Yankee Troller

Sunday 6/24 - Today was one of our last days off until mid September, so we took this opportunity to grab the old man, and some friends and go have a relaxing day of derby fishing. We left the dock around 5:30/6 o’clock, and motored down to the ladders. The intention today was to scrape kings off the bottom in 100-150’ of water looking for a derby leaderboard fish. The picture got better the further East we trolled. by the end of the day the best picture was from the Glass House to Devils Nose. We ran our three Cannon DT10’s pulling meat and flies, two wire divers pulling flies, and three coppers (300, 400, 500) pulling meat and spoons. The water got colder as we trolled East, and when it was ideal the screen lit up. Big Kings were hanging in the lower third of the water column. Our downriggers took some nice fish on meat, but it just wasn’t grabbing as many as we’d liked, so we pulled the meat on them and sent down 10†Dreamweaver Spin Doctors with an A-TOM-MIK B Fly and a Hoss Fly and started to light up the big guys. Our divers were taking whacks with green chips and A-TOM-MIK green crinkles, a Dreamweaver clear green dot Spin Doctor pulling an A-TOM-MIK Hammer Lime Live, and a Dreamweaver Green edge Spin Doctor pulling an A-TOM-MIK Pro Am. Lastly, The long coppers had a pretty good bite going on with meat. We took some really nice fish. The biggest Salmon to hit the deck was 27lbs. Our catch consisted of a nice mixed bag of fish. We landed 15 Salmon (all year classes), two Lake Trout, a few Steelhead, and a beautiful 11lb Brown Trout. It was a very relaxing day with a nice lunch afterwards at the Black North Inn. Currently, our fish is in 6th place, but I don’t see it staying in the top 20 by the end of the Summer derby. Tripled on sharks! Check out this guy!

Saturday 6/23 - Started back up with charters after a long three week tournament schedule, and it felt much more relaxing. We scouted Friday night on a friends boat and destroyed the 2yr olds in 200’ of water, so that was our game plan for this morning. We left the dock a little after 6am and headed NE. The flats was where we saw our best picture the night before. We set up short of there and trolled into it. We set out our three Cannon DT10’s with spoons and sliders, four wire divers pulling flasher/fly combos, and two coppers. Our Cannons were down 65’ to 120’, our wires were out 225-325, and we ran a three and a four hundred copper first thing. We sat for a little while looking for that first bite. Boy was this slow morning unexpected after pounding on two year olds the night before. Talking with a few other captains it was obvious it wasn’t our program as many were struggling. However, as the day would go on the bite would pick up, and make up for the slow morning. Northern King Copper NBK’s and Dreamweaver Lemon Ice were the MVP’s of the day on the downriggers. On the wires the Dreamweaver Gator and 42nd Spin Doctor paired with their respective flies from A-TOM-MIK were good. The 300 copper was quiet for most of the morning until we put out the new Stinger UV Gator, and it became an instant Steelie stomper. The 400 held it’s own throughout the day with a white/green Spin Doctor pulling an A-TOM-MIK Pro Am fly. We never slammed a big guy, but we had a few teenagers, and some really nice Steelies. They got their fish before the end of the day, and left extremely happy! Nick, the little guy in the pictures, wore us out with his questions throughout the day, but you could see how exciting this trip was for him. I look forward to seeing these guys back again soon!

4c"s marina has non-ethanol gas. Not sure you'll find a roadie with it around there.

He's from PA......

I received some from Bfuller, and they look great! I am going to get them wet this weekend. His paint jobs look incredible, and I think he is one of the few that may be able to come up with some really nice color combos. He seems to be very open minded. I also had an order into DW since late Winter, and they are finally here. Captains Cove has them, but most are sold. I was in there last night, and saw half a dozen on the shelf. Fat Nancy's is supposed to be receiving some also. I checked yesterday and they hadn't received them yet. If you local shop wants them the DW code is 518 for the silver back, and 2518 for the gold back. Check them out....they look awesome!

It's all there ray. Lol [ Post made via Android ]

Tyeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Sweet man! I'm kinda glad tourneys are done, and I can get back to chartering this weekend. The Oak is no joke! I hope your happy with your move.

We bought too much and it has been sitting in a cabinet on our boat for a two years. Don't need it, and want to unload it. American Fishing Wire Surstrand is the brand. You can find it here - http://www.americanfishingwire.com/surfstrand.asp Retail on the web looks to be $150 plus shipping. Will let it go for $100 picked up in Rochester or at the Oak, or buyer pays shipping.

You have no clue! If I still had a trailerable boat that's where I'd be going for the next few weeks!

