Billy V

I'll see Joe at the archery shop tonight and I'll ask him specifics about the glasses and if he can send me the video. If/when I get it, I'll post it here.

The weather forecast wasn't sounding very good for the day (heavy winds from the East and rain all day long - yuck!!), but we decided to give it a try anyway and I'm glad that we did! We left the dock at about 6:00am and ran out to 100FOW and set up headed North. It didn't take long and the rods were firing consistently. We took a nice mixed bag of Kings, cohos, steelhead, and even a small brown in the first two hours of the morning - all before the wind started to pick up. Once the wind started cranking from the East, things slowed down and we settled into a slow pick of fish until about 11:00am, when we took three nice fish in a row headed into the 3-5 foot waves. Joe did a great job of handling the biggest fish of the day as it was just about to come to the net and suddenly decided to go through two different downrigger lines and one diver line at the last second. Yikes - that one was interesting and I look forward to seeing the video of that fiasco that Joe shot with his video sunglasses! Here's a picture of Joe with that fish and his cool video shades:

Our best depths were 150-180FOW straight out in front of port to just a couple of miles West. We had 46 degree water down 75ft and we took fish on riggers set at 65', 75', 85', and 100' over the course of the day. It was mostly a rigger bite for us today, but we did take a couple of fish on divers out 210' and 250' on a #2.5 setting. Those diver bites both came on Spin Dr/Siggs's fly combos - one was a Green Dot Spinny/Sigg's Billy V Glow Ghost and the other was on a White Double Crush Glow Spinny/Siggs' Glow Ghost. That White/Glow Ghost combo also took a wicked shot off the 110' rigger that had our Daiwa Saltist reel screeeeeammmiiinngg! Unfortunately that combo got broken off by one seriously upset King! We sure would have liked to have seen that one. Even though we had Spinny/fly combos on 3/4 of our rods, the spoons fished off of our Cannon riggers were easily the stars of the day as they took the majority of our fish. Best spoons were our old favorite, the Northern King Die Hard and that new Dreamweaver Super Slim Midnight Special that we like so much. Best down speeds were 2.2-2.6mph on our Cannon IntelliTroll .

Here's a couple more pics of the guys and today's fish:

That might just be the final fishing report of the season for me as I'm having my hip fixed later this week. The boat is still in the water however, so if I heal up quickly enough we might just get out for one final trip of the season!

Today we had a full day trip out of Sodus with part of a two-boat trip that we ran with Russ Hacker of Honey Hole Charters. Having gotten into the Kings last night, we felt that if the wind would just hold off for a little bit that we might be able to get out to last night's way points and put a few Kings in the boat before Mother Nature had her way with us. We left the dock and ran out to our spot from the night before only to find that the SE wind we had over night had already messed up our water. We set out or standard 8 rod set of 4 Deeper Divers, 3 riggers, and one copper rod and went into search mode anyway - the guys really wanted Kings and didn't want to go back into shallower water to try our hand at the browns. After about an hour of searching, the 400 copper rod fired and the drag was just screeeeeaming! Ricky grabbed the rod and the fight was on. While he was battling this behemoth, two other rods fired and we boated a small King and a nice healthy coho and had yet another rod fire with no one home. Ricky continued his battle with this fish for almost a half an hour and after a near disaster at the net, Ricky had boated his personal best King - a 28 lb beauty that is going to reside on the wall at his house thanks to Jay's unbelievable save at the back of the boat. About "The Save" - Jay was just about to net this fish when it made one last lunge at freedom and caught the stinger hook on the fly in the net. When that happens its almost certainly going to cost the angler the fish, but not today. Jay knew he had a big fish on and nearly went into the drink to grab this King by the gill plate and land it by hand. You've never heard so much cheering and celebration as when Jay pulled this fish into the boat by hand. Great job buddy - That was easily one of the best saves I've ever seen in the back of the boat!

After we landed this beauty we decided that the wind and waves were getting to be too much so we trolled back into shallower water. We had a few more bites on the way in, but nothing that compared to Ricky's fish. By the time we had gotten back into the brown trout water the wind had built to the point where the water had changed drastically from the morning bite and the fishing had shut down.

