Billy V report - Sodus Pro-Am

[Billy V]

We pre-fished the tournament on Friday and found lots of hot brown trout action West of port so we knew where we were headed on Saturday. We also got a call from our good friend Yankee Troller and he was on a hot King & Laker bite down by Ginna, so we had that in our hip pocket in case the browns didn't cooperate. When we got to our spot on Saturday we found that the temps had slid out just a tad bit deeper than we had found them on Friday and once we got our program dialed in the rods began popping. We boxed our first 10 fish by 10 am and then had to grind for almost two more hours to get the next two. We headed to the scales just after noon on Saturday and when all was said and done we sat in 16th place, but we were only 18 points out of 2nd place - a gap that could easily be made up on day two if we had a good day and some of the teams above us faltered.

When we headed out onto the lake on Sunday we found that Mother Nature was in one of her moods again - West winds and 3-5 foot waves. Not good! It took us a bit longer to run to our spot from Saturday and when we got there we found that the wind had piled warm water in tight and that all of our fish and bait had disappeared. Luckily for us we're running a Humminbird 1157c with a thru-hull transducer, so I can pick up fish and bait when we're up on plane. I used that to our advantage on Sunday as we spent an extra few minutes working deeper and checking the screen for bait and fish. Once I found what I was looking for I set us down and we began fishing. It didn't take long to find the fish, but they were all condensed into a very tight area about the size of a football field. We began making loops through our spot and on every one of our first 7 or 8 trolls through the spot we picked up a fish or two. Eventually that pod of fish and bait began to move as more warm water piled in so we spent the last few hours looking for them. We boxed fish number 11 at about 10:30am and then it took us an agonizing 2.5 hours to get our final fish of the tournament. The last hour or so of that grind was especially painful as we all knew that the clock was beginning to work against us and we had lost our temp, bait, and fish yet again. I began pushing us out deeper and further West than we had been all day and we finally nabbed a 3 lb brown just before 1:00pm to wrap up our day. There were high-fives and congratulations all around the boat after that. Mission accomplished! Now all we had to do was go weigh in and see where we ended up.

On the way in I talked to a few of my friends who were fishing the event and found that most of them were having a hard time filling their boxes. That's no surprise as the conditions were especially tough Sunday. We knew that we were lucky to have filled ours like we did. What I didn't know until the weigh-in was over was that we would be the only boat in the field to break the 200 point mark on Sunday - a fact that helped us leap over all but one team and landed us in second place. My friends Tom Burke and Andy Bliss from Cold Steel had just enough of a lead over us on Saturday that they were able to edge us out by less than a point for the win. Congratulations guys - you deserve it! While we would have loved to have taken the win this weekend, I have to be honest and tell you that we are all delighted with where we ended up. We stuck to our game plan of 12 fish each day and after Saturday's 16th place finish all we really wanted to accomplish on Sunday was to get our 12 fish and move up into the top 10. Finishing second was a most welcome surprise!

We used a simple 6 rod program all weekend long. We ran three riggers, two divers, and a leadcore down the chute - all pulling spoons. Our best spoons all weekend long were a Dreamweaver Super Slim Midnight Special, a Northern King Die Hard, and and regular Dreamweaver Lazer Glow Spook. Our downriggers accounted for close to 90% of our catch this weekend. The chute rod took the rest of the bites and for some reason our divers only took one shot over the weekend after being red hot on pre-fish Friday. Go figure. We fished 70 FOW on Saturday and 90-95 FOW on Sunday, and when we found 60 degree water we generally found bait and receptive fish. Best down speeds for us were 1.8-2.0mph on Saturday and quite a bit faster than that, 2.5-3.0mph, on Sunday. I gotta tell you that our new Daiwa Saltist reels were a decided advantage in fighting these browns this weekend. Their drags are super smooth and the high gear ratio really helped the guys keep tension on the fish.

Here we are with our box of fish from Sunday:

We had a great time and are already looking forward to next year's Pro-Am series!

[gpiatt]

Billy,

Awesome write up, thanks for taking the time to post your results. Hoping to get back into salmon fishing this year and appreciate your insight.

Thanks again and if I get anything I will post my results as I fish out of sodus also.

Thanks

Gregg

[Billy V]

Thanks Gregg, we'll look for you out of Sodus the rest of the year!

[jsmac51]

Great post godd to know the brown trout bite is staying so hot!

[choo-choo]

Great report...and great finish in the tournament....just think, if you would have caught the bulk of your fish a half hour later in the morning,they would have eaten a bunch more alewives,and that additional alewife weight would have given you the win!!!If only,if only if only.....once again, great job !!!!!

[ray koziatek]

Great job "team" V ,, sunday bumps were kinda fun eh..if anyone on your boat ever complaines about the waves feel free to call on the radio and we will do a on water (underway) transfer after 20 min on my alum can..ill charge him 100.00 to transfer back to your boat and well split the 100. Actually the timing of the waves were perfect for my boat that day ...and i could RUN into them at 8 mph with a fun ride cept those little slappers every 10th or so...Yea dispite my efforts and results Team Pegasus is hoping to do a few proams next year Lord willing...MAYBE we could get in 4 derbies with good wind and weather ......slap,slap .....wake up wake up..

[flashpoint]

NIce Job Bill! Nice to see a catch with all one species like that! It's been hit or miss over here on Champlain...cant wait for August to get here & get out on the bIg O'

See ya on the water!