LOL

LOL....yup....that was the year we had a teenager flop iout of our cooler on day 1 and go back to swimming. We could only weigh in 11 on day 1. I'm not taking anything from Pete. He's a friend. He worked hard, and deserved the win! However, those .22 ounces are just so tight. You should have seen his face when Yvan and i went up to him after weigh in and said we were doing a re-weigh.....LMAO

No water allowed in the cooler. Dry coolers only. So just block ice. Trust me....it's still stinging!

Friday Practice - Unlike many events we fish this one was only going to allow us one day of pre-fishing. Vacation time for many of us is running low as more and more tournaments are popping up all over Lake Ontario. This really isn't a bad thing either because Lake Ontario has a great fishery! A good friend of mine gave us some starting points since most of this water is very new to all of us. Our observer Jim (who we found on Spoonpullers) also fished with us during practice, and he was very knowledgeable of the area. We started right out front Friday morning because on the way in Thursday evening we saw a ton of bait out there, and we took a nice low 20's King Salmon right before it got dark. It wasn't long and we had those A-TOM-MIK flies fooling fish into taking our rigs. We fished flasher/fly combos on all three of our Cannon DT10's, and also behind our divers. We ran three coppers anywhere from 300-600 depending on how much water we were over. All of them smoked fish. These rods were loaded with meat behind big paddles. We were surprised at the class of fish we were on, and the fact we had very little pressure around us. As we trolled East our observer Jim told us we were getting close to a "dead zone." We joked about it at first, and then a triple on big Lake Ontario King Salmon happened! However, after that we would rot for the next hour. OK, so Jim was right... We picked up and ran 5 miles East to the Nuke plant. We set down, and as fast as we got the rods out more big Lake Ontario King Salmon were ripping our gear apart. We worked 90-200' of water picking away at some real nice fish, but we were still looking for that Tyee! Closest we came was 27lbs. After beating up on those fish a little and creating an area filled with waypoints we figured we had better go check out from the filtration plant and West. We picked up our gear and headed down there. When we sat down the bait on that piece of structure was more than we'd seen in a long time. It was actually comical. We had 30 minutes to fish, and it wasn't long before we were doubled once again. We noted that the picture was a lot better in our last spot, but we also saw that out presentation had to compete with the real food. Sometimes that's a bad thing. What we fished over! Saturday Tourney Day - We left the harbor and headed about 5 miles East to an area we had littered with waypoints from the day before. The picture was not there, but we sat down and began to fish it anyway. Our first bite took almost 30 minutes, but it was a good one! We picked away at a few fish, but it just wasn't happening. Two of the fish were real nice ones, and they ended up being part of our six fish box, but we knew we had to make moves. When we set lines we put flasher/fly combos on all three Cannon DT10's, and behind our divers. We let out one copper with meat, and once we were into our day we yanked a rigger and put out a second copper with meat. About 9:30 we picked gear and ran to the West waypoints. We set down and people were cranking in fish all around us. It wasn't long and we were doing the same. The amount of fish coming over the gunnel of our boat was hysterical, and tossing back 20-23lb Chinook Salmon because they were too small was even more hysterical. We were all having a great time even with five big egos on the boat for this event. We came close to our first Tyee of the year weighing just under 30lbs. Our 500 and 600 coppers were smoking as long as we could get them back in after they took a fish, and our two riggers were on fire as well. We fished 80-130' down on them, and put our wires in the same zone. In the morning white/green paddles were good and as the sun came up it was chrome/green paddles. The A-TOM-MIK flies that worked best were various Hammer patterns, Hypnotist, Ultra Green Glow, Sweet Peas, and Pro Ams. We knew we had a good box with about a 25lb average, but we knew a lot of people were catching fish. We were one of the first teams to weigh in, and when our fish hit the scales we had 153 pound with six fish. We were in first for a short while before team Vision Quest came through and beat us by .22 ounces. That stung a lot, but we figured we still had at least a top 5 box given the amount of 130lb boxes being weighed in. Towards the end of weigh in team Get It Wet puts their fish on the scales and beats our box by .14 ounces. Another kick in the family jewels! When it was all over we took third place, and ahead of 4th by about 4lbs. The three of us sat atop the leaderboard separated by ounces. That was the closest we've ever come to $25,000. I would like to thank my brother Craig, Casey Prisco, Captain Chris Lopresti, and Captain Andy Bliss for a great weekend. We laughed more than anyone should, and we butted heads as was to be expected. However, we got the job done, and that's what matters at the end of the day. We lost 4 fish on tourney day and probably put 35 in the boat. A stellar day by anyone's standards. Congrats to Pete Alex and team on a great win.

That's great! I took one in my Kayak a few years back when the Salmon started running Sandy Creek. It pulled me around pretty good. I could only imagine what a fresh Lake King would be able to do.

Maybe this thread will make his head big enough it will explode........Then we have no worries.....I got dibs on his boat!

