Yankee @ the Oak 7/17 - 7/19

[Yankee Troller]

7/17 Morning - Well, the wind from Wednesday on really screwed up a nice Salmon bite we had last weekend. It was a tough day of fishing for our guys from Ohio. 8 bites, landed 5, and tossed back 2. Fish were scattered. We worked 100' of water out to 300', but there was no real picture.

7/17 Evening - Father, son, and friend from PA joined us for an evening of fishing. They just wanted fish, so down to Devil's Nose we went and pummeled the Lake Trout. They got one at 18lbs, and another around 16lbs with about 20 others. Great back up plan for the following morning if we needed to grab three nice fish for the KOTO #2.

7/18 Morning - Got an early start with our guys from Ohio. We left the dock around 5:30am and shot out to 80' of water. On the set up our 150' wire pulling a Wonderbread Smartfish/A-TOM-MIK Glow Blue Hammer takes off. 20 minutes later we slid the net under a 20lb Salmon. Our bite would end there. We went on to pick up a nice Steelbow and a few skippers, but at 10:30 we made the decision to go grab some Lake Trout. We pounded on them with Hammerhead cowbells until 2pm, but we couldn't do better than a pair around 11.5lbs. I thought 45lbs would win, and we were right at 43lbs. Figured one good Lake Trout and we were golden! I feel I'm usually pretty good at gauging how good or poor the fishing is during an event, but some of these teams really impressed me with the boxes they brought to the scales. We definitely missed the Salmon bite!

7/18 Evening – New guys from West Virginia joined us for some fishing. We explained how tough the bite was with the exception of Lake Trout. Their answer was that they just wanted to catch fish, so down to Devil’s Nose we went. We broke out the Hammerhead cowbells and beat on them for a few hours. We kept a rigger high in case we ran across a Salmon or Steelbow, and that rigger pulling a Moonshine Green Shorts went twice. We landed 1 Salmon and lost another.

7/19 Morning – The West Virginia group joined us again. They had enough of the Lake Trout, so we were hunting for a few nice Salmon. We left eh dock around 5:15am and worked the 100-200’ range, but it was void of fish, and we never took a bite. We slid into 50’ and switched over to a Brown Trout program. The water and conditions looked perfect, but all we scratched out of there were 2 skipper kings and a hit and run.

We got a phone call from another captain that there were some Salmon biting about 12 miles West of port. Hammer down and we were off. On the set-up our 400’ A-TOM-MIK copper pulling a meat rig takes off. 20 minutes later we slid the net under our 2015 boat best. It was a rare 4yr old measuring 41†but only weighing 24.5lbs. We took a Lake Trout and a few Skippers in the mean time when the 100’ Cannon rigger fires with a meat rig. A few minutes later we slipped the net under that teenager. With the father and son having battled a nice Salmon there was one more kid left looking for a mature Salmon. Our 500’ A-TOM-MIK copper fires pulling a meat rig, but after a 100’ run it was gone. We went to the last 5 minutes of the trip. As I was cleaning fish out other 400’ A-TOM-MIK copper pulling a 2 face paddle/A-TOM-MIK Mirage fly takes off. 20 minutes later we scoop up a high teens fish. Mission accomplished!