Yankee Troller

Yepperrs

I know Bill Ruth has been running it for 2 years, and we have been running it since this Spring. We had 1 issue with ours, and it turned out to be coasted cable issues. New cable was put on, and the problem went away.

Good seeing you as always Ray!

Anyone got any good info from the last week?

Having a good time is what these things are all about! To top it off you have a new fishing friend!

LOL....OK....so my brother buys this ugly paddle at Fat Nancy's tackle shop while we we're down East. Its a white e-chip spray painted yellow on each side with crushed glow on one side and mtn dew tape on the other. He put an A-TOM-MIK shredded Big Fin Glow behind it, and that's what the Laker took off the 300 copper over 140fow. I don't know who is worse him or my GF with these freakin' combos!!!!! Thanks Matt.....I wanted to shoot the breeze with you, but you looked freakin' grumpy, and you left early. Now I know you were on zero sleep. I'd be the same way dude. Yeah, he thinks he can still do it all! In a way it was nice our charter had to bail so the old man could fish this with us. Brucey.....I fished a Walleye tourney fathers day weekend, and now Lakers fight so much better! I'll never complain about a Laker again.....well, I'll try not to.

We moved the boat down to Sandy Creek on Friday night. We just got back from the East end tourney’s last week which meant we haven’t wet a line on the West end in about a month. We’ve heard how good the fishing has been, so we were eager to experience it. We broke the pier head around 5:30am and headed straight out and set down in 80’ of water. We put out a similar spread to the one we always use. On our Cannon DT-10’s we put down a Northern King Sea Sick Waddler, a Moonshine Carbon 14, and a Dreamweaver Glow Frog SS. The temp break was down about 50’ where there was anywhere from a 10-15 degree break that went from the upper 60’s to the 40’s. Our 50’ rigger was pulling Brown Trout and Rainbows on the Glow Frog. The 70’ rigger was our HOT king rigger with the Sea Sick Waddler, which also took our biggest King which weighed in about 20 pounds. Lastly, the 90’ rigger pulling the Carbon 14 worked the marks on or near the bottom in 120-140, but all we could manage were Lake Trout. Our wires pulled Walker Deeper Divers trailed by Smartfish/A-TOM-MIK combos. One was a green dot/Hypnotist, and the other was a wonderbread/Hammer combo. We put a pair of 300’ coppers out on the boards and ran a 400 copper down the chute. The 300’s pulled paddle fly combos, and the 400 pulled some meat. Everything took fish! However the size of the fish was a little bit on the small side for us. We worked the 130-150’ range for a good portion of the morning. We were able to pull one big guy from there, and a MONSTER Lake Trout. This Lake Trout hit a 300 copper pulling an e-chip/A-TOM-MIK combo. When we got it in the boat the scale bounced between 21 and 25 pounds. When it hit the scales at weigh in it came in just under 23 pounds. We had to pull off the smaller fish, and choose to head North and get some more water under us, and when we hit 200+ our bite switched to a strictly King bite, but they were just 2yr olds. The 400 copper was practically dead all day until we got out to the deeper water when it took our third biggest fish of the day. We thought this fish was much bigger than what he turned out to be. We cleared our coppers and wires to turn on this fish in the 4-6’ seas because it was a hot fish. He turned out to be a long slender King in the upper teens, but not the 20+ pounder we were hoping for. About 12:30 the corner rigger fires with a Dreamweaver Gator and is screaming line. He would be our 4th best fish about 15lbs, and would be the last fish we boxed for the tourney. We pulled lines at 1pm because we had enough action and waves for one day. 39 fish hit the floor of the boat, and only 4 fish would be keen enough to get away before they took a ride in our net. Wish we had that kind of batting average over the Pro/Am’s the last few months! In the end we would end up 2nd behind Trout n About, and right above Legacy who finished in third. Those two boats took their Kings to the West off Devils Nose. The organizers put on one heck of a tourney! One of the more fun laid back tourneys we have fished in quite some time! A huge thanks goes out to all of them as I know firsthand how time consuming putting on these events can be.

