Yankee Troller

We always move the swivel in the back to the hole with more whip.

It got a lot worse after those pics. built up to 2-4' waves and it pushed the mud plume form the Genesee River right down the shore which killed the fishing.

The mud coming out of the Genesee River made fishing from Irondequoit Bay to Ship Builders Creek almost impossible. We didn't hook up with our first fish till we passed Ship Builders. We tried to keep the boat between 8-11' of water, although later in the day it was bumpy and this became almost impossible. We ran a mix of stickbaits (J7 and J9 Rapalas, Smithwicks, Kabooms, and Matzuo) in both natural and bright colors off the planer boards. We also had two downriggers in the mix pulling a variety of light spoons down 2-5'. Water clarity varied from mud to gin clear, and we had temps from 39 degrees up to 44 degrees. Mostly a Brown Trout bite with a drop back Rainbow Trout and an Atlantic in the mix. Our two best fish happened to be Brown Trout. One was 8 pounds and the other was 9 pounds on the boga. Here are some pictures of our catch:

With the Great Lakes getting cleaner and cleaner there is an even greater need to go to fluorocarbon leaders. Anyone who steelhead fishes the rivers can attest to going from 6lb flouro leaders to 4lb on days when the pressure is intense. Bass guys are going lighter on their flouro to generate an extra bite or two on tough days too. Will a flouro leader catch you 15 more fish a day? Probably not, but 1 or 2 extra bites is generally worth it. With that being said, we used the new McCoy Flourocarbon last year. We use McCoy mono on all rods needing mono. We had no complaints about it. We used Gamma on all our fly leaders and that was great line, but i also heard the rumor they weren't making fishing line anymore. Seguar is a good choice. it has been around for a long time, and many people use it. To replace the gamma we are going to Ande flouro this year. I should have some good practice with it by mid summer. Any name brand flouro will work. The stuff isn't cheap, but dont let that mean you are going to buy a discount fluorocarbon. You may pay the price of a trophy!

Gottcha, Pink Ande was a staple on Lake Ontario back when my dad and his buddies were chasing Salmon and Trout.

Roller rods are not needed. Get a 9'6" Daiwa Heartland or Uglystick and that is all you need. The Saltist 50 will hold 300' of 45lb copper no problem. I have heard maybe even 350'. That's the reel you want for copper and cores. get the 6.4:1 gear ratio model. I ran that last year for my 10 color cores and i will have them for my 300 coppers this year. You can get away with 30 or 40lb backing for a 300 copper, but when you go over 300' of copper you NEED to go to a 50lb backing. On Lake Ontario we use 300 yards of backing on our copper rigs.

If your going to use a leader line why wouldn't you use a Fluorocarbon line?

I have been running these for about 2 years now, and I LOVE them. You can dial in the amount of whip with the dial. If you hold it head down you will see a 12 near the center hole. Next look for the fin with the nipple on it. 11 O'Clock is the setting that took that tourney catch in the picture. Gives the fly lots of whip. My 600 copper cold water lazy setting is about an 8:30. Not much whip. You can turn it to 4 O'Clock for a little different action that seems to do well too. If you visit my website there are videos of some of the different settings. It wasn't easy to take these videos with the different variables involved, but the owner tried his best. By the way the guy who made these is the same guy who started Big John Downriggers. Big John Emory. One heck of a guy!

There are definitely some pigs in Lake O! Not like it used to be with the 40ln'ers, but a 30lb fish is still a nice Trophy for the Great Lakes. 2009 August - 28lbs 2009 September - 31.14 2009 August - Mid 20's 2009 August - Mid 20's 2009 August - Mid 20's 2009 August - Mid 20's Mid July 2009 - Tourney Catch w/ a few 20lb'ers Mid June 2009 - 26lbs

Labor day weekend! My charter took the one on the left which weighed 31.14lbs and my buddy took the one on the right almost at the same time which weighed 31.12. That morning was simply a morning you dream about. We had between 6-8 majors hooked in the first hour and a half. Complete mayhem! The fish may not look big because it is held in front of me and I'm weighing in at about 270! Here is the lucky fella who caught it....unfortunately my camera had a water spot on the lens and that's why the right hand part of the picture is so blurry.