I plan on it next season. Already warned the wife... Let me know. We could use you for both West end events. [ Post made via Android ]

No, but for a price we can wipe out his spread so we all have a chance........for the guys on here with no sense of humor I'm kidding!

Yes it is! LOL

Thursday Practice - We strolled out of the harbor a little late due to some good eats at the 4C's cafe, and catching up with the old timers while drinking coffee. By the time we broke the piers it was after 7:30am. We planned to fish East, so we ran out to 50' of water and pointed it NE while we set up. We got tipped off the night before about some nice Brown Trout, so we kept that in the back of our heads as we searched the inside waters for any signs of Kings. As we zigged and zagged out to 150' and back in we remembered that tip on the Brown Trout. So, we changed up our program a little bit and deployed a few split shot surface lines with some short cores off the Big John Otter Boats, brought our Cannon DT10's up as the bottom got shallower, and our Walker Deeper Divers were parked out 40' on a 3 setting. When we hit that 20-30' of water down by the flats all hell broke loose. We had Brown Trout so aggressive they were hitting sliders on 15-20' riggers, and when they hit our divers and top lines there was more than one occasion when they got totally airborne. These weren't cookie cutter Brown Trout either. The average fish was 10lbs, and we lost one behind the boat over 15lbs. Our MVP's on these guys were the new Stinger UV tuxedos. Fat Nancy's had them put on gold blades. The Blue Tuxedo, Yellow Tuxedo, and Green Tuxedo were all taking shots off our Cannons. Thin Fish and stick baits off our short cores and split shot surface lines were also going very consistently. Knowing this is always a tough event we thought we found the ticket, and we were jacked up for Saturday to roll around. We straight lined trolled that program from the Flats to Devils Nose picking fish the whole way down. However, we noticed that the bigger fish were located off the flats. When we got to the nose we pointed it North and tried to find some Salmon, but to no avail. We would head back in to the dock around 2pm with a huge grin on our face. We aren't even close to being good Brown Trout fisherman, but boy was that fun! These weren't the big browns, but this was a double on one rod! Friday Practice - We entered into the Condor Memorial event, so we needed to find three big fish. We didn't want anyone to see us in tight on those BT's, so we went West and fished 100-300 looking for a few Salmon. We didn't take many bites, but we did get our fish we were looking for. Two Salmon and a very nice Steelhead was good enough for 6th place. Our program for the day was our typical program. Our three Cannon DT10s fished with sliders on our Daiwa combos, Two Walker Deeper Divers pulling a combination of spoons and paddles, and then three junk lines (two that were fished off our Big John Otter Boats, and one down the chute). No real MVP's, but for the Steelies the Dreamweaver SS Firecracker and Green Hornet were good, and the Stinger UV Yellow Tuxedo. The Salmon came deep on meat. At the end off the day we slid in to 30' in front of Johnsons Creek to see if we could catch a few BT's, and in 30 minutes we hooked three. However, we noticed the bottom got three degrees warmer. Saturday Day 1 - Pumped up doesn't explain it! We hit the water, and noticed our fish were not in tight. So, we went into search mode. We eventually found them pushed out in 45-50' of water and laying right on the bottom. We threw everything we had at them, but after two and a half hours of nothing we had to abandon Plan A, and we did that very disappointed. We pointed the boat North and put out a High/Low program for Salmon and Steelies. Two of our Cannon DT10's had Daiwa Combos with spoons and sliders, and the third one was buried with meat. We put one diver deep with a paddle/fly combo and the other was kept high for Steelies. We also ran three junk lines. We got on a North/South troll that was pretty good. Most of our bites came on the North troll. Our hot set-up was a Dreamweaver SS Green Eye Ghost fished off our riggers. That took a majority of the fish. Our meat rig took a teenage Salmon down 150', and our 5 color cores did some damage with Dreamweaver SS Firecrackers and Green Hornets. We would box out around noon, and it felt really good. We saw a lot of competitors around us sitting in the backs of their boats, so we though the fishing was tougher than we experienced. When we hit the scales we could see even the teams that didn't box had a few Kings in their catch. That struck us as odd since we struggled to get a decent King program going for three days in a row. We ended the day in 15th overall as we walked away shaking our heads. Sunday Day 2 - We left the dock with a big king program. The plan was to give half the day to just Kings, and if we needed to fill the box with Steelies then so be it. It didn't take long and we were dialing in the program. Our program consisted of deep meat on the corner riggers, Dreamweaver SS Firecracker and Green Hornet on the center rigger held high for Steelies, Walker Deeper Divers on a 2 setting out 250-325 pulling Spin Doctor/A-TOM-MIK combos, and three junk lines pulling either meat or Spin Doctor/A-TOM-MIK combos. We had a fast morning bite followed by a steady pick after that. Our 125' Cannon and our 600 copper where definitely the MVP's of the day. Both of which were pulling meat. Our 400 copper pulling a white Spin Doctor/A-TOM-MIK White Mirage Shred took some shots as did a Black and Dew Spin Doctor/A-TOM-MIK Live TG behind our Walker Deeper Diver. By 10:30/11am we were boxed out with what we thought was a great tourney box. We estimated 130lbs, and it consisted of 2 Coho, 1 Steelie, and 9 Kings. The final weight ended up being 120lbs for our 12 fish. That box was good enough to take 6th place for the Day 2 Classic box, 7th, for Day 2 Trophy Box, and it jumped us up from 15th place to 5th place overall.

