Yankee Troller

Spring King of the Lake 2014 It felt great going into the first event of the season. The severe Winter had us thinking hard about what the fish were doing for weeks in advance. This event kicks off Salmon season for us. It also provides a break from the Spring Brown Trout charters. Friday (Practice) - We checked the Welland Canal water first, and it wasn’t long before rods were flying. Lakers and Kings made up the catch. We ran our three Cannon Downriggers with a spoon program, and two divers. The hot spoons were a Dreamweaver Sea SIck Waddler, and a Moonshine Arctic Ice. The Moonshine was parked on our diver, and the Sea Sick Waddler was on our Cannon out and down. We made a few passes and figured that was “a spot†so we moved on. Second area we checked was Jordan, and by the time we got there it was blowing NE pretty hard, and we didn’t catch or learn much of anything in that water. We figured anything we learned was going to get washed away by mother nature, so to the dock we headed for a little socializing on the dock with friends we haven’t seen since the Fall. Saturday (Day 1) - We headed to the Welland, but after and hour and a half we didn’t have anything to show for. We tucked in to the cove East of the Welland and started to dial in a Coho program. We worked the waters down to 4 mile point and back to hook into about 100 fish! It was insane! Mostly Coho and Brown Trout, but we got our first Grand Slam of the season! I can vouch for the 100 fish day by saying we went through all 18 of our clippers on each board tow line 2.5 times on top of our rigger shots. Stick baits on one board, and spoons with split shot in front of them on the other board was the ticket. Anything bright seemed to work, and work well. As the day progressed the Coho got bigger. We finally were able to get 5 over 20†by 2pm. One was pushing 10lbs, which is a monster for the Spring time! We thought 5 fish would be key in this event, and when the 5th hit the deck it was all high fives. Little did we know Kings were still snapping, and after day 1 we were in 15th place. Sunday (Day 2) - We gave it a go for the mighty Chinook Salmon. It was all or nothing for us!.We set up in the leaders waters, and went to work. We weeded through a ton of Lake Trout, and some big ones to boot, to find four king bites. Three of which we landed. One took a Dreamweaver Sea Sick Waddler fished off our Cannon Downrigger down 35’ and MUPPED, one took a Moonshine Arctic Freeze off our diver out 40’, and a third took a Dreamweaver Glow Green Alewife on our other diver out 30’. By 12:30 we were sitting on 3 and the decision was made to switch gears and box two Coho. We knew the bigger ones bit later in the day on Saturday. We went into the Coho water, and it was on immediately! Within an hour we were into over 20 fish, and we got our two Coho. However, they wouldn’t be enough to jump us up high enough into the money. We finished the event in 9th place, and you can’t knock a top 10 finish in these events when your fishing against some of Lake Ontario’s finest. Salmon Season has begun!

Wrong species, but a true pig.

Over in Canada fishing our first tourney of the season. Check out this giant Spring Coho!

LOL...Thx guys!

Just a split shot about 8' above the spoon.

Close....was only 10lbs

Saturday 4/19 - We left the dock about 6:30am and choose to go West. We figured the traffic would be non-existent, and we were right. The only boats down there were the Hooked Up, and ours. The bite didn't start for us until about Long Pond, but the pocket at Braddocks was just silly! As many as you wanted! WE took our limit out of there with some nicer fish starting to show up. With the exception of one Steelbow, and a few Cohos, it was mostly a Brown Trout bite. We heard of a few Kings being taken in this water the past few days, but we just couldn't stumble upon one. We ran our 3 Cannons down 4'-7' and 50'-60' back, 6 flat lines from 120'-150' back, and two split shot rigs back 100'. Hot baits were the Stinger Glow Frog, Stinger Sea Sick Waddler, and Stinger Glow Mixed Veggies. As for stick baits Firetiger, Black and Silver, and Perch were all good. Mostly natural colors, but the bright stuff shinned in the dirtier water. FYI.....The Coho seemed to be a few feet deeper than the Brownies hitting Coho type stuff. Sunday 4/20 - Our clients that were supposed to fish the afternoon on 4/19 and the morning of 4/20 no call no showed, so we did the next best thing. Took the ol' man out for his maiden voyage for 2014. We left the dock around 6:30am and hooked left again headed West. The plan was to fish down to the Oak. We started at Cresent Beach, and the bite was just plain STUPID! From the Ponds to Lighthouse was AMAZING! 25 fish hit the deck before 8:30am. We were an Atlantic away from a Lake Ontario Grand Slam. We ended with 3 Kings, 3 Lake Trout, 3 Pike, 3 or 4 Coho, 2 Rainbows, and over 60 Brown Trout. Four guys worked the back of the boat slamming rods in as fast as we could after boating a fish. Our Cannon downriggers were firing with the Stinger Sea Sick Waddlers as well as the Glow Froggy back 50-60. Our hot sticks on the boards were two Bagley's we've never run before. One was a green and yellow, and the other was a black and silver. My brother picked them out in the dark thinking they were something else. They may see a little more soak time in the future! Other hot sticks were firetiger, white, and Perch. The Kings took both rigger boats as well as one of the Bagley's stick baits. It was a pretty amazing day! Another great stretch was from Eagle Creek to the small flats. We picked away at them there on our pass through.

