Yankee Troller

Yeah, we have a good time with it! LOL

6/9 – We left Wilson bright and early looking to troll down to the Oak and fish the “West†stuff on Thursday. We shot straight out to 100’ of water pointed the boat NE and zigged and zagged from 100-250 the rest of the day. Fish were plentiful, but size was lacking. Our spread consisted of rods on our Cannon DT-10s, two wires pulling Deeper Divers, and three junk lines. We went through a mix of spoons and flasher/fly combos throughout the day, but nothing was a smoker like that Dreamweaver Moon Cricket the previous weekend. The picture wasn’t there either, which had us a little concerned. We finally picked up at 30 mile point around 2pm and headed for the Oak. Some fish porn because there wasn't much after this! 6/10 – Big Fish Friday (Condor Memorial) – We left our slip very early looking to capitalize on an early inside bite with a few big guys. We had heard rumors that a few big ones were lurking around the front door inside the 25N line. We set our gear and it didn’t take long to get into some fish. Mostly a good class of Steelies, but we did manage a few small kings. We had a 20lb King to the back of the boat, but a teammate decided it needed to grow up some more and hit it in the head with the net. That may have cost us a check, but it is what it is at this point. We never really saw the picture we were hoping for as we fished out to the 28N line, so we picked up and ran down to Shadigee. We worked those waters offshore, and eventually slid in late in the afternoon where we found a decent bite with some decent fish. When fishing slows we find a friend and water-balloon them! 6/11 – Day 1 of the Orleans Pro/Am – We knew where we NEEDED to be, and we knew our new ride could get us there safely and comfortably. So, when they released us at 5:30am and we broke the pier heads we pointed her West at about 25mph and took the 1:45 minute ride past Wilson. We set down a mile West of Wilson, and the screen wasn’t there. While we were teetering on the thought of picking and moving a little further West the Corner rigger with the Dreamweaver magnum Moon Cricket fires and we are tied into our first King. A few flips, trips, and slips later and he was back to fight another day. We would also go on to boat a skipper that was legal, but we just weren’t feeling it, so we rolled a few more miles West on plane. We set down at 6 mile creek as we noticed warmer temperatures, and headed over to the same waypoints from the week before. Just as we got to 4 mile, where those waypoints were, we got into them HOT and HEAVY! The only problem is every single fish that hit was coming un-buttoned within the first minute of the battle. We were amazed at how bad our batting average was throughout the day, and it wasn’t long before 12pm came around and we had to get going in order to make it back to the Oak. In the end we would box 4 fish (2 steelies, a coho, and a king), loose 12 Kings, and 6 or 7 other fish in the four hours we had to fish. As sick as it sounds after the 6th or 7th lost fish it just go to be a joke on the boat. There really was nothing we could do about it, and it just kept coming! Our 500 copper pulling a meat rig took 6 or 7 shots alone and we never saw one of them! A real brute took our Walker Deeper Diver pulling a Dreamweaver Magnum Moon Cricket for a ride twice only to shake off so someone could battle him another day. The real knock outs of the day were a Dreamweaver Magnum Dave’s Salmon Slapper, and that same Dreamweaver Moon Cricket Mag. We would end up at the scales with four fish, heads hung low, and informed that the leading box was pulled from the same waters we were in. Could we have been leading after day 1? We will never know! 6/12 – Day 2 of the Orleans Pro/Am – Sometimes too much information will hurt you and in this instance it did. It was blowing East for a few days, and we knew we were fishing water right near the border. We watched the NOAA Coastwatch Saturday night into Sunday morning, and it showed that the 58/59 degree water we had on the surface was clear into Canada. At the last minute before we left the dock our plans went from running to the bar to checking out the Shadigee and power plant hoping there was some fish that wanted to play still there from Friday. When we set down in there the screen was blank and we trolled it from 60’ out to 600’ with a few straggler skippy’s and 4 other keeper fish to show for. No MVP’s on this day, but a Dreamweaver SS Green Eyed Ghost did take 3 of the 4 fish we boxed. No temp breaks (like Coastwatch said there was off the plant), and no fish! We ran in around 11:00 to see if we could pick up some Brown Trout in close and that plan was about as good as our first one to go offshore and work temp breaks for steelies. We would find out that the water was still on the bar to a point, and some of the teams that went down there were able to catch a few kings. In the end we made some bad decisions on day two, and when it comes down to tournament fishing making good decisions are what put you in the top 10 consistently. In the end we all had a blast fishing together, the YT3 ran like a champ, and we ate GOOD! WE are taking a week off from fishing, and then it will be back at it every week through September!