I used it as backing on my 10 color a few years back. Lets just say there was an issue with it bleeding all over your hands when it got wet.

matt - sorry for the delayed response.....I will have to check my e-mail notifications in my profile. As for the Ciscos.....I waited a long time and tried and played with all brands of rod holders. If you want a rod holder with infinite adjustability this is the one. The craftsmanship of the machining is amazing too. Definitely a one time purchase that will last you fora long time. Thanks for the comments boyz! She is a fine ride and suits her purpose, but we may be upgrading in a few years. A-Fishy-Anado --> thanks for the kind words on the reports......I like writing about them as much as i do living them. We have been fortunate the last few years to have some GREAT days on the water. However, there are many tough days too, and I like to keep consistent and post both instances. I feel we learn much mroe on the tough days than the easy days.

They are a great way to store dipseys. I have a few, and I don't get the kinked dipsey leader from wrapping it around the dispey anymore.

Not sure if I already participated in this thread. Anyway, here is our ride. In Action From the bridge From left to right (Copper, High Wire, Low Wire, Rigger) Quartering shot

Hit up Crackberry.com for any and all answers to you phone. I recently purchased my first BB and those people over there have schooled me very well. A lot of these questions can be answered over there.

I don't see the need for it I guess. I am running Scotty's with 250lb Power Pro. I have run up to 20lb weights (sharks) in up to 4-6's without ANY issues. When it gets rough I try not to put that much stress on the line, and i downsize to 15lb'ers.

I put myself on the fish every time I head out, well except for tournies! Wilson in May and the Oak in July-September. Cant beat either of them! West end of Lake O rocks.

Thanks! I appreciate that! Writing these reports allows me to re-live the day, and during the winter I can re-live them A LOT!

9/12 - We headed out to 40' of water to give that same line a try from the previous week. The screen looked decent, but the fish that were there had lock jaw! We played in there for an hour or so before we made the decision to head offshore. We set up on the 28N line and worked our way out to the 34N line. We picked fish the whole way out and then on the way back. The waves made for some interesting footwork. Each member of the crew fought their fish sitting on the cooler. At times we had waves as high as our flybridge. It wasn't very fun, but at least the fish were cooperating. We ended up going 6-14. Mostly Steelies in the 4-9lb range and a small King. Our program consisted of Stinger Gator Glows on the corner rigger parked at 60', Stinger 42nd's parked at 65 on the other corner rigger, and NK Copper NBK's on the center rigger parked at 50. Our wires set on a 3 setting out 120 and 150 took a few shots with an NK 42nd Mag and a Dreamweaver Gator Mag. The 10 color down the chute (knot in the water) popped a few times pulling a Dreamweaver VQ Green Dolphin. 9/13 - On this morning we figured we would give the wall a shot considering a few boats took 2-4 Salmon off it the morning prior. Well, by the time we got out there were 25 boats trying to fish 1 wall. We made one pass and that was enough battle for me! So we headed out the Steelies we played with the day before. We stopped in on the 29N line and trolled out to the 32N line. We took 1 shot in about an hour on a Stinger gator Glow down 60 on the corner rigger. Waves weren't as bad as the day before, but it still wasn't any fun out there. One guy got really sick so his crew felt bad for him, and we headed back to the dock.

Sure was!

$100/day/division

Yes, each division has a big fish of the day prize.

Finished 12th! AND it was the big fish of the day on the entire lake.

