Billy V

Saw the Pro Division standings after day 1 listed on attheoak. No amateur standings were listed. Here they are: Onacona Tracker (the Oak) Candy Lord Of The Rings Hot Line Hot Reels Destiny Sunrise II (the Oak) Rebel Maverick (the Oak)

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 in to 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. 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. I'll be traveling for business the next couple of weeks. Good luck to those of you who get out.

I used www.speedysigns.com for the names on my truck and www.myboatsign.com for the names on my boat. I have to admit that speeedysigns came more professionally packaged, although both look nice now that they've been applied.

Tim, We're planning on being out tomorrow morning out of Fair Haven. Feel free to give us a shout on the VHF. What you've heard is pretty much it, except you can also plan on some cohos and steelies out deep. Run your big rigs down looking for the Kings, but also leave some stuff up high for the bonus fish.

Nick, You might also want to try a neutral drop. Dropping the boat out of gear for a second or two might impart enough of a change in the action of your lure to cause the fish to hit. Works well for us, as does the suggestion to make turns.

I didnt chime in on this thread right away because there are just so many different opinions on tackle. But I'll tell you what we do for lake O and hopefully that'll help. We fish out of Fair Haven, so we spend April & May chasing browns in tight to shore. We run 12# mono all spring. I think the swivels we use are size 1's. What you're using on the Finger Lakes will be just fine for browns. Stick baits like Dave's KA-BOOM Shiners, Jr. Thundersticks, and Rapala's in size 9 are our favorite body baits. Spoons in the 28 size are the ticket. Once the Kings start to show up, we switch over to 30# Big Game. Like Shellback said, it'll be more than enough to handle the big boys, plus it keeps the fleas off the lines. I used to run 17# mono on Ontario for Kings and I really resisted switching over to the heavier line, but now that I have I'll never go back. It really does keep the fleas off, and we rarely ever have a fish break us off. And I'm actually catching more fish on the heavier line than I ever did on the lighter line. 28 and Mag size spoons are the norm for Kings. You'll want to run bigger swivels too. We also run a lot of flasher/fly combos in our king spreads. Flashers like the 8" Spin Dr. and the Pro-Chip are very speed tolerant and are deadly when paired with the right fly. I personally am a big fan of the Siggs Rigs flys, but you won't go wrong with ATOMMIK, Howie, or any of the other main manufacturers. A wire dipsy setup would be a great thing to have too. We catch about 50% of our Kings each year off of the wire rods. There are several old threads on the site about how to rig up a wire dipsy and what equipment to use. Hope this helps! Best of luck this season.

Tom, If you're looking for a small place, both Shon's Marina and Screwy Louies have cabins for rent. They sleep 3 or 4 people each. If you're looking for more of a lake cottage, let me know and I'll put you in touch with a real estate agent who'll be able to help you out.

Hope to see some pics of it! Way to go....nice catch.

AWESOME morning out on the lake Tom!! Way to go man. Isn't this the BEST fishery in the world!??!?!?!?

This mornings satellite surface temps:

Can't wait Maniac! We're gonna have a ball!!!

DB, New boat is working out great. The new Cannon's should be here this week I'd guess. We'll get those on ASAP and then we'll be fully rigged and ready for the remainder of the season.

Bro, WAY TO GO!!! Can't believe you almost didn't go fish the event. Like I told you on Friday afternoon, you gotta be in it to win it! Glad my kick in the butt helped you decide to go. You can mail my "Commission" check to me at your convenience.

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. If you have time, I'd say its definitely worth the trip! Here's a few pics from the day:

Congrats Bro! Thanks for the calls over the weekend to keep upupdated. It's tough up in Fair Haven with no internet connection. I'm REALLY happy for you man....you've worked hard and definitely deserve it!

I have a FIsh Hawk on my new boat (it came with it) and I wish like CRAZY that I had my Moor back! My Moor was dead-reliable and went thru one battery per season. I've already been through 4 batteries on my Fish Hawk this season. I've also heard very good things about the Depth Raider.

Thanks for the report DT. And a heartfelt thank you to those guys for taking care of business overseas.

Yeah, you're right. Jerry's two day total of 28 browns wasn't enough to land him in 4th place in the Pro division. I seem to remember that we were LEADING on day one with a box full of 12 browns. And Fishin' Magician didn't make a HUGE comback on day two with a box full of browns to win the whole thing. Nope, browns don't matter in Pro-Am's.

Hey YT, you'd know all about that bass fishing stuff! And someday you're gonna have to learn to fish for browns if you ever plan on winning a Pro-Am....just ask Jerry or the Fishin' Magician team!

One in Rochester: http://www.boattraderonline.com/caddeta ... 414728.htm There's a 215, a 212, a 21 Tournament, and a 213 Torrent on this site: http://home.eznet.net/~pennyan/pypa/fiberglass.htm Good luck with the search. LOVE those Penny's!!

Yeah YT, you're right. I guess the days of 40 browns from this April don't count, huh?

Nice report Erby! Glad you had a good time and slammed 'em! I'm hoping to have my boat down west all spring next year to join in the fun!

Good luck Jerry! Wish I was gonna be out there with you guys. And good luck to all the participants. I look forward to the results.

Thanks SW II! Good luck this weekend.

Sill fishing the Bar. They're having a slower day today. Had a NE wind out there yesterday. Today they're out off the red can in deeper water.