Yankee Troller

I don't remember passing you guys???

Nice job guys! There must be a pod of Kings out of Sandy. We took one on the way down Saturday. Now I wish we would have turned around and fished the area some more!

With the Spring King of the Lake in Dalhousie just a week away I spent my Easter making sure our tackle was in tourney mode. However, before I spent the whole day down at the Wilson Boatyard a few friends jumped on board to do a little fishing. We pulled away from the dock at 7am and headed East out of the chute. We set up a Brown Trout program, and headed down to the red barn in search mode. The water was complete mud for about a quarter mile, and then it gradually got better. It may still have been a little too dirty, but we spent a few hours in there anyway. Even with the extra dirty water we managed some action in there. We took a few Brown Trout and a few Coho on our troll down and back. Our best sticks where white/chartruse, which we have found to be a great color pattern in that dirty water. Rattlin’ Rogues and Rapala’s in the F7 size took most of the fish. The last Coho of the morning was your typical Coho. We had a red Brad’s Thin Fin down the chute 50’ back. This fish was 12-14†long and when he hit the rod slammed down like a 20lb King just whacked it. It was pretty exciting! We would pull offshore about 9 or 10 o’clock so I could get used to running some wire divers in their new positions on the Trojan, because we set this boat up a little different than the Bayliner. When we hit 40 or 50’ of water the screen jut lit up and it was solid marks all the way out to 80’. We were slapping our Humminbird thinking it was broken, because we never moved a rod trolling through that for an hour! That’s all the time we gave it and it was time to head back to the dock. The rest of the day was spent spooling up our downrigger rods with some fresh McCoy Mean Green fishing line and fluorocarbon, putting twilli-tips on the wire diver rods, spooling up some short cores, putting away the Brown Trout stuff, and a list of other things. It’s off to Dalhousie on Thursday. We are super excited to fish our first tournament of the season. Let’s hope the Kings show up to play with all this unstable/cold weather Mother Nature has thrown at us this Spring.

Nice report!

Thanks guys! Ray....I was on pins and needles the whole way!

Nice job bud!

After a short delay on Friday night Saturday morning rolled around and it was time to head up to Wilson. We pulled out of the Genesee river and found out the East wind from Friday pushed the milk chocolate water right down to Braddocks. When we got to Braddock point we began setting up, but it just wasn’t fishable. The South wind was cranking, so we decided to continue our run West. As we got past Watoma shoal we saw the wind wasn’t affecting the short water and pulled in to fish. I was unable to get 8 rods in the water from the get go. The inside board was loaded with brightly colored stickbaits, and the outside board had some natural colors. We never went shallower than 10’, and hung out in the low to mid teens for most of the trek West to Devils Nose where we would call it a day as far as fishing would go. Water temp was 43 degrees right through that stretch, and the water had plenty of color to it. We hit every cold water species with the exception of an Atlantic Salmon. A few ticks East of Sandy we hooked into another mid teens Brown Trout. It took a Rattlin’ Rogue 150’ on the outside board. Lots of great Brown Trout, a Domestic Rainbow, and even a Lake Trout fell victim to our presentations. Finally, as we pulled up on Devil’s Nose the same Rattlin’ Rogue takes off, and this one was pulling some drag. A few short minutes later, and Melanie is holding onto her first ever Chinook Salmon. We estimated it around 13-15 pounds, and put it back to fight another day just like we did with that bruiser Brown Trout. After we got to Devil’s Nose the wind really started whipping again, and we were all hungry, so it was off to the Black North Inn. We finished the day by pulling into the Wilson Boatyard, and putting the YT3 into it’s home for the next month and a half. What a Spring it’s been! Reports of GREAT fishing up and down the South shore are coming in every day. Let’s hope it continues on for the rest of the season. Next week we are off to Port Dalhouse for the first King of the Lake event. A tourney we ALWAYS look forward to.

