Yankee Troller

Launch at Wilson and head West or you can shoot right out of the Niagara River and be on top of it in a mile or two. There are a few places on RT18 near Wilson to stay, or you can stay in Youngstown. There is a launch right at Fort Niagara if you choose to go out of the river.

Nice fish!

The little Niagara's in the marina had one heck of a meal between your boat and mine.

250lb Power pro....the release will slide right down and the boards will pull better.

Can't beat that! My brother and I started off on Lady O when we were 5 and 6. Now we are ADDICTED! Love to see kids fishing with huge smiles when holding a fish.

Oh, and my bros GF is off limits.....She's not a fan of bear skin chest hair either.....

I guess it's more of a crankbait. You can get them here: http://www.gloutdoors.com/crankbaits.aspx It was just as bad! Amazingly, they were here one day and virtually gone the next! Thanks Ray! I know how much you guys were pulling for him. A lot of people were. No doubt it helped, and the family thanks all of you. He had a blast, and got to catch a few fish. He will see more time on the water in the near future. He will be fishing the invitational with us.

BPS, Cabelas, and Storm all make them too. However, they call them different names.

May 7th - We left the dock at 6:30am and headed out to see what Lake O had to offer up. Fishing reports were spotty. A few kings being taken, but word on the street was that it would be a Coho/Laker bite, and indeed that’s what it was. Although, we set up for Brown Trout first thing, but we quickly pulled off that virtually non-existent bite and headed deeper. The weather was much better after a little rain cell came through, but the gnats became unbearable, and made fishing not seem so fun. Gnats crawling in your ear and up your nose all while swarming your head just took the fun of being out there away. We spent at least an hour cleaning the boat when we got back to the dock, but even as we left the marina Sunday evening reminisce of them were still found on the boat. As we got out deeper the Coho gear went out and we started to pick at the Coho’s. We fished from 100-200’, and at times the screen was unreal. Flat lines with Brad’s Thin Fish seemed to be our hottest bait. But we also took a few off the 5 color cores with Dreamweaver SS Coyote’s. Our riggers and divers were basically dead with the exception of one Lake Trout. We ended the day with a nice box of fish. Sorry for the lack of pictures for this trip, but other than fighting a fish no one wanted to be outside getting swarmed by the gnats. May 8th - Morning Trip - The ‘Ol mans first ride on the new ride! - Uncle Eric picked up my father Sunday morning and brought him down for his maiden voyage on the YT3. Our ladies spent the night with us on the boat, so at 8am we left the dock for what would turn out to be a great morning. We headed a touch West, and decided to set up in shallow and work out deep looking for a few Kings. Our spread consisted of 3 riggers all with sliding cheaters, 2 wire divers, and some short cores fished off our Otter Boats. It didn’t take long and we had our first rigger shot. We had a pair of Dreamweaver Glow Froggy’s down 50’ when we started to hear a reel scream. The ‘Ol man was tied into his first King in quite some time! We would end up boating 5 Kings and a few Coho by 11:30, and we had to head in to pick up our afternoon trip. The Brad’s Thin Fin’s were the ticket again on the surface for those Coho’s, but the Kings would all come from one rigger pulling those Glow Froggy’s. May 8th - Afternoon - We left the dock a little after 1pm. We knew there were some fish out there, but we also realized it was the middle of the day with bright sun shining down on us. Oh, and the Lake was flat as glass too. We would watch the surface temperature get as warm as 56 degrees at one point, but low 50’s were the norm on the surface for most of the day. Below us it was 44-46 degree’s depending on how deep we got. We set up with some Coho gear, and during the middle of the day that saved our butt by giving us some action. The Coho’s were all over that same Brad’s Thin Fin that has been so hot for us. Our guys even had us fillet up one of those Cohos to experience some Lake Ontario Sushi. I may need to keep some Wasabi and Soy Sauce on the boat during future outings. Our box was filling up with Cohos, and at 5pm we decided to pull off them and look for a few Kings. We didn’t leave the Coho bite for long and we were hooked into our first King. Northern King Sea Sick Waddler fished on our 60’ rigger would go on to take 2 of the Kings, and That Dreamweaver Glow Froggy down 50’ would take the third. It was getting late and we needed to clean some fish, so out came the fillet knife. Cleaning fish must attract other fish, because every time we start rods fire. The first rod to go while cleaning fish was that Dreamweaver Glow Froggy. He was a little King, and we put him back to grow up. Right at the end the 300’ Copper would take off pulling a Dreamweaver Spin Doctor/A-TOM-MIK Hypnotist fly. As that fish neared the back of the boat I could tell it wasn’t the color of a King. When it got to the net I could see it was a HUGE Atlantic Salmon. Great end to a good trip!

Sweet fish!

OK guys......we can't have this! The Kings are in Canada! Get a license and head on over! Those fish weighed in at Youngstown were probably caught in Canada! We can't let this happen! Just 3 days left!

