Yankee Troller

Sounds like a fun trip! Great job!

8/19 (morning trip) – This morning we had Big Lou, and Little Lou, Ferrari owners of Lugia’s Ice Cream in Spencerport, NY with us. If you live on the West side of Rochester you’ve heard about their gigantic proportions of ice cream they serve their customers! With the one day three fish tourney the following day I wanted to check the inside waters to see if any Kings were in that “staging†phase yet. We set up in 100’ of water right out front of port and headed East/North East. We fished less than 200’ for the entire morning with a decent picture, and plenty of action for the two guys we had on board. We ran our typical spread minus a chute copper. We ran spoons on our three Cannon DT10’s, paddle/fly combos on the wires behind Walker Deeper Divers, and lastly a 400 and a 500 copper off our Big John Otters. The 500 copper pulling meat, and the 400 pulling a Wonderdot Smartfish/A-TOM-MIK Shredded Glow Hammer. The 500 was our big fish taker, along with an A-TOM-MIK Bobble fly (A-TOM-MIK # 121) behind a chrome dot Dreamweaver Spin Doctor or a white dot Dreamweaver Spin Doctor on the wires. That has been a great fly for us recently by the way! The fly was picked out by my brother at Fat Nancy’s in Oswego because he “liked the name!†We found what we went looking for, and figured we had a starting point for tourney morning! We cleaned 3 Chinooks all right around the 20lb mark, a nice Steelbow, and a couple of Brown Trout. The skips were plentiful, and gave us constant action while we looked for those big bites. 8/19 (evening trip) – We headed out around 4pm with a little bachelor party action with a good group of guys and their beer. We headed out to the same waters we fished in the morning, and we were attacked by skips. We saw the big fish down there and gave it our all, but all we could manage for Big Kings was one on the wire behind a Walker Deeper Diver. Again, it took Mr. Bobblehead behind a chrome dot Dreamweaver Spin Doctor. We did slide out a little bit and got into some Steelbows on our sliders to help put some meat in the cooler. Overall, a slow trip, but the screen on the inside got better as the night went on. I knew the morning was going to be a good one! 8/20 – I was very proud of the bachelor party this morning. Figuring they would have went out and party it up the night before, but they fooled us. They were at the boat nice and early, and ready to tackle some Lake Ontario beasts. We got out to the fishing grounds very early, and we were able to get all the rods in the water over an amazing picture on our Humminbird 1157. Once that picture started to disappear the rods started to fly just like last weekend. This morning we were looking for 3 big fish, so we ran a meat rig deep on our center rigger, and magnum spoons above it on the other two. On our wires we pulled Walker Deeper Divers followed by paddle fly combos, and lastly a 400 and a 500 copper off our big john otter boats. A mirror image of the previous day minus some of those skips, but we added in a few more big guy bites. We worked the 140-200’ range, and had a great morning bite followed by a late morning lull. When that lull hit we pointed it north and found a nice pod of fish about 25N where we almost quaded up on smaller Salmon and Steelbows. Knowing we needed one more “big guy†to get into check territory we slid into that 120’ range late in the day and the screen just lit up. Not long after we settled in there we were doubled on majors. A Northern King Sea Sick Waddler fished off our middle rigger, and the Bobblehead fly on the wire. We got the last fish we needed, which was an 18lb fish to replace a 16lb fish. When our fish hit the scales we were in 3rd place, and by the end of weigh in we had slipped into 5th place. Our three biggest totaled 61 pounds anchored by a nice 24lb brute, and only 2lbs away from 2nd place. First place ran away with the tourney with a three fish catch weighing 79lbs! 8/21 – We knew where the big guys were, and we had a nice three generation charter joining us on this morning. We got out there nice and early, and deployed the same program we had been running all weekend. This time we started a tad bit shallower than the previous two days, and ran a 300/400 copper instead of the 400/500. The 400 copper was the MVP today! It took 4 shots in under an hour, and possibly put the largest, or second largest, fish on our deck of the season. The highlight of the day/weekend was a nice 29lb male which ate a meat rig on the 400 copper. The screen was absolutely amazing in the inside waters, but only a few boats had them dialed in the rest of the morning, and we weren’t one of them. We teetered on making the run offshore, but I am glad we didn’t because about noon we were chased off the water by some big thunder boomers. Our catch for the morning would consist of a few kings, a nice Steelbow, and a Brown Trout. Not a limit catch on this morning, but the customers were overly excited about boating that huge 29lb brute, and were even more thrilled when they saw the amount of meat that came off it.

