Yankee Troller

Summer Tightline Event Practice - We had a great practice! We started on some waypoints from last year to the East of Bluffers, and the fishing was pretty decent. We had good bites around the Frenchmans bay area on both A-TOM-MIK flies and meat rigs. Our program consisted of our three Cannon downriggers, two wire divers, and three coppers. Although it was a 6 rod event the next day we like to run 8 in practice to see which coppers are hot. The 400 and 500 coppers were our best although later in the day we took a fish or two on the 600 copper. Later in the day we headed over to the filtration plant, and before we could get set up our center Cannon downrigger fires. We get that fish in the net and it was a 29lb Chinook. Our personal best for 2013, and the biggest of the day. We went on to pound on a good class of fish the rest of the afternoon, and made the decision to start back there in the morning. Tourney - It started off slow for us! We went two hours in the morning without a bite! We had some issues jockeying for position going into the drop, which cost us some time and put us outside of our waypoints from the day before. Once we did get there the rods started to fly. A Dreamweaver White double crush glow Spin Doctor/A-TOM-MIK White Halo fly was a stud on our 111 Cannon downrigger. It went three times, but we only landed two of those fish. After that everything was a one and done bait. We took 9 matures Salmon bites during the rest of the day, but only boated five of them. Again, half took meat, and the other half came on A-TOM-MIK flies behind Dreamweaver Spin Doctors. In the end it was the first time we fished a Tightline event and left without a check. Tough pill to swallow, but we had a ton of fun. It's also great to see all of our Canadian friends. Also, unofficially Striker leads the King of the Lake points race with 465.15, and we are right behind them with 465.14. It's a close one going into the last event on Labor day weekend.

Stop it! You guys are putting up some nice fish in the tourneys the last few weekends.

We use the pool noodle too, but we put a string through it and hand the noodle horizontally. We then take our flies and hang them by the hook. This lets the leaders hang down, and the flies hang upside down.

We use Flouro as well, but we choose 50lb test. A little stiffer than 40lb, which should lead to greater whip of the fly. Most here on Lake O use 50lb.

July 27th - We fished the Sandy Creek shootout out of Sandy Creek, which is always a great time. We’ve had the same charter clients for this event year after year. They really enjoy the competition. We made a run back to the west, but we just didn’t go far enough. We fished the Glass House/Flats are on the 27-29N lines. The screen was hit and miss, and we realized a little too late we needed to be another six miles West to get into the monster school of Kings off the Oak. Anyway, we picked at fish all day with a lot of hook-ups, but they just weren’t the right class of fish. We didn’t place in the event, but we all had a great time. We ran our typical eight rod spread consisting of our three Cannon downriggers, two wires, and three coppers. The stud of the day was a purple meat rig on the 500 copper which took most of our mature Salmon. The Dreamweaver Sea SIck Waddler, and the Stinger Green Nuclear also took a few nice shots. Sorry for the lack of pics, but our four fish box consisted of three nice Salmon and this really nice Steelie. July 28th - We had the pleasure of taking out some really good clients that have been with us since the beginning. Mike and Loraine come up each year and always bring new people up with them to experience Lake Ontario. We broke the pier heads about 5:45am and headed North to the 26N line. We trolled it out to the 27N line before we got into the fish and bait. The bait string was almost unbelievable, and the mature Salmon were all over it! When the bite started we had doubles and a triple take place. It was incredible! It happened so fast that the deck was sloppy, and the waves were big, so we couldn’t get many good pics. The Dreamweaver Sea Sick Waddler mupped was good on our 70’ Cannon downrigger. A Kelly Green flasher/A-TOM-MIK Hijacker fly was good on our 80’ Cannon downirgger. The 300 coppers were good with Moonshine Carbon 14s, and we had the divers go a few times with Dreamweaver Wonderbread Spin Doctors/A-TOM-MIK Glow Blue Hammers.