Our team would like to put in a protest for no prizes given to the biggest Lake Trout. Every other cold water species had a "special" prize. Its like you Sandy guys have no respect for such a wonderful species. That alone may keep us from fishing other Sandy events until the prestigiouness of the Lake Trout is brought back. LOL...just kidding..im gonna take a beating over this fish...... On behalf of the Yankee Troller tourney team we would like to thank the tourney committee and volunteers. This was a fun event, and seeing a lot of the LOU members was a bonus. Cant wait for next year. P.S. In the next 12 months please get your misquito population in check. [ Post made via Android ]

So I drove by Sandy Creek last night, and Phew did it smell like a porta-potti! I don't know what it was, or where it was coming from (prolly a Baha), but I know is it will keep me from sleeping on the boat tonight! BTW......Frenchy......thanks for picking up the phone when I called you last Friday!

Mike.....the fish that hit those smoked them too! Like it aggravated them! Lol Who doesn't love angry mean kings? [ Post made via Android ]

Oswego Pro Am 2011 Thursday Practice -We got on the water about 5:30am and fished from Port Bay to Oswego. We picked fish the whole way down in 125’ to 300’ of water. Our program consisted of 3 coppers, 2 wires pulling Walker Deeper divers trailed by Spin Doctors/Smartfish with A-TOM-MIK flys, and our three Cannon Digi-Trolls. Temp wasn’t as bad as we had seen in recent years, and the break was around the 100’ mark. Our 500, 600, and 700 coppers were probably our best presentations, but no real set-up or combo was greater than another. Nothing really excited us the whole day, but we knew we could head back to the stretch between Port Bay and Fairhaven if we needed to. Friday Practice -We left Oswego marina at 5:30 and wanted to look out the front door to see if the river plume was holding anything. We set-up in 100’ of water and the screen lit up. We ran a very similar program as the day before, and it didn’t take us long to get on the bite. White and chrome paddles seemed to be our best producers pulling A-TOM-MIK Hypnotist, various Hammers, and the Pro-Am flys. We also had the meat rigs going. 11†paddles with twinkie rigs on our deep copper that took some great shots, but we still weren’t able to master hooking up with these fish consistently. Maybe it’s just our meat rigs????? We had a great day fishing right within sight of the Port of Oswego. We never took any monster fish, but we had a good class of “tournament fish,†and plenty of bites. Saturday Day 1 -We started this tournament off just like we ended our last one. With the dropsies! We lost our first four or five screamers. A moonshine Carbon 14 fished on our 300 copper and our wire almost went off instantaneously, and after short battles both of those fish went back to fight another day. The bumpy North winds moved some water around and even though we got the bites our picture from the day before had dissipated. The lost fish seemed to get in our heads this time, and when we saw two very respected captains head for BT land we figured the King bite just wasn’t there. So, we panicked and within the hour made a team decision to head to the buoy line around 10am. We would learn at weigh in that what the North wind actually did was push those fish off-shore, and a little East as those teams seemed to have the better boxes. When we got to the buoy line we saw a small window of BT waters in the 90-110’ range. We ran 2 junk lines, 2 wires with clear Walker Deeper Divers, and lines on our three Digitrolls. We would go on to box half the Brown Trout we would hook up with. The best spoon we found for the Brown Trout on this afternoon was a Stinger NBK. Our cooler was light at weigh in with only 7 fish to show for, and had us sitting in 23rd out of 27 teams. Sunday Day 2 -We decided we were going to fish for Kings when we got out there. We knew we had no shot at winning, but we wanted a shot at a decent finish. We set-up in the same waters as the morning before, and started to pick at fish. Mid way through the day the screen just dried up for us, but we were seeing some higher fish. Past tourney experience told us those were probably Steelhead/Rainbows, and Coho Salmon. Indeed they were as we started to pick away at them until we gave a “cooler nap†to our 12th fish at 1:30pm. Our best spoons were getting eaten on free sliders fished on 100-125 riggers. Dreamweaver Lemon Ice and Michigan Blueberry Super Slims took the last 6 or 8 fish we needed. We knew we didn’t have anything won, but we knew the bite was tougher on day 2 for a lot of people. We still saw them out fishing till the end. Our box of 12 fish bumped us up a little bit,and gave us a finish of 16th. Sodus Pro Am 2011 Thursday Practice -We got a nice early start by leaving the dock at 5:30am. We scanned the inside waters for a little bit checking 50’, 75’, 100’, but the screen just wasn’t there. We slid out to 125’ and figured we would just toss rods down and begin