Yankee Troller

Well, we left the dock around 5:30am and were setting lines around 6am. We stopped at the 26.5 line and didnt turn until the 30 line as we picked fish all the way out. Spent the day doing N-S trolls between the 27 and 30 lines. 22 shots mostly riggers. Dreamweaver glow froggy SS was the hot spoon parked at 50. Dreamweaver area 51 SS was our second best parked at 55. 42nd's, and sea sick waddlers took shots too. First fish in the box was a monster king measuring 42" long. He took a glow froggy on the cheater parked at 40 in 60 degree water......wtf???? Many steelies in the 6-10lb range. 300 copper went twice with a Green double crush glow SmartFish pulling an A-TOM-MIK green krinkle. 10 color went once with a NK Hawg Wild. Wires parked at 100-175 took a couple of fish with a dreamweaver green sparkle SS and a white/green edged spiny pulling an A-TOM-MIK glow pro-am fly. Pics to come as I forgot my camera and I am awaiting an e-mail with pics from the crew.

Brother Tom! I have to say I had nothing to do with it. I'm out there to fish! My brother on the other hand is the culprit.

I hear that!

7/18 - Friday Pre-Tournament - Well, we left the dock about 5:30am and headed out to practice for the Wayne County Pro-Am. We stopped in the short water around 50 foot to check out the screen. We saw bait and fish so we dropped our lines. It wasn't long before we had our first Brown Trout in the boat. A healthy lb brown that took an Orange Yeck Frog off a rigger. We would end up taking one more Brown Trout heading out to check the Salmon waters. We get out to 150fow and the Salmon rigs start firing. Mostly a SmartFish/A-TOM-MIK fly bite with white and green being the colors of choice. 400 and 600 coppers, wires, and riggers would all take fish. We pulled lines around 1pm with a good box. When we weighed our fish we had 3 fish for 57lbs. That totaled 87 points and was good for fourth in the pre tourney. Currently we are learning how to smile! 7/19 (Day 1 Sodus Pro/Am) - We passed up the Brown Trout water and headed right for the Salmon waters. We had no idea what we were in store for! It took us 15 minutes before we took our first shot, but it was a good one and we couldn't turn him on the wire dipsey. Eventually he won and we were back looking for our first fish. Next rod to fire was our 80 rigger with a Dreamweaver SS Glow Frog. This was our hottest rig the whole day and would take many fish. Our 400 fired with a Chrome Frog Spin Doctor pulling an A-TOM-MIK Packer fly. We dropped that screamer within the first minute of him striking. The 600 went with a Green SmartFish pulling an A-TOM-MIK Ultra green glow fly and we drop that screamer within the first few minutes. The wires were pulling Chrome E-Chip's with A-TOM-MIK Big Fin flies, or White SmartFish with A-TOM-MIK Ultra green glow flies. What a disappointing day as we ended it by going Brown Trout fishing to scrounge up a few quick keepers. We boxed 5 Salmon, lost 5 screamers, threw back 6 short Salmon, and went 1 for 2 on the Brown Trout. After everyone in the tourney weighed in we sat just out of the money. I can say we lost the leading box without a doubt, but as they say "That's why they call if Fishing and not Catching!" The leading boxes were all Brown Trout boxes. Not many people were targeting Kings this weekend. Our box for the day scored 107 points. 7/20 (Day 2 Sodus Pro/Am) - The decision to go right back out to the waters we had fished the prior two days was an easy one. When we sat down and dropped lines the screen looked good, but the fish had lock jaw! It wasn't long before the screen would disappear and we would be in search mode. We trolled around till 11am without a single strike! We traveled out to over 300' and the screen just never looked promising. Our team made the decision to hit up the Brown Trout waters, so we pulled lines and ran in. Finished setting rods and the corner downrigger fires and we have our first fish on. We stuck it out in there pulling in 4 Brown Trout. 3 of the 4 took a Stinger Penguin, and the other took a Stinger Gin and juice. Our score for the day was just under 70 points and we finished the tourney in 16th place out of 37 Pro teams.

I will generally do the same as BillyV. Only exception is I run my inside/low diver on a .5 setting with a magnum ring. Less line to achieve greater depths. On the high diver we run it on a 2-2.5 setting with a regular ring. We let the high wires go out on free spool with a clicker and let the low divers out on a loose drag when setting up. However, you cant allow the high diver to go out that way if your low diver is already in.