Our best combo today was easily that 400' copper that was pulling a White Double Crush Glow Spinny/Sigg's Glow Ghost combo. It took 4 or 5 shots today. Others that took shots were our JV Cheerleader fished off of a Deeper Diver out 300' on a 2.5 setting, a NK Seasick Waddler off of a 110' rigger, and a Super Slim Green Alewife fished off of a 90' rigger. The fish wanted it faster today - 2.6-2.8mph on our Cannon Intellitroll. Temps were all over the place today and the SE wind brought ice cold water in as the day progressed.

While we didn't boat as many fish as I had hoped we would have after Friday night's screen, we certainly did manage to make lots of incredible memories for the entire crew. We had a great day together and I hope that we can fish with Ricky and crew again next year. Congratulations of the fish of your life Ricky! That's one to be proud of!

Jay and I went out for a short 2 hour trip out of Sodus Point after work tonight. We were in search of KINGS and once we got to 250 FOW just East of port the screen lit up and so did the rods (thanks for the tip Finders Keepers!!) . We had consistent action for the last hour or so of our trip, the highlight of which was this beauty that took my Lemon Ice Spin Dr/Siggs Glow Ghost combo out 710 feet before finally slowing down. The sound that our Daiwa Saltist Levelwind made when this fish took off on its run was incredible -zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!!!!!

That combo was fished off of a Deeper Diver out 270' on a #3 setting. We also took fish off of our 120' rigger pulling a Super Slim Midnight Special, a 100' rigger pulling a NK Glow Frog, and a Deeper Diver out 300' on a #3 pulling a Green Dot Spinny/Sigg's Billy V Glow Ghost. Our best water was 250-310' down 70-120'. Best down speed for us was a slow 2.2mph on our Cannon IntelliTroll. The screen was lit up with fish and we were really excited about our prospects for Saturday morning - until we heard the weather forecast of 20-30 mph winds from the SE. Ugh!

YT,

Just consider it payback from last weekend in Oswego when you smoked the Kings right next to us and I could only muster up 6! LOL

Nailer,

The new IntelliTroll is FANTASTIC. Cannon did their homework on this one and has built a great product. Definitely worth a look.

We pre-fished the tournament on Friday and found lots of hot brown trout action West of port so we knew where we were headed on Saturday. We also got a call from our good friend Yankee Troller and he was on a hot King & Laker bite down by Ginna, so we had that in our hip pocket in case the browns didn't cooperate. When we got to our spot on Saturday we found that the temps had slid out just a tad bit deeper than we had found them on Friday and once we got our program dialed in the rods began popping. We boxed our first 10 fish by 10 am and then had to grind for almost two more hours to get the next two. We headed to the scales just after noon on Saturday and when all was said and done we sat in 16th place, but we were only 18 points out of 2nd place - a gap that could easily be made up on day two if we had a good day and some of the teams above us faltered.

When we headed out onto the lake on Sunday we found that Mother Nature was in one of her moods again - West winds and 3-5 foot waves. Not good! It took us a bit longer to run to our spot from Saturday and when we got there we found that the wind had piled warm water in tight and that all of our fish and bait had disappeared. Luckily for us we're running a Humminbird 1157c with a thru-hull transducer, so I can pick up fish and bait when we're up on plane. I used that to our advantage on Sunday as we spent an extra few minutes working deeper and checking the screen for bait and fish. Once I found what I was looking for I set us down and we began fishing. It didn't take long to find the fish, but they were all condensed into a very tight area about the size of a football field. We began making loops through our spot and on every one of our first 7 or 8 trolls through the spot we picked up a fish or two. Eventually that pod of fish and bait began to move as more warm water piled in so we spent the last few hours looking for them. We boxed fish number 11 at about 10:30am and then it took us an agonizing 2.5 hours to get our final fish of the tournament. The last hour or so of that grind was especially painful as we all knew that the clock was beginning to work against us and we had lost our temp, bait, and fish yet again. I began pushing us out deeper and further West than we had been all day and we finally nabbed a 3 lb brown just before 1:00pm to wrap up our day. There were high-fives and congratulations all around the boat after that. Mission accomplished! Now all we had to do was go weigh in and see where we ended up.