LOL....whys that?

6/1 – We headed out of Wilson at 5:30am. It felt good to know we had 3 days of practice for the Niagara Pro-Am. When we left port we knew there were some offshore fish right straight out of port, but we wanted to head a little West to see what else was out there. We took a NW heading and ran out to the 6 mile creek area and set down in 150’ of water. We pointed the boat towards the NW corner hoping to get out there eventually because there looked to be a pocket of warm water in that corner. We didn’t make it very far and we had rods flying. With only 6 rods to play with we ran 2 wires pulling Deeper Divers, three rods on our Cannon DT-10’s, and a junk line down the chute. Everything went back with the exception of a beautiful 24lb Chinook Salmon that committed suicide smashing all over our back deck. It looked like a war zone back there by time we got the hook out. Our top spoon of the day was one we have never taken a single fish on. Dreamweaver’s Bloody Death SS took 75% of the fish, and the big guy took a 10 color pulling a Stinger Stingray Double Crush Orange, which is another spoon we don’t typically run. That Dreamweaver SS was a suggestion by the “new guy†that jumped aboard for the day because it has been his top producer lately. Well, it worked for us! It’s always nice to get other fisherman aboard to see what works for them. I find that sometimes I get stuck in a narrow minded program, and keep down what has worked well for us when sometimes I think you just need to change it up a little. Even when the fishing is good! 6/2 – We woke up nice and early to a stiff NW blow, so back to bed we went until about 8am. Then it was time for breakfast at Lucy Lou’s inside the small town of Wilson. Great people there by the way! Once breakfast was over we figured it would be a good time to install our on-board chargers we bought from Minn Kota to keep the battery powering our downriggers at a full charge all day long. We spent the rest of the day in Olcott between the Hideout and Maverick boats just shootin’ the breeze. Finally at 4pm we figured it had calmed down enough to get a quick evening trip in to see what the big blow had done to the water. We put her on a northerly troll and trolled out to a serious break offshore where the green water and black water met. A significant temp break, and not too many fish. So, back in we trolled where we finished the night off in about 100’ of water picking fish the whole time, but the size was concerning. Nothing bigger than about 10lbs hit our deck, or sniffed our lures, on this evening trip, which included people from 3 different Pro/Am teams. Lots of fun was had, and the Trojan handled the 9 person outing with ease. 6/3 – Big Fish Friday (Don Johanas Memorial Tourney) – We motored right out front of port bright and early and set up in 75’ of water. Our program today was a typical 8 rod program for us. Three rods on our Cannon DT-10 downriggers, 2 wires pulling Walker Deeper Divers, and 3 junk lines (two of which were pulled off our Big John Otter Boats). We got lines set, and trolled NW. When we hit the 130’ area our screen lit up! Sharks, and lots of them, had moved in overnight. We spent the whole day working the area between the Gazebo (West of Wilson) to the Red Barn (East of Wilson) smashing Chinooks all day long. This is the type of day we had been waiting for, and how the Spring King fishery around the Niagara Bar is supposed to be! We would end up working the waters from 130’ to 175’ the whole day with mainly a spoon program. Northern King Sea Sick Waddlers, Dreamweaver Dave’s Salmon Slappers seemed to work the best. Another program we are trying to dial ourselves in on is the MC Rocket program, which are pieces of rubber that are being used as a replacement for meat rigs. These took some good shots on our junk lines, which helped our box creep into the top 10 for a check in the tourney. We have tried to stay away from the numbers thing recently, but when you can say you had 35-40 kings hooked up in a day that’s worth bragging about! 