Guys....I want to confess......during the 2009 Orleans Pro-Am......we went down to Devil's Nose and picked off two big Lakers to start our box each day of the tourney. The fishing was that bad!!!! LOL A good box was 5 or 6 fish. So those Lakers really helped us out. I have been in denial ever since, but I thank you guys for allowing me to share this with you. To top it off Top Gun won the dang tourney just outside us with KINGS!!! LOL Ask me how crappy of a fisherman I thought I was not even knowing those Kings were there!

Melissa is putting the squeeze on your man cave! LOL

I know Timmie! We'll be in Wilson Saturday. If your around stop by.

Nice job guys! All that matters is you had fun!

Worst case scenario you can get out for an hour or two.....then hang at the dock with the guys and talk about the upcoming season! Either way it gets ya out of the house, but as Glen said SE should be fine.

Ohhhhhh how I've missed you Ray! Welcome back buddy! To clear things up on the whole Scotty/Cannon controversy........what it comes down to is can the thing bring a ball down and will it bring it back up. Scotty makes a bullet proof rigger, and we were very happy with them for the 5 or 6 years we ran them. These new Cannons seem to have really stepped up to the plate, and answered any and all issues people ever had with them. We've ran them twice so far and they are really nice. Time will obviously tell on their durability, but in talking with the people who built them they are very confident in what they have come to the market with in 2011. Johnson Outdoors put A LOT of R&D into these riggers over the past 2 years. With prototype models in some of the guys hands as early as May 2010. To be honest I really like the Big John stuff too! I don't think anyone can go wrong if they stuck to those three brands, but I know of other brands that are stepping up their game as we speak. Vector has some prototype models out there right now that are a "Digi-Troll" type rigger. Heard some good things about them, but not many people have even seen them let alone ran one. It's been an exciting 12 months in the downrigger market, and competition and innovation are only good things!

It's just a little internet humor. Do you really think I would sell all my gear? Or give up trolling? Come on dude........ Oh, and to clear things up we have fished tournaments up and down this lake for 6 or 7 years now, and only resorted to BT once because there was no other alternative (Sodus 2010). Anyone who knows our team knows we would rather bring in 6 kings vs 12 BT. Not to mention BT are a fun fish to catch. They can be very tough to catch let alone land some days. Lakers really aren't hard to catch while trolling. Also, who puts out 600' of wire? For BT's? Again, I'm just busting chops with my BUDDIES on here...lol....if your ever around when I'm around stop by and we can have the Laker debate over a cold one! Lastly, those pros converge on the East end to hammer down on those poor little BT's during tourneys........lol

So what your telling me is if the winning laker is caught on the Yankee Troller 3, you are going to let it go? $20,000 is $20,000 dollars no matter what species. Spring is only 10g's bri, and the only laker that comes aboard YT3 is an accident! Lol [ Post made via Mobile Device ]

Now that's how to catch Lakers! I actually REALLY enjoyed catching them on the lower Niagara with Vince this Winter. Drift fishing for them gives them a fighting chance especially with the lighter gear.

LOL Ahhhhhhh! The day I catch 40 Lakers trolling I'll give up trolling! Kings will be around by the second weekend of the Derby (like always). If you want them during the first weekend buy a Canadian license. We always have our Canadian license for that first weekend. Years like the one we are having can yield some pretty stupid King bites just a few miles over the fence. However, if you want to pump in 40 Lakers a day who am I to judge........ This year it just so happens the KOTL tourney will be held in Canada during the first weekend of the Spring LOC. We are hoping to put the smack down on 20-30 kings a day over there!

Would love to see some pics.....

Anyone who takes grand prize with a laker should be ashamed of themselves, and sell all their fishing gear. [ Post made via Mobile Device ]

NEVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

LMAO!!!! Imagine what you would have seen if you did!

Thanks! [ Post made via Mobile Device ]

I wasn't aware......thanks for the heads up, but to be honest if I didn't know I bet a TON of others don't. I also can't see that on their website....where did you hear of this?

Thanks guys!

Nice Atlantic guys!