Yankee Troller

Our ride has never run so saweet since Krenzer took over the 'Ol mans job of mechanic on the Yankee. To boot my bank account has never looked so low either! LMAO Just kidding Tim.

I have a 958 and an 1157. I have updated both of them with the latest software releases, and I can't say enough about them. I have them interlinked, and I am running an Airmar B60 transducer (not a stock humminbird ducer). A buddy of mine has the 788combo unit and he loves his. He hasn't had any issues. I know Billy has run his for the past few seasons without any issues, and now Runnin Rebel and Team Vision Quest is running Hummingbirds. However, Raider your the second or third person I have heard with issues on the 700 series from this forum. I wish it wasn't the case, because mine have been solid.

Good to see you again too! I hope any of my info I gave you on Saturday night didn't hurt you on Sunday. Def. was a more difficult bite and you had to find the colder water to find the fish.

Billy and I saw this too. WE were fishing pretty close to them. We got kicked off channel 11 and 12 on the VHF because we were told they were work stations? Never heard of that, but we were quite suspicions too.

Thanks for that tip. I haven't noticed ANY flea on my coated cable, but when the signal does start to play games with the display units we cover the antenna with a wet paper towel and the signal is strong again. A little tip from Penn Yan 88 last year. We had to do it this weekend as a matter of fact.

Captain Jack's Shootout - 5th Place!!!! We were supposed to have a camera crew on our boat this morning, and what a morning it would have been for some TV footage! We talked with Billy V on our practice strategy, and it was going to happen like this. We were going to run about 5-8 miles West and set up and troll West, and Billy was going to start fishing right out front. I knew from my brother that East was a total dessert when he fished there Thursday. Well, 5:30a.m. came and there was no phone call or no camera crew, so I did what I do best at 5:30a.m. on a tourney day….I left the dock! Phone call came around 6a.m. from the producer saying they found my dock, but I wasn’t there. Too bad, because we had a heck of a day! We ran west until we came about a mile from Pultnyville. We set up in 50-60fow with a Brown Trout program, and it didn’t take long! We ran a 3 downrigger, 2 wire, 2 core set-up with mostly Stingers and DW SS’s. Our BT spoons of the day were a Stinger Blond Chicken Wing, and my favorite BT spoon, the Stinger Penguin. We did a few BT, but not anywhere close to a limit down west. Reports from Billy V were that his BT bite was on FIRE! We kept pushing west and we started to put a little more water under us. My brother put a 300 copper out of the back of the boat with a DW Mag Gator once we cleared the 80’ mark. Once we hit the 95’ mark that rod exploded with a screaming reel. After a few great runs a 20lb King Salmon hit the deck. OK, so we have Kings around do we? Well, the screen lit up at 100’ with bait and fish, so down went the King program. DW Spin Doctors, Legendary SmartFish and A-TOM-MIK flies on every rod but one. It didn’t take long after that and the new DW Spin doctor called the Albino Gator trailed by an A-TOM-MIK Sweat Pea was ripping line off our Daiwa Saltist/Heartland wire combo. I grabbed the rod, but I just held on for the ride until he spit the hook and continued on his way down to the Salmon River for his September ritual. Mean while the 10 color off the board takes a shot, and a 10lb King hits the deck of our boat. We worked this area off the Ginna Nuclear Plant for the rest of the day and even called in Billy V for some action. We would pick through a lot of Lake Trout up to 16lbs that were mixed in with the Kings. They were taking our DW Spin Doctors, Legendary SmartFish and A-TOM-MIK flies very regularly. At one point we had a rigger pop and I was on the rod. It was a Green SmartFish/A-TOM-MIK Hypnotist fly on the main line and a DW SS Shiznit on the slider. WE get the main line to the net and notice a fish was also on the slider. The paddle/fly had a 15†Lake Trout attached to it, and the slider took a 14lb Atlantic Salmon. This Atlantic would be one of the three fish we would weigh in at the Captain Jack’s shootout. The other two fish were the 20lb Salmon and a 16lb Lake Trout, and that would be good enough for a 5th place check! We knew we had a solid plan for the weekend tourney after discussing what we had and what Billy V had. That’s the nice thing about having a GOOD friend to help cover some water in practice. We only get to practice one day before each tourney due to our work schedules. Lake O is too big to cover in one day! Check out some screen shots of the bait off the Power Plant: Sodus Pro/Am 2010 Saturday 7/17 (Day 1) - Our plan was to Brown Trout fish the two points West of Sodus because that is where Billy V SMOKED them on Friday. I told our team if we can get 10 BT then we need to pull off them and go get two big guys. Well, as fast as we could get rods down BT were smoking our offerings. Well getting to 10 BT took us about an hour and a half, and that was with a lot of stockers that had to be put back and a few short fish. Not to mention the few we lost die to the soft mouths that these Trout have. Our program was very simple and consisted of 3 downrigger, 2 wires, and a chute core. On the downriggers we ran cheaters on each rod. On the downriggers we ran a pair of Stinger Penguins, a pair of Blond Chicken Wings (which got changed out to Stinger NBK’s), and a pair of Dreamweaver SS Midnight Specials. On our wires I set up a pair of Walker Deeper Divers in the clear color with a 20lb McCoy fluorocarbon leader. I wanted a stealthy approach for this presentation. We set them out on a 3 setting, and we put a prototype Stinger Stingray Sea Sick Waddler on them. I would say that the wire divers accounted for half of our fish, and even accounted for the larger fish of the day. As I mentioned above the 10th fish hit the deck about 8a.m. and it was decision time. The fish seemed to be getting larger, and our Easterly troll was taking our larger fish. SO 3 out of 5 guys said let’s stay on these fish, and that’s what we did. It didn’t take long and our limit was completed by 8:30a.m and we were headed back to the dock for some breakfast. At noon we were able to put our fish on the scales, and by the end of the day not getting a few kicker fish hurt us, and we were sitting in 15th place. From 15th place to 2nd place was about 10-15 pounds. Well within reach of a good box on day two. Sunday 7/18 (Day 2) – Our plan was to duplicate Saturday’s game plan. Same program and same lure selection. Well, when we set down and started to get lines down we noticed the warm water piled in. We ran our waypoints for an hour and we knew we needed to make a move. We picked up and headed west. We set down a few miles West of where we were and Billy V said he had some fish going. He had cooler temps, and a better screen. Right away we started to hook up. Boat control was critical today as we battled 4-6’ waves, and at time even larger. We started to pick away at the fish, and thought it would not be a problem to box on this day, but the warm water kept piling in and we had to keep trekking West, which was a chore because that meant going into the waves the whole way. Again our stealthy diver set-up was our top producer. By the end of the day we would box 9 fish consisting of 8 BT and 1 small King. We would throw back 4 or 5 stockers and 1 17.5†fish. We would also go on to lose 3 keeper fish mainly due to Mother Nature. Those three lost fish cost us a check, but that is fishing! I’m sure A LOT of people lost fish this weekend. Anyone who knows our team can attest to the fact we DONâ€T BT fish EVER. So, this weekend was a fun weekend because we learned a few things about fishing for these fish. The only time we target BT is when we are banging the shoreline in April. So even though we came short of boxing on day 2 we gained a real confidence boost when it comes to targeting these fish. We would finish the tourney in 13th place, which is 3 places out of the money! It was our first time in 2 weeks and 4 tourneys that we didn’t place with a check. On a side note our 17.04lb Steelhead we put on the Summer LOC derby leaderboard ended up in 2nd place. It now sits at Mountain Man Taxidermy where I will have it mounted.