Finally, a decent Brown Trout after boating over 60 fish this morning.

Slow motion monster forkie!

Easter Kings! Boooooom!

Been a very busy morning! What do you think this chunk weighs?

April 12th - Left the Genesee River around 6:30am and hooked right out of the chute. We motored down to Irondequoit Bay and set lines. Water temps were in the high 30s to low 40s. We worked some great colored water between Ship Builders and Hedges. We had a great day! A hot set-up was a Mixed Veggies fished off a Split Shot rig, and a Glow Frog fished off our Cannon Downriggers. Hot stick bait colors were SIlver/Blue, Black/Silver, and Perch. We ran our riggers back 50-60’, our boards from 120-175’ back, and our split shot rigs 80-100’ back. April 13th - We had the same crew out again, and instead of changing up the scenery we went right again out of the chute. We left the Genesee River around 6:30am, and motored down to Irondequoit Bay. When we set lines we noticed the water temps were up a few degrees. We worked the area between the Irondequoit Bay and Webster Park. The bite was just as good as the day before. Our HOT Split shot rigs from Saturday were DEAD! Hot rigs today were our planer board lines with bright colored sticks. Firetiger, Orange, Chartreuse, and Froggy all took several shots. We ran them from 125-175’ back. The lines fished off our Cannon Downriggers also produced well with Glow Froggy, Sea Sick Waddler, and Gator spoons fished 50-60’ back.

Photos taken while fishing aboard the Yankee Troller with Captain's Richard and Craig Hajecki. Fish with Crazy Yankee Sportfishing if you want to Catch 'Em! Lake Ontario 2014 Photos taken while fishing aboard the Yankee Troller with Captain's Richard and Craig Hajecki. Fish with Crazy Yankee Sportfishing if you want to Catch 'Em!

Putting clients to work!

This guy smoked a Sea Sick Waddler on a split shot rig.

Back at it again today, and they are still snapping! Glow froggy has been good!

Some great colors on this specimen! Still picking away at them.

Big 'ol guts on our fish.

This jumbo took a mixed veggies!

Saturday May 17th just opened up due to a cancellation, so if anyone is looking to tackle some Spring Kings on the Niagara Bar this would be a great date! Please share this post with anyone that may be interested!

Pulled out of the slip around 7:00am, took the easy troll down the Genesee River, and hooked Left out of the chute. Boy did that feel good! Figured the water East was beat up from the strong West winds on Saturday. Although, some guys pulled some good numbers out of there as the day wore on. Our day was great, and we had plenty of action. We set-up in front of Russel Station, and trolled her to Braddock point trying to hang in 8-15' of water depending on where the mud line was. Action came in spurts, which we figured it would as we passed the ponds. Water temps ranged from 37-40 degrees. Most fish seemed to be in that 10-16" range, but we did get a couple of nice ones. It's good to see that class of fish. Last Spring everything was just HUGE, but we caught very little skippies. No one lure was hot. Black and silver Smithwicks, Stinger Glow Frog, Dreamweaver Firefly SS, Stinger UV Wonderbread, Challenger Lady Bug, and a Smithwick Firetiger all took their fair share of fish. Back at it again next weekend! Enjoy the fish porn!

What a piggy!

Can't seem to find one bigger than this..... Plenty of action though!

Lots of rods bending..... Just no size yet.