Yankee Troller

FUNNY! Back to those fertile waters of Western Lake O!

So, this past weekend was the Scotty event out of the Port of Oswego. Considering we are a deep water team, and we had two top 10 finishes on the East end of the Lake this year, we thought it was going to be a good tourney. Well, we were wrong! Fishing was TOUGH, but the good times had both on the water and at the dock made up for it. Saying goodbye to all the tourney teams until next April, and talking about the 2009 highlights made for some good laughs. Friday 21st (Practice) - We went out and dropped our lines at 80'. The picture on our fish finder was amazing. We worked the 80-150' depths East down to the Power Plant with just one fish. My custom SmartFish (Green blade/Crushed Glow on the back/Twinkie tape on the front) pulling an A-TOM-MIK Hypnotist was the combo that took a dark 18lb Salmon. He hit on the wire diver. We then pushed North out to the 400' area and worked that West past the college. We took 2 shakers out there, but it just didn't look as fishy as the inside waters. So, to finish the day we headed back into 150' of water and trolled it East back to the Oswego River mouth. With minutes to go before we picked up our lines the Wire out 350' starts singing! We were battling another nice Salmon. This was the same combo mentioned above that the fish took. At the end of the day we heard the bite was tough for EVERYONE, and figured we should stick it out in that shallow water and see if we could scratch out our 5 Salmon. Saturday 22nd (Day 1) - Well, we headed straight out and the screen was still loaded with fish. So we set out our usual 8 rod tourney spread (3 downriggers, 2 wires, and 3 junk lines). Everything but the middle rigger had flasher/fly combos. Our first fish took a Wonderbread SmartFish pulling an A-TOM-MIK Glow Hammer down 120 over 120 on the rigger. Another one of our keepers would take a Chrome E-Chip pulling an A-TOM-MIK B-Fly later in the day on our wire diver out 180. Those would be the only two fish we would catch on day 1. We lost a salmon on a wire diver throughout the day, and would toss back 2 short fish and a Brown Trout. After everyones catches hit the scales we were sitting in 17th out of 37 teams. Well within striking distance of another top 10. A total of 3 limits were brought to the scales all taken 20+ miles from Oswego. Sunday 23rd (Day 2) - Well, since we were unfamiliar with the water 20 miles away we figured we would stick it out in front of Oswego again. The fish were there, but they were just not eating. WE figured if we could scratch of 3-4 fish we would be contending for a top 10, which in this tough tourney wasn't a bad thing. However this day wasn't as good as the previous two. We would go 1 for 4! Our lone fish took a Northern King Glow Froggy (white cup) fished 240 out on our wire diver. We lost a screamer on a 375 wire, a fish off our 240 rigger, and a fish off our 700 copper throughout the day. All of which were various flasher/fly combos. That one fish would drop us a little deeper in the standings, and leave us wondering is we should have just made the run!

Your not missing anything! He couldn't pop a release and he came in like a shoe!