On the way in I talked to a few of my friends who were fishing the event and found that most of them were having a hard time filling their boxes. That's no surprise as the conditions were especially tough Sunday. We knew that we were lucky to have filled ours like we did. What I didn't know until the weigh-in was over was that we would be the only boat in the field to break the 200 point mark on Sunday - a fact that helped us leap over all but one team and landed us in second place. My friends Tom Burke and Andy Bliss from Cold Steel had just enough of a lead over us on Saturday that they were able to edge us out by less than a point for the win. Congratulations guys - you deserve it! While we would have loved to have taken the win this weekend, I have to be honest and tell you that we are all delighted with where we ended up. We stuck to our game plan of 12 fish each day and after Saturday's 16th place finish all we really wanted to accomplish on Sunday was to get our 12 fish and move up into the top 10. Finishing second was a most welcome surprise!

We used a simple 6 rod program all weekend long. We ran three riggers, two divers, and a leadcore down the chute - all pulling spoons. Our best spoons all weekend long were a Dreamweaver Super Slim Midnight Special, a Northern King Die Hard, and and regular Dreamweaver Lazer Glow Spook. Our downriggers accounted for close to 90% of our catch this weekend. The chute rod took the rest of the bites and for some reason our divers only took one shot over the weekend after being red hot on pre-fish Friday. Go figure. We fished 70 FOW on Saturday and 90-95 FOW on Sunday, and when we found 60 degree water we generally found bait and receptive fish. Best down speeds for us were 1.8-2.0mph on Saturday and quite a bit faster than that, 2.5-3.0mph, on Sunday. I gotta tell you that our new Daiwa Saltist reels were a decided advantage in fighting these browns this weekend. Their drags are super smooth and the high gear ratio really helped the guys keep tension on the fish.

Here we are with our box of fish from Sunday:

We had a great time and are already looking forward to next year's Pro-Am series!

Today Tim, Jay, Gump and I fished for a few hours out of Sodus Point. We worked some way deep water looking for colder water and bigger fish than there has been inside the past few days. We found 42 degrees down 90' out over 350-600 FOW but only a few marks and those were down 300' or more. I ran a rigger out 350' for a good chunk of the morning but it never took a shot. We did OK out there but never lit them up - it was just a steady pick for us today. It sounded like the better bite was in 100-180 FOW this morning. Our 400' copper pulling a DW SS Midnight Special took several fish today, as did a NK Mixed Veggies fished off of our 90' rigger as a free slider. We also had the NK Die Hard, and DW SS Glow Frog take shots today. The Mixed Veggies took our biggest steelhead of the trip at just over 10 lbs:

A Green Double Crush Glow Spinny/Sigg's Green Hypnotist fished off of our 400' Diver took our biggest fish of the day, a 20 lb King that fought like he was a 35 lb'er.

It was mostly a spoon bite for us today. The fleas were terrible - maybe the worst I've ever seen - especially when we were fishing the inside, warmer water. Even though it wasn't fast & furious we still had a great time and are all looking forward to the Oswego Pro-Am this coming weekend.

If it was just me out there I would have been disappointed with the fishing. But then again I would have been out there at 5am and stayed all day rather than starting at 11:30am and staying out for 2 hours or so. Days like that make me realize that its not the size or number of fish that matters to the kids. It's having an adventure with Mom & Dad that's so important to them. Kind of puts it back in perspective a little bit for me.

Today we took the kids out for a mid-day troll in front of Sodus Point. We got a late start and finally left the dock at Krenzer's at 11:30am and ran out to 150 FOW and set up. Right away we began hooking up with small Kings - lots of them - and they were perfect sizes for the boys to enjoy. It was a spoon bite for us and pretty much any spoon that we put in the water took fish for us today. The DW Superslim Da Shiznit, Green Alewife, Glow Frog, and Midnight Special all took fish as did the Northern King Sea Sick Waddler, Gold NBK, and Die Hard. It was a rigger bite for us today - 90-125' down. Best speeds for us were 2.8-3.1 mph on our Cannon IntelliTroll. Here's a few pics of the boys having fun with today's fish:

We never did get a major bite today, although we only gave it about 2 hours right in the middle of the afternoon - not exactly prime fishing hours. But the boys had a lot of fun and the fish & sun wore them out!