Here is a place that sells them - http://calumetmarine.3dcartstores.com/S ... _c_21.html

Thursday Practice - We knew fishing had been getting tougher and tougher with the Lake transition settling in a little bit earlier than in recent years. However, it was to be expected with the weird Winter/Spring we were having. For the last few weeks we had a very productive surface program going, so we wanted to expand on that because we knew getting your 12 fish was going to be key in this event. The plan was to fish out to the boarder and then head towards the NW corner. Our program consisted of 4 lines off our Big John Otter Boats. Two of those lines were flat lines pulling split shot spoons or Brads Thin Fish, and the other two were two and three color cores pulling various spoons. We ran two Walker Deeper Divers on a 3 setting off our wire rods out anywhere from 50-125’. Lastly, our Cannon DT10’s were all put into action fished in the top 50’ with sliders attached to our Daiwa combos. We never turned on any fish, or pod of fish for that matter. The further out we got the better the class of Steelies we caught. It was an AMAZING day of steelhead fishing. These fish were in the mood to dance, and that’s what they did. Seeing 8-12lb Steelhead grab some air is a majestic sight to say the least. We felt really good about this program going into the event, and getting 12 would be a non-issue. Our HOT spoons seemed to be Dreamweaver SS’s in Gold Watermelon, Firecracker, Monkey Puke, Gold Get-R Done, and Green Sparkle. Our MVPs were Dreamweaver SS’s in Glow Corn and Green Hornet, and a new Stinger UV Orange Tuxedo on a gold blank. Friday Practice - Let’s just call it a blow day! We tried to fish it, but there comes a point where it isn’t fun. Even in a big boat! Saturday Day 1 - Blow day again. I give the Tourney committee a hand for sticking to a rule they created, and one that I think is about as fair as you can get. Sunday Day 2 - It was a go in the morning after two long days of sitting on the dock. 15 minutes before go time we pulled up the temperature map for the Lake. We knew the Lake had been iced with the winds from the previous two days, so we wanted to see where the warmest water was. We found some 52 degree water a touch East of Olcott way offshore, so that’s where we headed. We found the water from the map, and it was game on. Our program again consisted of our three Cannon DT10’s that we fished in the top 50’ with sliding cheaters on our Daiwa combos. We had two Walker Deeper Divers in the water on 3 settings out 50-125’ pulling Dreamweaver SS’s, and short cores off our Big John Otter Boats. By the end of the day 5 color cores off the Otter Boats would be our hot set-up. Some of the same spoons mentioned above continued to be good for us, but under those cloudy skies I knew it was time to break out the Dreamweaver Green Eye Ghost, and that spoon took a few fish for us like it always does under cloudy conditions. We had a pretty good morning going, and we worked some waypoints when we caught fish. At one point boxing out wasn’t a concern, but by noon we knew it probably wouldn’t happen. We ended up boxing seven fish by 1:30pm, lost five keeper fish, and tossed back five short fish. We knew fishing was tough for most, so we went to weigh in with mixed feelings about how we did. Once the scales settled we were knocked out of the top 10 for the Classic box, but our class of Steelhead was a good one, and it kept us in the top ten for the Trophy box. Looking back I think we fished the spot out, and we should have ventured out to find more fish. I say this because after a few hours of no bites we decided to head it SW back to port for 30 minutes on troll, and that’s when we banged number seven. Either way it was a fun event even though it was a one day tourney.

I'm waiting on a response back from him about how you guys can get some.

Here is his response - "Yes we are and have some on hand, just been too busy to pursue any kind of sales." I'm going to see how he wants to go about selling the ones he has. I have direct contact info, but I'm not sure he wants is a bunch of fisherman calling him randomly. I believe he runs a plastic injection molding company, and being a fisherman he wanted something to do exactly what you guys are looking for. Give me a few more days to find out how he wants to handle anyone who might be interested in buying some. I'm leaving today to begin practice for the Orleans event, so I might not get an update until Sunday or Monday.

Bob - Biggest 3 fish?