Fishing out of "The Oak" continues to be strong! There are some majors hanging in that inside water (70-120) along with some skippy Salmon and decent Steelhead. If you head offshore action can be fast and furious with the Steelhead, and the Kings are right there too. Some HUGE steelhead are swimming around out there. August 15th (Morning) - We headed out with a friend from work who brought along his wife and daughter. We stopped and fished the inside water to see if we could find a few larger Salmon to play with our baits. It didn't take long and we were hooked up. First to go was a 80 rigger pulling a couple of Stingray Glow Alewives. A Small Chinook Salmon hit the deck within minutes. Next was out 180 wire pulling a White/Green dot SmartFish followed by an A-TOM-MIK Hypnotist. He made a run. Gave a few headshakes, and he was gone. We would work the inside waters for a little longer making about 4 passes total. We took 7 shots inside and managed a few fish. A nice 18lb Salmon took Ed for a ride on the 10 color pulling a NK28 Lazer Spook. That fish stood no chance to the Daiwa Saltist's gear ratio. At 6.4:1 Ed had that fish and all of the 500' of line in the boat. One surprise that we had while fishing that inside water was a beautiful 7lb Walleye. He took a NK Mag Sea Sick Waddler mupped on my 70 rigger. About 8am we pulled lines and made a dash for the 27N line. We set lines and trolled north to the 33N line picking fish the whole way. The same program that has worked for weeks produced for us this day. Stinger Gator Glows on our 80 rigger, Dreamweaver Gators on our 70 rigger, NK28 Copper NBK's on our 60 rigger. Our wires would not fire at all out there today. We tried every color combo under the sun, but I never did try just running a clean spoon! We boxed a few steelies and threw a bunch back. The highlight of the day (sorry Walleyes may be highlights to some people, but if they don't run or jump there is no highlight for me) was a 23lb King taken by the 14yr old daughter. This fish took a White/Green Dot SmartFish trailed by that A-TOM-MIK Hypnotist fly. A deadly combo the last month! She fought this pig on the 400 copper, and it didn't take it lightly on her arms. She passed out in the cabin shortly there after. The other highlight was a 11.5lb Steelhead that was jumping like mad on our 10 color fished off an Otter Boat. This fish was out of the air even before we got to the rod. He made some nice runs and tossed in a few flips. He sure thought that Stinger Copper Glow Green Alewife looked good, but all it end that lure brought him to our cooler loaded with Salmon and Steelhead! At the end of the trip we were scorched! It was flat calm and hot out there on the lake. We totaled up the bites and we ended the trip with 21 bites. Oh, by the way.....those Walleyes have some tough skin! August 15th (Evening) - We headed out to the 27N line and set rods. Just my brother, his friend, and I on this trip. We fished for about an hour and a half in between run times, and took 9 fish. We got into some big guys on the 29N line! I took a 20lb King Salmon on Stinger Gator Glow fished down 80' on the rigger. We took a 12.5lb Steelhead on a Dreamweaver Gator fished down 70 on our rigger, and at the end of the trip we lost a pig just out of net range that hit our Captain Valium combo (New Spin Doctor/ATOMIK combo - chrome spinny w/ Green dots trailed by an A-TOM-MIK Wiggler fly) fished off our 300 copper. This trip was a decision maker for the following day! August 16th (Morning) - We had the guys from Rowe Video on board today. 4 guys and a son along with my brother and I and there was a packed boat! Considering the great class of fish we had out on the 2N line we skipped the inside water. We got a call on our way out that the 26N line had a great picture, so I stopped the boat a few miles short and continued on a North troll. It didn't take long to get a few fish going, but they were rather small. Same program as the day before. As we trolled north the fish began to get larger and by 11am we had 18 fish hooked up. Our wires helped us out today as I changed up some settings and slid them a little further back. I went from a 2 back 150-210 to a 2.5 back 180-240. Should of mattered too much, but they started to fire again. One was pulling a Green SmartFish that I had custom made for me with an A-TOM-MIK Hypnotist, while the other was that deadly Gator Spin Doctor pulling an A-TOM-MIK Hypnotist.The Captain Valium combo did some damage today and took the largest steelhead of the day weighing in at 11lbs. Our big guy of the day was a solid 18lb Salmon that took the White/Green Dot SmartFish trailed by that A-TOM-MIK Hypnotist fly off our 400 copper. These guys where great and the kid took as many fish as he could get his hands on! His Salmon was just a shy smaller than the largest for the day, which I think might bring him back next year! Should have some pics posted tonight!

It sure does! I have been boxing Salmon since April over in Canada and Im almost upset it will be over in a month!

Thanks guys!

Thanks!

