Yankee Troller

September 6th (Afternoon) - Left the dock at 4pm with not a clue of what happened over the past few days. Shut the boat down in 60’ of water and deployed the spread, which consisted of our three Cannons fished from 30’ to the bottom, two wire divers our 125-150’, a five color and a 10 color. First rigger down was our center rigger with our Moor Sub-Troll on it. I initially had a White on White combo on the rod at first, but before it went down I switched it over to a Moonshine Green Shorts. Parked it at 35’, and went on to setting the other lines. As I was setting the 4th or 5th rod that center rigger takes off for Wilson! We were into our first big guy right of the bat. The rest of the night would be a consistent pick with a fish coming about every 20-30 minutes. We ended up hooking into 8 matures, and we only dropped two. They ranged in size from 17-24lbs. Our MVP for the night was a Stinger Hammertime E-Chip/A-TOM-MIK Hammer fly on our wire divers out 150’ on a 2 setting. The Moonshine Green Shorts took two shots on the 35’ rigger, and a Dreamweaver Oil Slick Spin Doctor/A-TOM-MIK Glow Blue LBB took a fish. Our 5 color and our 10 color never took a shot. We saw some Salmon splashing between us and shore, so they are getting ready! We worked 60-80’ of water the whole night about a mile east and west of port. The screen was hit or miss, but they were in there. I think what helped was limited boat traffic. These guys were ecstatic! For most it was the biggest fish of their life, and also the first Chinook Salmon.

Well your intentions were spot on. Mel took the 2nd place Steelie off Jax's boat West on Saturday. If our ever worried about traffic at the Flats just go past them. It's like there is a wall there. Most guys wont go past them.

Might as well learn from the guy who started the craze! Thanks Jeff.

Down as in a day off? Or just a bad day of fishing? Hahahaha We've been very busy this year. The business really picked up steam. As for a bad day of fishing.....I'd say Labor day was one of our worst days out this season. 7 bites in the morning, and 7 bites in the afternoon. I'm not a huge fan of boat rides.

Don't pop copper out of the release. Reel it in and un-snap it. I have seen pre-rigged set-ups fail for other people. Learn how to set one up and know your hard work won't let you down. I'm not sure where you live, but if your around the Oak area I can show you how to rig one up.

September 3rd (Morning) - A new group joined us today, and they also were in the LOC derby. So, our job was to try and get it done! We found a similar temperature structure in the same area we fished on Sunday. However, the bite just wasn’t there. The fish were there, but not nearly as thick. We worked from the Flats to Eagle Creek for most of the morning. We ran our three Cannons down 50-100’, two wires out 150-300’ on a 1.5 setting, and a pair of coppers. We worked that inside water for most of the morning, but we just couldn’t get them going. At one point we swung out to turn around and tripled in 135’ of water. We would go on to work that waypoint the rest of the morning and pick a fish on every pass. No one bait was “HOT.†An 11†Chrome E-Chip/A-TOM-MIK Hammer fly took a few deep fish down 125’ as did the Stinger Chrome Green Dot E-Chip/A-TOM-MIK Sweet Pea fly. We had a short trip, but ended with just seven bites. Not a stellar day by our standards, but many of the people I talked to had similar results. No derby fish, but we did pop a beautiful 25lb Chinook, which I believe to be a great representation of what Lady O has to offer! September 3rd (Afternoon) - Well, what I thought was a 4hr evening trip turned out to be a 6hr evening trip. After how slow the morning bite was for us there wasn’t a real sense of urgency to get back out there. However, these guys were raring to go, so we hit the water around 2pm and went back to work in the same waters we’ve fished the last few days. We went about 3 hours with not even a touch. I made the decision to point it North so we could grab a few bites from some Steel and immature kings. The Lake was rocking from the NE and as we put some water under us the screen never really got better. Finally, about the 25N line I hear the starboard diver ripping. I grab the rod and handed it off. We fought it for a little while thinking it was a King, and about 40yds behind the boat I see the head of a nice Steelie come up and spit the hook in our face. That fish took a Stinger UV Frog E-Chip/A-TOM-MIK UV190. At the same time we also took a whack on our 125’ downrigger, but when I got there no one was home. The decision was made in my head that at 6:30pm we would be on plane headed back in to those inside waters looking for a few big guys. As I was clearing rods at 6:30 the deep rigger fires with a 2yr old and we had our first fish in the box. That fish came on an 11†E-Chip/A-TOM-MIK Hammer fly down 125’. At this point we were on the 27N line. We ran into 90’ of water and started to throw down rods. I set the probe rigger to get my speed right. As I am at the helm adjusting the speed that rigger fires with a 10†White Dreamweaver Spin Doctor/A-TOM-MIK White Halo fly down 60’. Our first big hits the deck of the boat! We’d go on to take another immature fish and lose another while we fished there in that last hour. It was a tough night for sure and we only would go on to take seven shots. Regardless of the tough bite the clients were very happy.

