Yankee's Spring King of the Lake Report

[Yankee Troller]

Friday - Given the cold water temps we thought it would be best to head West in practice. We fished the Jordan Harbor area, and went 1 for 2 on Kings in the skinny water pulling Reef Runners. On our Cannon downriggers we also took 3 Coho's, a few Lake Trout, and a 12lb drop back Steelhead. Nothing real promising, but after doing a little networking it seemed as if there weren't many Kings being caught.

 

We trolled back to Port Dalhousie and we noticed some great emerald green water right out front, and the temp was a degree or two better than we'd been seeing all day. We made a pass through there and hooked a nice 18lb King. The next pass was good for another Coho. It was time to head in to weigh-in so we couldn't explore that area much more, but it was something we wanted to try first thing in the morning.

 

Saturday - When the horn sounded half the field went right, and the other half went left. Three boats stayed right there and did a slow roll out to the water right out front. We started deploying lines in 20' of water, and worked out. It seemed like it took forever for the first bite, but we were boxed with 5 Salmon by 7:30am, and we continued to pound on them from there on out. 

 

Our spread consisted of a spoon on each of our three Cannon downriggers, a wire on each side pulling a spoon, a 5 color core pulling a Dreamweaver green dot Spin Doctor/A-TOM-MIK Ultra Green Glow on an in-line, an in-line pulling a frog colored Reef Runner, and a 10 color down the chute which we shortened/lengthened depending on the depth we were over. Our top spoon in the morning was hands down the Dreamweaver Sea Sick Waddler in a regular size. After the sun came up a Dreamweaver Superglow Hot NBK became the MVP. At one point we tripled on the fly, a spoon, and the Reef Runner landing all three Kings. 

We worked the 30' range for most of the morning, but as the sun came up our screen looked better in the 40-50' range. This is also when a Stinger Wonderbread got hot on the 10 color core.

 

Heading into weigh-in we thought other teams had to of smashed them too. When we hit the dock it seemed like most teams were reporting tough fishing, and one or two fish in the box. We weighed almost last, and when our fish hit the scales it was 20 pounds heavier than the next team. We were pumped, but with that came nerves, and the knowledge of knowing we were going to be followed Sunday morning.

 

Sunday - We put down the same spread, but this time we had half of the field fishing with us. The screen was just never there like it was on Saturday. We stayed in our water for four hours and went 1 for 2.

 

Around 10 we made the decision to run to the bar and try to catch 4 Coho. We set-up on the Canadian side of the fence, and we weren't able to get our Coho spread out when a board line pops. We were into our first Coho. It took a Challenger Lady Bug, and about a net length away from being netted it does it's death role and cracks us off. We weren't planning on fishing Coho this weekend. We broke out our Brown Trout rods never checking the leaders, or switching out the 8lb Flouro leaders. Lesson learned on being lazy! We gave it the rest of the day, but all we could muster up were a bunch of healthy Steelhead and Lake Trout.

 

In the end it was another tough day for the field, and that Coho wouldn't have done us a darn thing. We had enough weight on Saturday to only drop us to 2nd place, but it was still a great start to the 2013 tourney season!

 

Here was Saturday's box:

[GAMBLER]

Congrats on the 2nd place finish! 

[specialtee]

good job guys, yeah, I bet thats stressful the next morn being followed.

[FX]

Congrats Rick - nice job!  

 

Shawn

[Skamaniac]

Glad you had a great day on Saturday.  Congrats on the 2nd place.  C u in Wilson next weekend.

[Finders Keepers]

Nice start to the season Rick - Congrats!

[brucehookedup]

  Good job rich, got love those one day, big box, sweat em out deals. We had the same scenario at that port, back many years ago. You always wonder why in the f... did they leave. Someone ring the dinner bell elsewhere. Keep it rolling, good luck.

[John Kelley]

Great job Rick!  See you next weekend @ Wilson.

[Boatino]

Nice work Guys!!!

 

John

[PennYan20]

 Enjoyed reading your report! Congrats placing 2nd, in my estimation,if the others are following you.....you're 1st! Steve...................

[Yankee Troller]

Thanks guys!

 

 

 Enjoyed reading your report! Congrats placing 2nd, in my estimation,if the others are following you.....you're 1st! Steve...................

 

The winners definitely did their own thing, and they deserve the win in a tough event.

[Big Water]

Nice Job Rick!  Thanks for the report and see you at Wilson this weekend.

Edited April 29, 2013 by Big Water

[Tangled]

great job in tough water

 

Dan

[dubblec]

Great job ! Good shooting yt. Thanks for the report

Edited April 30, 2013 by cruzcontroll

[bout time]

Congrats Rick. way to do your own thing and stay away from the crowds on day one

[mikerp]

Great story.

[Poles293]

Great job and I always love your reports. I like the fact that you list exactly what your using and how you set up your spreads. Always a great learning tool reading your reports.

[Jax]

Nice report and great job as always Rick! Congrats again on the 2nd place!

[on the lam]

WTG Y/T. Congratulations

[Pike Hunter]

Congratulations on the 2nd place finish! So close!

[times two]

Nice way to start the season for sure!  Congrats!

[spoonfed-1]

 

Nice!!!

[tannero]

Nice report. Heading to sandy creek for my first run on a new boat. Will let the forum know how it works out. Doing a little reading up to see what is working.