Billy V

WOW!! We had a great weekend of fishing out of Fair Haven. Two people on board on Saturday and we went 12 for 14 by 11am with a bunch of kings, some cohos and a nice brown. We were fishing a bit east of port in 70-110 FOW down 50-60 ft. Spoons were hot and we took a few on the flasher/flies too. Best spoons for us were the new Northern King gold NBK series in either yellow or green down 50-70 on the Cannon's. The flasher/fly combo they most liked was a Chrome Spin Dr/Siggs Rigs Green Hypnotist fly. On Sunday we got up to a stiff NE wind and waves that were 3-4 feet. We got set up out in 125 FOW and before we could take a breath we had hooked up 5 times. As soon as we boated the last fish we had on, two of the guys on board asked to come back in due to some pretty bad sea-sickness. Bummer to leave a bite that hot, but we had to. The guys looked pretty green. We took them back in and brought the other two guys back out for the remainder of their trip. We ended the day with a nice flurry that put us at 8 for 13 for the day. Same spoons as yesterday and a Dalmatian Spin Dr./Siggs Rigs Blue Dolphin fly on the wire out 210' on a #2 did the trick today. Quite a few of the kings had lamprey marks on them and we boated a couple of big ones on fish that we sent back headless.

3-5's all morning long didn't deter us from getting out there, although it was a bit bumpy at times. We worked really hard for the 9 bites we got. The Sharks with spoons behind them ruled the day, getting bit 6 times. Best spoons were a new Northern King Gold NBK (look for it in next year's Northern King catalog), and a prototype Dreamweaver Super-Glow froggy (I'm told this will also be a 2008 item). Best depths were 60-70' down with 15 foot leads off the Sharks. The best diver depths were 180' out on a 2 setting pulling a green Spin Dr. and a Siggs Rigs Green Hypnotist fly. Biggest fish of the day was only 21#, but we were still smiling...fishing sure beats work! The N/E wind really messed up the water so there really wasn't much of a temp break out there...just lots of water in the 50-60 degree range. If you put in your time and pay close attention to details like down speed, down temp, color selection, and lead lengths, you'll put fish in your boat. Sorry that I don't have any pics. I walked off and left the camera sitting on my kitchen counter. Best of luck to those of you who get out the rest of the weekend. I'm taking a couple of days off to spend some much needed time with my family over the long weekend.

This was Mitch's first-ever Lake Ontario King. The fish weighed in at 18 lbs. He was so stoked on this King that he just had to kiss it for us...whaddya think...is he hooked for life or what??? This fish and Mitch's reaction made my entire weekend!

Yep, he was missing the back half of the gill plate...looked like he had some misfortune at some point and lost it somehow.

I saw that report elsewhere..nice job on changing tactics to put some fish in the boat for those very deserving guys. Last weekend I had just begun pulling gear to head in close to try and put a few browns in the boat when we hit our biggest fish of the weekend out over 550FOW. After we boated it I asked my crew if they wanted to head in for some faster action on browns or if they wanted to stay and grind it out for another king or two. To their credit, they wanted to stay and we ended up boating two more nice kings as a result.

We did weigh it Mike. It was just a hair under 23lbs. We really haven't had the big boys show up yet....hopefully soon though!

Yeah Mike, Siggs Rigs flys have been our #1 go-to set-up for several weeks now. The Blue Dolphin has easily been our number one producer, but the Green Hypnotist and White Crinkle have been very, very good too. And that new Maui fly has been a pleasant surprise this year too.

Nice job Rich. You sure seem to have the spoons dialed in this year.

Water temps are finally beginning to re-stabilize out of Fair Haven, but the fish are still really scattered. We worked from 120-630FOW the past two days. Best screen was in either 510FOW or 140-180FOW, although neither was great looking. We found 40 degree water down 90 ft. this weekend. That Maui Wowie rig took three or four hits this weekend, mostly in the early morning. I remembered to take a picture of it for you guys: That's a blue double crush glow spinny in front of a Siggs Rigs Maui fly. It's a neat looking fly...it's blue with what looks to be some mirage in it. We also had bites on the Dalmatian/Blue Dolphin, the Original Hammer Time, the JV Cheerleader, and on an 8" R&R Salmon Assassin pulling a Siggs Rigs Green Hypnotist fly. We didn't have a single spoon fire for us, although we never ventured in to look for browns. It was a slow pick this weekend, but if you stick to your plan and put in the time, you should be able to put some kings in the boat.

We had a fantastic weekend of fishing out of Fair Haven the past two days. We boated lots of kings, some steelies, and even a laker (I was hoping for a laker-free year too...oh well... :? :?) It was a 100% fly bite for us. Wire divers, riggers and copper down 80-100' all fired multiple times for us. Temps were 80-95' down, and our best down speed was 2.4-2.6mph. Best depths were 250-380FOW. The Siggs Rigs Blue Dolphin behind a Spinny Dalmatian was easily our #1 producer, with a Siggs Green Hypnotist behind a Green Spinny as our second best producer. We ran a new combo (for us anyway) that took multiple fish too. We're calling it the Maui Wowie. It's a blue double crush glow Spinny pulling a Siggs Rigs Maui fly. It's gonna see a lot more time in the water for us this season. I don't have a pic of the combo yet (forgot the camera on Sunday...doh!), but I'll try to snap one soon. These guys had two more from their evening trip that were already in zip-lock baggies before I remembered to take the pic. I didn't do a very good job with the camera this weekend (besides forgetting it on Sunday), we were just busy all day both days in the back of the boat. Fish were a bit East of the chute. When we ventured west, the screen was pretty blank and the rods stopped firing.