I have both. Both have their own uniqueness. A lot of the Lake O tourney/charter guys started on Twitter when we developed Lake Ontario Tweets. Twitter is a good tool for quick on the water reports. It has aided people in catching more fish while on the water by adjusting their spreads or locations depending on tweets from people in their area. Facebook Twitter

Thanks guys!

Saturday August 13th (Morning) – We left the dock nice and early, and when we shut down on the 26N line the screen was packed! Bait and fish EVERYWHERE, but after about 30 minutes of fishing it diminished considerably. Never the less there were plenty of bait pods and fish to be had for the next eight hours. We worked the 26N-28N line for the morning with a nice family from Rochester. The Kings were on the feed, and we had what they were hungry for! Our program consisted of our three Cannon DT10’s, two wires pulling Walker Deeper Divers, and a copper on each board. A simple, yet effective, 7 rod spread. Spoons were run on the downriggers, while the wires and coppers pulled attractor/fly combos. Our 400 was a hot rig first thing in the morning pulling a Wonderbread SmartFish/A-TOM-MIK Shredded Hammer. Our riggers would take over with Dreamweaver Moon Crickets, Moonshine Carbon 14’s, and Northern King Sea Sick Waddlers. We tried a Lyman on our center rigger on the initial set-up, but no one wanted that erratic action at this point in the game. The wires were quiet for most of the day, but they did manage to produce the second largest fish of the trip, behind a Glow Froggy diver pulling a Dreamweaver green dot Spin doctor/A-TOM-MIK Bobblehead fly combo. Our biggest weighing just over 26lbs came off the 400 combo early in the trip. As the day would progress our 500 copper pulling a meat rig began to take MVP honors, but nothing pushed or exceeded the 20lb mark. Saturday August 13th (Afternoon) – This was a memorable trip for sure! Three of the four were retired professors from Geneseo. One of which was 80yr old Myrtle, and she was no stranger to charter fishing. I had a blast watching her fight fish, and just enjoy being out there with her friends. I can only hope to have her energy, and look as good as she does at that age. She even stepped up to the plate to fight a small King on the 500 copper meat rig, which I truthfully didn’t want to give her. Those long coppers are tough. You don’t want to run them, but they just take big fish! On this trip that 500 copper was our savior! Taking two or three big fish, but as the afternoon progressed our riggers, and even our wires, started to out produce it. The hot wire combo was a green dot Smartfish/A-TOM-MIK Hypnotist combo behind a metallic purple diver back 250’ on a 2 setting. On our Cannon DT10’s a Moonshine Carbon 14 mag, a Dreamweaver Moon Cricket mag, and a Northern King copper NBK took most of the shots. Sunday August 14th – We had a bunch of dairy farmers, and a few guys who sold them their feed. A very good customer of ours brought them out for the day, and this might just be the funniest group of guys we have ever had. I learned that dairy farmers are no dummies! They are very smart people who have a passion for what they do. We went right back out to where we ended on Saturday evening, because the picture we had on our screen was almost as good as it was during the first 30 minutes of our morning trip. However, when we go out there we struggled to find fish. With T-storms threatening in just a few hours the decision to head off shore wasn’t a good one. We stuck it out on the 25N-27N line and took what we could get, which ended up being a very decent day given the lack of fish on the inside. Our program stayed the same for the entire weekend with a 400 and a 500 copper off the boards, two wires pulling Walker Deeper Divers, and spoons on our Cannon DT10’s. The 400 and 500 coppers were our hot rigs. The 400 copper with a Smartfish/A-TOM-MIK combo (Wonderbread/Hammer in the morning, and a green dot/hypnotist in the afternoon), and the 500 copper with a meat rig took their fair share of fish. However, the big guy of the trip wanted a wire diver, and was one of only two fish that would take a ride on the wire on this day. When it hit the floor we knew it was a great fish, but we guessed it at 25-26lbs. Before we sliced it the customer asks “Hey how much that thing weigh?†On the digital scale it went, and I was floored when it read 29 pounds and change. Boat record! On the riggers the normal spoons were cracking fish. Dreamweaver Moon Crickets, Northern King Sea Sick Waddlers, Dreamweaver Dave’s Salmon Slappers, and a Moonshine Carbon 14 were a few of the spoons that pulled fish.