6/4 – Day 1 of the Niagara Pro/Am – We knew right where we needed to be at 6am when they allowed us to drop our lines for the start of the tourney. However, when we got there the picture wasn’t nearly as good as it was on Friday, and we had lost a few degrees in water temperature. There were still some fish in there, so we gave it a shot. We quickly got on the dink bite, and figured out that this wasn’t a good thing. So, we pointed the boat NW and out we trolled. We got back on them a few miles West and out in the 200-225’ range. We also started to dial in the program that gave us a nice jump on day 2. With the skippy’s being an issue we started to pin our cheaters 5-10’ above our main lines on our Cannon DT-10s. We also went to a Magnum Spoon Program. We have been seeing some rather large Alewives in the stomachs of these Chinooks while we are cleaning them for customers. We also thought it would deter the smaller fish from taking shots at them. The Dreamweaver Moon Cricket in a mag size was starting to take over for the top dog in our program. It was set on our 85’ rigger, and our 325’ wire. Others like the Northern King Sea Sick Waddler and the Dreamweaver Glow Frog contributed too. We would be back to the dock by 10:30 with our box of 12 Kings, and we weren’t the only boat back, so we knew others had to have had a knock out day too. When we finally hit the scales we had about a hundred pound box, and noticed there was a lot of those going around. We figured ourselves to be outside the top twenty, and we knew we had some ground to catch up on day 2, but we knew it wasn’t going to be hard as long as we could dial in the big guys like we had late in the morning. Those morning skippy’s really hurt us, and we realized that there were no Dreamweaver mags to be found at any tackle shop in the Niagara region! 6/5 – Day 2 of the Niagara Pro/Am – When we got out to our water and scanned it we saw that it was blank, again. That’s the problem with a big blow and the huge river that dumps into that end of the lake. Nothing stays the same for very long! Temp dropped a bit, and the screen just wasn’t there, so on plane we went heading West towards the bar. As we passed the six mile area we started to watch the surface temps creep up. We shut down at four mile and the screen lit up. We put down our Mag program, and rods just started flying. Fish after fish hit the deck, and our cooler started to pile up with Kings, and they were all pretty good sized too! We tried to run the same program we ran the last few days with riggers, divers, and coppers, but we just couldn’t get it all in. Our riggers were firing at 60-125’ down, our wires were out 275-325’ on 1.5 and a 2, and the coppers from 400-600. Those Dreamweaver Moon Cricket Magnums were on fire so bad that we had to retire one because the tape was shredded and coming off the spoon by the end of the morning. We finished our box at 8:27, and we took a nice ride back to the marina. When our box hit the scales we had the second biggest box of the tourney weighed in at a little over 270, which is a 150lb box of fish. By the end of the tourney we had the third largest box between the two days and jumped from 25th to 5th place out of 50 really good professional boats. I have to give it to my brother for dialing in that magnum program. He started with one of them down on his rigger, and quickly hawged the only 4 we had on the boat by Sunday morning.