Today Dad & I were joined by my sister and her husband for a day of family fun out of Fair Haven. After the blow on Friday, we found the temp break to be a bit deeper than it's been, down at 125 ft. It was a flasher/fly day for us, as the Dalmatian Spin Dr./ Siggs Rigs Blue Dolphin did most of the damage on both the rigger and the wires. We also took hits on a white spinny/white crinkle Siggs fly, and a green spinny/green hypnotist Siggs fly. We had a wicked current to deal with today, and we found it most productive to run just two riggers. Best down speeds for us were 2.4-2.7mph. We had a great day, and it sure was fun to see my brother-in-law hook up with his first-ever King...I think he's hooked! Here's the few that we kept. My brother in-law with the biggest fish of the day for us. There was a ton of bait and lots of marks out over 140-180 FOW, and we took most of our hits down 120-135 on the riggers and with divers out 330-350 on a #2. Good luck to those of you who get out this week...it should be a great week!!

Today I got out with my crew for a day of fun fishing in the area. I can't really go into details due to the upcoming Pro-Am next weekend in Sodus, but let's just say that it was a GREAT day for us. Best lures were mousies, wax worms, and nightcrawlers drifted 7' below a cork bobber....Just kidding :D:D:D.....wish I could say more, but we gotta keep some of our top secret lures & locations to ourselves this week. Here's a shot of the ones we brought home:

I'm in MI visiting my sister who lives in Holland, and today I joined Shane, Roger and crew on the Dreamweaver III as we fished for a few hours out of Ludington this morning. We got into some nice steady steelhead action in the pea-soup fog. Most fish came on cores fished off of inline planers. Best spoons today were the DW Super-Slim Mixed Veggies and a new prototype that the steelhead just loved....hope you're sending some my way soon Shane!! I owe a big THANK YOU to Shane & Roger for their hospitality today. I had a great time, made some new friends and look forward to coming back and fishing with them again someday. You guys have a great fishery here on Lake Michigan. Wish I had more time to explore it, but it's almost time to pack up the family and head back to my home port of Fair Haven on Lake Ontario.

It was bound to happen sooner or later.....the big boys showed up in Fair Haven BIG TIME this weekend. We got out for a couple of hours right smack in the middle of the day today and worked 140-210 FOW. Best screen out there I've seen since last fall! Bait and marks all around it.....and they were hungry. We got bit at 100', 110', 115', 125', and 145'. Best spoons for us were the Northern King Die Hard and the Dreamweaver 42nd spoon. Best flys were the Siggs Rigs Green Hypnotist and Green Dolphin behind a Green Spin Dr. We kept this one after he swallowed the lure so deep that we had to straighten the hook out to get it out of him. Keith is married to my wife's best friend and has heard me talk about this type of fishing for almost 20 years. He's a golfer and never made time to get out with me before. But after his first 20 minute battle with a King, I think he's well on his way to being an ex-golfer! Wish I could get out there again tomorrow. If you have some time, I'd get out there and go after them!!!

Oh, I'm not complaining by any means! I love BT fishing, especially since it's either that or leave the boat at the dock in the spring out of Fair Haven. We've had one of the very best BT seasons I can ever remember and we've thoroughly enjoyed every trip out. Good luck to you if you get out Tom! Mike, you should get yourself out to NY some spring and we'll see what we can do to ease your BT pain!

It's the same old story in Fair Haven....Browns, browns, and more browns!! We fished in 25-60 FOW first thing in the morning and took quite a few healthy browns that averaged 7 lbs or so. Unfortunately, no LOC fish for us today, but we had a lot of fun any way. I was glad to see that none of the fish we boated today had lampreys on them. The browns came on both Dave's KA-BOOM deep shiners and regular shiners in black/silver towed off the boards. We also took browns on the Dreamweaver 42nd spoon fished off the riggers. After a steady morning of browns, we slid out deeper looking for marks. We worked out as far as 250 FOW and finally found an area that held lots of nice hooks and we worked that for a bit and rounded out our day with some chrome & a small king. The king took one of my Hot Rod creations in silver/black/white, and the chromers were all over an R&R watermelon w/grape dots spoon like fat kids on a HoHo. Unfortunately the weather rolled in and shut things down for us so we called it a day earlier than we had hoped. It had been a very nice steady pick. It was great to get out and spend some time with a couple of buddies of mine that I don't get to fish with often enough.

OK, we FINALLY got the Scotty's off the boat and outfitted it with some new Cannon's. Now THAT'S how a downrigger is SUPPOSED to look! I'll be adding a new Depth Raider soon...