WOW....looks like you boys grew some big ones in the last few years. Whats your take on the predator/bait-fish calculations used by the state that is controlling your stocking numbers? I have a feeling we are going to see that soon here in NY on Lake O. Do you think you could get away with higher stocking in MI and not devastate the bait-fish population?

Thanks guys!

The standard rule is when you go over 300' of copper switch to 50lb PP.

8/5 (Friday evening) - We had a group from 5Linx out with us on a two boat trip. We shot out to the 28N line already knowing the Lake had flipped. We found some more stable water out there, but some wicked currents. The screen was OK at best for the first half of the trip. As we pushed North the screen get better. We rotted for the first hour and a half of the trip with not even a sniff from a fish. We ran our typical set up consisting of our three Cannon DT-10s pulling spoons with sliders, two Walker Deeper Divers puling spinny/fly combos, and three junk lines. Eventually we got the rods poppin’ for the guys, but we never got that “big†bite. Mostly small Salmon and a decent class of Steelhead for us, and as we ended the trip we had a steady bite going on the 30N line. Dreamweaver Get R Done, and Lemon Ice were our MVP’s fished off our DT-10’s. 8/6 (Saturday morning) - We had a nice family trip with the Creedon’s from Rochester. We knew the 30N line was the place to be, but we figured we would stop on the 29N line and troll it out. The morning bite was fantastic! Mostly 2 year old Kings, but we did manage to get one nice kicker 3yr old. The same program as the night before was down, but the spoons were a little different. In the morning the Dreamweaver Glow Frog SS’s, Mooncricket Mags, and Get R Done Regulars were our hot baits. Riggers ruled the bite for us, but the 10 color’s held their own too. After the first few hours of steady Salmon action we began to pick away at the Steelhead, but it was a slow pick. 8/6 (Saturday evening) - Took the GF out for a few hours to see if we could get her a wall mounter. We dropped in on the 29N line and trolled North. We ran two riggers, and two divers. The bite wasn’t great, but we did manage a few Steelhead before the center rigger down 35’ with a Dreamweaver Get R Done starts throbbing. I run over and hook into this fish, but I thought it was another Steelbow, and handed the rod off to Mel. About the time I turned around to grab the wheel I heard the sound of a screaming reel, and it wasn’t stopping. As I watched the line on the reel get stripped off I figured I had better start pulling gear and turn on this fish. I kept in constant communication with Mel about how much line was on the reel, and finally she was able to gain mind control over this beast and get it coming towards the boat. After another run or two we had the fish at the back of the boat. I was expecting a short fat 25lb fish or bigger, but I was surprised when an 18-20lb King hit the deck of the boat. The way it fought I thought it would be much larger. 8/7 (Sunday morning) - We had a nice couple from Cleavland join us on this very foggy morning. The fog had been around all weekend on the inside water because of the Lake flip. We were one of the first boats out of the chute, and we figured we would run the same program and game plan as we did on Saturday. We dropped in on the 28N line and began our troll North. The screen was not there, and we rotted for the first hour of the trip. Once we made it out to the 30N line the screen got better, but it wasn’t like the screen we had been fishing over for the past two days. We kept pushing it North and when we crossed into the 31N line the rods began to fire. We were able to get Gary and his father their personal best King Salmon on this trip. We would pick away at smaller Salmon and Steelhead the rest of the day. Again, the Dreamweaver Get R Done was a good spoon, but the spoon that took the two big guys was a tapped up Northern King Green Monkey Puke. Both of those 18-20lb fish came off the corner rigger down 55’. Gary and family went back to Ohio with some good Salmon meat, and memories of their personal best Salmon.

