Yankee Troller

That's what we do too!

Saying Humminbird stuff is all screwed up is such a false statement. Yes, we are on the 'Bird staff, so I am a tad bit biased, but I have guys who run Furunos and Raymarine units who bauk at how great the HB units mark on our ride. We don't have any other transducers except a thru-hull on our boat, so interference is never an issue. If you using an old Cannon Probe isn't that a coated cable type probe? I didn't think anyone but Fish Hawk used transducers to grab a signal. I'd be more than willing to help you with your 'Bird to get it running right.

Call me bro!

Also, I have used about every leadcore out there. Mason was the worst experience. Cortlands Kerplunk wasn't bad, and the Suffix was our choice up until Pete Alex came out with the Stealth Core by Woodstock. I spooled this stuff up over the last few weeks, and I am very impressed with it. I know he and a few select others ran this all last year with good results.

Quick tip for the "Willis Knot" Before you slide the mono into the sheath take a pair of side cutters or needle nose with cutters on them, and angle them so they cut the tip of the mono on an angle. It seems to slide down the sheath a lot better. Also, you only need to pinch off about 2.5-3" to tie the Willis when you get good at it.

I would say a majority of these guys are running 12-16lb weights. Balls will work, but torpedos are much more streamlined and will cause less blowback. If you are running a Big John, Cannon, Scotty, or Traxstech/Vectors you will have no issue with an A-TOM-MIK 15lb Torpedo. It wont hurt your riggers one bit. They are also priced right. Sharks are nice, but you need to be a CEO to afford one, and god forbid you lose one! Less blow back means netting fish is much easier! Especially one that comes in green.

Thanks guys! The winners definitely did their own thing, and they deserve the win in a tough event.

Friday - Given the cold water temps we thought it would be best to head West in practice. We fished the Jordan Harbor area, and went 1 for 2 on Kings in the skinny water pulling Reef Runners. On our Cannon downriggers we also took 3 Coho's, a few Lake Trout, and a 12lb drop back Steelhead. Nothing real promising, but after doing a little networking it seemed as if there weren't many Kings being caught. We trolled back to Port Dalhousie and we noticed some great emerald green water right out front, and the temp was a degree or two better than we'd been seeing all day. We made a pass through there and hooked a nice 18lb King. The next pass was good for another Coho. It was time to head in to weigh-in so we couldn't explore that area much more, but it was something we wanted to try first thing in the morning. Saturday - When the horn sounded half the field went right, and the other half went left. Three boats stayed right there and did a slow roll out to the water right out front. We started deploying lines in 20' of water, and worked out. It seemed like it took forever for the first bite, but we were boxed with 5 Salmon by 7:30am, and we continued to pound on them from there on out. Our spread consisted of a spoon on each of our three Cannon downriggers, a wire on each side pulling a spoon, a 5 color core pulling a Dreamweaver green dot Spin Doctor/A-TOM-MIK Ultra Green Glow on an in-line, an in-line pulling a frog colored Reef Runner, and a 10 color down the chute which we shortened/lengthened depending on the depth we were over. Our top spoon in the morning was hands down the Dreamweaver Sea Sick Waddler in a regular size. After the sun came up a Dreamweaver Superglow Hot NBK became the MVP. At one point we tripled on the fly, a spoon, and the Reef Runner landing all three Kings. We worked the 30' range for most of the morning, but as the sun came up our screen looked better in the 40-50' range. This is also when a Stinger Wonderbread got hot on the 10 color core. Heading into weigh-in we thought other teams had to of smashed them too. When we hit the dock it seemed like most teams were reporting tough fishing, and one or two fish in the box. We weighed almost last, and when our fish hit the scales it was 20 pounds heavier than the next team. We were pumped, but with that came nerves, and the knowledge of knowing we were going to be followed Sunday morning. Sunday - We put down the same spread, but this time we had half of the field fishing with us. The screen was just never there like it was on Saturday. We stayed in our water for four hours and went 1 for 2. Around 10 we made the decision to run to the bar and try to catch 4 Coho. We set-up on the Canadian side of the fence, and we weren't able to get our Coho spread out when a board line pops. We were into our first Coho. It took a Challenger Lady Bug, and about a net length away from being netted it does it's death role and cracks us off. We weren't planning on fishing Coho this weekend. We broke out our Brown Trout rods never checking the leaders, or switching out the 8lb Flouro leaders. Lesson learned on being lazy! We gave it the rest of the day, but all we could muster up were a bunch of healthy Steelhead and Lake Trout. In the end it was another tough day for the field, and that Coho wouldn't have done us a darn thing. We had enough weight on Saturday to only drop us to 2nd place, but it was still a great start to the 2013 tourney season! Here was Saturday's box:

Jax turned me onto this and I have to say it is a great method! I have only had 1 salmon go belly up on me from this method, and that's because an older gentleman took a year and a day to bring it in. I am going to get video of this method sometime soon, and share it with you guys.

I have to disagree with this statement. It should read to run your lines as close as possible. Water clarity will dictate the leads you will need to run. Longer in clear water, and shorter in dirty water. We find that 100-150' leads work best most of the time. You want to avoid longer than needed leads. Your hook up percentage starts to tank when your running long mono leads. There is a lot of stretch, and most of the times with L or ML action rods you just cant get the good hook up. BT fishing is really very simple and people tend to over complicate it. First off location is key. Be where the colored water is. Lure selection depends on water clarity. Speed is something we don't spend too much time with. 2.0-2.5 will work most times. Lighter flouro leaders in clear water. That basically sums it up.

We've been running Daiwa Heartland 9' 6" diver rods for copper for about 7/8 years now with great success. They are fairly cheap rods at around $40. You don't need special eyes for the copper. When it comes to reels I only know that a Dawia Saltist 50, and a Penn 340 will fit 300' of copper. I would imagine a Tekota 700 would also, and for Okuma I have no clue. I can tell you that a Daiwa Saltist 50 is fast, needs no drag upgrade, and will last a long time. We've had 300' of copper on them for 5 seasons now, and they only seem to get better with age.