trolling around. Well, the screen in 130-150’ was loaded with bait, and there were some great marks in there too. All we could manage were 4 or 5 small fish as we zigged and zagged West. Our program was one we run in most East end tourneys consisting of three downrigger rods, two wires pulling Walker Deeper Divers, and 3 junk lines which in this case were 300-700’ coppers depending on where we were seeing the fish. We got a call late morning that the bite on the bigger guys was a little deeper than where we were fishing, so we pointed the boat North and headed for that 200-300’ range. When we got out there things started to pick up a little, and we grabbed some nice fish. Friday Practice -We set course for the waypoint from the day before where we doubled up on majors, which was 300’ of water right out front of Hugh’s marina. We stopped short and the picture looked good, but we had a slow pick of fish during the morning hours. Maybe due to the full moon???? As the day progressed our bite got better, and by the end of the day we figured we had upwards of 30-35 bites. However, we continued our 2011 tourney tradition of dropping a lot of nice fish. During the morning white combination SmartFish and Spin Doctors pulling A-TOM-MIK Hypnotist, Sweat Pea’s, various Hammer’s, and Pro Am flies took our fish. We were running the same program as the day before. Our riggers weren’t very productive, our wires were virtually dead until late morning, and our coppers held their own. Our wire divers finally started to rip when we switched our white SmartFish and Spin Doctors out for chrome ones. One diver had a Hawg Wild Spin Doctor pulling an A-TOM-MIK Pro Am, and the other had a Captain Valium combo. Set back anywhere from 225-275’ they quickly became our hot set-ups. We would end up weighing 52lbs for our 3 biggest Salmon in the Captain Jacks big fish event, but we knew we had an area we could go to in the morning with fish and not a lot of pressure. Saturday Day 1 -We headed out to our waypoints from the previous two days, but we decided to start in 130’ and point the boat North. A North/South troll was our best on Friday. We set out the same program consisting of three downriggers, 2 divers, and 3 copper rods. Our team is like a pit crew now. Everyone knows their job on tourney morning, and rods get down and out really fast. It didn’t take long and we were tied into our first screamer on the diver out 225’. A Walker Deeper Diver pulling a White/Green dot SmartFish with an A-TOM-MIK Hypnotist fly. That combo would end up being a very hot rig for us the rest of the tourney. Within minutes of dropping that fish we are doubled on Moonshine Carbon 14’s. One on the wire behind a Walker Deeper Diver, and the other on a 300 copper. Both screamers would go on to fight another day. Coppers and divers were our best rigs, and blew our downrigger action out of the water. At one point we pulled two downriggers to add other lines hoping that might get some junk out of the water, and get that lone rigger firing. We have been running a meat rig on the deep copper, and it seems to always grab some shots throughout the day. Toward the end of our box we put out a trash can dodger with an A-TOM-MIK Hypnotist fly on the wire out 225’. Five minutes later and we are into a big guy. We land him and put the rig back out. Ten minutes later and it’s singing again. We put one down on the other wire, and that took our last fish for the day within minutes. We finished our box around 12:00pm, but the disappointment of losing some big fish was hanging over our heads. After the rest of the Pro boats hit the scales we found ourselves in 5th place our of 40 boats. Not too bad, but the woulda, coulda, shoulda’s just stuck in the back of our head. Sunday Day 2 - We head back out to our waypoints from the previous three days. We put down a similar spread, and within minutes we are hooked up on a screamer with a White/Green dot SmartFish/A-TOM-MIK Hypnotitst on the diver. After about 3 minutes the rod goes limp and we bring back 4†of 50lb flouro leader behind the SamrtFish. We would also go on to dump a nice 20lb King 20’ behind the boat due to fleas bunching up in our twilli-tip. The streak of lost fish has plagued us all year on the tourney trail. We would go on to pick fish throughout the morning, but our screen would dry up by 11:00am. We went into search mode and tried to pick at some high fish like the week before, but they weren’t as cooperative. We would box number 11 at 1:30pm and that would be it for us on day 2. After the fish hit the scales we got bumped down to 8th, which was still a check, but those fleas ended up costing us four spots. The fishing on the East end of the Lake this year was and still is amazing. Probably some of the best we have seen down there in years! As always thanks to everyone who helps put these events on. We couldn’t do it without you! The pics below were part of a double from Thursday’s practice. Those waypoints and that area would provide us with all our fish for the remainder of the tourney.