We'll be back out to give it a more serious shot next weekend and I'll be sure to post a report then too.

Matt didn't want to put this years best fly in enemy hands bro! LOL!

I took my family up to the Boatyard for our annual Memorial Day trip. We spent most of our time hanging out at the pool and lounging around the docks with our friends but we made some time to troll too. We only gave it a couple of hours but we managed to put some fish in the boat for the kids, which is all we were after.

Here's my 7 year old son William with his 20 lb King (Mom helped reel it in!):

And here's 5 year old Ben wrenching on his "mean fish":

We had a great time relaxing in Wilson this past weekend. Now it's time to get after it in next weekend's Pro-Am!

Yeah all that blood came from one really ticked off 5lb Atlantic!

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The fishing had been tough in the days leading up to our trip so I was hopeful that the Kings would cooperate for us today. We managed to hook up with a half dozen good fish and a handful of smaller fish, but we just couldn't hang onto the bigger fish - we had a bad case of the "drops" today - ugh! Even still, Tori managed to boat her first-ever Lake Ontario King and she did a great job playing it all the way to the net. Here she is with the big fish of the day:

That fish took a Dreamweaver Super Slim Midnight Special, which has undoubtedly been one of our hottest spoons this spring. Here's a shot of that spoon just in case you're wondering what it looks like:

While we only boated a handful of fish today and most of them were throwback dinks, we did manage to get the number of bites we were after and we had a ball playing several really big fish. We had three or four fish rip line and disappear after a lengthy run, we dropped a really good King right at the back of the boat, and we even had a plump steelhead wrap itself around our wire divers before it eventually got off. Sometimes that's just how fishing goes - Disappointing for sure, but we still had a great day out on the Big Pond with good friends.

Today's best rigs were the aforementioned Midnight Special fished off of a rigger down 45', the JV Cheerleader fished off of a Walker Deeper Diver out 180' on a .5 setting, a Green Dot Spinny/Sigg's Billy V Glow Ghost fly fished off of a Deeper Diver out 300' on a 2.5 setting. Best down speed was 2.8mph on our new Cannon IntelliTroll. Water temps were 49-54 degrees down 50' or so and we worked just West of Wilson in 120-220 FOW.

We've enjoyed our run of charters out of Wilson, but now my wife and kids get their chance to come up and get in on the fun. We'll be in Wilson for three days next weekend and I'm sure that we'll make some time to fish a bit, albeit at a more relaxed pace than when we're out with our charters. This is always one of my favorite weekends of the year because I get to share the amazing spring fishery that I love so much with the people who I love the most and who make it possible for me to pursue my passion. This is my way of thanking them for everything that they do for me, and I'm really looking forward to it. After this coming weekend we'll be fishing both of the West End Pro-Am's, then heading back to Krenzer's in Sodus Point for some much needed time off before we get back after it with the East End Pro-Am's.

Yes, that was a 9.5lb Atlantic - what a beauty!

On Saturday the wind had finally settled into a more normal pattern from the West and we were hopeful that the lake had begun to set up for us. We had a 1-2' chop as we ran down to the red can and got set up - perfect for salmon fishing! We had steady action all day long and managed to box a couple of cohos and steelhead and a mess of Kings. We had some coho baits set out for Cody and he put a hurtin' on them before we really got the Kings dialed. Once the big boys started snapping our baits we had our hands full with doubles and triples.