Never heard that before, but Im on Lake O. I run a 10' cheater all the time on every rigger rod.

Yeah, these tourneys really break down how good a fisherman you really are. It seems like we can all go out there and smash them any day of the week, but come tourney time the lake does something to make it tough on the competitors.

Friday (Practice) - Did some looking around (from 100-500+ fow), and ended up finding 7 bites out in front of Fair Haven. All the waypoints were fairly close so we figured there was a school of fish there worthy of our time on Saturday. Our biggest 3 totaled just under 30lbs. Fish werent big, but from the sounds of it we had more bites than most boats. Our hot set up today was a Dreaweaver SS Dave's Salmon Slapper parked at 100' on the rigger. We had two wire bites one took a Green double glow SmartFish pulling an A-TOM-MIK Green krinkle, and the other was a White double glow SmartFish pulling an A-TOM-MIK Ace fly. Saturday (Day 1) - Well, we let Fridays pre tourney throw us a curve ball. Guys plucked some good fish out of the inside waters (140 fow in front of West 9 mile), so we started our day there hoping for a couple of bug guys. Marks were there but we only ended up taking a laker out of there. With about 3 hours left we made a run to our waypoints from Friday and in no time we were hooked up. Every bite once we set down on our waypoints came off the same rig. Chrome E-Chip pulling and A-TOM-MIK Big Finn fly out 275 on a .5 setting. We boxed 5 fish for a total of 98 points and ended day one in 15th place out of 37 teams. Sunday (Day 2) - We didnt make any other plans but to run right to our waypoints in front of Fair Haven seeing that the leader took his box from there on day one. We pull up around 6:30 and drop lines. We werent even set-up yet and corner rigger down 100 fires with a short steelie on a copper NBK. Not much longer and the high wire out 350 on a 2 setting starts ripping. We boat a nice 22lb King on a White Double Glow SmartFish pulling an A-TOM-MIK Ace fly. Next the 600 copper takes off with a 8-10lb laker on a Green Double Glow SmartFish pulling an A-TOM-MIK Green Krinkle fly. Get it back out there and it takes off ripping. This time it wasnt a mud chicken! We boat a 21lb King. Middle rigger fires again with a nice 8-10lb steelie only to dump off 25 yards behind the boat. We would then end up boating a 7lb steelie on a NK Mag Froggie cheated above a Mini Spinnie. With about 30 minutes to fish we boat a short steelie and dump another keeper Steelie. We boxed 4 fish for 97 points and ended up just out of the money. Here is a few pics of our big guys from today:

Yeah it was a great weekend. Too bad i forgot the camera all 3 days! We could have had some sweet pictures.

