Tim Bromund

I'll second that warning

Oops fixed the date, just another example of my stellar typing skills. roughrider, mine aren't, the scupper opening on my boat is just a 2" diameter hole bored through the transom with the scupper/check ball (supposed to be a 1 way valve) on the outside to seal water from coming in. Problem with my boat is the deck is right at the water line so the scupper can go under water pretty easily. I will be sealing that up, since where it is located, it really doesn't serve much purpose. Tim

Need to make one correction on the initial report, the boat that suspended his charter and shadowed us until help arrived was actually Captain Roger Voorhees on the Hot Pursuit. Thanks Roger and sorry for the initial misidentification, things were a little tense out there at the time. Tim

but at least your king is still holding in 2nd place on the leader board

Yes there is, it just couldn't keep up with the volume of water coming in. The boat really should have more than one bilge pump (thanks Thompson, nice place to cheap out) and I will be adding at least one more. Tim

Dad, Chad and I decided to do some Derby fishing this morning. The Good: For mid June, we had pretty good action, had 5 kings, 3 or 4 nice coho and 2 lakers.4 of the kings were nice mid teens and 1 was a good mature 23.4 lb (currently in 2nd in the king division). Coho and lakers took a variety of baits, mostly yellow NBK stingrays. All 5 of the kings came on a green nuclear SD/Hammer Fly combo. After the 4th fish on that combo on the 80' rigger, I put another one down on a diver back 300 and it wasn't down more than 5 minutes before it fires with the big one. While Chad was fighting that, the rigger fired again but that one shook off after a short fight. The Bad: The boat almost sank today. I have the Flo Max Ball Scuppers on my transom which usually do a pretty good job of keeping most of the water out of the boat, considering my floor is right at the waterline and when anyone steps in the back corners, it pushes the scupper below the waterline. So, I was surprised to see a lot of water coming in the boat every time I was in the starboard corner and washing down under the motor box, but the bilge pump appeared to be keeping up with it so we didn't think much about it. Shortly after landing the big king I noticed that something didn't sound right coming from the motor box, so when I lifted it and we found it and the bilge filled to the top and the belts spraying water all over the place, we knew that the water was coming much faster than could be addressed by the bilge pump and we were very close to going down, so we put our life jackets on and made the mayday call to the Coast Guard. Luckily the engine kept running, so we were able to creep back in to Port. Before long we were being escorted by the Olcott Fire and Rescue boat, 1 or 2 Niagara Co Sheriff boats and the Coast Guard that ran all the way down from the Niagara Station at the Fort. Capt. Don Harris of Reel Pleasure Charters also pulled lines and came to our position and shadowed us until the rescue boats arrived on the scene, as did Capt Tom Kilmer of TomKatt Sportfishing, Thank you very much guys. Chad spent a lot of time on his hands and knees bailing water out as best he could while dad drove the boat and I stayed in contact with the Coast Guard. Luckily my trailer was still at the Boat Doctor's yard in Olcott, so I called Jim to see if he could get it to the marina in case we made it all the way back in to port. He didn't have anyway to get it there, but Fred Lockwood from the Yankee Pride Boat here in Olcott was there at the Boat Doctors, so he hitched up my trailer and had it waiting in the water at the launch ramp. Huge Thank You to Fred. Somehow the engine stayed running all the way in and we managed to make it all the way back to port and get it on the trailer and back to the Boat Doctors. Turns out, that somehow the Flo Max Scupper and check ball on the starboard side was gone leaving a 2" diameter hole in the transom of the boat right at the water line that was pouring in way more water than the bilge pump could keep up with. There had to be hundreds of gallons of water in the boat when we finally got it out of the water. Cant say enough good things about the Emergency Response Personnel out there, in particular the Olcott Fire and Rescue team was outstanding, they got one of their crew onto the boat with a gas powered pump and started pumping the water out as we were coming through the pier heads (he also took turns bailing) and they followed us in the whole way, shadowing the boat just off our port beam. We got very lucky, today could have ended very badly and this should serve as a reminder to all of us. Things can go south on us very quickly out there and we have to be prepared for the worst. Make sure you have all of the required safety equipment and that your life jackets are easily accessible. Here's a short video I took with my phone of the full motor box and bailing operation. Tim