We left the dock around 3:45 and dropped in around 80’ in front of the ladders. Some bait and some hooks, but nothing that I wanted to stay and fish for the next few hours. Off to the 27N line we went. We dropped in and set lines. Thinking it was going to be a blood bath we settled for a slow pick. First fish, a small steelhead, took a meat rig on a 300 copper. Then we had a Brown Trout hit our 70’ rigger pulling a Dreamweaver Green Dolphin. The rest of the night would be made up of small Kings taking a variety of things set in different positions. Later in the evening with about 30 minutes left to fish we made the run back into the inside waters to see if some more fish moved in on that bait. The bait balls were ridiculous, and the night sky creeped in on us the big hooks started to appear around the bait balls, but by that time it was almost pitch black and we had to get the charter back to the dock for their drive home. It seemed like when the hooks appeared the bait disappeared, or maybe we found out where the fish were hanging outside of the bait waiting to ambush them throughout the night. We never got that “big†bite, but the kids on board had more than they could handle with the size of the fish we were getting. Having kids on the boat is a lot of fun. They seem to ask you the best questions, and no matter what size the fish is the excitement they get when they boat a fish is off the meter!

Looks like your having a heck of a year Tim! Keep the reports coming!

Good luck! We'll be out Tuesday night, Friday night, Saturday and Sunday. If ya get bored stop by. We are at 4C's.

LOVING it!

We fished the Oak and got a late start. It was a lazy day for us before charters take over the rest of our summer. We talked to a few people, and we had the inside waters or the 28N line to choose from. We choose the 28N line. We ran our three Cannon DT10’s, two wires pulling Walker Deeper Divers, and a 300 copper down the chute. The bait was unreal out there, but we weren’t marking many fish. First to go was a Dreamweaver green dot spin doctor pulling an A-TOM-MIK Bobble Head fly 225’ back on the Walker Deeper Diver. We never got to see that screamer. After that it was a Dreamweaver Moon Cricket Mag on the 90 rigger that would fire three times with three Kings. One tipping the scales at about 20lbs. We fished for about two hours and took four bites on the morning.

Friday 7/29 (Practice) - We left the dock in the dark looking to take advantage of some of these HUGE salmon we’ve been watching get caught on the North shores Greater Ontario Salmon Derby (GOSD). Our Navionics chip showed us one heck of a drop off around the Toronto Islands, so we motored the 5 miles to where it started and fished it West to what’s called the Spit. Our screen wasn’t very good, but rods were going. The temp was up higher than what we are used to. We ran three rods on our Cannon DT10’s, 2 wires pulling Walker Deeper Divers, and three junk lines. My brother accidentally put his new, never caught a fish, A-TOM-MIK Bobble Head fly behind a green dot Spin Doctor thinking it was a Hammer fly. Well, he wasn’t even able to clip the ten color core to the planer release and the line starts screaming out of his hand. We land that fish, which ends up being about 25lbs and go to reset it. Out goes that core again, and just like the first time brother Craig goes to clip it into the planer release and another 25lb King takes the line out of his hand. Talk about a HOT combo!!!! That combo would take 3 more fish throughout the day off the ten color core. Once the bite and picture disappeared on the inside we pushed it South. We picked a few fish inside of 300’, but we weren’t seeing anything that made us want to stay. Knowing we had a pretty good morning program we went looking for a back-up. Off to the NW corner hoping to find warmer water. It was a little sloppy out there, and the warmer water was out there, but the Kings weren’t there. However, we did find a few really nice Coho, and as many Steelhead as you could possibly want. Hot spoons for those fish were Dreamweaver Midnight Specials, Stinger A.S.S. Blackfin, and a Dreamweaver Lemon Ice. It felt good to find a back-up Coho program given how tough the King bite was after 8am. Saturday 7/30 (The Shootout) - We ran over to the spot we hit the 25lb’s on and scanned the area, but there was very little there. Less than the morning before, but we set our program out and hoped for the best. This tourney only allowed 6 rods so we started with 2 riggers, 2 wires, and 2 junk lines. When we realized how tough the bite was we tried to go as stealthy as possible and pulled one of the riggers for another junk line. It took about an hour to get our first bite and when we did the second one came fast. Both of those Kings took cooler naps, and then it was another hour wait for a bite. When that bite came another one came along with it like the first pair. Three out of the four fish came on paddle/fly combos like the Smartfish Wonder dot/ A-TOM-MIK Shredded Hammer, and a chrome E-Chip pulling an A-TOM-MIK Hammer Lime Live. Our biggest King would take a Dreamweaver Lemon Ice down 25’ stretched back 60’. After that we would go on to rot for a few hours. We saw boats washing lures, so we knew it wasn’t happening for people. It was time for a decision. We pondered the coho move for about an hour, and at 12:30 it was a done deal and we were headed for the Coho’s. We stopped short of our waypoint to set-up three riggers, two wires, and a 300 copper. We didn’t get a tenth of the mile past that waypoint and a Coho slams a Dreamweaver Get R Done on a slider. We had an hour left, and all we could find were Steelhead. With five minutes to go the center rigger fires and we are tied into a King. It makes three short runs after being brought to the back of the boat, and just before we got within net range the hooks pull out. Fish number six swims away with 2 minutes left, and we knew that one fish was going to cost us. When we got to weigh in it was clear that everybody struggled. As box after box of fish hit the scales we knew a top ten would be close. When it was all said and done we would go on to take the tenth spot out of 60 teams. What a great event this tournament was. Fishing the Toronto skyline was pretty spectacular, and I never realized how big that city was. We followed the rules of the boarder, and we never had an ounce of trouble. The Canadian police even pulled us over during practice, and they were very pleasant to deal with. Overall a great weekend! Oh, and that fish we almost scooped cost us 6 spots…….Woulda, coulda, shoulda….