Thanks Laker. It's new to me. She's a 1990.

Thanks Bob. Those things are sooooo FAST its crazy. And they start & stop a lot smoother than the Scottys do, so they're nowhere near as jumpy. They take up less room than the Scotty's do too. I feel like I have a bigger boat now!!

We got out for a few hours yesterday before we got to work on putting the new Cannons on the boat. We set up out in 200FOW looking for Kings and started our troll out deeper hoping to find a temperature break. We trolled all the way out to 500FOW and didn't see much on the screen that was exciting us. So we picked up and ran back into 250FOW. Once we got set back up we started to see some occasional nice hooks down 50-60' or so along with some smaller hooks up higher. We immediately hooked up with a steelie that came on a flatline pulling a J-9 Rapala GFR. After that we had a BIG rip on the wire rig set out 150', but I wasnt able to land the fish. It was nice to have a major on, even if we ended up losing it! That fish hit a Siggs Rigs Die Hard/Habanero flasher/fly combo. I thought for sure I was gonna have a picture for the photo contest!! Its only a matter of a few more weeks and it'll be full-on King season in Fair Haven, and I can't wait. After that we managed another smaller king on a Northern King Habanero spoon fished off a rigger down 25' and my wife landed a nice brown that came off of a 2 color core pulling a Dreamweaver Coyote Ugly spoon. My wife used to fish with me a lot more often, but since the kids came she hasn't been out with us all that much, so it was was nice to see her fighting a fish again. Now that the kids are getting a bit older and we can bring them out with us, I'm hoping she joins us more often. My wife and my first mate Jay with the brown. Jay had knee surgery earlier this year, and today was his first day back on the boat after a month-long hiatus to get his knee well. Sure am glad to have him back! After that, we headed in and got down to business on the riggers. It only took us a couple of hours to get the new riggers installed. I think they look awesome, and boy, are they FAST! We had a great day in Fair Haven yesterday. Even slow days like this are a ton of fun for me! I'll be traveling for business over the next couple of weeks, so it'll be a bit before I'm able to report again. I'll be following your reports and living vacariously through them until I'm able to get back out again! Best of luck to those of you who are able to get out.

Welcome Dick! We look forward to your participation.

The fishing out of Fair Haven continues to be really good. I spent Saturday in town with my family getting the camper set up for the season and doing lots of little projects on the boat like oiling the teak and FINALLY organizing the cuddy cabin. I needed a day to take care of those things that have been hanging over my head since the beginning of the season. While at the dock working on the boat I heard of a few Kings taken on Saturday morning with one or two 20+ lb fish reported. Needless to say, I was stoked to get out on Sunday! On Sunday, we headed out in search of browns, and man did we find them. We worked a great piece of water and had fast action all morning long. Of course I forgot the camera on Sunday, so I have no pics from the water. We had fish take KA-BOOM Shiners in fire red and firetiger off of the boards, and our hot spoons for the day were the Dreamweaver 42nd spoon, and their new NBK. 2 colors cores pulling DW spoons took quite a few hits as well. We were working 20-35 FOW and we found the fish from the surface down to 15 feet. Best speed for us was a quick 2.7mph down speed. We found a better class of browns overall than we'd been seeing all spring. Most fish were 5-6 lbs. On Monday, we set up over the same piece of water and immediately hooked up. For the first 45 minutes or so it was all we could do to keep our rods in the water. We were running the same spoons & sticks as the day before. Big difference was the sun. On Sunday, it was cloudy all morning and we had constant action. But as soon as the sun came up on Monday, the browns shut right down. We left our honey hole at about 6:30 and began a troll out to deeper water. We changed over to a deeper water program and were rewarded with several kings, cohos, and steelies. Again the hot ticket was that DW 42nd spoon fished off the riggers. All the fish came in the top 40' of water, with the majority of them coming in the top 25ft. Best depth for us was 100-120FOW. The chromers were in the mood for Smithwick, KA-BOOM, and Rapala sticks as long as they had orange on them. I ran a few flasher/fly rigs, but it was definitely a spoon bite for us. Biggest fish was just under 10lbs, but it won't be long now before the big boys start showing up. We had a fantastic weekend on the water in Fair Haven. I was very pleased to see that even though we're in that transition period before the Kings really start showing up that the fishing remains excellent. Here's a few pics from the day:

We got the new name on it yesterday and had our re-naming ceremony. I've also replaced the lexan rod holders with new Traxstech aluminum holders. Just about all that's left to do equipment-wise is to replace those downriggers. The new Cannon's have been on back-order but are supposed to ship today.

I have two sections of 48" brand-new still in the box Traxstech (formerly Pursuit) track. I was going to use the track on the boat I had originally intended to buy, but that deal fell through. I don't need it on my new boat. The 48" sections sell for $84 each through Traxstech. These are the standard silver finish. I'll let these sections go for $75 each. Prefer local pick-up, but will ship if need be. Buyer will need to pay for all shipping charges. PM me or email me at [email protected] if you're interested.

Nice Job Tom!! Thanks for the report.