We use the Scottys and place it a foot down from the knot on the copper. The release doesn't seem to mess with the copper. The next best thing would be the rubber band trick Chromeslayer is talking about.

I'm going to say that it is just a coincidence.

You've had a lot of good advice on this thread. You came to the right place to figure out how to maximize your time on the water. When I know I am fishing King and Kings only my spread consists of 3 riggers and 4 wires. Kings tend to hang down a little deeper, and I know they love our A-TOM-MIK flies. We will put a paddle/fly on each of the corner riggers in King Temps or where we are marking them. On the center rigger we will run spoons cheated in the 55-60 degree water range, or just above our corner riggers. Next our deeper divers are set as follows: .5 and 2 - when we need to get DEEP (All 4 have paddle/flies) 1 and 2.5 - targeting fish in the top 100 (Deep have paddle/flies for Kings and high has spoons for trout and Cohos) 2 and a slide diver on a 4 - Fishing top 50 (All 4 have spoons because of the variety of fish generally) When we are fishing for anything is when we will run the riggers with all spoons and keep the paddles on the wires. This in theory will allow a variety of fish to take our riggers, while the divers target mainly Salmon.

Anthony - you cant have 2 kings under your name, but a king and a steelhead is no problem.

Which 8'6" Diawa rods are they? Daiwa makes an 8' roller rod for wire, and that would be OK, but if it is a downrigger rod there wont be enough backbone for the diver.

711 - Your welcome! This whole Twitter thing is a blast to play with on the water, and of course you took it and used it how Billy and I envisioned people were going to use it. Dex - Like you guys need help! Missed ya this weekend bro.

I had Ira do one for me. He is very good!

LMAO....he was wearing glasses and i thought that was him, but I wasn't sure.

Good job boyz. I saw Mike, but didn't see ya Musky. Hope to see you guys in Sodus.

Thanks boyz

Friday 7/9 (Fat Nancy Shootout) - We broke the pier heads at 6am after sleeping in our cars with the AC on all night. The humidity was terrible, so sleeping on the boat was a no go (even with two fans). We headed West and set down in 90fow and worked NW. Our program for the morning consisted of 3 riggers parked at 80, 100, 120. The two deep riggers had paddles on them and the high rigger in the center was run with spoons cheated. We ran two Deeper Divers set on a 1.5 setting out 275'-350' throughout the day. Lastly, a 400 copper, a 500 copper, and a 600 copper. All the coppers were towing flasher/fly combos. We got set-up and didn't move a rod for about 30 minutes. All of a sudden our new prototype custom Albino Gator Spin Doctor with an A-TOM-MIK Sweat Pea fly starts SCREAMING! I'm on the rod and he isn't stopping. AS we are trying to tame this beast I look right and here is a charter captains pinching in on us. I look left and there is Tom Burke from the Cold Steel. We are feeling the pinch. We call over to Burke and he makes a quick turn and allows us the room we needed. We had to raise our riggers so that we wouldn't take his coppers. Oh, by the way the other guy yelled at us for not knowing how to drive! Anyway, we boat that fish a while later and its a healthy 25lb BRUTE. It's on! We need 3 more decent ones now. We trolled on to the NW and picked away at fish. Mostly small ones, but a few keeper Salmon would hit our deck. Our next big guy would come late morning on a 500 copper pulling our custom Green SmartFish with an A-TOM-MIK Hypnotist fly. He tipped the scale at 19 pounds. We knew we needed one more good one, so we kept trucking on to the West. We were on the phone with a few buddies (Billy V and the Candy Team) and knew that there was a pick all the way through to West 9 mile point. We have always done fish off West 9 mile point in previous years fishing this tournament. It was early afternoon with about an hour and a half to fish and our new prototype custom Albino Gator Spin Doctor with an A-TOM-MIK Sweat Pea fly starts SCREAMING again. We get on the rod and within minutes our second 19lb Salmon hits the deck. We didn't think we had enough weight, but we knew it would be close. We continued to pick away at some smaller fish, but we would have never taken a tournament box of fish by days end. Our last fish of the day took the 400 