Another action packed weekend on Lake Ontario. The wind blew a little during the week, but the fish seemed to stay right out front of the creek. Mixed catches of Steelhead, ranging from 3-12lbs, and Salmon into the mid 20's kept us busy! August 7th (Night Scouting Trip) - Billy V, my brother, and I headed out and shut down on the 25N line. We worked North to about the 28N line and picked fish the whole way. The program didnt change much from the previous week. Gator Stingray spoons and Dreamweaver Gator SS's parked at 65 and 80 on the riggers were taking most of the fish. August 8th (Mornin) - We hit the water and were setting lines by 6am. We made a few passes in the shallow water looking for a few big guys, and ended up with one 10lb Salmon and a "Drive By" that straightened out our hook on an A-TOM-MIK Mirage Glow behind a White Double Crush Glow SmartFish. A "Drive By" is when you get a Salmon that hits the wire diver and line is ripping out before any head-shakes only to drop the bait and leave you shaking your head! Anyway, we headed out after that short time to the 25N line and began our journey out to the 29N line. We picked fish the whole way out. We took a couple of nice Salmon, but we also took a few beautiful Steelhead. One tipping the scale at 12lbs. As the day progressed it seemed as if copper colored spoons took the stage. Northern King copper NBK's and Stinger copper Glow Green Alewife's were the spoons of choice. On our copper rods we had White/Green Dot SmartFish pulling A-TOM-MIK Hypnotist flies, and Green Pro-Trolls pulling A-TOM-MIK Pro/Am Glow flies. August 8th (Evening) - Took a "fun" trip with my father and uncle. My uncle's biggest fish prior to this trip was probably a Pike. WE would change that real quick! Rods weren't even down and they started firing. We did 5 fish in the first hour. Lost a big guy, and boated a few steelhead. That same Northern King Copper NBK was firing regualryl as was a new spoon color I put down for the heck of it. A Stinger Nuclear Green parked at 65' on the rigger took two nice Salmon. The first being about 13lbs, but the next was a short, but fat, 23lb fish that took my 6'3" 275lb uncle for a ride! It took him out to 600' according to our Daiwa Sealine Line-Counter reels, and when he gained a few feet the fish would take twice as much! He had quite the grin when that fish hit the deck of the boat! The Stinger Gator Glows also accounted for a few steelies off the 80' rigger. August 9th - I was joined my Mike Avino, his brother, and both of their wives. We decided to hit up the inside water 100-120' to see if we could hook into a big guy prior to heading off to those fertile Northern waters we had been fishing the last few weeks. It didn't take long, and we were into a brute. First to go was a wire diver out 150 on a 2 setting pulling a Gator Spin Doctor/A-TOM-MIK Green Crinkle. We dumped that fish almost immediately. Not 30 seconds later the other wire out 180 on a 2 setting starts screaming! My customer SmartFish with crushed glow on the back and twinkie tape on the front pulling an A-TOM-MIK Hypnotist was hooked up. This has been my big fish rig for a few weeks now. It took us all of 30 minutes to bring htis one ot the net, and when we put it on the scale it was a nice 22-23lb specimen. We would loose one other Steelhead in that water before we turned North and started searching. Well, the searching took about an hour and we were into them thick at the 25-26 North lines.Once I dialed in the program we started to put a hurting on them. We ran Stinger Gator Glows, Dreamweaver Area 51's, and Northern King Lazer Spooks on our rigger. We pulled the two combos above on our wires, and our junk rods were a 10 color with a Northern King Copper NBK, 300 and 400 coppers had White/Green Dot SmartFish and an A-TOM-MIK Hypnotist flies. We were done by noon with a four man limit, and some seriously satisfied customers!

Thanks for the kind words Fishy. These reports take time to write, but if I can help some guys who don't get up to the lake even a little its worth it.

That place is loaded right now! Keep on em'!