Thanks guys!

We moved the boat down to Sandy Creek on Friday night. We just got back from the East end tourney’s last week which meant we haven’t wet a line on the West end in about a month. We’ve heard how good the fishing has been, so we were eager to experience it. We broke the pier head around 5:30am and headed straight out and set down in 80’ of water. We put out a similar spread to the one we always use. On our Cannon DT-10’s we put down a Northern King Sea Sick Waddler, a Moonshine Carbon 14, and a Dreamweaver Glow Frog SS. The temp break was down about 50’ where there was anywhere from a 10-15 degree break that went from the upper 60’s to the 40’s. Our 50’ rigger was pulling Brown Trout and Rainbows on the Glow Frog. The 70’ rigger was our HOT king rigger with the Sea Sick Waddler, which also took our biggest King which weighed in about 20 pounds. Lastly, the 90’ rigger pulling the Carbon 14 worked the marks on or near the bottom in 120-140, but all we could manage were Lake Trout. Our wires pulled Walker Deeper Divers trailed by Smartfish/A-TOM-MIK combos. One was a green dot/Hypnotist, and the other was a wonderbread/Hammer combo. We put a pair of 300’ coppers out on the boards and ran a 400 copper down the chute. The 300’s pulled paddle fly combos, and the 400 pulled some meat. Everything took fish! However the size of the fish was a little bit on the small side for us. We worked the 130-150’ range for a good portion of the morning. We were able to pull one big guy from there, and a MONSTER Lake Trout. This Lake Trout hit a 300 copper pulling an e-chip/A-TOM-MIK combo. When we got it in the boat the scale bounced between 21 and 25 pounds. When it hit the scales at weigh in it came in just under 23 pounds. We had to pull off the smaller fish, and choose to head North and get some more water under us, and when we hit 200+ our bite switched to a strictly King bite, but they were just 2yr olds. The 400 copper was practically dead all day until we got out to the deeper water when it took our third biggest fish of the day. We thought this fish was much bigger than what he turned out to be. We cleared our coppers and wires to turn on this fish in the 4-6’ seas because it was a hot fish. He turned out to be a long slender King in the upper teens, but not the 20+ pounder we were hoping for. About 12:30 the corner rigger fires with a Dreamweaver Gator and is screaming line. He would be our 4th best fish about 15lbs, and would be the last fish we boxed for the tourney. We pulled lines at 1pm because we had enough action and waves for one day. 39 fish hit the floor of the boat, and only 4 fish would be keen enough to get away before they took a ride in our net. Wish we had that kind of batting average over the Pro/Am’s the last few months! In the end we would end up 2nd behind Trout n About, and right above Legacy who finished in third. Those two boats took their Kings to the West off Devils Nose. The organizers put on one heck of a tourney! One of the more fun laid back tourneys we have fished in quite some time! A huge thanks goes out to all of them as I know firsthand how time consuming putting on these events can be.

