’t going to rot in that water like we did the day before, so we picked up the coppers and worked into 50’ to see if the active fish slid in there like they did the day before. That screen was drier than it was in the morning, so the only other option was to point it north. When we got to 105’ the screen started to show off some suspended fish, and that’s when rods started to fly again. We finally got our divers to go on this morning. They were put on a 3 setting out 150-225’ pulling a green dot SmartFish/A-TOM-MIK Blue Glow shredded Hammer, or a green dot SmartFish/A-TOM-MIK Hypnotist. We were pleasantly surprised when the A-TOM-MIK Glow Blue Hammer Shred took off around 1:30pm and about 20 minutes later the largest Salmon caught on one of our charters hit the deck. I could see this fish had a heck of a tail, but it never hit me until I had to pick this beast out of the water in the net. We would go on to fish until 3pm, and pick away at fish. We knew that we had a LOC derby fish in the cooler and one of the top five spots in the Johnny V tournament. Other baits that took fish were a green got green Spin Doctor pulling a Bobblehead fly, and a meat rig on our 400 copper. When we got to the scales we figured we had 73 pounds with our three biggest fish, and we were right on the money. However, we also found out we were in second to Warf Rat by about four pounds. We quickly put the fish back in the cooler and headed to Narby’s to weigh it for the Fall LOC. On the derby scale it read 33lbs 3ozs, which was good enough for 8th place. Me with the 33lb BRUTE! I had to picture hog it! A nice Coho! A very colored up Rainbow caught in the lake! 9/5 - We were still very much pumped about that huge King Salmon from the day before, and we knew right where we wanted to fish. We set-up in the same water as Sunday, and worked it from the pump house to the park. The fish were still there and they were cooperating. We did 5 fish between 7-8am, and then sat for about an hour and a half before we got back on them. The meat on the deep rigger along with our diver pulling that same green dot SmartFish/A-TOM-MIK Blue Glow shredded Hammer would go on to be the hot baits of the morning. However, as the bite died we started to change up the spread. It seems like when we would put something down it would fire once and that was it. We put down a black spin doctor/A-TOM-MIK Live TG combo, and it went right away. We put a brand new Moonshine plug out on the 300 copper, and it took a ride almost immediately, but would never take another sniff. The lake got to be nasty by about 11am, and we knew we were done at 12pm, so we rode it out and picked a fish or two in that timeframe before calling it a day.

Thanks guys!

Any version of an A-TOM-MIK Hammer fly! However, the original is killer enough!

August 27th - We left the dock about 6:15ish and figured we’d give the inside water a try. We set down in 70’ of water and headed E/NE. Screen was bleak with the occasional hook or pod of bait. We gave it about two hours and finally said enough is enough with just a jack, and a steelbow to show for. Not to mention we didn’t talk to anybody who was moving rods in there consistently. The jack took a meat rig on the 400 copper, and the steelbow took a Dreamweaver Moon Cricket off the wire back 225’. When we slid out we stopped on the 27N line and set lines heading North. The picture was pretty good with plenty of bait and fish out there. Three downriggers, 2 wires, a 300 copper, and a 10 color got deployed. The 300 copper quickly became our MVP pulling a Stinger Stingray Copper glow green alewife. We ended up pulling the 10 color and putting out the other 300 copper with the same spoon and our junk lines just kept firing. We lost a brute of a steelbow on the 300 copper early into the offshore gig. A phone call early afternoon from Olcott gave us a tip on an A-TOM-MIK T190 behind a black Spin Doctor combo. We put it out on the wire and it quickly became another hot set-up for us. Once we saw the wires were going we figured it had been way too long since we ran a four diver set-up, and after seeing pics of Vinny running them in Olcott earlier in the week we felt we needed to make sure we still knew how to run them. Out went another pair of wires with Stinger Stingray Wonderbreads, and with just a quick soak they started to take fish. We now had everything going consistently except the downriggers. With an hour or two to go in the trip we got another phone call that helped us dial in our downriggers. A Northern King green Monkey Puke went down to 80’, and fired almost instantly. By 1pm we were cleaning fish, mostly steelbows, and looking for our last fish. Well, as always, when your cleaning fish and the deck is slippery fish are going to hit. Three quick fish came, and we landed our last fish for the limit catch. There was a great class of Steelbows out between the 27-30N lines. One of the last three steelbows we hooked up with was no doubt close to 15lbs, and he found his way back to the depths within about 20yards of the net. He hit a Dreamweaver Shiznit SS, a spoon that has been quiet this year, on an 80 rigger. Always heartbreaking when you lose such a nice fish, but that’s fishing!