This weekend was a "Gator done".........Weekend! As long as the lure was in a gator pattern it was taking fish. Spin Doctors, Stingers Spoons, and Dreamweaver SS's all took numerous fish. Saturday (August 1st) was a two trip day. We had Mike & Mike along with Mike's 2 sons aboard for the morning trip, and Greg Simmers and his gang from PA aboard for the evening trip. Both groups were a blast to fish with, and I'm pretty sure they left with soar arms. Those poor kids were battling teenage size King Salmon like champs! On the morning trip we dropped lines and were set up by 6am and it didn't take long for rods to start flying. The first few were small which gave the two young ones a chance to get used to handling the rods, but as the day went on the fish started to get bigger and bigger. On our afternoon trip it started out slow, but the last two hours of daylight was fast and furious. We fished a total of 10 hours and took a total of 24 shots. All our fish came between the 24N and 26N lines today. We fished a 7-8 rod spread this day consisting of 3 downriggers, 2 wire divers, a 10 color, and a 300 & 400 copper. On our riggers we ran Stinger and Dreamweaver Gator Glows, Northern King Sea Sick Waddlers, Dreamweaver Glow Froggy SS's, and Dreamweaver Area 51 SS's down anywhere from 40'-80'. Our wire divers out 150-175 on a 2 setting pulling Gator Spin Doctors with A-TOM-MIK Hypnotist and Green Crinkle flies were HOT all weekend. On our 10 color we had a Stinger Gator Glow firing, but we never did get one to the boat. The 400 copper took the big guy of the day tipping the scales at 25lbs. He took a Green SmartFish with an A-TOM-MIK Hypnotist fly. He hit like a freight train and didn't stop anytime soon. The 300 copper was quiet today. The other fish boated were mainly Salmon, with a couple of Steelhead tossed in. Sunday (August 2nd) was one of those days you live for! We had Greg Simmers and his gang out again and fished from 6am - 12:30pm. We ran the same program as the previous day consisting of 3 downriggers, 2 wire divers, a 10 color, and a 300 & 400 copper. We boated 18 fish tossing back a few of the smaller guys, and we lost 12-13 fish! Nothing they did would have helped, but it was just one of those days. They would make a run give a few head shakes and off they would come. These fish were vicious today! I mean we took 30 shots today! That is an AMAZING day on the lake! On our riggers we ran Stinger and Dreamweaver Gator Glows, Northern King Sea Sick Waddlers, Dreamweaver Glow Froggy SS's down anywhere from 40'-90'. Our wire divers out 150-175 on a 2 setting pulling Gator Spin Doctors with A-TOM-MIK Hypnotist and Green Crinkle flies. The 400 copper pulling a a Green SmartFish with an A-TOM-MIK Hypnotist fly, and the 300 copper pulling a Lemon Ice Dreamweaver Spin Doctor trailed by an A-TOM-MIK Hammer fly were consistent all day. At one point we were quad'd up with 4 heavy teenage - 20lb Salmon. It was hectic! We thought a triple earlier that day was exciting, but the Quad topped it easily! We ended the day with 6 Salmon between 18-20lbs, a bunch of other Salmon from 5-15lbs, and two steelhead. This weekend we came REAL close to hooking up with 60 fish in about 16 hours of fishing. The school of fish off Point Breeze right now is ridiculous, and they are hungry! Although it was an action packed weekend this is not the norm.

45# A-TOM-MIK copper. backing is 50lb power pro. the 500 and 600 copper will fit on a Penn 345. The 700 copper will only fit on a Okuma Titus 50L. The Okuma has been discontinued since last year. Good luck getting your hands on one.