Here are links to our Facebook and Twitter pages: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Crazy-Yankee-Sportfishing/76184471193 http://twitter.com/#!/Crazy_Yankee_SF

5/28 – Fun fished with Dad and some friends We left the dock a little late because we had to wait for my father and uncle to drive the hour trip from Rochester to Wilson. We left the dock about 7:30/8am and headed offshore to see if the Salmon were still out there from the week before. We set down in 300’ of water and kept her pointed North with 3 rods fished off our Cannon DT 10’s, 2 Walker Deeper Divers, and a pair of junk lines run off our Otter Boats. It didn’t take long and we were into fish. Just about everything we put down was taking fish. Northern King Sea Sick Waddlers, Stinger Purple Alewife’s, Stinger Gin and Tonic, Dreamweaver SS Glow Froggy, and many many more throughout the course of the day. We started the day with flasher/fly type baits on our wires, but they would only take one shot, which is when we switched over to a 100% spoon program. Riggers were parked in the top 100’ fishing the marks we were seeing on our Humminbird fish finder. All classes of Salmon were out there, but more 1 and 2 yr olds than 3 yr olds. We didn’t attempt to take any Coho, but we did see them rolling on the surface from time to time. Overall it was a great day, and the ol’ man had a blast. Anything has to be better than sitting in the house all day! Everyone tied into a fish, or two, or three, and we all ate like Kings. 5/29 – Charter Today we had John and his family charter us. This has turned into a family tradition the last few years. The first year John brought his daughter and her friends as a graduation present, but ever since then it has been his wife, son and daughter accompanying him. Being Memorial Day weekend the Salmon masses have moved off to other parts of the Lake so a few Kings are common, but it’s generally a Coho deal. Given our extremely cold winter and cold spring the Salmon are just getting started, so they were in for a treat! We ran offshore in some pretty thick fog very early. I don’t think there were more than 1 or 2 boats out there before us. Radar has been a very nice luxury this year! Again, we set out a typical program which consisted of three rods fished off our Cannon DT-10’s, 2 Walker Deeper Divers, and three junk lines (5 color, 10 color, and a 300 copper). Fishing was just as good as the day before for us, and the same lures took fish, but that Northern King Sea Sick Waddler was the hero of the day. Just couldn’t keep it down! We also were able to get a little fly bite on our 300 copper pulling a Wonderdot SmartFish/A-TOM-MIK shredded Glow Hammer. We would go flat around 11;30/12 o’clock, and go on the search with the boat pointed South so we could get through the debris field on a troll instead of on plane. About 1:30 we trolled into about 225, and the action just exploded. First the wire took off for Canada pulling a Dreamweaver Gator Mag. That fish would hit the deck and the 10 color pulling a Stinger Black Widow started to load up. A short battle and that fish hit the deck, and before we could clean the floor off the Northern King Sea Sick Waddler on the corner rigger started throbbing. In the end we would take three low teen kings within 30 minutes to end the day and complete our box on what turned out to be a spectacular day. Highlight of the day would be the 8lb Brown Trout taken over 350’ of water on our 10 color core pulling a Stinger Gin and Tonic. 5/30 – Memorial Day fishing First and foremost I want to say thank you to all who have fought for our freedom, which allows us to do things like fish and enjoy the outdoors. Today was a lazy day spent with the girlfriend. We slept in till 8am. Went and had breakfast at the corner café in Wilson called Lucy Lou’s, and then FINALLY we made it out for some fun fishing. The fishing trip didn’t start off the way I would have liked. When we left the Wilson Boatyard marina I realized I might need a little more gas than what I had, so I busted a ‘U’ turn and headed back in to drop a c-note in the tank. After that embarrassing move we were finally ready to head out to the lake. We were greeted by the thickest fog I have ever been in, and we pushed through monitoring the radar the whole way at about 10mph all the way out to 300’ of water. We set up slowly in the thick fog and watched as fish swam through our spread with very little action. Finally, the Walker Deeper Diver on the starboard side starts singing and Melanie was into her first real Lake Ontario hog. Not to mention it was on her favorite lure the Dreamweaver SS Dirty White Boy. I guess it catches those golden boots in Lake Erie too for her. She quickly found out why I love these Salmon oh so much over here on Lake Ontario as this heavy teen pumped the rod and splashed on the surface in between its drag screaming runs. We would go on to boat that fish as well as a bunch of jacks throughout the day. Given our late start I had no doubt the fishing wouldn’t be fast and furious, but there was enough action to keep us interested. The Northern King Sea Sick Waddler was again the go to lure for us fished off our Cannon DT-10’s. The 10 color also had its fair share of rips pulling a Stinger Black Widow. We would pull lines around 5pm, and it seemed as if the fishing was just starting to pick up, and the fog was finally lifting. However, she had a two hour trek back to Erie, and I had some scrubbing and cleaning to do on the boat. All in all it was a fun relaxing day to end a long weekend. The pro/ams will be here the next few weeks, and we are super pumped to get out there and compete. We will have many days on the water over the next 2 weeks, but the reports will have to wait until after the Orleans event.