Yup, what everyone else is saying. Red thread goes towards the hooks.

I would like to add that charter fishing and tourney fishing can be very different styles of fishing. You talk to these full time captains and they keep their expenses as low as possible to turn a profit. That means not always going where the big fish are, and settling for whats closer. When you lessen the amount of fish needed for a "tourney limit" it gives anyone a chance at the top spot. I could see the argument for a weekend warrior having to bring in 12 fish on the pro side of a pro am, but 4 fish for these one day shoot outs really levels the playing field in my opinion. We are in no way a full time operation. We only fish on the weekends unless we are pre-fishing for a tourney. Look at Screamer and what they have done! They don't EVER pre-fish for more than 1 day before each pro am, and they kicked the crap out of full time guys who are prefishing 3 and 4 days before a pro am.

That's all I'm saying!

Nice fish Skiener!

Shotgun...stop by the boat in the upcoming weeks and I can show you them. We will be back to the Oak this coming Sunday night and then leaving for the tightlines on the 28th-1st, but then back for the rest of the season. We are docked right by the 4C's launch.

So my GF's favorite lure is the Dirty White Boy. We were in Warrens bait shop this past weekend while we were partying it up in Sodus for the 4th and she spots the Dirty White Boy paddle. Needless to say I ended up buying it for her hoping to toss it in the box of flashers and never see it again. Well, that didn't happen! Monday morning.....a few hours into the trip.....I hear "I wanna put my flasher down!" After a few minutes of making fun of it I say "Go pick out a fly!" She walks over to the selection and chooses an A-TOM-MIK LBB Live. Basically, a LBB with rainbow rubber in it. I was like "really????" She stuffs it down on the deep rigger. After a half hour and nothing I walk over and say "It's coming off!" I pop the rod and there is a shaker on it. WTF!!!! Down it goes again. 30 minutes later I'm stoked to take it off. I pop the rod, and there is small Laker on it this time. WTF!!! It happened like 2 more times. So now I have to hear how productive that rig is. WOMEN!!! They put together some great outfits, but they should leave the lure combos to us men! LMAO

Nice shop BTW.....we were in there this weekend. Ya got us for some coin!

I know dude...with a GF that lives 2.5 hours away I needed to argue with someone! I was getting bored.

I vote for Jerry to run the Salmon program in Lake Ontario!

No doubt!

The big ones are the ones we hear spooling all these guys! LMAO That's why we never get to see them!

Did you mention the LOC somewhere???? LOL

Are you sure about that Mike? Captain Kevin Davis of Catch the Drift pictured below with one from the Oswego River last fall that was over 40lbs. They are out there!