Friday (Practice/Pre Tourney) - We hit the water about 6am and took a run down to Fair Haven. We heard the bite was good down there and when we pulled up the screen on our fish finder looked very good. We dropped lines and worked the waters between West Nine Mile point and the Silos West of Fair Haven. We picked away at them throughout the day, but we only had 11 bites by the days end. Our hot combos were Green Double Crush Glow SmartFish with either A-TOM-MIK Green Crinkle or Ultra Green Glow flies. Out 175 rigger and our 600 and 700 copper took most of the fish. Thats right I got me a 700 copper! Although we only took 11 bites we had a good class of fish in the area. We ended up taking 10th place in the pre-tourney they hold the Friday before each Pro-Am. Saturday (Day 1) - We used our 30 minutes of run time to head East to try to get back to our waypoints from the day before. We set down at 6am and dropped lines. It didn't take long to figure out with the current conditions that we would be in Oswego in no time, and that it would be a good idea to turn around and head back West. As we turned the boat and trolled back West rods started firing. We worked the areA right off Port Bay the rest of the day circling an area about a mile and a half long. 175/140 riggers, 350 wires, the 500, and 600 copper all took fish. Again, it was the Green SmartFish pulling A-TOM-MIK Green Crinkle and Hypnotist flies that did ALL the damage. We would box 9 fish, loose 6, and throw back 2 skippys. At the end of the day we were sitting in 13th place with a 215 point box. 2 fish out of first! So, imagine what 3 would have done for us. Our highlight of the day was a HUGE 26lb Salmon. The boats biggest fish of the season, and good for 11th place in the Summer LOC derby. Sunday (Day 2) - Again, we said that our best bet was to head back to our waypoints to the East during our free run time. We set rods in front of Port bay and it didn't take long. At one point we were tripled up with fish taking the 500 and 600 coppers and the 325 wire. Same Green SmartFish worked today. However, a custom SmartFish from Legendary really took honors today. It is a Green blade with Twinkie tape on the front and Crush Glow on the back. We put an A-TOM-MIK Pro Am Glow fly behind it and out it went on the 500 copper. It went about 4 or 5 times until one Chinook Salmon hit it and never looked back! My only paddle in that combo and it was now sitting in a fish's mouth! Oh well, stuff happens! So we continue the rest of the day picking at them and dropping our fair share of fish. WE had to wait till our 20th bite to box our 12 fish. I hate to sound like a broken record, but it was the Green SmartFish paddles with A-TOM-MIK Hypnotist, Green Crinkle, Wigglers, and Pro Am Glow flies. Once the sun came out from behind the clouds the Gator Spinny with an A-TOM-MIK Ultra Green Glow fly took our last few fish. The 500 copper was HOT today! Our riggers down 120-150 were also on fire. We boxed out at 12pm and headed in. When our box hit the scales it was a whopping 290 point box. At the end of the day it was the second largest box of the tourney. We would finish in 8th place overall. 44 points out of 1st (2 fish)! That's why its fishing and not catching! We would also end up in 4th place overall in the East End Cup race.

The longer the better for me. Most of mine are 10' leads sometimes we stretch them out to 12' Especially for paddles the longer the length the more whip you will get.

It sure does! When we first started we averaged one every other tourney. We have been on a dry run since last May in Niagara. Just missed this May in Wilson by 1 spot!

Friday (Practice) We headed West past Ford Shoals and set down in 120fow. Screen looked pretty fishy so we set lines. Our fist fish didn't come for an hour or so. We managed 4 fish the whole day! Not vary exciting for our team, but we knew where the fish were. We just had to get them to eat on tourney day! Three of our fish took a Dreamweaver Spin Doctor in a Gator pattern pulling an A-TOM-MIK Ultra Green Glow fished off a 500 copper rig. So, at the very least we had a pattern! Two of those fish were nice steelhead in the 9lb range and one was a skippy Chinook Salmon. Our last fish of the day took a wire diver out 270 pulling a 00 Orange Dodger with a Blue/Gold Coho fly. Saturday (Day 1) - We were met with some strong SW winds up to 20mph. We started right out where we had our fish from the previous day and we went an hour before our first fish hit. Our first fish was a 20" Chinook Salmon that we had to box. Next was a 8lb. Laker, and then a nice teenage Chinook Salmon. All three on a Green Double Crush Glow SmartFish pulling an A-TOM-MIK Green Crinkle. We would then take a 22lb BRUTE on a NK Mag Sea Sick Waddler. Finally, we finished off our box with another teenager that took the Dreamweaver Spin Doctor Gator pulling an A-TOM-MIK Ultra Green Glow. After the fish hit the scales we were sitting in 6th place with 117 points. Fishing was tough for ALL! Sunday (Day 2) - Canceled! Too windy! So we waited around till 12:30 to collect our check (first of the year) which felt like a long time coming!