May 20 & 21 The fishing on the West end has been tough the past few weeks. We are used to huge catches of Kings this time of year, but with the cold Winter and Spring we’ve had coupled with all the East winds the King bite just hasn’t materialized. I’d also want to mention that the Kings we are catching are so chuck full of bait by the time we are fishing in the morning they have their bellies filled with smelt and alewives. We left the dock Friday morning around 6:30am with our crew and headed down to the famous Niagara Bar. The only problem we faced was the dense fog that met us at the pier heads. That now makes two weekends where we learned how important radar on a boat can be. We stopped short because we weren’t interested in hitting another boat, or floating debris coming down from the Niagara River. The first few hours were slow. We finally got into a decent Coho bite on the surface and the corner rigger fires. I knew it had to be a Salmon, and then the line started peeling out. Within a few minutes a nice mid teens King Salmon was flopping around on the deck. We finished the day with a decent box of fish, but only one of those was a King. The King took a Dreamweaver SS Daves Salmon Slapper, and the Cohos were taking Challenger Puerto Rican’s. When we got back to the dock Friday afternoon we quickly learned the bite was tough, and very few King bites were had. We were also very surprised to learn that inside the King we caught was 19 Smelt. Saturday morning came, and the game plan was to go back down to the Niagara bar and grab some Cohos and hope for a king bite or two. When we got down there the Coho bite was much tougher than the day before. It seemed like they were off the body bait bite, and orange spoons were the ticket. A Dreamweaver SS Orange Slurpee and a Honeybee were our top togs of the morning. By later afternoon we noticed quite a few boats heading offshore, which we thought was interesting. So, our curiosity got the best of us and we pointed the boat NE and trolled out to see what the big deal was. Well, we found out quickly why everyone was running out there. Warmer water, and a lot of fish turned a slow day into a great day. We didn’t have to compete with the bait out there, like we did on the inside, and the mature Salmon were on the feed. Our riggers from 60’ to the surface were taking fish as were our short cores run off our otter boats. Everything we took came on spoons, but no one spoon stood alone as the top dog of the afternoon. The mix of fish out there was amazing. 9 miles offshore and there were Brown Trout, Lake Trout, Rainbows, and of course Kings. May 22 - Fun with some Family Our charter canceled on us earlier in the week, so we had an opening in our schedule. I really wanted to get my cousins kids out on the boat to take them fishing, so that’s exactly what we did. After experiencing the fast and furious bite offshore the day before we were filled with a ton of energy to get back out there to lay the smack down on some Kings. We left the dock at 6:30 and off we went. We got out there and it didn’t take long to get rods firing. Our riggers from 30-60’ down and our short cores were taking shots regularly. The Dreamweaver SS Midnight Special was our best spoon of the morning. We couldn’t find another color that was as consistent all morning, and we went through a ton of them. On the short cores it was the Dreamweaver SS Orange Slurpee and the same Honeybee from the day before. The mix of fish was still out there, and all classes of fish were caught. The big kings were a little too big for the kids, but they fought them like champs, and were amazed at how big the fish were. It was a great morning, and it was sad to see it end so soon.

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!

I wish, but no it didn't.

It really was a great specimen.

Thanks guys!