We use about a 30' leader on our coppers. 20lb McCoy Flouro 100 if we know we are fishing spoons, and 25lb McCoy Mean Green when running paddles.

Try taking one out at a time until they start firing. Ours were dead this weekend. We typically run 3 riggers, and pulling one completely out of the spread seemed to help a little bit.

Nice job Tim!

Oswego Pro Am 2011 Thursday Practice -We got on the water about 5:30am and fished from Port Bay to Oswego. We picked fish the whole way down in 125’ to 300’ of water. Our program consisted of 3 coppers, 2 wires pulling Walker Deeper divers trailed by Spin Doctors/Smartfish with A-TOM-MIK flys, and our three Cannon Digi-Trolls. Temp wasn’t as bad as we had seen in recent years, and the break was around the 100’ mark. Our 500, 600, and 700 coppers were probably our best presentations, but no real set-up or combo was greater than another. Nothing really excited us the whole day, but we knew we could head back to the stretch between Port Bay and Fairhaven if we needed to. Friday Practice -We left Oswego marina at 5:30 and wanted to look out the front door to see if the river plume was holding anything. We set-up in 100’ of water and the screen lit up. We ran a very similar program as the day before, and it didn’t take us long to get on the bite. White and chrome paddles seemed to be our best producers pulling A-TOM-MIK Hypnotist, various Hammers, and the Pro-Am flys. We also had the meat rigs going. 11†paddles with twinkie rigs on our deep copper that took some great shots, but we still weren’t able to master hooking up with these fish consistently. Maybe it’s just our meat rigs????? We had a great day fishing right within sight of the Port of Oswego. We never took any monster fish, but we had a good class of “tournament fish,†and plenty of bites. Saturday Day 1 -We started this tournament off just like we ended our last one. With the dropsies! We lost our first four or five screamers. A moonshine Carbon 14 fished on our 300 copper and our wire almost went off instantaneously, and after short battles both of those fish went back to fight another day. The bumpy North winds moved some water around and even though we got the bites our picture from the day before had dissipated. The lost fish seemed to get in our heads this time, and when we saw two very respected captains head for BT land we figured the King bite just wasn’t there. So, we panicked and within the hour made a team decision to head to the buoy line around 10am. We would learn at weigh in that what the North wind actually did was push those fish off-shore, and a little East as those teams seemed to have the better boxes. When we got to the buoy line we saw a small window of BT waters in the 90-110’ range. We ran 2 junk lines, 2 wires with clear Walker Deeper Divers, and lines on our three Digitrolls. We would go on to box half the Brown Trout we would hook up with. The best spoon we found for the Brown Trout on this afternoon was a Stinger NBK. Our cooler was light at weigh in with only 7 fish to show for, and had us sitting in 23rd out of 27 teams. Sunday Day 2 -We decided we were going to fish for Kings when we got out there. We knew we had no shot at winning, but we wanted a shot at a decent finish. We set-up in the same waters as the morning before, and started to pick at fish. Mid way through the day the screen just dried up for us, but we were seeing some higher fish. Past tourney experience told us those were probably Steelhead/Rainbows, and Coho Salmon. Indeed they were as we started to pick away at them until we gave a “cooler nap†to our 12th fish at 1:30pm. Our best spoons were getting eaten on free sliders fished on 100-125 riggers. Dreamweaver Lemon Ice and Michigan Blueberry Super Slims took the last 6 or 8 fish we needed. We knew we didn’t have anything won, but we knew the bite was tougher on day 2 for a lot of people. We still saw them out fishing till the end. Our box of 12 fish bumped us up a little bit,and gave us a finish of 16th. Sodus Pro Am 2011 Thursday Practice -We got a nice early start by leaving the dock at 5:30am. We scanned the inside waters for a little bit checking 50’, 75’, 100’, but the screen just wasn’t there. We slid out to 125’ and figured we would just toss rods down and begin trolling around. Well, the screen in 130-150’ was loaded with bait, and there were some great marks in there too. All we could manage were 4 or 5 small fish as we zigged and zagged West. Our program was one we run in most East end tourneys consisting of three downrigger rods, two wires pulling Walker Deeper Divers, and 3 junk lines which in this case were 300-700’ coppers depending on where