Yankee's Niagara Pro Am Report

[Yankee Troller]

Thursday Practice - We knew fishing had been getting tougher and tougher with the Lake transition settling in a little bit earlier than in recent years. However, it was to be expected with the weird Winter/Spring we were having. For the last few weeks we had a very productive surface program going, so we wanted to expand on that because we knew getting your 12 fish was going to be key in this event. The plan was to fish out to the boarder and then head towards the NW corner.

Our program consisted of 4 lines off our Big John Otter Boats. Two of those lines were flat lines pulling split shot spoons or Brads Thin Fish, and the other two were two and three color cores pulling various spoons. We ran two Walker Deeper Divers on a 3 setting off our wire rods out anywhere from 50-125’. Lastly, our Cannon DT10’s were all put into action fished in the top 50’ with sliders attached to our Daiwa combos.

We never turned on any fish, or pod of fish for that matter. The further out we got the better the class of Steelies we caught. It was an AMAZING day of steelhead fishing. These fish were in the mood to dance, and that’s what they did. Seeing 8-12lb Steelhead grab some air is a majestic sight to say the least. We felt really good about this program going into the event, and getting 12 would be a non-issue.

Our HOT spoons seemed to be Dreamweaver SS’s in Gold Watermelon, Firecracker, Monkey Puke, Gold Get-R Done, and Green Sparkle. Our MVPs were Dreamweaver SS’s in Glow Corn and Green Hornet, and a new Stinger UV Orange Tuxedo on a gold blank.

Friday Practice - Let’s just call it a blow day! We tried to fish it, but there comes a point where it isn’t fun. Even in a big boat!

Saturday Day 1 - Blow day again. I give the Tourney committee a hand for sticking to a rule they created, and one that I think is about as fair as you can get.

Sunday Day 2 - It was a go in the morning after two long days of sitting on the dock. 15 minutes before go time we pulled up the temperature map for the Lake. We knew the Lake had been iced with the winds from the previous two days, so we wanted to see where the warmest water was. We found some 52 degree water a touch East of Olcott way offshore, so that’s where we headed. We found the water from the map, and it was game on.

Our program again consisted of our three Cannon DT10’s that we fished in the top 50’ with sliding cheaters on our Daiwa combos. We had two Walker Deeper Divers in the water on 3 settings out 50-125’ pulling Dreamweaver SS’s, and short cores off our Big John Otter Boats. By the end of the day 5 color cores off the Otter Boats would be our hot set-up. Some of the same spoons mentioned above continued to be good for us, but under those cloudy skies I knew it was time to break out the Dreamweaver Green Eye Ghost, and that spoon took a few fish for us like it always does under cloudy conditions.

We had a pretty good morning going, and we worked some waypoints when we caught fish. At one point boxing out wasn’t a concern, but by noon we knew it probably wouldn’t happen. We ended up boxing seven fish by 1:30pm, lost five keeper fish, and tossed back five short fish. We knew fishing was tough for most, so we went to weigh in with mixed feelings about how we did. Once the scales settled we were knocked out of the top 10 for the Classic box, but our class of Steelhead was a good one, and it kept us in the top ten for the Trophy box.

Looking back I think we fished the spot out, and we should have ventured out to find more fish. I say this because after a few hours of no bites we decided to head it SW back to port for 30 minutes on troll, and that’s when we banged number seven. Either way it was a fun event even though it was a one day tourney.

[motoman]

nice report rick as always !

[jayjay]

Awesome report ..it was cool talking to you at the launch sun. around noon.thanks for advice and tips

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[skipper19]

Nice job on the steelies Rick!

[Pike Hunter]

WTG for the excellent round of steel-bows!

[TOP SECRET]

Those are some nice chromers, I think there will be some seriously large steelies around in july this year!

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