May 7th - We left the dock at 6:30am and headed out to see what Lake O had to offer up. Fishing reports were spotty. A few kings being taken, but word on the street was that it would be a Coho/Laker bite, and indeed that’s what it was. Although, we set up for Brown Trout first thing, but we quickly pulled off that virtually non-existent bite and headed deeper. The weather was much better after a little rain cell came through, but the gnats became unbearable, and made fishing not seem so fun. Gnats crawling in your ear and up your nose all while swarming your head just took the fun of being out there away. We spent at least an hour cleaning the boat when we got back to the dock, but even as we left the marina Sunday evening reminisce of them were still found on the boat. As we got out deeper the Coho gear went out and we started to pick at the Coho’s. We fished from 100-200’, and at times the screen was unreal. Flat lines with Brad’s Thin Fish seemed to be our hottest bait. But we also took a few off the 5 color cores with Dreamweaver SS Coyote’s. Our riggers and divers were basically dead with the exception of one Lake Trout. We ended the day with a nice box of fish. Sorry for the lack of pictures for this trip, but other than fighting a fish no one wanted to be outside getting swarmed by the gnats. May 8th - Morning Trip - The ‘Ol mans first ride on the new ride! - Uncle Eric picked up my father Sunday morning and brought him down for his maiden voyage on the YT3. Our ladies spent the night with us on the boat, so at 8am we left the dock for what would turn out to be a great morning. We headed a touch West, and decided to set up in shallow and work out deep looking for a few Kings. Our spread consisted of 3 riggers all with sliding cheaters, 2 wire divers, and some short cores fished off our Otter Boats. It didn’t take long and we had our first rigger shot. We had a pair of Dreamweaver Glow Froggy’s down 50’ when we started to hear a reel scream. The ‘Ol man was tied into his first King in quite some time! We would end up boating 5 Kings and a few Coho by 11:30, and we had to head in to pick up our afternoon trip. The Brad’s Thin Fin’s were the ticket again on the surface for those Coho’s, but the Kings would all come from one rigger pulling those Glow Froggy’s. May 8th - Afternoon - We left the dock a little after 1pm. We knew there were some fish out there, but we also realized it was the middle of the day with bright sun shining down on us. Oh, and the Lake was flat as glass too. We would watch the surface temperature get as warm as 56 degrees at one point, but low 50’s were the norm on the surface for most of the day. Below us it was 44-46 degree’s depending on how deep we got. We set up with some Coho gear, and during the middle of the day that saved our butt by giving us some action. The Coho’s were all over that same Brad’s Thin Fin that has been so hot for us. Our guys even had us fillet up one of those Cohos to experience some Lake Ontario Sushi. I may need to keep some Wasabi and Soy Sauce on the boat during future outings. Our box was filling up with Cohos, and at 5pm we decided to pull off them and look for a few Kings. We didn’t leave the Coho bite for long and we were hooked into our first King. Northern King Sea Sick Waddler fished on our 60’ rigger would go on to take 2 of the Kings, and That Dreamweaver Glow Froggy down 50’ would take the third. It was getting late and we needed to clean some fish, so out came the fillet knife. Cleaning fish must attract other fish, because every time we start rods fire. The first rod to go while cleaning fish was that Dreamweaver Glow Froggy. He was a little King, and we put him back to grow up. Right at the end the 300’ Copper would take off pulling a Dreamweaver Spin Doctor/A-TOM-MIK Hypnotist fly. As that fish neared the back of the boat I could tell it wasn’t the color of a King. When it got to the net I could see it was a HUGE Atlantic Salmon. Great end to a good trip!

Yup.......Oh well......More tourneys to come!

Yes you do. We have the display too, but I just thought it was cool to have all that info in one place on the FF. P.S. Please don't notice the secret bait on the dash.....LOL

