Yankee Troller

No, you dont need a snubber. I havent used one in probably 10 years. I'll typically run 4 wires too. My leader behind the dipsey is 25lb McCoy Mean Green. I keep the drags locked down and still havent cracked off any hardware.

FYI....the guy who runs the SmartFish Pro-staff will be at the Rochester Gander Mountain on June 16th. If you are curious about how they work, settings, or want to know anything else this would be a good seminar to attend.

Absoutely! I run flasher flies on my copper 90% of the time. I have, however, started running spoons off the board coppers when it gets choppy out. I dont think the start stop action from the board is good action on the paddels. The spoons will just flutter when a board stalls.

I am under the impression that once you go into another port your DQ'd. I was also told I wasnt able to fuel up during the day in another port. Isnt it even rediculous we are talking about re-fueling up a boat with a tank that holds 110 gallons at 4.50 a gallon on the water? LOL

Fishtails - What are ya gonna do? It was fun while it lasted! TrimTab - Yeah, we had better fishing off the dock than we did on the lake!

Dude....your gonna love that reel! I just switched my cores to the 57 accudepth plus, and Jax as my witness, they are SWEET! Smooth drags for sure, and i personally like the look of them.

Braddock Bay or Irondeqouit bay for sure!

Your going to love the versatility on these things! I almost sold the ones I won inthe Pro-Am last year, butheard they were a little secret on the East end of the lake. So I kept them and during the derby needed a white on white paddle. Well, i lost 3 in one weekend due to bots running over my cores, so I opened up a SmartFish and have been running them ever since. On my copper I have been using a 2 o'clock to a 3 o'clock setting. My big fish in the Spring LOC came on a 12 setting. I havent run that much lately though :? dont ask me why :?: . If you want to imitate a Spinny then 7 o'clock is that area. I get e-mail updates from the guy who designed these (Big John - the original owner of Big John). He is always experimenting with settings. I will post them on here when I get them for you guys.

Which tourney?

I say get a 400-600' section and have someone else reel it in! LOL I have never used snap weights with my copper, but many times with core. I just like to know that my 400 copper is at 80-90'. I wouldn't know with a snap weight on copper where it was unless I did some research by bumpin it off bottom and when I am out i want to catch fish and not experiment like that. Just my .02$

It took us an hour and a half to get to Wilson. On the way back with the wind and current helping us we did 24mph and it took 45-an hour. Yes, with 3 coppers you put one off each board and then one down the chute.

Niagara: Practice - Well, I had spent the month of May up there again this year, so you would figure I should know a little bit about the fishing come tourney time? Well, in practice we went out and found fish in the same places we found them the week prior, but the size was still down. The Sea Sick Waddler took it share again! We ended the day with getting our limit. In the Olcott Memorial tourney we entered one nice 17lb King and 2 smaller fish. Not enough to place in the top three. Day 1 - Headed out and stopped in the inside water to see if we could pull a big king first thing, without any luck we point the boat north and headed out. We proceeded to boat 9 fish in 1 hour between 7-8am. Most took a Dreamweaver SS Goby pattern off the rigger, but again the Sea Sick Waddler took a few fish. On the Coppers and wires we were running all SmartFish with various A-TOM-MIK flies. Again the Ultra Green Glow was hot as was the Hammer. Our program was 3 riggers, 2 wires, and 3 coppers (400,500,600). We lost a good one that got into out 600 copper and I thumbed the spool only to have the hook pop out. We finished out limit by 10am and headed for breakfast. After day 1 we were sitting in 5th place. Highlight of the day was going through the flurry only to have the 400 and 500 copper in the water when everything was said and done. Day 2 - Do the exact same program as Day 1.....skinny water then work out. By 11:30 we had 7 fish in the box. Now the stress pours on! So we make a decision to run over to 4 mile and work west till time was up and we had to head in. We set down in 100 fow to start trolling and fish were everywhere! Down we go with the same program we had been running. The sea Sick Waddler was the first to go. WE got that fish in and put it down and it went again! Finally we switched every rigger over to it and we did our last 5 fish in an hour! ALL on the Sea Sick Waddler. This spoon was amazing in those green waters off Niagara County these last few weeks I have had the spoon. We ended in 7th place for the tourney. FYI….I was in Narby’s and Captains Cove this past weekend and I know they have some Northern King Sea Sick Waddlers. I watched people buying them off the counter before they made it to the shelf. Orleans: Practice – Well, we were warned before we got there it was tough fishing. So once we got out there we adjusted for the high Stealhead bite we were told about. If you know me then you know I am a Salmon fisherman. I don’t mess with Lakers or Browns or Steelhead very often. So this is different fishing for me. We ran 3 riggers, 6 cores, and 2 wires in practice trying to figure out these fish, and in no time we had rods poppin. We started off with almost a triple. By the days end we were one of the few boats who got into the fish. We went 8 for 17. Riggers down to 50’, 1,2,3,4,10 color cores, and wires out 50-100 on a 3 setting. Lures were the Dreamweaver SS Orange Slurpee (this is a must for those steelhead and browns), NK C5 5 of diamonds, Copper NBK’s, Spooks, and One on the Sea Sick Waddler (the last fish that spoon would take during the weekend). Day 1 – Headed out to our waypoints and found the water had warmed up from practice. We fished it anyway only to pull one measly fish from it on a 75 wire all day! This fish fell victim to an NK 28 in the orchard paint scheme. So, the thoughts of lat year start flowing through my head. Last year we won the first tourney, and took last in the next. Then on the east end we took 3rd in Oswego and finished bottom of the middle in Sodus. We get a report of fish on the bar with limit catches, so we fill up the boat and plan on heading there in the morning. Day 2 – Well, 6 guys on board wind in our face and current against us with a full tank of gas and we could only get her up to 17mph. So, the trip to the bar was a long one and we only made it to Wilson by time I realized I had burned a half a tank of gas. So knowing that the can was 12 more miles I knew it wasn’t smart to make the rest of the run. We start trolling and everything looks just right. Temp. is there and the water is greenish. Marks were hard to come by. We started with a 24â€