copper (first bite that rod took all day) with a Chrome E-Chip/A-TOM-MIK Frozen Frog Fly. About 1:30pm we said enough was enough and headed for the scales to see where the cards were going to lay. At the sales a few nice fish were weighed in, but only one other team was able to string three of them together. They missed out on 1st place my a measly 1 pound. We won with 63 pounds and change to take the 2010 Fat Nancy's Shoot Out. Saturday 7/10 (Day 1) - We headed out to our waypoints from Friday, and right away we had a mess in the back of the boat. We got pushed in shallow by another tourney boat, which was my fault. I should have positioned us better while we were waiting for the official start time. We caught our 500 on the bottom and lost our custom Green SmartFish and then we dragged a wire and a rigger on the bottom. As we were letting the otter boats out the tether line got stuck in the tow line and the otter dove under our boat. A few choice words, and some high blood pressure and we got set back up and we were fishing. Our program for the morning consisted of 3 riggers parked at 80, 100, 120. The two deep riggers had paddles on them and the high rigger in the center was run with spoons cheated. We ran two Deeper Divers set on a 1.5 setting out 275'-350' throughout the day. Lastly, a 10 color, a 500 copper, and a 600 copper. Coppers were towing paddle fly combos, and the 10 color had a spoon run on it. We sat for an hour without a bite, and then all of a sudden we went BANG BANG. We boated to Salmon. One took a Wonderbread SmartFish with an A-TOM-MIK Hammer on the 120 rigger, and the other came on a Green dot Spin Doctor with an A-TOM-MIK B-Fly on the 100 rigger. That would be the end of our Salmon bite. Later in the morning we would find a few suspended Brown Trout over 170fow down 80'. One took an NK THAT spoon, and the other took a White Green dot SmartFish with an A-TOM-MIK Hammer fly. About 12pm we made the decision to slide into Ford Shoals and see if we could pick up a few Brown Trout. It didn't take long and we had rods poppin'. One Brownie took a Stinger Glow Froggy on the 10 color. Another would take a Purple Frog Fishlander on the 300 copper. We would drop another keeper Brown Trout and toss back a stocker. That was the extent of our day 1 box. Four Brown Trout and two Kings. Sunday 7/11 (Day 2) - We made the decision as a team to try the King bite for two hours and then go chase the Browns. We began with the same program we had Friday and Saturday morning, and it didn't take long. We would pick away at the fish till about 11am. The bite was pretty nice, and we had action all morning. Mostly a paddle bite for us, but an NK THAT spoon kept us busy with the 17-18" Salmon on our 80' rigger. Our first two bites of the morning were both wires bites, and both on our new prototype Albino Gator Spin Docs. One with an A-TOM-MIK Sweat Pean and the other with an A-TOM-MIK Sea Sick Waddler fly. At 11am we were sitting on 1 Laker and 9 Kings. Our fish were coming all over our spread. Green paddles had to have chrome on one side and glow on the other with either Green Crinkle A-TOM-MIKs or A-TOM-MIK Hypnotist. Our Mountain Dew E-Chip with an A-TOM-MIK TG went once, our new Albino Gator took two fish with an A-TOM-MIK Sweat Pea fly, and our Green dot Smartfish with an A-TOM-MIK Hypnotist went a few times. All the rods fired today at least once, but no one rod was HOT. By 1:00pm we would have 9 Kings and 1 Laker in the box with 4 lost fish and 6 throw backs. My brother looks at me and says "can I check that rigger? it looks like its throbbing." I told him no, and kept an eye on the rod. A few minutes later I told him to check that rod, and sure enough there was number 11. A 20" King. At 1:40 we started picking the rest of the lines, and sure enough there was another fish on that NK THAT spoon. As we boated it we said it may go 18", but when the ruler hit the fish it was 1/4 of an inch short. We ended the day with 4 nice Kings, 1 small Laker, and 6 decent to small Kings. We were pretty excited because we knew some teams were struggling on the Brown Trout bite, and that no teams except for Billy V, Candy, and High Voltage were in the area producing all these Kings. When we hit the scales with our 11 fish we shot right into the top ten and never left it. We finished the tournament in 9th place to end a very exciting and eventful weekend.