Well, it was game on this past weekend! The first tourney of the season, which is what we call the “kick off†of Salmon season as Lake Ontario knows it. Each Spring the King of the Lake starts their series in Port Dalhousie around the end of April. We have taken part in this tourney for the last few years, but we could never ever put two solid days together when mother nature allows us to fish the whole tourney. April 29th (Practice/Big Fish Friday) - We started from the Wilson Boatyard a little later than expected all because the team needed a Box of Joe from Dunkin! Let’s just say that even though $15k was on the line this weekend we still go out there just to have a good time with friends and family during tournaments. We dropped in a mile or two East of the Welland Canal and began our practice. We ran a simple 3 rigger, 2 slide diver, 2 short core program pulling all spoons. The water temps were OK, but the water was dirty. We trolled the Welland area for most of the morning, but all we could manage was a few small Lakers, a small Rainbow, a small Atlantic, and a barley legal Chinook. We had some fish under us, but we just couldn’t get a solid King bite going in there. Previous knowledge, and the cold Spring, made our decision around 11am to run West very easy. Oh yeah, and the fact we weren’t doing anything off the Welland helped too. We set down a mile or two West of Port Dalhousie and began trolling West once again. The water was really stained still, but we had a little better temperature. We also had some fish on the screen. We ended up pulling out some Mag Stingers and down went a Gin and Tonic and a Glow Mixed Veggies on the riggers. Shortly there after we were hooked into our first real King! We ended up boxing three good Kings that afternoon and we were back at the dock around 5pm. A long day on the water, but the roominess of our new Trojan made it all that much better! April 30th (Day 1) - We had no other option than to head over to our waypoints from the afternoon before. We blast off and make the short run along with a few other boats. We were happy to see the fleet head East. When we pulled into our area there was about a dozen boats with us. We set lines with the same program and waited. We let that program soak for 30 minutes and then it was time to start switching lures out. One of our team members pulled out a Stinger Black Widow in a Stingray size and put that down on the rigger. It wasn’t long and we were tied into our first King of the morning. We would go on to box out by 8:30 and then pick up one more after that to upgrade us just a little. That Stinger Black Widow went down on another rigger along with our Stinger Sea Sick Waddler and all three riggers would take fish. Our 5 color cores and our slide divers were just dead. It was all riggers for us with the exception of one wire diver bite at the end of the morning bite. We were team number nine so we weighed in fairly quickly and watched as 46 other teams weighed in behind us. At the end of the day we were sitting in 4th place, but I knew it was going to be tough to stay up there. With the top boxes coming from our area, and a screen that wasn’t as good in the afternoon as it was in the morning, I had a funny feeling……. May 1st (Day 1) - My premonition was spot on as we blasted off to the West so did about 2/3’s of the rest of the boats. We settled in on what looked to be combat fishing in front of the Salmon River and began our troll. Before we could get fully set up our wire diver took a shot and we were tied into our first king. This diver had a Stinger Black/Silver w/ a glow cup. We put the first fish in the box and we were pumped. With so much boat traffic, and waypoints from the previous day a little further West we just kept trolling. Bad decision! We should have turned on that fish and worked the area. Well, we would wait almost 2 hours before our next bite, and it would be on that same set-up. After that we went dead for the rest of the day. At the end of the day the early bite in that area was key for boxing out, and we just flat out missed it, and trolled right through it on our way to some waypoints. We weighed in a measly two Chinooks, and fell to 23rd place overall. So, the first tourney is under our belt. We learned a little bit about the new Trojan, and we also did pretty darn good considering we have never “King†fished her before. She ran GREAT all weekend without even a hiccup. We couldn’t be more happy with our decision on this boat, and I am sure there will be many more GREAT days had on her. With that being said we have some great fishing ahead of us. The Kings this year look to be healthy, and boy did a few of them fight like maniacs this weekend. The largest Salmon taken at the tourney was 26 pounds and change, but there were also a lot in the 16-20 pound range as well. Given this cold Winter/Spring you may have to wait a little longer for them to get to the bar, but they will be there soon in great numbers.

LOL...you would have thought they did. It was like that non-stop for the mile or so we trolled it.