Nice ride!

Some great fish there!

Nice job guys!

Great fish!

Nice fish!

Ray, your a goof ball! LOL But we love it! We know going into the season we aren't going to make money tourney fishing. We just love the competition and the commodore. However, another top 5 finish would be a nice addition to the accomplishments. Especially since at this tourney we can only ever put one solid day together.

Well, it was game on this past weekend! The first tourney of the season, which is what we call the “kick off†of Salmon season as Lake Ontario knows it. Each Spring the King of the Lake starts their series in Port Dalhousie around the end of April. We have taken part in this tourney for the last few years, but we could never ever put two solid days together when mother nature allows us to fish the whole tourney. April 29th (Practice/Big Fish Friday) - We started from the Wilson Boatyard a little later than expected all because the team needed a Box of Joe from Dunkin! Let’s just say that even though $15k was on the line this weekend we still go out there just to have a good time with friends and family during tournaments. We dropped in a mile or two East of the Welland Canal and began our practice. We ran a simple 3 rigger, 2 slide diver, 2 short core program pulling all spoons. The water temps were OK, but the water was dirty. We trolled the Welland area for most of the morning, but all we could manage was a few small Lakers, a small Rainbow, a small Atlantic, and a barley legal Chinook. We had some fish under us, but we just couldn’t get a solid King bite going in there. Previous knowledge, and the cold Spring, made our decision around 11am to run West very easy. Oh yeah, and the fact we weren’t doing anything off the Welland helped too. We set down a mile or two West of Port Dalhousie and began trolling West once again. The water was really stained still, but we had a little better temperature. We also had some fish on the screen. We ended up pulling out some Mag Stingers and down went a Gin and Tonic and a Glow Mixed Veggies on the riggers. Shortly there after we were hooked into our first real King! We ended up boxing three good Kings that afternoon and we were back at the dock around 5pm. A long day on the water, but the roominess of our new Trojan made it all that much better! April 30th (Day 1) - We had no other option than to head over to our waypoints from the afternoon before. We blast off and make the short run along with a few other boats. We were happy to see the fleet head East. When we pulled into our area there was about a dozen boats with us. We set lines with the same program and waited. We let that program soak for 30 minutes and then it was time to start switching lures out. One of our team members pulled out a Stinger Black Widow in a Stingray size and put that down on the rigger. It wasn’t long and we were tied into our first King of the morning. We would go on to box out by 8:30 and then pick up one more after that to upgrade us just a little. That Stinger Black Widow went down on another rigger along with our Stinger Sea Sick Waddler and all three riggers would take fish. Our 5 color cores and our slide divers were just dead. It was all riggers for us with the exception of one wire diver bite at the end of the morning bite. We were team number nine so we weighed in fairly quickly and watched as 46 other teams weighed in behind us. At the end of the day we were sitting in 4th place, but I knew it was going to be tough to stay up there. With the top boxes coming from our area, and a screen that wasn’t as good in the afternoon as it was in the morning, I had a funny feeling……. May 1st (Day 1) - My premonition was spot on as we blasted off to the West so did about 2/3’s of the rest of the boats. We settled in on what looked to be combat fishing in front of the Salmon River and began our troll. Before we could get fully set up our wire diver took a shot and we were tied into our first king. This diver had a Stinger Black/Silver w/ a glow cup. We put the first fish in the box and we were pumped. With so much boat traffic, and waypoints from the previous day a little further West we just kept trolling. Bad decision! We should have turned on that fish and worked the area. Well, we would wait almost 2 hours before our next bite, and it would be on that same set-up. After that we went dead for the rest of the day. At the end of the day the early bite in that area was key for boxing out, and we just flat out missed it, and trolled right through it on our way to some waypoints. We weighed in a measly two Chinooks, and fell to 23rd place overall. So, the first tourney is under our belt. We learned a little bit about the new Trojan, and we also did pretty darn good considering we have never “King†fished her before. She ran GREAT all weekend without even a hiccup. We couldn’t be more happy with our decision on this boat, and I am sure there will be many more GREAT days had on her. With that being said we have some great fishing ahead of us. The Kings this year look to be healthy, and boy did a few of them fight like maniacs this weekend. The largest Salmon taken at the tourney was 26 pounds and change, but there were also a lot in the 16-20 pound range as well. Given this cold Winter/Spring you may have to wait a little longer for them to get to the bar, but they will be there soon in great numbers.

Catching them on the beach is one thing. When they go offshore your the man!

Nice job Matt! I'm gonna have to make one of them Summer Rochester BT trips with you.

Sweet! That Brown Trout fishing has been awesome!

He sure is! Wait till he gets that next phone bill! Data charges while roaming aren't cheap.

LOL....not in this tank!

I wish I could get out there right now. There must be a pod of Kings in there. Good job guys!