LOL...Im just busin on ya!

Did you read the report bud? LOL A check would have been a nice job! LOL

Niagara: Friday (Practice/Pre-Tourney) - We headed out about 5:30am and worked the area from Wilson west to the Niagara Bar. Fishing wasn't fast and furious for us, but there was a steady pick most of the day. Our first big guy came 105 down on the corner rigger pulling my favorite Sea Sick Waddler NK 28. Shortly there after we took a ripper on the 375 wire that eventually wound himself up in the 10 color core off to the side. We ended up dropping him because of this. He took that Green dot Smartfish with an A-TOM-MIK Ultra Green Glow fly. Our last King would come from our center rigger that we had parked at 75' for Coho on a Dreamweaver SS Orange Slurpee. The rest of the day was a steady pick of Coho, small stealhead, and small kings. We got our limit, but it wasn't impressive. Saturday (Day 1) - Well, we wanted to see if we could scrape up a few kings before we headed into box out on Coho, but the Kings weren't playing in the area we were working. We went deep looking for some and all we found were Coho and a nice 9lb Steelhead. The lure of the day was the Stinger Stingray Mixed Veggies. It took 4 out of the 6 fish we boxed fished off our 10 color core. The Coho we found the day before had moved West a tad and when we got on top of them the bite was over. A very disappointing day for us given we have been slamming the fish out of Wilson for a few weeks, but it is June and the lake seems to be very hit or miss during this particular month. So, our decision Saturday night was that we needed to go big! Coho weren't going to get us in the money. Sunday (Day 2) - So, we headed out to a spot that another boat had some luck on a few Kings the day before. We didn't have all the lines in the water when the 400 wire starts to throb. Well, 6:04am and we had our first King locked and by 6:15 he was in our cooler. He took a Dreamweaver Spinny White w/ a Green Edge pulling a Sea Sick Waddler A-TOM-MIK fly. We were pumped thinking we would have a shot at money by the end of the day. Well, it was 8:am before we were locked into another fish. This one hit the 200 rigger pulling a Dreamweaver Spinny Black w/ green dots trailed by an A-TOM-MIK Ultra green Glow fly. No sooner did we get it down and it was hooked up again. So in 15 minutes we had another teenager in the box followed closely by a Coho. Then another lull! We would take a few shots off the 600 later pulling the Green dot SmartFish trailed by an A-TOM-MIK Ultra Glow Green fly. Lastly, our 400 wire would take off with another big guy. This one on a Dreamweaver Frog Racer Spinny towing an A-TOM-MIK Ultra Glow Green fly. We would end the day with 6 in the box again. However 4 were Salmon and 2 were Coho. Orleans: Friday (Practice/Pre Tourney) - We hit the water on Friday after hearing about a decent steelhead bite. We dropped in at 70 right out front to check the King waters and trolled on a due North heading. We took our first shot around the 200' mark and it ended up being a 10lb King that took our 140 wire diver set on a 3 pulling a Dreamweaver SS Gator. It would be a while until we took our next fish. We trolled out to 550 and then headed South East towards Devil's Nose. Once we hit the inside water there we ran into the motherload of Lakers. We took a 10lb fish and being 1:30 we made the decision to toss it back. WRONG MOVE! A few minutes later we took a 6lb Laker, and tossed that one back. One took a Wondebread SmartFish pulling a Hammer fly and the other took a Northern King Glow Coyote. About 1:45 the 300 copper starts to sing. This fish took a few nice runs and when it got to the boat we knew we had a big guy. He took a White w/ Green Dot SmartFish pulling an A-TOM-MIK Ultra Green Glow Live Series fly. On our Berkley boga scale he just misses the 25lb mark weighing in at 24.85lbs. So, after we boxed that fish we tried to scramble for another big lake Trout and just couldn't do it. We did grab us a small 6lb King that hit our center rigger, but we tossed his back to live another day. So, at the captains meeting they announced the winners of the little pre tourney. If we had made the right decisions during the day we could have taken the 5th biggest box of the day and most likely the biggest fish of the day. Saturday (Day 1) - We headed over to Devil's Nose first thing. We took 2 nice Lakers and a couple of Kings there late in the day on Friday, so the decision wasn't a hard one. Well, the Lakers took no time at all! We boxed a couple of nice Lake Trout off SmartFish/A-TOM-MIK combos. One off the wire diver and the other off the 300 copper. We worked that area looking for a couple of Kings, but we never got bit. So we worked our way down to the Sandy creek area where we would pick up two fish. One King and one Steelhead. The Steelhead took a mixed Veggies Singray Stinger off our 10 color, and the King took a Dreamweaver SS Silver w/ Green Glow tape off our rigger parked down 40'. We would end the day by pulling into 30-40' off the nose to see if any Brown Trout were around and took two shots, but lost them both. One off a 5 color core towing a stinger Stingray Black Wiggler, and another off the rigger with a Stinger Copper Glow Green Alewife. We ended the day in the middle of the pack, but within striking distance of a check. Out of about 40 teams on day 1 there was 1 12 fish box, 1 10 fish box, 2 7 fish boxes, and the rest of the field had 6 or less. Sunday (Day 2) - Well, day 2 we decided to hang out in front of the Oak because some big guys were caught there the last two days. We managed to take a small Steelhead out of there but that was it. So, we made the run down to the nose and had our two Lakers in a matter of 30 minutes. We worked the area to see if there were any kings in it and we did take one off our center rigger while we were hooked up with a Laker. The King took a Dreamweaver SS Gator and the Lakers took White SmartFish/A-TOM-MIK combos. We worked that area a little more and even checked inside for Browns without another touch. We then made the decision to take a run out to 450' of water to try for some steelhead. With 30 minutes left to fish we took one on a slide diver pulling a Stingray Gator. When it was all said and done we stayed right were we started the day in 22nd place.

