Billy V

Check the Instant fishing reports section. Sounds like Olcott was on fire for Kings today!

Trap Jaw,

It depends entirely on how much needs to be replaced and how big your boat is. It's safe to say that transom and stringer replacement will probably one of the most expensive repair bills that you'll ever have as a boat owner.

Rob,

Give Tim Habecker at Krenzer Marine in Sodus a call. They do nice work. You can reach him at 315-483-6986.

back ttt

Yeah, it's amazing to me how big they both are already! I take tons of pictures of them as well.

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!

A little something I put together from our month down in Wilson:

Check my blog for my impressions of it - we love ours!

http://myblog.billyvsportfishing.com/

I've scanned Dave's response, but I still have a few questions & comments:

1. What does the Pro-AM committee propose for those of us who have made arrangements with our sponsors to get them the exposure we always were able to get them in the past (i.e. naming my team Billy V/Krenzer Marine)? This rule should have been announced last fall - long before deals were struck and promises were made. Having this rule change come out two weeks before the first event is terribly wrong, and the way it came out is even worse. Someone should have notified all past participants last year as soon as the series had finished up. There are some awfully upset companies out there who have stepped up to help individual teams and they were expecting a certain level of exposure as a result. In my case these companies aren't sponsoring the entire series, but by limiting a teams ability to provide their sponsors with the exposure that they've always been able to enjoy this change might have just ruled all of those companies out for future, and perhaps even bigger sponsorships. I've personally been trying to get Cannon downriggers to commit to a major sponsorship for the Pro-Am's for two years now, and getting them to help out my team this year was a step towards that goal. I'm afraid that this new rule has left them with a sour taste in their mouths. I've personally worked all winter long to secure my team's sponsorships and telling me two weeks before the first event that I can't register my team with my major sponsors name as part of my team name significantly undermines all that work that I put in and damages any chance I have at securing those sponsorships again in the future. I'll say it again - This rule should have been announced last fall.

2. What happens to the teams that have to fish on more than one boat for the series? If I fish the West end on my boat, my team name is Billy V. But what happens to my team name, and more importantly my series points if I have to fish on another boat for the East end events? How are we going to track those points? Will those points even transfer over? There are many teams who fish one boat on the West end and another on the East end and I can see this being a huge issue for them.

3. What happens to the teams that have always fished together under the same name regardless of the boat that they're on? For example, Team Screamer has fished these events for years, but this year they had planned to fish them on another boat. Now they can't be Team Screamer any more? Why would we want to ruin the legacy that some of these teams have worked so hard to build? There's a lot of value in some of these team names - they're widely recognized in the fishing industry and arbitrarily forcing them to change their name would greatly diminish the value that those teams bring to our fishery and their sponsors.

I'm all for growing the series, don't get me wrong. But if you're going to make a rule change as big as this, at least give those of us who have worked so hard all winter to secure sponsorships a heads up so that we could have made alternate plans.

ttt

Just read this thread tonight....Yes, I run an 1157C and a 955C. LOVE them both - incredible units and even better customer service. If you have questions about them feel free to PM me and I'll do my best to answer your questions.

Jerry likes those hooks SUPER sharp!! And that was a fuuuuunnn weekend of brown trout fishing!

Do I have to put an ATOMMIK sticker on my boat if you do Tom?

I'd love to see a picture of that 30lb king if you have one - that's a real pig!

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.

I'm pretty sure we have our observer situation resolved. Thanks to all who replied via PM or email!

Our long-time observer just found out he has to be out of town for both of the West-end Pro-Am's this year, so we're looking for an observer. The dates are June 5-6 in Wilson, and June 12-13 at the Oak. The observer is more than welcome to fish with us on the Friday before the event. If you can only do one of the events, that's OK, but we need observers for both.

PM me here or email me at [email protected] for more information.

Not entirely sure yet. There are a couple of Tiara's out there that I like and also a couple of Wellcraft 330 Coastals. I'm going to make some time to look at a few of them soon.

I'm listing my 1990 Penn Yan 295 Prowler for sale. I have my eye on a bigger boat, but this one needs to sell first. I've loved owning this boat, and it will definitely be missed. It's 30'8" LOA, has an 11' beam, and weighs approximately 9,000lbs dry. I've owned it for 3 years and have put a ton of time and money into it - way more than I'll ever get out of it. It's been a fresh-water only boat for all of its life. It is powered by twin 350 Mercruiser Bluewater Inboards with approximately 1,800 hours on each engine. The boat runs strong and the engines compression tested at like-new readings as recently as last summer. Cruise at 2,800 RPM is about 25mph, and it tops out at 38mph. The starboard engine had a new impeller put in it last spring and the engine oil has been changed at 100 hour intervals since I've owned it. I'm anal about maintaining it both mechanically and cosmetically and have spared no expense in doing so. I don't think you'll find a cleaner, better maintained 295 for sale anywhere.

It has a Furuno Radar, Kenwood AM/FM/CD/MP3 Stereo (2008), Kenwood Speakers (2009), Raymarine ST6002 Autopilot (2009), 8 rod rocket launcher, spreader light (new in 2009), 3 bilge pumps (2 of them were new in 2008), raw water wash down pump, stove, fridge, head, sink, shower, shore power, twin 90 gal fuel tanks, cockpit fan, 2 net holders, fresh water holding tank, 4 batteries (3 new in 2009), Ritchie compass, and planer reels. In early 2009 I had the topsides re-gel coated and re-pinstriped by the Watercraft Clinic in Red Creek. There was a slight dis-coloration in the gel coat from the factory and I had the work done to match the hull perfectly. The bottom was completely stripped down to the gel coat and barrier coated and bottom painted last fall. There were no blisters in the bottom.

Here's a few pictures of it:

$39,900

The following list of equipment may be left on the boat for additional cost. Contact me to discuss details.

Humminbird 1157C combo Fish Finder/GPS (2009)

Humminbird 955C NVB (Full Navionics bundle of Gold + and Fishin' Hotspots charts) GPS with XM Satellite Weather (2008)

Humminbird 255 VHF Radio (2008)

Cannon Mag 20 DT Tournament Series Riggers (250fpm) - Qty 3 (2009)

Cannon Dual Axis Downrigger Mount Aluminum Rod Holders - Qty 3 (2010)

Cannon Dual Axis Track System Rod Holders - Qty 6 (2010)

Cannonlink - (2009)

Interlink - (2009)

Minn Kota MK 440 4-Bank On Board Battery Charger (2009)

Minn Kota MK 2 Two-Bank On Board DC Alternator Charger (2009)

Cannon IntelliTroll Speed & Temp Probe (2010)

PM me here, email me at [email protected], or call me at (607)592-9012 for more information, more pictures, or to schedule a time to see the boat.

The water from the Niagara River plume is a pea-green color (like you can see in the picture above). It's warmer than the surrounding water and is nutrient-rich. It's where the fish hang out most of the time and where you want to be if at all possible. The winds affect where that water is every day and some days we need to search for it to find it. Other days its just straight out the front door.

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 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!

The Atlantic weighed 9.5 lbs and was clean as a whistle - just a beautiful fish!

As far as Fair Haven reports go, the guys have been pounding the browns on the shore line when the conditions are right.

Paul, We really enjoyed having you & Jack on board and we'll be sure to save you a date for next May!

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!