9/5 (Mornin') - This morning we did a little Derby fishing (LOC). My father, Uncle, Brother, and I hit the water about 6:30. We dropped in around the 70' mark and started deploying lines. We ran a simple 3 rigger, 2 wires,and 3 junk line spread. The morning would be very disappointing yet eventful! We went on to drop our first 7 screamers! Actually one happened to be a Stealhead in the 12-15lb mark, but the rest bent our hooks while tearing line from our reels! Finally, at 1pm we would go on to boat a 5" Salmon while checking lines. Shortly there after our 300 copper rod took off with a Green E-Chip pulling an A-TOM-MIK Green Crinkle. That would be our first REAL fish to hit the deck this morning. We took shots on a Dreamweaver Green Mongoose plug, Green SmartFish pulling an A-TOM-MIK Hypnotist, Mtn. Dew E-Chip pulling an A-TOM-MIK TG fly, White SmartFish pulling an A-TOM-MIK White Halo, and a Slippery Frog Spinny pulling an A-TOM-MIK Purple Mirage. Riggers parked from 50 to the bottom, wires out from 150-210 and 10 color cores, 300 copper, and a 400 copper all took shots. We finished at 2pm with 10 shots. 9/5 (Evening) - My brother, his buddy Adam, my girlfriend, and I headed back out at 3:30pm and fished till 8pm. It was an exciting few hours to say the least. We would take 7 shots and boat 6 of them. The largest being just shy of 29lbs. We hit a double off our riggers shortly after we started trolling. One took a Mtn. Dew E-Chip pulling an A-TOM-MIK TG fly, and the other took a Green SmartFish pulling an A-TOM-MIK Hypnotist. Our next double would come from the 300 copper pulling a Green E-Chip/A-TOM-MIK Green Crinkle and the same Green SmartFish pulling an A-TOM-MIK Hypnotist. During this battle we tried to clear the 400 copper down the chute only to have it wad up in our double. While we were playing with that mess the 180 wire took off pulling a Green SmartFish/A-TOM-MIK Green Crinkle. We would boat 2 of the 3 fish. The next two fish would take the 300 copper and that Green E-Chip/A-TOM-MIK Green Crinkle combo. A fun night with some great fish! 9/6 - With the anticipation of that morning bite we left the dock a few ticks before 6am. We set up in 70' of water and all I could get was 6 rods in the water before we had our first big guy on. He took a LJ Green Glow J-Plug fished of our 10 color. While that fish was out there our 150 wire pulling a Green SmartFish/A-TOM-MIK Hypnotist starts throbbing. We're doubled! We ended up loosing the fish on the J-Plug, but boated the small guy off the wire. Got set back up with 7 rods in the water and the Green Smartfish on our corner rigger took a shot. It had an A-TOM-MIK Hypnotist behind it. As that one was making his run the other 10 color with that same J-Plug takes off. We're doubled AGAIN! We ended up dropping both.Get set back up and the other corner rigger fires. This guy had some shoulders! He hit a Mtn. Dew E-Chip pulling an A-TOM-MIK TG fly. Shortly there after we were clearing a 10 color when on the retrieve a Salmon Whacks the J-PLug. Thinking we were tangled in the fish on we let it go on a light drag. Well, it was a different fish and we would end up loosing that! Almost to the boat and the center rigger fires with a Dreamweaver Slippery Frog pulling an A-TOM-MIK Purple Mirage. Finally we boat this bruiser and its a PIG! We put it on the Berkley scale and it bounces between 31 and 32. Everyone is High-Fiving! Thinking the scales opened at 8am and it was 7:40am we headed for the weigh station. Well, it didn't open till 9am! So we sat for an hour during a fast and furious bite. When the fish hit the scales we put a 31.14lb Salmon on the LOC leaderboard! Now its 9:30 and we are headed back out to the lake. We took 7 shots in an hour and a half, and had a great anticipation of what else was to come. Even though we knew it would be tough to top a 31lb Salmon. Once we set-up it didn't take long and we were into another fish. In the next hour we would boat one and drop 2 Salmon. After that we wouldn't move a rod the rest of the trip. 31.14lbs was what the derby scales said HE weighed! This fish happens to be the largest fish to hit the deck of our boat in 10 years. A true TROPHY, and its what we look forward to catching this time of year. Fall fishing can produce some GIANT fish, but it is also a time when the Salmon get moody while they await their trip up the creek or river.

Thanks guys! Next year cant come fast enough!