7/4 - Well, after a short break from trolling to chase Bass we got back on the water to sharpen our skills before the last leg of the Pro-Ams. We set up lines out front of Sandy Creek around 6am and took our first shot on the wire dipsey out 225 pulling a white on white Spin Doctor and an A-TOM-MIK Wonderbread fly (my new favorite fly). This set-up would also take a small steelie later on that morning. While we were fighting that first King Salmon the 600' copper pulling a White on White SmartFish and an A-TOM-MIK Ultra Green Glow fly starts ripping line out. We eventually dropped that fish only to wonder if it was "the one!" We finally got our riggers to fire at 100', and guess what that King Salmon took????? If you guessed the Sea Sick Waddler then you guessed right! We would end up taking a few shots on that today with the biggest being in the 15lb range. Another rigger at 100' took a shot pulling a Dreamweaver SS Dave's Salmon Slapper, but we dropped it very shortly after it took our 100' rigger. Our 300 wires would both go pulling a NK28 Area 51 and a Dreamweaver SS Green Sparkle. Last fish of the day was another 600' copper fish with the same Smartfish/A-TOM-MIK combo. This one also ripped out line uncontrollably! Another one we would have liked to see, but this time it won. Ended the day boating 6 and loosing 6. Of course two of the ones we lost felt like REAL nice fish. Nothing boated was over 15lbs. Stay tuned as we will be derby fishing Saturday and Sunday with reports directly after we get off the boat! 7/5 - What a frustrating morning! We dropped lines a tad bit West of Sandy creek in 150fow. We started off 0 for 7! By the end of the day we would boat 8 fish and loose 8 others. Many skippys, but at the end of the day we put one in the boat around 17lbs on a white on white SmartFish pulling an Ultra Glow Green A-TOM-MIK fly on the 600' copper. We also dropped a SCREAMER on that same rig earlier in the day. Sea Sick Waddler off the riggers took a fish or two as did a Stinger Copper NBK. Riggers anywhere from 60'-100' down, and wires out 200 on a 2.5 took most of the shots. Got off the water around noon and went home to hook up to the bass boat. Figured I would give Watoma Shoals a try for some Smallmouth Bass. Marked a few fish but only managed 3. I was dragging a a tube and tossing around a drop-shot with a 4' roboworm. Out of the three hooked I only boated 1, but it was a really healthy 3lb'er. 7/6 - Lit the water on fire today! We boated 18 fish and dropped 6. For the third day in a row we headed out of Sandy Creek around 5:30am and fished till 1pm. Much better than yesterday. 3 of the 18 were Lakers in the 11-12lb range. First thing this morning we took a 24lb Salmon on the wire pulling a Wonderbread J-Plug. Right after we boated that big guy we took a teenager on a Wonderbread A-TOM-MIK fly behind a White Spin Doctor. Our program today was 3 coppers, 4 wires, and 3 riggers. Our high wires set on a 2.5 out 225'-275' were smoking hot with area 51's and super glow/green Northern King 28's. Our low wires set on a .5 out 150'-200' pulling various SmartFish/A-TOM-MIK fly combos were our second best set-ups. Dreamweaver SS Green Sparkle, Copper NBK's, and Sea Sick Waddlers were taking fish on the riggers from 60'-125' down. We lost a SCREAMER on the copper pulling a White on White SmartFish/Ultra Green Glow A-TOM-MIK fly. Couldn't turn that fish and when we pulled it back in we had a the SmartFish minus a fly or leader (that's a first). We worked the 130-150 waters until it dried up around 11am and then slid out to 170-190 to finish the day and rods started to fly again. Plenty of fish out there for everyone, so go get 'em. Green was definitely the color today. We put a Steelhead and a King Salmon on the LOC Leader board today! Wish us luck, so we can stay on the board.