We are in the normal June transition period as the lake is setting up (stratifying). The past couple years have been an anomoly. These are actually normal mid-June conditions. It always is tough in June. Most of us don't bother to even go out and burn gas this time of year, or if you are on a trailer, go to Erie and catch tasty boots (walleye) for a couple weeks. The lake will be set up and the summer fishing will start by the end of the month. I'll probably head out the weekend of the 22nd and see whats shaking. The lake might be set up by then. Tim

I switched from old Cannons to Scotty 1116's back in 2003 and they were absolutely bulletproof. Last season I upgraded to the 2116 HP's and they are amazing. However the 1116's are actually plenty of rigger for most applications. The only reason I upgraded was because I won a new 2116 at the first Wilson Harbor Invitational so I bought a second so I could replace both of the 1116's. Tim

It's not just you, The June transition sucks for everyone. I really don't even bother fishing in June anymore, it's not worth burning the gas for the most part. I might sneak out at some point the weekend of the 22nd to see if the lake has set up around Olcott yet, but I'm not going to waste a lot of time or gas searching for them.

OK, I'm using a Depth Raider also and my good down speed is also typically 1.8-2.3. The reason I asked was the Fish Hawk typically reads about a 1/2 mile faster at the same speed than the Subtroll/Depth Raider, so depending on the unit you are using, Finders Keepers' advice on 2.5 - 2.7 may or may not have been applicable. Those sound like typical F H downspeeds. Tim

which probe do you have? It makes a difference as to what your downspeed should be.

A lot of guys use all black divers, not so much because they necessarily work any better, but because they are neutral in the water and they want to take the diver color out of the equation. I will say this, Kings loved a kelly green diver back in the 80's and that is still just as true today. My best offshore steelhead diver has always been metallic purple. Tim

I have both, I have a singe heavy duty and a double multi set on each gunwale. Both are plenty heavy duty for diver duty. Tim

I had 3'4" at my slip in Olcott when I pit it in April 30, I now have 3'8". Not quite the 5' I've seen at spring high water in some past years, but plenty to operate with. We'll see how it holds up as the season progresses. I had to pull a month early last fall and had 2'4" at the slip in late September when I pulled it while I was still able to get it on the trailer. I was there in October last fall and it had dropped close to another foot after I pulled. Tim

The 500 yd spool of 50 lb powerpro fills a Daiwa 47 size reel perfectly.

It's the big fish friday event before the Orleans Pro Am this weekend.

On Thursday June 13th at 7pm the Lake Ontario Trout & Salmon Association (LOTSA) will be sponsoring a “round table†discussion on tips for catching summer Brown Trout and King Salmon. There will be some good information for both the experienced and novice Lake Ontario anglers to help become more successful this summer. LOTSA is a group of mainly weekend recreational fishermen who are dedicated to the enhancement of the Lake Ontario Sport-Fishery including the pen rearing project at Olcott. Each meeting also features a sharing of information the current fishing conditions. So come join us and become more successful at fishing Lake Ontario! The meeting will be held at the Cornell Cooperative Extension, 4487 Lake Avenue (Route 78 two miles north of Lockport), Lockport, NY 14094. The Seminar is open to the public and free to attend. See WWW.LOTSA.ORG for any questions.

I have 2 Daiwa SG47LCA's that have served as my Wire Diver Reels for 13 or 14 years now on 9.5' Daiwa Heartland Diver Rods. Super rod/reel combos for diver applications. Tim

sure looks like Trophy is still around http://www.trophyfishing.com/index.asp