It started Friday night by arriving to the Wilson Boat House around 4pm. I found a buddy at the dock so I said come on lets get out there! We got out about 6 and fished till about 8 with somewhere around 9-10 bites. We were surprised at how high the fish were coming in comparison to the previous 2 weeks. Our 75 rigger with a Dreamweaver SS Gator took the first shot with a teenage King. It would take another shot not soon there after. Our other hot rigger was our 65 rigger pulling a pair of Yeck Mixed Veggies. The only deep rig to go would be our 325 wire pulling that HOT White/Green Dot SmartFish (exclusive to A-TOM-MIK) with an Ultra Green Glow A-TOM-MIK fly behind it. Lastly, with about 30 minutes to go I let out the 10 color with that DEADLY Stinger Penguin and it did its job twice. It was an action packed couple of hours just a click or two East of port anywhere from 100-200. Saturday we took our time getting out. It was just my brother, my girlfriend, and myself. We all agreed that breakfast was the right thing to do that morning. We finally got on the water about 9:30, and as luck would have it we found out that was about when the bite shut down. Not wanting the skunk to hit the boat I decided to toss out that Coho Killer from Dreamweaver on a 2 color off our Otter Boat. It wasn't out there for long when the Orange Slurpee did what it does best and hooked a Coho. A little bit after that we called it quits as the NE wind got the lake rollin' pretty good. So, 4 hours of fishing left us with 1 small fish and concern about the charter the next day. Sunday's charter showed up VERY early, which was fine by me given the fantastic morning bite the day before. Our charter today was a graduation gift from father to daughter. So, she brought some friends along to join in on the fun. We headed out just at day break and found a decent screen, but they were exactly jumping in the boat. This trip was a tad bit different than others with 3 women and one guy aboard, but I must say they handled the rods better than some of the guys I have on board! We ended up losing our first 3 or 4 fish on the wire divers, and once we dialed in all the gear we had a steady pick till it was time to pull the rods. Divers were firing out at 300-375 with the deadly combos pictured above. Those two combos have taken 75% of our fish the last 3 weekends! SmartFish are now offered in that deadly Wonderbread pattern, and I promise you they are deadly! We would end the day with 9 fish in the box with 3 great Kings all in the mid to upper teens. The rest were that 10-13lb range with a few cohos mixed in. Again the Dreamweaver SS Orange Slurpee took the Coho. Our riggers would take only a few shots with Dreamweaver's SS Dave's Salmon Slapper, and NK's Sea Sick Waddler taking them. Monday was another relaxing day of fishing with friends. We headed out around 7:15 and got word that it was SLOW. We set lines in front of the harbor and it didn't take us long to loose our first wire fish out 325 pulling a White/Green dot SmartFish trailed by an A-TOM-MIK Ultra Green Glow fly. Not long after we re-set that rod it fired again! After that we went blank! So we went into search mode. We headed West and Deep and finally found some fish in 300'. A few Coho's and Stealhead in the top 40' that took Dreamweaver SS Orange Slurpee's and Glow Froggy's of 2 colors and 10 colors. We would take another shot on our 600 copper pulling a White/Green dot SmartFish trailed by an A-TOM-MIK Live Ultra Green Glow. Finishing off our day was a slider on our 75 rigger with a teenage King that ate a Dreamweaver SS Dave's Salmon Slapper.

