Yankee Troller

Good luck finding temps....The NW wind pushed in a lot of warm water. Not saying you can't target them, but there isn't a thermocline pinning them to a specific depth.

They do look small on those big Ugly sticks and 10'6" Heartlands, but you want the 30s. If you go with the 40s you will want to use backer to get your counter accuracy back, and to take advantage of the high speed retrieve.

I'll try, but there might only be 1 and 2 year old left! They are like vultures when it comes to t-shirts.

You can't go wrong with the Saltist! We've been running them for 5 seasons now, and we've never had one go bad on us. Are the clickers quiet on some? Yes! Are the linecounters annoying to some people? Yes! However, they are a solid built reel with a great drag!

Exactly!

I hope they stick around for a while, but the truth is we will start to see clipped fish leave the area and head East here over the next few weeks.

August 9th - Mark and his gang from Pennsylvania joined us for their second trip this year. There was no shortage of action on this trip, and these guys know how to have fun! We fished the 27-29N lines and 13-14W lines, and the screen was just loaded with bait and fish. Our typical charter spread went out consisting of our three Cannon downriggers, two wire divers, and three coppers. On our Cannons we mixed it up with Familiar bite meat on our deep rigger, and spoons and Dreamweaver/A-TOM-MIK combos on the other two. By the end of the trip is was a spoonless program. Dreamweaver’s green dot Spin Doctor/A-TOM-MIK Ultra Glow Green was a hot rig on the 400’ A-TOM-MIK copper, a white meat paddle with a glow head took a lot of shots on the 500’ A-TOM-MIK copper pulling Familiar Bite meat, and Moonshines Carbon 14 is still producing on the 300’ A-TOM-MIK copper. Wires were hot out 200-250’ on a 2 setting pulling flasher fly combos. In the morning a Wonderbread Smartfish/A-TOM-MIK Glow Blue Hammer was good, but when the sun came up a Dreamweaver Captain Valium Spin Doctor/A-TOM-MIK Mirage Lime Live took over. August 10th - Sam and his gang joined us for a third consecutive season, and this one was by far the best bite they’ve seen! We headed out into a nasty NW wind with waves pushing 4-6’, but hey…..that’s why we have a Trojan 10 Meter! Even in the nastiest of conditions we can still be somewhat comfortable out on Lady O. She calmed down by the end of the trip, which made the day much nicer. We headed out to the 28N line and the 13-14W line, and the fish and bait were still there! Our first 6 Salmon we hooked found a way to throw the hook, and I would have to say it was contributed from two factors. The weather wasn’t helping any, and the fact that the Salmon are transforming into their Fall colors. This makes their mouths harden up, and it can be much harder to get a hook into. Our spread consisted of three Cannon downriggers, two wires, and three A-TOM-MIK coppers (300’, 400’, and a 500’ section). Familiar Bite meat was by far the hot ticket in the morning on our 100’ Cannon downrigger, and our 500’ A-TOM-MIK Copper. However, our hook up percentage was terrible! Our Green Dot Dreamweaver Spin Doctor/A-TOM-MIK Ultra Glow Green fly was smoking on the 400 A-TOM-MIK Copper, and a Stinger 2 Face E-Chip/A-TOM-MIK Hypnotist fly was good on a 85’ Cannon downrigger. August 10th/11th - The DiPrimo gang was back again for their second season, and this was much better than the mid September trip they had last year. It was almost one of this years best trips for big guys and numbers! They fished with us Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning. By the end of the day on Sunday I think every one in the gang was wore out! There were times where as fast as we could get the rig down it would fire! White seemed to be the color of the day! We had an 8†white double crush glow Dreamweaver Spin Doctor/A-TOM-MIK White Halo going really good on a 400’ A-TOM-MIK Copper. We duplicated that on our diver with a 10†version, and that was going out at 250’ on a 2 setting. Our 100’ Cannon downrigger was smoking with a Frog meat rig in the morning, and a Golden Retriever meat rig was good when the sun was high running Familiar Bites herring strips. A Stinger E-Chip 2 Face/A-TOM-MIK Hypnotist was also good on a 90’ Cannon downrigger. Our Grizzly cooler was filled to the brim with tails sticking out well before noon, but we played catch and release until the trip was done. It was that much fun! August 11th - One of my favorite tips of the season! The fishing was HOT right off the bat, and a Father/Son group made some AWESOME memories! We headed back out to the 28N line and a few clicks further West on the 16/17 West line. We put out our typical charter spread, but I think we could have gotten away with a simple five rod spread. Every time we’d hook into a Salmon we’d slow the boat down and let the kids do battle with Lady O’s bounty! Our biggest guy of the trip was a 28lb Chinook, and when it hit the deck the boys eyes lit up! That fish took a White meat rig with Familiar Bite herring strips on our 100’ Cannon downrigger. Our White Dreamweaver Spin Doctor/A-TOM-MIK Halo combos were still taking fish on our 400’ A-TOM-MIK Copper, adn on our 250’ wire. The Stinger 2 Face E-Chip was also good pulling an A-TOM-MIK Hypnotist on a 90’ Cannon downrigger. We kept enough for the grills, and released the younger 2yr old Salmon so they could be caught next year. These boys will be talking about this trip until they come back next year!

We thought you Canadians were better drinkers.....We'll take it easy on you guys next time!

Most of July it was great on a 300 Copper most of the day. We run ours stock.

Summer Tightline Event Practice - We had a great practice! We started on some waypoints from last year to the East of Bluffers, and the fishing was pretty decent. We had good bites around the Frenchmans bay area on both A-TOM-MIK flies and meat rigs. Our program consisted of our three Cannon downriggers, two wire divers, and three coppers. Although it was a 6 rod event the next day we like to run 8 in practice to see which coppers are hot. The 400 and 500 coppers were our best although later in the day we took a fish or two on the 600 copper. Later in the day we headed over to the filtration plant, and before we could get set up our center Cannon downrigger fires. We get that fish in the net and it was a 29lb Chinook. Our personal best for 2013, and the biggest of the day. We went on to pound on a good class of fish the rest of the afternoon, and made the decision to start back there in the morning. Tourney - It started off slow for us! We went two hours in the morning without a bite! We had some issues jockeying for position going into the drop, which cost us some time and put us outside of our waypoints from the day before. Once we did get there the rods started to fly. A Dreamweaver White double crush glow Spin Doctor/A-TOM-MIK White Halo fly was a stud on our 111 Cannon downrigger. It went three times, but we only landed two of those fish. After that everything was a one and done bait. We took 9 matures Salmon bites during the rest of the day, but only boated five of them. Again, half took meat, and the other half came on A-TOM-MIK flies behind Dreamweaver Spin Doctors. In the end it was the first time we fished a Tightline event and left without a check. Tough pill to swallow, but we had a ton of fun. It's also great to see all of our Canadian friends. Also, unofficially Striker leads the King of the Lake points race with 465.15, and we are right behind them with 465.14. It's a close one going into the last event on Labor day weekend.

Yup, and that side bet paid for my gas to come down and play!

I thought it was too! They are great people!