Billy V

Welcome Rick! Glad to see a good friend join the board. We look forward to your input!! Can't wait till it's time to get the the Niagara Bar again!!!

Still too quiet in here for my taste! What were your top 5 Flasher/Fly Rigs last season? My Personal Top 5: 1. JV Cheerleader (Grn Pro Chip/Green Krinkle Fly) 2. Hammer Time (White Spin Dr./Hammer Fly) 3. College Tramp (White Pro Chip/White/glo Fly) 4. Siggs Special (Chartreuse Pro Chip/ Holo Hypnotist Fly) 5. Black Death (Black Spin Dr/Black/Glo Fly) Can't wait to see what you guys run differently than me....I'm just looking for a reason to spend more $$$$!!!

It's waaaaayyyyyyy too quiet in here for my taste. So let's talk about your best spoons of the past season. My personal top producers: 1. Hot Rod Habanero 2. Northern King Glow Frog 3. Northern King NBK 4. Hot Rod Lazer Glo Spook 5. Northern King Mulatto I'll be really interested to see what you guys run that's different than me!

Let's see your rides Fellas! Here's my current boat. It's a 24'Penn Yan. I'm looking to buy a bigger boat this spring...hopefully something in the 28-30' range with a 10-11' beam. Bill

Now considering ALL OFFERS. Please email me at [email protected] if you are interested.

I'm already chomping at the bit to get started next year. I have lots of off season projects to do, and plenty of bowhunting and then skiing to do first though. Gotta sell the boat over the winter so I can get into a bigger one...sure am looking forward to a bigger ride!

Jay and I took the boat out for one last quick spin before we put it down for the season. We ran out to 100FOW and ran the probe down to see how much of a change there was from last week. We found 63 degree water all the way down to the bottom. We trolled for probably 20 minutes and saw nothing on the screen, so since we had to pull the boat and put the camper down for the season, we pulled up and came in to start the work day. It's always sad to pull the boat and close up camp. If I didn't have to be in Florida for the next ten days, we'd probably give it one more try next weekend. We had a GREAT season and caught more fish than we ever have before. I'd like to thank all of the members of this forum for their reports over the season. I read all of them, and your reports have helped to make us more successful. I learn something new just about every day from you guys. I hope my reports helped some of you to catch more fish too. I fished with some of the best guys on Lake Ontario this year. Yankee Troller, Maniac, and Runnin Rebel, thanks for having as part of your crew at various times of the year. We fished with lot of new folks this season and made a bunch of new friends. I enjoyed my time on the water with each and every one of you. It's time for me to think about bow season, and then it's ski season, which is my busiest time of year. We'll back on the water out of Shawn's Marina in early April. I already can't wait. I'll be online all winter and look forward to participating in more discussions here with all of you! The Billy V ready to be winterized and stored for the winter. See you in the spring!! Some of our more memorable pics from the season:

The boat is on the trailer, going to be winterized. I'd like it to go before I have to store it. Email me if you're interested.

My crew and I left Shawn's Marina at 6:30 pm yesterday and ran straight out front and set up on 50FOW. Ran the probe down and found 65 degree water top to bottom. No problem, we'll just move deeper to find our temps. Went out to 100 FOW....ran the probe down...65 degrees top to bottom. And so it went fort he entire day. We trolled out as far as 450FOW and found 65 degree water with as much as 200' of cable out. We marked a few fish in the top 150 FOW, and managed to hook up with a few, but what a change from last weekend! Here's the only pic I remembered to take...I was too busy trying to find at least SOME cold water! On shore it was very comfortable, but when we got out further, that strong South wind had the lake whipped up to 3-4'. I talked to another couple of charter boats over the course of the entire day, and every one of them found the same thing. One of them ran out to 600' and said he found some fish & bait at the end of his trip up higher...100' down or so. Unfortunately for all of us, it was 4:00 and he was headed in as he found it. We all found TONS of bait and fish down 220-250', but just couldn't get to them. At one point, I had my dipsys out 450' and 500' in the hopes that I could get some of the occasional fish we marked "only" 150 ft. down to strike. Fish today came on the Hammer Time rig fished off the 130' rigger, and off of a Northern King Green/White superglow prorotype that John asked me to test. That spoon took two hits and was only 50' down. Cool story...I was cleaning the fleas off of a high rigger (they were really bad today) and had just re-set the rod, and had the main line in my hands and was attaching a free-slider to the line when a steelhead hit! Talk about a cool sensation....before I could even let go of the main line he had already come out of the water! I sure hope the wind blows some cold water in before my last trip out next weekend. If you're going out today...head deep...really deep!

