Yankee's WHI Report

[Yankee Troller]

We knew going into the biggest tourney on the Great Lakes it would be tough. This would be the first large event that we would fish a charter group in. This group was no stranger to Lake Ontario, and they fished with us last year. They showed up on Thursday morning, so we had two days to whip them into shape.

Thursday & Friday’s Practice - As the week went on the bite got worse and worse. We saw the fish, but they were just inactive. The morning bite on Thursday was better than expected. We boated 9 Chinook Salmon, and a few Coho. Our Dreamweaver Sea Sick Waddler on our Cannon Downrigger down 50-60’ was on fire. We would work 50-100’ of water in the morning, and then slide out to 140-225 in the afternoon. Once we slid out our deep riggers down 150-200’ seemed to be the best, but those fish were few and far between. When they did go it was a flasher/fly combo, or a meat rig.

Saturday’s Tourney - We had a bunch of waypoints to hit up just West of Wilson, and we figured why change our game plan up when it had been netting us 5-9 Chinook a day for the last several days. We started in tight (40’) where we kept seeing the schools of spawning Alewife on our way in every day. We slowly worked out as boats flew by us to their spots.

It didn’t take long and there went the Dreamweaver Sea Sick Waddler on our Cannon out down. We boated that fish, and waited an hour for our next bite. That bite would come on our deep rigger down 175’ with a Stinger Hammertime E-Chip pulling an A-TOM-MIK B-Fly. Another hour went by when the Dreamweaver Hammertime Spin Doctor pulling an A-TOM-MIK Hammer fly took a ride on our 100’ rigger. Half way into the day we were 3 for 3 and I knew it was a tough bite. We hadn’t seen a net fly in any of the boats around us.

I looked at the clients and told them if they could get me one more fish I would guarantee them a top 10 finish. With a few hours left our Cannon out down pulling a white on white meat rig fires 100’ down. We had #4 on for about 5-10 seconds and it pulled off. Nothing anybody could have done would have changed that outcome, but on the way into weigh in I had a sneaky suspicion that fish cost us money.

When the scales closed we missed out on a top ten, and a check, by two positions. A tough one to swallow, but you can’t land every fish you hook. Our guys had a blast, and they were already asking about doing it again next year.

Disclaimer - We only took 3 fish on tourney day, but the guy who lost the one took a beating. He wanted to hold something for the picture. I took anotehr boats fish to fillet up for these guys, so he grabbed one of them.

Fish from the previous two days:

[mattmishler]

Nice job Rich, I see that some Michigan boys "Dan and Mark from Diabolical" came to experience the Lake O tournaments.

[Just Hook'n]

Great to have some Lake Michigan guys experience a tournament on O. Thanks for the information. As always - great job.

[Yankee Troller]

We had 4 teams from Michigan come to fish this event.

Diabolical

Work N Bites

Pole Dancer

Flatout

They called the Wilson Harbor Invitational the Super Bowl of Salmon tournaments on the Great Lakes. All of them spent a week here, and some cashed in on the Spring LOC, or other side bets held during the week. Stay tuned if you are interested in coming over to fish this next year. We are trying to make it worth it for you to spend the week up here.

[JWheeler]

Nice job Captain!! As always....some nice big fat slobs in the mix!