Not necessarily true....when I won the Orleans last yr we had to run ball speed 3.0-3.2 down 100-140. I was fishing next to superstars like Rebel and Thrillseeker at the time. The big guys wanted it fast. This past Sunday before the Pro-Am we figured the same program out. We fished all day. We bumped the speed up over 3.0 at the ball and everything was teenagers up to 19lbs. The thing about fishing is there is no set rule out there, and most things you figure out just amaze ya. Thats what brings us back to the fishery.

Spoon - Sea Sick Waddler Fly - Hammer Paddle - White on White SmartFish Im not joking when I tell you these paddles are very versitile. I have been running them all spring and have dialed them in quite good. On my copper rods I am runing a 2-4 o'clock position. There is a nipple on one of the fins thats the indicator you are supposed to use. The spring king I put onthe leaderboard hit on a 12 setting. On the riggers and wires a 7 o'clock setting has been my go to. This mimicks other flashers on the market. It isnt reccomended to use the 2-4 setting on riggers and wires as the wide circumfrance of the paddle in the water could cause a huge mess in the back of your boat.

I'll be honest with you when I say 3/4's of my fish came off NK 28's and Super Slims. I didnt have "holy crap" boxes, but enough to cash a check. I think every method mentioned above will take big fish and small fish at times. I reeled in 2 or 3 22" fish on the 600' copper. How pissed was I...lol. My theory on how to get to the big guys is fish the skinny water first thing. They are sually in there feeding. Once that screen disaears go deep. For a 30 minute program on Sunday I had 2 riggers on the bottom in 250 fow. Lots of fish down there, but didnt pull one off that bottom. I have in the past though.

Hey bud...it was nice meeting you at dinner on Friday. Im really glad no one was hurt. Keep your head up and Im sure you'll make out just fine.

Are you serious? You dont thank us! We ALL owe you a great thanks for everything Wilson did. Party was great, and the stuff given away was UNREAL! If you missed this you better pencil it in for next year. I can only see this thing getting better in the years to come.

7th on the pro side here. Crazy few days of fishing. Stay tuned for the report.

I know they only boxed 5 keepers.

I thought I had both the Pro and AM, but the only results I have ae Pro. Wish us luck tomorrow! BTW there were 48 Pro Boats. Pro: Cold Steel/A-TOM-MIK 257.81 A-TOM-MIK/Meatheads 237.34 Reel Pleasure 225.49 Sunrise II 225.07 Yankee Troller/A-TOM-MIK 215.95 King Fisher 211.55 SalmonBound 207.30 Tom Kat 205.83 Hotline 205.67 Freespirit 205.10

Anthony - you guys were cryin after reelin all those fish in on those copper rods last fall! I guess you see thier value now! lol

We switched to Daiwa Heartland 7'6" ML action rods this spring, and they seem to be a great rod for BT fishing. Im not a huge fan of fishing for them, so I only do it during the month of April. We teamed it up with a Daiwa Accupeth Plus in the 27 size filled with 10lb test McCoy Mean Green. This set-up doubles for our Coho/Steelhead rods in May and June.

I didnt want to send ya a heck of a wake, so i stayed a little bit away.

Thanks for the pic bud!