LOL.....funny

With the Spring King of the Lake in Dalhousie just a week away I spent my Easter making sure our tackle was in tourney mode. However, before I spent the whole day down at the Wilson Boatyard a few friends jumped on board to do a little fishing. We pulled away from the dock at 7am and headed East out of the chute. We set up a Brown Trout program, and headed down to the red barn in search mode. The water was complete mud for about a quarter mile, and then it gradually got better. It may still have been a little too dirty, but we spent a few hours in there anyway. Even with the extra dirty water we managed some action in there. We took a few Brown Trout and a few Coho on our troll down and back. Our best sticks where white/chartruse, which we have found to be a great color pattern in that dirty water. Rattlin’ Rogues and Rapala’s in the F7 size took most of the fish. The last Coho of the morning was your typical Coho. We had a red Brad’s Thin Fin down the chute 50’ back. This fish was 12-14†long and when he hit the rod slammed down like a 20lb King just whacked it. It was pretty exciting! We would pull offshore about 9 or 10 o’clock so I could get used to running some wire divers in their new positions on the Trojan, because we set this boat up a little different than the Bayliner. When we hit 40 or 50’ of water the screen jut lit up and it was solid marks all the way out to 80’. We were slapping our Humminbird thinking it was broken, because we never moved a rod trolling through that for an hour! That’s all the time we gave it and it was time to head back to the dock. The rest of the day was spent spooling up our downrigger rods with some fresh McCoy Mean Green fishing line and fluorocarbon, putting twilli-tips on the wire diver rods, spooling up some short cores, putting away the Brown Trout stuff, and a list of other things. It’s off to Dalhousie on Thursday. We are super excited to fish our first tournament of the season. Let’s hope the Kings show up to play with all this unstable/cold weather Mother Nature has thrown at us this Spring.

Yup! I was showing off to the girls and said "this is how I did it in the bass world" as I was reeling in a 4lb BT. I got it skiing across the top of the water and tried to flip it into the boat.......SNAP! LOL.....oh well.....lesson learned!

After a short delay on Friday night Saturday morning rolled around and it was time to head up to Wilson. We pulled out of the Genesee river and found out the East wind from Friday pushed the milk chocolate water right down to Braddocks. When we got to Braddock point we began setting up, but it just wasn’t fishable. The South wind was cranking, so we decided to continue our run West. As we got past Watoma shoal we saw the wind wasn’t affecting the short water and pulled in to fish. I was unable to get 8 rods in the water from the get go. The inside board was loaded with brightly colored stickbaits, and the outside board had some natural colors. We never went shallower than 10’, and hung out in the low to mid teens for most of the trek West to Devils Nose where we would call it a day as far as fishing would go. Water temp was 43 degrees right through that stretch, and the water had plenty of color to it. We hit every cold water species with the exception of an Atlantic Salmon. A few ticks East of Sandy we hooked into another mid teens Brown Trout. It took a Rattlin’ Rogue 150’ on the outside board. Lots of great Brown Trout, a Domestic Rainbow, and even a Lake Trout fell victim to our presentations. Finally, as we pulled up on Devil’s Nose the same Rattlin’ Rogue takes off, and this one was pulling some drag. A few short minutes later, and Melanie is holding onto her first ever Chinook Salmon. We estimated it around 13-15 pounds, and put it back to fight another day just like we did with that bruiser Brown Trout. After we got to Devil’s Nose the wind really started whipping again, and we were all hungry, so it was off to the Black North Inn. We finished the day by pulling into the Wilson Boatyard, and putting the YT3 into it’s home for the next month and a half. What a Spring it’s been! Reports of GREAT fishing up and down the South shore are coming in every day. Let’s hope it continues on for the rest of the season. Next week we are off to Port Dalhouse for the first King of the Lake event. A tourney we ALWAYS look forward to.

So far so good. I loved my Cisco's, but these are growing on me. The one nice thing about these is they are totally one hand operable. The Cisco's really needed two hands. These seem to be built like a tank though.

Here is the new Yankee Troller! We are very excited, and we have been putting a lot of work into her over the last month, but the list of things to do just seems to not go away! What we've done so far: Humminbird 1157 (FF) Humminbird 958 (GPS) 3 - Cannon DT-10's w/ CannonLink Atlantic Towers Arch Cannon Dual Axis Rod Holders and Track Big John Electric Planer Reels Coastal Night Lights LED Spreaders New Canvas Re-finished the Teak Tons of other little things!

I ran them for the first time this weekend for some Spring Brown Trout action. We ran the red with the squiggly lines and the one that's green on the back and yellow on the bottom with white in between. Both took some BT's. Cant wait to get the red one out there when the Cohos show up. I bought the Brads. Never used the Storm version.

They sure are adrenalin! I look forward to those few weeks every year. With the right gear even those small fish can be a ton of fun!

We plan on it Wheeler!