5/7-5/8 Yankee Report from Wilson

[Yankee Troller]

So, after the previous weekend I was a little bit worried about the Salmon bite. But, just like years past that first week of May is hit or miss. So We had Nick, Nick, Gaylord, and Phil out for two days. Last year they were met with some bad weather and only got to fish one day. This years trip more than made up for that! Their best trip in 3 years (as far as BIG Salmon go). Typically, they were met with a few nice Salmon and a bunch of Coho and Steelhead.

5/7 - Took us no time to hook up with a BEAUTIFUL 10lb Steelhead. It took a 2 color core pulling a Dreamweaver SS Orange Slurpee. That spoon has been my best producer for fish on the surface during May. After a little searching we found the mother-load of Salmon along with what the Salmon wanted to eat. Our program was quite simple, yet effective. We did about 20 fish during the 8 hour trip with many teenage Salmon hitting the deck of the boat. A pair of 19lb brutes really made the box look pretty good. Our set up consisted of 4 wires. The inside/deep wires were set on .5 with the Dreamweaver large diver ring. One was out 300 and the other was out 325. We pulled a SmartFish White on White with Green dots/A-TOM-MIK Ultra Green Glow fly on one with a Wonderbread Spin Doctor/A-TOM-MIK Hammer and Glow Hammer. On the high/shallower divers we set them on 2.5 settings and had them out 350-375 feet. We pulled the same flashers on those with some variation. At times we would toss out the Black Double Crushed Glow SmartFish with an A-TOM-MIK Hammer, or the Black Double Crush Glow Green Dot Spin Doctor out with an A-TOM-MIK Green Hammer. Our riggers were parked anywhere from 75-150' down. Sea Sick Waddlers took a few fish, but the spoon of the week was definitely the Dreamweaver SS Dave's Salmon Slapper. We concentrated our efforts in 130-150' of water, so we were basically pulling these fish right off the bottom. Without the help of our 15lb sharks this would have been a chore!

5/8 - We went right back to our waypoints from the previous day and the fish hadn't moved, but they were eating well. So after a few passes we slid right out to the deeper stuff finding more active fish out in that 200-250' of water. Once it started it was pandemonium! We hardly ever hooked up with just one fish. Every time one rod fired so would another. Again we ended with a pair of 19lb brutes, but we couldn't pop that 20lb mark! Same program as the previous day. Nothing changed as far as depths and lure choices. That made my job pretty easy!