September 1st - We were joined by some eager clients that just one year ago put a 33.3lb King on the Fall derby leader-baord. It’s kinda hard to top a Lake Ontario beast like that! However, we were going to give it a go and see what Lady O was going to put out in 2012. We left the dock around 5:30am knowing warm water had to of moved in from the NW blow on Friday. We ran to the ladders and set up in 60’ of water. We worked from 60-100’ down to the flats with 74 degrees from top to bottom. Some fish were in there, but that bath water had them turned off. Talking with many boats nobody was moving many rods, and we went the first 2.5 hours with not even a release. This guy was very frustrated! We eventually pulled out a little deeper and found that the 125’-200’ mark was holding fish and bait deep, and we finally broke into the 50’s down there. We would work a NE/SW stretch off the Glass House for the rest of the afternoon, and just pound the snot out of fish. We started with a triple which consisted of a Brown Trout, an Atlantic, and a Coho. After that it was mostly a King bite. Our program was one you hear us talk a lot about. Our three Cannons were set down in the colder water, which was from about 90’ down to the bottom. Our wires were set on a 1.5 out 250-325’, and we ran a copper off each board. We don’t like to run coppers longer than 300’ for our customers, and generally we don’t have to, but with the temps deep and a LOC derby fish on the brain we just had to go longer. Our 500 copper was a smoker with a meat rig. It pulled a froggy paddle with a green mile twinkie, and at times we couldn’t get it down the planer tow line fast enough. Other baits that were working well was a White Spin Doctor pulling an A-TOM-MIK White Halo, and an Oil Slick Spin Doctor pulling an A-TOM-MIK LBB/Glow Blue fly. The Hammertime E-chip with an A-TOM-MIK Glow Blue Hammer took a few also. We finished the day strong after one of the slowest starts I can remember. We love fishing those staggers, but they can be so moody at times. We didn’t get one for the leader-board, but we had tomorrow to give it a go again. September 2nd - We had the same crew, and we took to the same waters as the day before. We ran to the ladders and set up in 60’ of water. When we left the lake on Saturday there was a NE wind. That wind brought back the cold water, and the bite was on! It didn’t take long and we were into them. A similar program from the previous day went down. A Stinger Green Dot Stinger E-Chip/A-TOM-MIK Ultra Green Glow, a Stinger Hammertime E-Chip/A-TOM-MIK B-Fly, and a White 10†Dreamweaver Spin Doctor/A-TOM-MIK White Halo went down on our Cannon downriggers. On the wires we pulled a Legendary Wonderbread SmartFish/A-TOM-MIK Glow Blue Hammer, and a Stinger UV Frog E-Chip/A-TOM-MIK UV190 out 250-275’ on a 1.5 setting. On the coppers we ran a Moonshine Shelly Snack on a 300, and a Dreamweaver Oil Slick Spin Doctor/A-TOM-MIK LBB Glow Blue on the 400. It was a slugfest with fish coming over the back of the boat like mad. We straight lined a troll from the ladders right to Hamlin Beach and picked fish the whole way. When we finally turned around we were fishing with the Sandy Creek boys. The West troll back wasn’t even close to being as productive as the East troll, but we messed with the speed and we were able to pluck a few fish. As the sun got higher we started to take some of the white paddles off and switch to chrome paddles. The Stinger E-Chip/A-TOM-MIK Sweet Pea became a stud as did an 11†Chrome E-Chip pulling an A-TOM-MIK Hammer on our deep rigger. We never were able to get a derby fish for the guys this year, but we did boat our 5th 29lb fish of the season. It was another great day on the water, and you couldn’t ask for better fishing.

Meet me at the dock Sat or Sun after 2pm and I should have some for you. Text me and let me know your coming.

IMHO.......You'll be just fine with the regular ones! We ran them throughout the season. We've only taken 1 fish on them. It happened to be a 31lb fish, but not worth the investment IMHO.

I've wrote things I wished I hadn't in the past too. It happens. Were cool.

Forgot to mention these are for sale b/c new ones will be purchased soon. They are all in perfect working condition.

Yes it was! We finally turned at Hamlin Beach. The bite was good the whole way down. Coming back West sucked.

Didn't know that was you inside of us. I realized that was you when we passed you in the creek. Sounds like you got into them. I think we got close at a point or two on that East troll. Hope we didn't pinch ya inside.

Check out this 29.5lb fish we took on Sunday. Its the one on the right. That fish hasn't eaten in a while! Check out how big his head is and how skinny his body is. He was over 30lbs month ago easily. A lot of the fish we have been cleaning for the last few weeks have had hard/tight stomachs. I am really disappointed that more big Kings weren't taken in the Fall LOC though.

Erie, PA - http://www.tristatetaxidermy.com/

Paul Czarnicki does some amazing work. He isn't cheap, but his work is some of the best I've seen.

Nice! Figures it wold work out that way where you couldn't get any good pics of you holding them.

Rule of thumb at 2.7mph according to Mr. Langtiene Spoon = every 100' out achieves 22' of depth 8" paddle = every 100' out achieves 20' of depth Currents will affect this some, and most times we troll a little slower than this. Especially with flashers in tow.

I guess when a big fish to you is something we toss back to get bigger that's not hard to put a net under. Watch a King going ballistic in the back of the boat during a tourney with $25,000 on the line get into that bad boy!

My favorite color diver!

Heard they are fishing them in 60-110'. Some days West is better than East, and others it's the opposite. Combos are working better than spoons.