Yankee Report 5/12-5/14

[Yankee Troller]

May 12 - We started out Thursday morning right out the front door where we ended up Sunday evening, but Mother Nature’s harsh East winds on Wednesday really iced the Lake. When we left on Sunday we had surface temps in the low 50’s. Thursday morning we had 40 degrees on top. So, we shot down to the red can where we had reports of some water that had better temps and a few fish roaming in it. When we got there it didn’t take long to get on the fish. There were all the cohos you could ask for, and we even saw a heck of a screen filled with Kings. However, not one King bite would materialize for us. Our baits of the day were a Challenger Puerto Rican, bite off from the original Puerto Rican Bomber, and our Brad’s Thin Fish. These were fished from the surface or on 2-3 color cores. We ended the day with a nice box of Coho’s and a plan to get to the bar early the next morning.

May 13 - Friday morning the guys were at the boat by 5:30 and we were off. Right down to the bar we went, and it wasn’t long for our first King bite to happen. Just like last weekend our corner rigger pulling a Dreamweaver SS Glow Froggy starts singing! A short battle later and we have a nice 14lb Chinook flopping in our cooler. We thought we were off to a great start, but even the Coho bite became tough. The same two baits pulled Coho’s, but we also had a firetiger Matzco body bait that was pulling it’s own share of the bites.We would end the day with one Chinook and a few Coho’s in the box and some happy campers as they have realized the Coho meat is where it’s at!

May 14 - Wilson Harbor Invitational - Well, Mother Nature through us a curve ball mid week that really put a damper on the fishing. We practiced for two days straight and could only turn up one King Salmon from the iced waters given to us by the East winds on Wednesday. However, we thought with the warming temps of Thursday and Friday we might be able to pluck a few fish from the bar by Saturday morning. The fish were there. It was just a matter of getting them to take our offerings.

By the end of the day we realized we weren’t the only ones who had a tough day. We would rid ourselves of the skunk by taking a few Coho and an Atlantic, but no Kings would hit the deck of the Yankee Troller on this day. Once the weigh in was finished we realized that we were not the only soul in this boat. Over half the field came in with a goose egg, and 3 out of 71 teams could scrounge up the 6 fish needed to contend for the $20,000 first place prize.

My team and I would like to send a huge congrats to Kevin Jerge at the Wilson Boat Yard for this amazing tournament. Everything went off with out an issue, and the eats at the banquet were very tasty. If you weren’t a part of this event in 2011 you will want to be part of it in 2012!