we were seeing the fish. We got a call late morning that the bite on the bigger guys was a little deeper than where we were fishing, so we pointed the boat North and headed for that 200-300’ range. When we got out there things started to pick up a little, and we grabbed some nice fish. Friday Practice -We set course for the waypoint from the day before where we doubled up on majors, which was 300’ of water right out front of Hugh’s marina. We stopped short and the picture looked good, but we had a slow pick of fish during the morning hours. Maybe due to the full moon???? As the day progressed our bite got better, and by the end of the day we figured we had upwards of 30-35 bites. However, we continued our 2011 tourney tradition of dropping a lot of nice fish. During the morning white combination SmartFish and Spin Doctors pulling A-TOM-MIK Hypnotist, Sweat Pea’s, various Hammer’s, and Pro Am flies took our fish. We were running the same program as the day before. Our riggers weren’t very productive, our wires were virtually dead until late morning, and our coppers held their own. Our wire divers finally started to rip when we switched our white SmartFish and Spin Doctors out for chrome ones. One diver had a Hawg Wild Spin Doctor pulling an A-TOM-MIK Pro Am, and the other had a Captain Valium combo. Set back anywhere from 225-275’ they quickly became our hot set-ups. We would end up weighing 52lbs for our 3 biggest Salmon in the Captain Jacks big fish event, but we knew we had an area we could go to in the morning with fish and not a lot of pressure. Saturday Day 1 -We headed out to our waypoints from the previous two days, but we decided to start in 130’ and point the boat North. A North/South troll was our best on Friday. We set out the same program consisting of three downriggers, 2 divers, and 3 copper rods. Our team is like a pit crew now. Everyone knows their job on tourney morning, and rods get down and out really fast. It didn’t take long and we were tied into our first screamer on the diver out 225’. A Walker Deeper Diver pulling a White/Green dot SmartFish with an A-TOM-MIK Hypnotist fly. That combo would end up being a very hot rig for us the rest of the tourney. Within minutes of dropping that fish we are doubled on Moonshine Carbon 14’s. One on the wire behind a Walker Deeper Diver, and the other on a 300 copper. Both screamers would go on to fight another day. Coppers and divers were our best rigs, and blew our downrigger action out of the water. At one point we pulled two downriggers to add other lines hoping that might get some junk out of the water, and get that lone rigger firing. We have been running a meat rig on the deep copper, and it seems to always grab some shots throughout the day. Toward the end of our box we put out a trash can dodger with an A-TOM-MIK Hypnotist fly on the wire out 225’. Five minutes later and we are into a big guy. We land him and put the rig back out. Ten minutes later and it’s singing again. We put one down on the other wire, and that took our last fish for the day within minutes. We finished our box around 12:00pm, but the disappointment of losing some big fish was hanging over our heads. After the rest of the Pro boats hit the scales we found ourselves in 5th place our of 40 boats. Not too bad, but the woulda, coulda, shoulda’s just stuck in the back of our head. Sunday Day 2 - We head back out to our waypoints from the previous three days. We put down a similar spread, and within minutes we are hooked up on a screamer with a White/Green dot SmartFish/A-TOM-MIK Hypnotitst on the diver. After about 3 minutes the rod goes limp and we bring back 4†of 50lb flouro leader behind the SamrtFish. We would also go on to dump a nice 20lb King 20’ behind the boat due to fleas bunching up in our twilli-tip. The streak of lost fish has plagued us all year on the tourney trail. We would go on to pick fish throughout the morning, but our screen would dry up by 11:00am. We went into search mode and tried to pick at some high fish like the week before, but they weren’t as cooperative. We would box number 11 at 1:30pm and that would be it for us on day 2. After the fish hit the scales we got bumped down to 8th, which was still a check, but those fleas ended up costing us four spots. The fishing on the East end of the Lake this year was and still is amazing. Probably some of the best we have seen down there in years! As always thanks to everyone who helps put these events on. We couldn’t do it without you! The pics below were part of a double from Thursday’s practice. Those waypoints and that area would provide us with all our fish for the remainder of the tourney.