Price REDUCED to $20,000!!!

We had a great day...wish I could've gotten out on Sunday, but needed time at home with my wife and kids. Mike, Just say the word and we'll make a plan for next year!

Nice report YT! Welcome to the board...hope to see you here more often!

What a great day! Chrome and Kings all over the place. We found a TON of marks and bait out in 200-240 FOW West of the chute a bit. Good temps down 90-100'. Steelies were taking the Northern King Orange NBK fished as a free slider on rigggers down 65' and 70'. JV Cheerleaders on wire out 300' produced Kings, as did the Hammer Time rig and a white pro-chip/ glow NK fly fished off of the riggers down 90 and 100'. Every set we had down produced fish. I think we ended the day 16 for 23. Most of the kings were fresh and silver, and all of the steelies were gorgeous. Funny thing is, most of the boats were working the inside water, and we heard lots of talk about slow fishing. If I was going out again tomorrow, I'd head straight back to that 200-240 range and work those fish again. Probably the best picture on the FF I've seen all fall. If you can swing it, I'd get up to the lake on Sunday. There are LOTS of fish to be had for those willing to head off shore a bit. Lots of 2 and 3 year old Kings out there too...nice and silver!! Bill

Short report....no pics, sorry forgot the camera. Joe, John, Louie and I got out today for an adventure-filled trip. We moved lots of rods and boated several Kings and a nice Coho. Best spot was off of Ford Shoals in 380-430FOW. Lots of hooks down 100-150' and they were hungry! We snooped around a bit inside and found 65 degree water top to bottom out over 130FOW before heading out...there was nothing on the screen so we kept going. Once we got into the hooks out over 320', the rods started firing. Hot rigs were the JV Cheerleader off the 110' rigger, and the Hammer time off of the 100' rigger. We had just gotten our program dialed and were consistently picking away at them when one of the nastiest storms I've been in in quite a while came through. Lightning, thunder, BIG wind, and HEAVY rains all came through so quick it made my head spin. We quickly pulled up and got out of there...unfortunately, I got completely soaked out in the fury of the storm and ended up killing my 3 week old cell phone...... We made it back to port safely, but that storm made me think that I really want to have radar on my next boat. There were several boats out there and it caught all of us off guard. Looks like the lake is beginning to set back up again, albeit out deeper. Oh..best down speed was 2.50-2.75mph for us. Good luck to those who get out tomorrow..I'm spending the day at home with my family...first full day at home with them in a month or so. Bill _________________

Nice report Empty...thanks for sharing! Word has it that the ice cold water has already left and the lake has begun to set up again! Should be another good weekend!

I know, I know...doesn't make up for the fact that we struggled yesterday. I guess all in all I should be happy with the fact that we pretty much always catch a lot of fish...just not yesterday!

Jay and I met Jeff, Greg, and Colin at 6:00 and waited for the thunderstorms to finish rolling through. We had big southerly winds, but even still it was fairly comfortable, so out we went. But first, we played around for an hour or so in a little spot I know reaaallllyyy close to shore that was loaded with fish, but couldn't get them to go. So we pulled up and ran out to deeper water and set up our King program. We weren't set up more than 15 minutes when the 70'rigger fires. Jeff plays the fish all the way to the back of the boat when all of the sudden the fish decides that it wants to closely inspect our wire rig. So the fish hangs a HARD left at the back of the boat....Round and round the wire rig he goes...where he stops, nobody knows. We tried like mad to untangle the mess, but the fish finally had enough and took my white spinny/hammer fly rig with a quick swipe of his tail. Fish-1, Billy V...zero . We trolled a bit further East since I didn't like the screen we had. I decided to run the shelf just East of port...good decision as we found the fish we had been looking for over the last hour. The 210' wire dipsy fires on our first pass and we have a screamer on...oh, wait a minute, no we don't....threw the hook after a good run. Fish 2, us 0. We made four more passes through our honey hole and hooked up 5 more times. Sometimes it was a quick rip, rip, rip, and others it was a 5 minute fight before we parted ways...but we couldn't get them to stick...sharpened hooks, replaced hooks, tightened releases, cranked down rods...nothing worked. On the last pass through, we FINALLY hook up solidly. Jeff battles and battles this BIG king right to the back of the boat and is within 3 feet of the net when the fish decides that the downrigger cable looks like a good place to hide...SNAP! NOT AGAIN!!!! Another fly donated to the fish Gods..this time we lost a Northern King Green Kryptonite fly. Jay and I are both heartbroken as we watch another slob hang out on top just out of reach as we troll in the opposite direction. I feel for Jeff...I think he found out just how tough these fish are to land today. Fish 7, the Billy V crew-Zero...like I said, everyone got a chance to feel the power and the fury of these fish, but we just couldn't hold onto them. For some reason, we felt the pain of major, major slippage today. I wanted SO BADLY to land a fish for some really quality guys today. These were the kind of guys I just love to have on board. I came away from today feeling supremely disappointed for these guys. The only consolation I had was that at least we put them on some fish. Like my Dad says...sometimes you get the Bear, sometimes the Bear gets you. The Bear ate the Billy V crew today.