Great job Anthony!

I learned a lot today. Thanks KD. Like I said above...I am not against it, but I want to make sure its the right thing to do. Which is something we wont know for a while. As for the Natural reproducing Chinooks.....I think that info will be a stake in the heart! Once the DEC sees this is happening then they will definitely cut our stocking on the basis that the forage in the Lake wont be able to sustain the amount of predators. Wild fish hatches will never be a guarantee due to varying stream and river conditions. Ugggghhhhh....I guess we sit back right now and see what happens.

Congrats!

Just because something is "native" doesn't mean we "want" them. Why did they go away for so long? Did they deplete the bait-fish population? Were they over fished? Did the lake change enough so that they couldn't sustain life?

I'm picking up a few 15lb'ers from him this weekend. Donated a Shark last weekend. My Scotty's handled the sharks so these will be no issue.

Good stuff KD.

I think I saw you running around out there! LOL Major change from Monday to Tuesday out there. Good job on getting the inside fish to go. We stroked it for an hour. WE got on them out in 170-225. There was a tight break from 50-60 of about 15 degrees. The fish were on it thick, although you wouldn't have been able to tell by looking at a fish finder.

I am curious, and another LOU member is the one who pointed this out to me. I'd like to hear you opinions on it. Take a Chinook. It lives 3-4 years and then dies. When is it really into the Lake O food source? 2-3rd or 4th year. An Atlantic lives 7 or 8 years. They seem to be way more aggressive than a Chinook. They will be into the food source on Lake O for a much longer period and possible eat much more due to their high energy levels during that period. I know we have seen a lot of bait in Lake O this year, and the fish seem to be huge. Is the Atlantic really something we want in Lake O? Don't get me wrong catching one is a treat at this point, and they are beautiful fish. But looking long term is this something we want to strive in Lake O? I know Trout like the BT and Steelhead live for an equal amount of time in Lake O. So there is that argument against my point. However, BT aren't nearly as aggressive as an Atlantic. I hope I don't get beat up on this one!