Niagara: Practice - Well, I had spent the month of May up there again this year, so you would figure I should know a little bit about the fishing come tourney time? Well, in practice we went out and found fish in the same places we found them the week prior, but the size was still down. The Sea Sick Waddler took it share again! We ended the day with getting our limit. In the Olcott Memorial tourney we entered one nice 17lb King and 2 smaller fish. Not enough to place in the top three. Day 1 - Headed out and stopped in the inside water to see if we could pull a big king first thing, without any luck we point the boat north and headed out. We proceeded to boat 9 fish in 1 hour between 7-8am. Most took a Dreamweaver SS Goby pattern off the rigger, but again the Sea Sick Waddler took a few fish. On the Coppers and wires we were running all SmartFish with various A-TOM-MIK flies. Again the Ultra Green Glow was hot as was the Hammer. Our program was 3 riggers, 2 wires, and 3 coppers (400,500,600). We lost a good one that got into out 600 copper and I thumbed the spool only to have the hook pop out. We finished out limit by 10am and headed for breakfast. After day 1 we were sitting in 5th place. Highlight of the day was going through the flurry only to have the 400 and 500 copper in the water when everything was said and done. Day 2 - Do the exact same program as Day 1.....skinny water then work out. By 11:30 we had 7 fish in the box. Now the stress pours on! So we make a decision to run over to 4 mile and work west till time was up and we had to head in. We set down in 100 fow to start trolling and fish were everywhere! Down we go with the same program we had been running. The sea Sick Waddler was the first to go. WE got that fish in and put it down and it went again! Finally we switched every rigger over to it and we did our last 5 fish in an hour! ALL on the Sea Sick Waddler. This spoon was amazing in those green waters off Niagara County these last few weeks I have had the spoon. We ended in 7th place for the tourney. FYI….I was in Narby’s and Captains Cove this past weekend and I know they have some Northern King Sea Sick Waddlers. I watched people buying them off the counter before they made it to the shelf. Orleans: Practice – Well, we were warned before we got there it was tough fishing. So once we got out there we adjusted for the high Stealhead bite we were told about. If you know me then you know I am a Salmon fisherman. I don’t mess with Lakers or Browns or Steelhead very often. So this is different fishing for me. We ran 3 riggers, 6 cores, and 2 wires in practice trying to figure out these fish, and in no time we had rods poppin. We started off with almost a triple. By the days end we were one of the few boats who got into the fish. We went 8 for 17. Riggers down to 50’, 1,2,3,4,10 color cores, and wires out 50-100 on a 3 setting. Lures were the Dreamweaver SS Orange Slurpee (this is a must for those steelhead and browns), NK C5 5 of diamonds, Copper NBK’s, Spooks, and One on the Sea Sick Waddler (the last fish that spoon would take during the weekend). Day 1 – Headed out to our waypoints and found the water had warmed up from practice. We fished it anyway only to pull one measly fish from it on a 75 wire all day! This fish fell victim to an NK 28 in the orchard paint scheme. So, the thoughts of lat year start flowing through my head. Last year we won the first tourney, and took last in the next. Then on the east end we took 3rd in Oswego and finished bottom of the middle in Sodus. We get a report of fish on the bar with limit catches, so we fill up the boat and plan on heading there in the morning. Day 2 – Well, 6 guys on board wind in our face and current against us with a full tank of gas and we could only get her up to 17mph. So, the trip to the bar was a long one and we only made it to Wilson by time I realized I had burned a half a tank of gas. So knowing that the can was 12 more miles I knew it wasn’t smart to make the rest of the run. We start trolling and everything looks just right. Temp. is there and the water is greenish. Marks were hard to come by. We started with a 24†Stealhead that took a Dreamweaver SS goby pattern off the rigger. It was a while before we started to mark some more in front of Olcott when the middle rigger rod takes off screamin. This was our 10lb King for the day which took a NK28 Hog Wild. AS we picked up to head back I pulled the 10 color from off the board and fish #3 is on. Got him in and that ended up being a 22†Stealhead that took a NK Dimple Light Wahoo with an orange ladder-back. Got a call from the same guy who gave me the report on the bar fishing and said it was good again on Sunday with guys limiting out! So the curse continues! Cash in one tourney……falter in the next. The way things have gone the last few years I should cash a check in Oswego!

5/4 - We hit the water bright and early dropping lines at the red can. We got set up and trolled around for about 30 minutes when the 3oo' copper rod takes off. Of course I am the only person who will reel in a fish on the copper rod, and that's why you see my face on the last two reports holding the biggest guy of the day. This salmon happened to be the 1st place Salmon after 3 days of derby fishing. Like our biggest fish the day before this guy hit the white Smart Fish with a Chicken Wing ATOMIK fly behind it. This guy weighed in at 22.08. We burned up a few hours weighing in the fish and missed the best bite of the day. We ended the day with 6 bites/6 fish. Nothing went more than once. Our hits came on the above mentioned flasher fly, coyote, copper NBK, TC dodger with a glow green fly, mulatto, and a copper yellow NBK. Here is our big guy with the Chicken Wing fly in his mouth, and me all bundled up (Don't ya just love my faces?): 5/3 - What a difference a day makes! We awoke to no wind and left over 2' rollers from the NE. We sat down in front of Wilson in 50' of water because the surface temp was there and so were some fish, but the clear water was ice cold once you got down past 30'. We quickly picked up and ran down to the red can where we set up and immediately got into them. For the most part it was a day of small fish, but it was a steady pick of Coho's and Kings except for a 2 hour lull in the afternoon. Best spoons were copper NBK's, Mulatto's, orange super glow, and green super glow 28's. The only big boy of the day was a nice 18lb King Salmon that took a white on white smart fish with an ATOMIK Chicken Wing fly behind it on the 400' copper. We fished deeper than most today with all our rigger bites coming from 70-140 down. Here is a pic of the fly and the Salmon. Chicken wings have always been a good bar spoon, so why not a fly? 5/2 - East winds really put a damper on the fishing near the Niagara bar today. We woke up to a 1-3' chop and by 10am it was 4-6's and we were off the water. We got into as many Coho's as you wanted, and a small Laker. Surface temps ranged from 42-44 degrees. Hot spoon of the day was a Dream Weaver SS in Orange Slurpee. A few Salmon were caught on the American side, but we weren't one of the lucky boats. As I type this up there is still a strong East wind blowing. If your headed this way tomorrow bring some west winds please.