:grin: :grin: Thank you!!!! Awesone fun!!!

On Saturday, Dad, Jay and I left Shawn's Marina at 5:00am and set up out in 120FOW. Way too much action to give a play-by-play. We ended up 12 for 22 for the day. Several doubles and a triple today (landed the triple followed immediately by a double...landed them too!). We were joined by Yankee Troller for a few hours Saturday night. He fits in really well with my regular crew...maybe you ought to fish with us more YT! He and I always have a ton of fun together. It was just nice to finally get into some good fish with him on board. Of course, most of the dropped fish came while I was on the rod in the evening..I bet I lost four or five in a row, all after a good fight. I'm sure Yankee will want to point out that our landing percentage was considerably lower than it should have been thanks to me! Hot rigs were a Green Pro-Chip/Green/Glow Northern King fly, a white Spin Dr/ATOMMIK Hammer fly, and a Chartreuse Pro-Chip/Northern King Kryptonite fly. I even had a meat rig fire once. Most fish came down 100-120' out over 130-165 a bit N/E of port. Several kings in the mid 20's, but none bigger than 26#. The wire dipsy rigs were the best producers, and we had them out 310' on a #2, and 330' on a #1.5. Temps were fairly deep and inconsistent. Better than I expected after the wind last week, but not where I'd like to see it at this time of year. We kept a few for the smoker and for friends. On Sunday, I was joined by Charlie and Bill for an outing. We went back out to the area we'd found fish the night before and they were still there. Set up the same program we had the night before and we started hooking up big time. We also suffered from shrinkage big-time! Bill plays a big King for 30 minutes only to have the hook pull out....Charlie has a Black/glo Spin Doc/Northern King glow fly break off...Bill has one break off a Hammer fly....so the story went today. We hooked up a solid 10 times this morning and had several fish on for more than 5 or 10 minutes. It just wasn't Bill or Charlie's day to land fish. I didn't help things when on Bill's last fish of the day I go to net it and get the net stuck on the hook before the fish was in the net. End result: Another lost Northern King Kryptonite fly. My bad. Sorry about that Bill. Wish I had that one to do over again. We ended up going 3 for 10. The guys wanted to take a coulple of fish home, so they kept the steelie and a King. The lake got pretty rough about 2/3 of the way into the trip, but to their credit, they stuck it out and we managed to hook up a few more times as a result. By far the best weekend of King fishing we've had in Fair Haven so far this year.

That was a smokin' hot setup for me this weekend Skeiner!

Three from Fair Haven on the board already! I'll be up there this weekend! http://www.loc.org/derby/leaderboard/currentadult.asp Bill

Any guesses as to what lure the winning 40# King from Fair Haven is going to bite? My guess: Black Double Crush Glow Spin Doc/Black Spook Challenger cut bait rig off a wire dipsy. My biggest fish will come off a Habanero, because that's all I own and all I ever run. Just kidding....I also own some Die Hards....and a bunch of tape! :lol:

That's cool...great way to save gas $$!! No trolling required!!

Already working on it Skeiner!!!!! ;)

That's cool tot see that they're in close already! Must be Salmon season's here now!! Woo Hoo!! Nice fish, great pics! Bill