Come on over Frank! When you do give me a shout, and I can tell you where you'll need to be!

6/25 We pushed off from the dock about 6am with absolutely no information. So, we took a slight NW heading out to 100fow and gave it a scan. The picture was bleak, so we pushed it out to about 175fow and shut her down and began trolling when we saw a few marks on our Humminbird fish finder. We put down a simple spread consisting of three riggers, two wire divers, and a few junk lines fished off our otter boats. It didn’t take long and we were into a few fish, and it became a steady pick for most of t he morning. No true giants fell victim to our spread, but some real quality Salmon in the low to mid teens. On our corner riggers we pulled Northern King Sea Sick Waddlers and Dreamweaver Glow Frogs. The middle rigger had a mix of everything throughout the day. A Dreamweaver Green Eyed Ghost, Dreamweaver Bloody Death, Dreamweaver Shiznit, and a few others, but no real MVP’s. The corner riggers did most of our fish on the two spoons listed above. Behind our Walker Deeper Divers we pulled a few paddle fly combos, but only one took a fish, however it was our largest fish of the morning. That combo was the Albino Gator pulling an A-TOM-MIK glow Pro-Am fly. Our ten color seemed to be another good presentation pulling a Stinger Stingray Black Widow. It took a very nice Steelhead late in the morning. We ended the trip around noon with a nice box of fish, and two very happy kids who have never caught more than a few bluegill off the docks. Their grandpa is doing a great job of getting them involved in the outdoors at a young age. 6/26 We left the dock about 6:30am looking to go out and just fun fish. We grabbed our father and a buddy who has never been on Lake Ontario nor has he ever tied into a Salmon. On our way in around noon yesterday it sounded like some guys found a nice pod of fish on the inside with a wicked current, so we figured we would give that a go before heading out deeper. We weren’t able to get all the rods in the water when the 150’ Walker Deeper Diver pulling a Green Smartfish/A-TOM-MIK Misery fly starts to explode. I handed the rod off to the newbie, and we watch him get taken for a ride. Love seeing that! We ended up boating that fish, which was a mid teens fish, and his first fish ever (other than a few small Bluegills). We put that rod back out and a few minutes later it takes off again, and my brothers girlfriend is tied into a screamer. That one hits the deck and we guesstimated it to be just under 20lbs. Put that rod back out, and a few minutes later its throbbing again with a King Salmon shredding line off the reel. We had a seven rod spread out there and one rod was giving us all the action. The morning would slow a bit after 4 or 5 Salmon in the first few hours, so we pointed the boat East and zigged and zagged from 125’ out to 175’ down to the Glass House. The screen got better the further East we went, and right before the Flats we started to light them up. All the big guys would take that Walker Deeper Diver pulling the Green SmartFish/A-TOM-MIK Misery fly, which we had to slide out from 150’ in the morning to 175’ later to entice strikes. We finally got a few rigger bites pulling Dreamweaver Moon Crickets and Salmon Slappers. The afternoon ended as good as the morning started for us, and by 11:00am we were dialing in or new Auto-Pilot, and then headed for some lunch. The current was wicked strong. When we turned the boat to troll back West we had our surface speed at 1.1 and our ball speed at 2.4.-2.6. Later on in the afternoon we jumped on a buddies boat and headed out for a little derby fishing. It seemed the current had settled, and the picture was not as good as it was when we left it. However, that same diver combo would go on to take 3 nice Salmon when everything else we threw down took skippers, and other species.

Thanks guys!

That show was last years Oswego tourney. We won big fish Friday, and took a top ten that weekend. We were one of the only boats on a King bite that weekend, which was cool. Fridays King bite was OK, Saturdays was almost non-existent, and Sundays was on Fire.