Best baits were a Plaid/Green Stripe Pro-Chip/Sigg's Billy V Glow Ghost, and Dalmatian Spinny/Sigg's Blue Dolphin fished off of our divers out 200' and 300' on a .5 setting. We also took multiple shots on a Wonderbread Spinny/Sigg's UV Wonderbread and a JV Cheerleader. Our hottest spoon was that SuperSlim Midnight Special once again, but we also took fish on the NK WHAT?!?! and a SuperSlim Steelie Dan. We had 44-46 degrees down as deep as 65' all morning long and our best speed was 2.8-3.1 mph on our Cannon IntelliTroll. We worked a piece of water in 170-210FOW between the red can and the fence and it was loaded with fish. All the fish that we cleaned had smelt and alewives in their bellies. It was a good day to be out there, and the highlight of our trip was helping young Cody whack a few cohos and a couple of big Kings. I think he's hooked for life now! Here's a couple of short videos of him landing his first two Lake Ontario Kings - sorry for how choppy they are - we have very spotty cell service down near the river and they just didn't load completely.

http://qik.com/video/6683599

http://qik.com/video/6685342

Here's the pics. I wasn't able to take any shots out on the water today since we were busy at the back of the boat the whole time!

I'm finally back home after a good week in Wilson. Let's hope that the wind continues from the NW all week - enough with the east winds already!!

Today Jay and I were joined by long time customers Jason, Roland, Scott, and Chris for their first day on the Niagara Bar. Mother Nature gave us another break with the winds and we were able to run all the way to the red can and set up. We got a couple of Kings as we were setting up out in 180FOW, but kept pressing towards the border to see if there was any green water to be found. Once we found that water, our screen lit up with fish and we began working them. While it wasn't fast and furious, we did have a steady pick of Kings and when it was all said & done we had an OK box of fish. Best producers today were a Green Dot Spinny/Siggs BVGG (that rig has been HOTTT for us) and a JV Cheerleader fished off of divers set way deep - 300-400; out on a 2.5 setting. We also took shots on a DW SS Die Hard and our Midnight Special spoons fished off riggers down 45, 80, and 125' down. Best speeds for us were 2.7-2.9mph. After a few hours of picking on those fish we decided to slide out deeper to check what was going on out there and we were greeted by a big ship that had no intentions of altering his course for our tiny little Penn Yan. I made a hard right and got out of his way, but he sure came close to us - I could have thrown a rock and hit him he was so close! After that excitement we hooked up with and landed a couple more Kings before calling it a day. I managed to shoot some quick videos of the guys landing a few of the fish - here's the links if you want to check them out:

http://qik.com/video/6663056

http://qik.com/video/6661241

http://qik.com/video/6664195

http://qik.com/video/6660710

Now here's the pics:

Back at it again tomorrow, then back home to see my family for the first time in nearly 10 days!

This morning the wind gave us a break and we were able to run down to the Red Can and fish. The East wind we've had for the past few days has pushed all of our water way West of port, so it was nice of Mother Nature to give us a break and let us run this morning. Once we got to our spot and got set up, the rods started popping. Here's a link to a quick video of Jack and Paul after they landed a fast & furious triple hook up :

We primarily worked 120-170FOW and we were fishing 90-120' down today. Spoons were the hot ticket, with the NK WHAT?!?! and the Dreamweaver SS Midnight Special each taking 4 or 5 fish apiece. We also had a couple of good diver combos today - a Green Dot Spinny/Sigg's BVGG and a Green Plaid Pro-Chip/Sigg's Green Hypnotist each took multiple fish. Best speed for us was 2.7mph. All in all a very fun and productive day on the water - certainly more so than yesterday! Here's the pics:

Back out again tomorrow!

What a difference a day makes! Not that yesterday was bad by any means, but Charlie and Bill hit the Lake Ontario King Salmon JACKPOT today. We just wrenched on the fish today - it was incredible by any standards. We set up in 100 FOW and worked from there out to 160FOW as the day progressed. Our best setups were divers out 150 & 175 on a .5 setting and 250 & 275 on a 2.5 pulling a variety of Spinny and Pro-Chip/ fly combos. The Pro-Chip Coyote/Sigg's Green Hypnotist and the Green Dot Spinny/Sigg's Billy V Glow Ghost were definitely top producers today but we also took lots of shots on our old favorites Dalmatian Spinny/Sigg's Blue Dolphin, Green Double Crush Glow Spinny/Sigg's Green Hypnotist, and a Green Pro-Chip/Sigg's Green Apple. Hot spoons included the DW SuperSlim Midnight Special, and an NK THAT spoon fished off of riggers down 75-85 ft. To be honest, the action was so good today that it really didn't seem to matter what we put in the water as long as we had it at the right depth. From the time we got set up till the time we pulled lines Charlie and Bill were HOOKED UP - and I mean we were fighting fish allllllllllllllllll day long!