So out we go around 1:30 and we headed east. Not a touch so we turn around and go west of Sandy. Almost to the pump house and the inside rod off the board on the starboard side releases. I grab it and hand it to Rob thinking it was a brown. WRONG!!!!! Line starts SCREAMING out. I'm like "you got a nice brown on dude or you lightened the drag? He would get it 100' behind the boat and out it would go again. Now I'm like this is no Brown. 10 minutes later its in the net and we are all high fivin over a 14.14lb SALMON! It took a clown colored rapala husky jerk 150' back.

Put our lines in around 7:15 and headed west, which is where the least amount of boat traffic was. Got to the beach and fish on. 200' lead on a black and silver Yo-Zuri. We got about 100' of line on him and he takes a 200' run. I thought we had our second king of the season on. Turned out to be a FAT 12lb Brown. We turned around at Devils nose and headed back to Sandy and right when we got to the first point west of Sandy another board line takes off. This fish didnt fight very hard and we figured it to be a small Brown, but were amazed at the size of it when we boated it. I didnt see a scale like the 12lb fish, but we guessed it at 8-9lbs. This fish took a clear/blue bomber 200' back. Picked up around 11:30 and headed in. We went 2 for 2 but both were great fish. The pictures on the first one dont do it justice. It was actually bigger than the one in the second picture girth wise. We put both of them back for Jerry to catch later on in the summer!

Underwater camera for sure! Its more fun and if there are fish in the area you can see them. When you have light bite fish, like perch in deep water, it helps you see the strike too. The camera can save you a lot of time when on the water locating fish.

Everyone heard of this? Every captain will need one of these by September. It is supposed to be a card that we have to carry with us on the water when we are carrying passengers. The process is easy from what I have heard, yet a little time consuming since you have to go to a registered CG station. If you have any questions call someone like Dennis Daniels of Sea Tech Marine Training or the coast guard. Sorry I cant fill ya in more, but it is fairly new news to me too. I will update this when I go through the process.

nope there are sold

Sorry long line....i hadnt been on here in a while and missed your post. After the whole trail had finished up my team did OK for its first Pro year. I wish I could have done a loit better in Niagara and Sodus was a tough one too!

Wolfe99 - go with the Big John Otter Boats. I have been pulling 500-600' copper sections off them while in 4-6' waves. They wont dive and if they happen to go through a wave they pop right up on the other side of it. The run very close to the back corner of your boat unless a fish pulls them back. Most of the oswego captains who pull copper on a daily basis run these boards. If it can handle 600' of copper it can handle 10 or 20 colors! Also, if your running leadcore off the big boards you can use the offshore releases (pinch pads) and clip it anywhere on the leadcore, so you can adjust to where the fish are. The release wont hurt the leadcore! Friends of mine along with myself have been doing this for a few years now. Definatley go with the big boards. The inlines are a pain, unless you have mulitiple rods on one side and have to rest a middle one. Other than that they dive when you fight fish and to explain how not to let it do that to a customer is way too hard.

What a heck of a day! From watching the reports all week and not seeing a solid report I was worried we might have a tough day ahead of us. The day started off with a nice 10lb Brownie and then the Kings came to play. Everything I put in the water today went. We started off this morning in 40-60 fow between Braddock's point and Lighthouse point. Fish and bait were everywhere, and cold water was in. First King took a Copper NBK off the rigger 60 back 25 down (18lbs). Then the wire went with a coyote 28 on a 2.5 setting 50 back (lost it). A short while later the 10 color took off with a Stinger Gin and Juice. Foul hooked 15 lb Salmon that took too long to bring in. The warm water moved in so we headed out to that 90-110 and started to pick up more kings between 60-90 down. Copper NBKs were the best spoon today. Other lures that fired were the ATOMIK Coyote fly (a fly I asked Tom Allen to tie up for me and this was my first time running it), Stinger green dolphin in an alewife pattern took the big guy today 80 down 50 back (24lbs). The copper was the last to fire out 450 with a Trash Can/Green dodger and an ATOMIK crinkle green with some mirage in it. During a few of the king battles we hooked up with some steelies in the 4-6lb range. All n all we ended the day 8-10 and green was the color for the most part. Also, we hit the LO grand slam with a brownie, laker, salmon, and a steelie. It seemed like the kings wanted a super slim or the small stingers today.