Thanks Rich! You know where I'm at. Stop by when you get in.

Thanks! We have a couple of Pro-Ams coming up.

Thanks guys it was definitely fun!

After the St. Catherine's event Team Yankee Troller was looking for revenge. We felt we were better than a 35 place finish! The team for this event consisted of myself, my father, my brother, uncle Eric, and Jeremy Sage. In our favor we had two solid days of chartering allowing us to find, and figure out the Salmon. Day one we blasted off and ran to our waypoints from the previous two days. We were met with hungry fish eating the program we had been running the previous two days. Only difference was the fish were running a tad bit smaller than we had been catching. 5/9 - We trolled the 140-250 depth hitting our waypoints and here came the fish! Again our program consisted of 4 wire divers pulling a combination of SmartFish and Spin Doctors trailed by A-TOM-MIK flies. Our divers were parked at 300 and 325 for the inside divers and 350 and 375 for the outside divers. We ran 3 downriggers pulling various spoons anywhere from 75-180' down. Our BEST spoon was the Dreamweaver SS Dave;s Salmon Slapper. We couldn't get a Sea Sick Waddler to go for the first time in I don't know! Lastly we had a 600 copper down the chute with my favorite set-u! A SmartFish on a 9 O'clock setting White on White pulling an A-TOM-MIK Ultra Green Glow Fly. After everyone hit the scales we were sitting pretty in 7th place! We had about a 15lb average in our cooler, but we lacked that kicker fish we had pulled the previous two days. 5/10 -We were met with high winds and we were hoping that the tournament would be called and we would cash in 7th, but when the lake was checked it was fishable. Once we started fishing it wasn't fishable anymore! We still gave it our all and immediately after we set up the 600 copper took off followed by a screamer on the 375 wire. We ended up 0 for 2 very quickly! We would end the day with 5 keepers and a bunch of lost fish. Not a 15 pound average like the previous day, but we tried! Same program as above, but the size went down for our boat. We would get bumped out of the top ten and finish in 11th place. Just out of the money, and by 4 pounds! That hurts, but the guys above us were all very solid fisherman and my hat goes off to them.

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!