We saw Jax, Maniac, and Landingzone out there putting the smack down on them today too. It was crazy-good!

Here's a few pics:

We're back out again tomorrow, weather permitting. MAN I LOVE THIS!!!!

Today we pre-fished the Scotty King of the Lake tournament out of Wilson. We had a great day and boxed several big Kings and a bunch of cohos too. Unfortunately the tournament ended up being canceled because we had 'em pretty well dialed in. Our hottest rig was without question a Green Dot Spinny/Sigg's Billy V Glow Ghost combo fished off of our divers out 210'. That rig alone took 4 or 5 Kings. THAT spoon was our best spoon, but the DW Midnight Special was hot too. The fish wanted it fast - 3.0 on our Cannon IntelliTroll. Our best depth of water was 210-240 FOW and we were fishing from 30-120 ft deep for the most part.

Here's a few pics from Friday:

I'd like to thank Kevin Jerge and the folks at the Wilson Boat House for a great event, even though the wind ended up keeping us off of the lake all weekend long. A lot of time and effort went into this event and we look forward to fishing it again next year.

The group of guys that came fishing with me today are some of my favorite people to fish with every year. Dan, Chris and I met 16 years ago while teaching skiing at Greek Peak and we've remained close friends to this day. Dan and I ski together all the time and he's become one of my closest friends. So I was pretty amped to take them and Dan's brother-in-law Steve and nephew Jared out today. We had a 2-3' chop left over from the weekend storm and the water was all riled up but we pretty quickly got into some fast & furious action. Our best rig today was that same Green Dot Spinny/Sigg's Billy V Glow Ghost fished off of our wire divers out 180-240'. We also had a couple of nice Kings take an old favorite of ours - the Dalmatian Spinny/Sigg's Blue Dolphin combo fished off of a 210' diver. The best spoon today was a DW Steelie Dan fished off of a 30' rigger. We found our best action just inside the muddy water and we had a great mix of lakers, cohos, and Kings today. We threw a few small fish back but kept a few for the frying pan too. They wanted it fast again today - 2.8-3.0mph on our Cannon IntelliTroll.

Highlight of the day was easily watching Jared fight his first ever Lake Ontario King and then seeing it come to the net. He worked so hard for this fish and I think that his smile says it all - he's HOOKED!

First weekend all year we've had calm water! And next weekend is beginning to look like another rough one. Ugh!

YT did...I'm sure he'll chime in on them but I know that he loved them last year.

We had a carbon copy of yesterdays wind & waves (virtually NONE! ) and we got to play with a few aggressive Kings, Cohos, and Lake Trout to top it off today. Today the Cohos and Lakers wanted spoons only and the Kings wanted Spinny/Fly combos as well as spoons. Our top spoons were the Northern King THAT spoon and the Dreamweaver Midnight Special. Top attractor combos for us were a Green Dot Spinny/Sigg's Billy V Glow Ghost and a Green Double Crush Glow Spinny/Sigg's Green Hypnotist fly fished off wire divers out 125-150' on a #1 setting. Best depths for us today were 60-80 FOW. Riggers run from 20-60' down took multiple shots each. Nice to boat a few kings in the mid-high teens today!

We had nice flat seas and a very comfortable ride for the entire day and the cooperative Kings, Cohos, and Lake Trout kept us busy most of the day. While it wasn't fast & furious nor did we whack a big King, we did manage a nice mixed box of fish that was very representative of what Lake Ontario has to offer in early May. We worked the inside water for most of the day and found that 60-80 FOW area to hold the most receptive fish. Spoons did most of the damage today and the Dreamweaver SS Midnight Special and the Northern King Gold NBK were our standouts. We also took several cohos on a Candy Corn Kaboom stick bait fished off of a diver. The few bites that we had on attractor/flies came on a Green Double Crush Glow Spinny/Sigg's Billy V Glow Ghost fly fished off of our divers. Riggers down 30-50 ft, divers out from 30-150' on a variety of settings, and a 10 color core all took fish for us. All in all a very fun day!