Fished out of Sandy Creek from 6am-12pm. Not sure the exact number we ran into, but it was a lot (Somewhere in the vacinity of 20 bites)! 50-130 FOW was the target area with 10 color cores being the best rig. Copper took its fair share out 300'-400'. Wires were HOT in the morning but cooled down towards the end of the day. Finally in the last 2 hours we got the riggers to fire consistently. Basically orange was the color today. ANYTHING with orange! Targeted the top 60 feet and the temp was in there too. No leaderboard fish, but we lost a 10lb steelie and boated a few 20lb kings. Everything else was teenage to skipper size. If I would have boated the Steelie we would have had a LO Grand Slam.

15lb shark

It is a Bayliner 2556. They made them from the mid 80's to the mid 90's. Mine may be for sale very soon. They hold thier value greatly over the years and are real popular on the west coast. There is no motor hump, a 9'6" beam, its on a trailer, and has a head, stove, sink, shorepower, sleeps 4 very easy, and a nice dinette table inside. Dual commands too.

Well, what a difference a week makes! So, here we go: Friday Practice - Went west to 4mile and got on some fish but the bite was slow. teenage kings a few bows and cohos mixed in. Headed East to the red barn and worked our water from the week before and immediatly we found out the fish were still there. Ended the day with a 200pt box Saturday Day One - Went East and the fish were still there but obtained lock jaw over night. We boated our first fish around 8 then another one quick and then within 30 minutes a 8lb bow. SO now within an hour we did 2 cohos and a bow. Well, that was it for the rest of the day. Sunday Day Two - From listening to reports from the prior day we headed West. Buddies got the west and the bigger fish for the most part came from the west. Went the day with 3 shorts and 4 misses. Fish were there but the lock jaw was still in effect. Very frustrating! Although we didnt repeat the week prior it was still a good time with friends. You get to meet a lot of people all over the lake during these tournaments and have a lot of fun when not fishing.

Hey guys! Thanks for all the messages the past day or so. I have a funny story for you guys though. Im not going into details about this past weekend because of the tourney this weekend. Thursday night - get home from bass fishing and my dad tells me we cant leave for practice untill around 10am on Friday. So, I flip out and basically cancel the tourney for us. I didnt want to show up with no practice and get slammed by the guys practicing for 1-2 days. Friday morning - wake up with the intention of going to work and I get a call froma buddy. The words "wanna go to lake erie" come out of my mouth. So away we go to lake erie. Pull out of Sturgeon point harbor and run about 6 miles when the alarm in my outboard starts screaming. IM OUT OF OIL! SOB! So back to the harbor on the trolling motor. Get there around 12ish and get oil at $35 a gallon. Go back out and the lake kicked up. So, we head to Wilson to do some LM fishing. Get there and it rains on me. I get a call from Billy V and he tells me im stupid not to fish this tourney. So aftyer him and my brother hounded me for hours I finally said FINE and went to registration. So its Saturday morning around 8:30-9:00am. Just put the 10th Salmon in the box (this is after we started fishing somewhere close to 7:45) and I get the rods re-set. Im eating a sandwich and i look to the swim platform and there is a salmon bouncing on it. Its the fish we just boxed! All said and done it swims away! I call Mike Waterhouse to find out we can only bring in 11 fish now. So after day one we are in 2nd by 3 points. Sunday morning - Get out to the fishing grounds and the fish arent there as thick but there is still some salmon there. I opted not to go for the steel and cohos and fish just salmon. 4 wires, 3 riggers, 1 600' copper. We start wackin them but the size was down. All the big boys seem to spit the hook on us this day. at 11:30 we were at 9 fish and I made the decision to finish our limit with steel and coho. Put 4 rods on boards for them and within minutes we were hooked up with a nice 8ln steel. Get him in the boat and a DR fires. Get himin the boat and the dipsey fires. LIMIT COMPLETE!!