I apologize for the late reports. July 19th - The boys from Ohio were back again this year for some Salmon action! Of course they brought up some Lake Erie winds with them, but it was nothing the ol’ Yankee couldn’t handle! We got an early start and worked the inside waters for about an hour before giving up on that program and heading NW. When we got to the 25N line our bite started. We would work the 25N to 27N line for the rest of the day. Our Cannon downriggers were dragging all spoons, and we had them parked from 60’ down to 120’. Our wires and coppers pulled flasher/fly combos. No real stud on this day, but the usuals took fish for us. Dreamweaver’s Sea Sick Waddler mupped on a deep rigger was good. A Hammertime Spin Docotor pulling an A-TOM-MIK Hammer fly on our wire along with a Wonderbread Smartfish pulling a Glow Blue A-TOM-MIK Hammer. July 20th - Same Ohio boys brought the same wind, but bigger waves! We gave it a go in the morning, but it resulted in 5 bites in three hours with only one big guy. We made the decision to sit it out until later when it was supposed to calm down, and that was a great call! We got back out around 2pm and for most of the afternoon trip it was a steady pick of smaller fish. The last two hours the big guys kicked it into gear and we put the smack down on some Lake Ontario Chinooks! Our 400 and 500 coppers took a few fish, our wires seemed to be dead, but our Cannon downriggers were the workhorses of the night. Earlier in the night we had them parked at 85-125’ down, but some cold water rolled in and by the end of the trip we were fishing 50-75’ down with them. Dreamweaver’s Sea Sick Waddler was great on our deep rigger. Finger Lakes Tackle’s UV Sea Sick Waddler was also good. However, the big guy of the night took a Stinger Nuclear Green. My first ever Credit River tagged Steelbow: July 24th (Evening) - It blew hard North in the morning, but we knew it was supposed to lay down. We waited it out until 2pm and we gave it a go. We sat down on the 26N line because of some bait, but we didn’t mark anything until we got to the 28N line. We had a steady pick of small Steelhead and small Salmon out to the 31N line. Our Cannon downriggers were loaded with Sea Sick Waddlers on the deep rigger, Stinger Green Nukes on the high rigger, and the middle rigger had some Finger Lakes UV Sea Sick Waddlers. All were taking fish regularly, and all were Mupped. We ran a four diver set with flasher/fly combos on the low divers and mag spoons on the high divers. Three out of the four divers took fish, but they were one and done. Our other work horse was a 300 copper pulling a Dreamweaver Green Nuke Spin Doctor/A-TOM-MIK Jerge (150) fly. Gotta love when you put a new combo together and it takes a few fish!

July 13th - We had some newbies on board this morning from New Jersey looking for a LOC Derby fish. At the same time we were competing in the second of five King of the Oak events. We left the dock a little after 5am and headed out to 90’ of water and began to set lines. Our troll was East, and the picture was decent, temps were good, and the fishing was fair on the inside. The North winds would pick up and it would get a little uncomfortable out there, but the fish were snapping! On the inside we were able to pull a few Chinook Salmon, some nice Domestic Rainbows, and a couple of Lake Trout. After the sun started to rise that bite seemed to die so we pointed it North at the Glass House. Our North South trolls the rest of the day would prove worthy, and grab us some really nice fish. Our spread consisted of our three Cannon downriggers, two wire divers, and three junk lines. Dreamweaver Sea Sick Waddlers were good on a 50’ rigger for the Rainbows. The Kings preferred the A-TOM-MIKs! Good combos on the wires were Wonderbread Smartfish/A-TOM-MIK Glow Blue Hammer, and a Dreamweaver Hammertime Spin Doctor/A-TOM-MIK Hammer fly out 150-225’. Our stud of the day was a Dreamweaver Green Dot Spin Doctor/A-TOM-MIK shredded Hypnotist on our 400 A-TOM-MIK Copper. It took a 21lb and a 26lb King. Those two fish combined with one from the morning bite inside were good enough to score us a 2nd place finish in the King of the Oak event. We found the best water to be between the 25N and the 27N lines. A good mix of Steelbows and Kings were out there feasting on the many bait pods. July 14th (Morning) - Same guys from Jersey, and they were still chasing a LOC derby fish. We left the dock with the intentions to work the same water with a similar program. The North winds rolled a little colder water into the inside. The bait pushed in tighter, and there were less hooks. We gave it a fair shake, which provided a few opportunities, but it just wasn’t happening so we pointed it North. We ran our typical eight rod spread which consisted of our three Cannon downriggers, two wires, and three junk lines. The big guy rig of the day was a 300 copper pulling a Moonshine Carbon 14. The bite wasn’t as good for us on this morning, but we ground out a nice box that was half Salmon and half Steelbows. Another spoon that took a big guy and is pictured above is a Finger Lakes Tackle UV Sea Sick Waddler. Sick looking blade! The Steelbows were really chomping a Moonshine Green Shorts well late in the day on our Cannons. July 14th (Afternoon) - I received a message from a guy a few days ago who was interested in getting his grandson hooked into his first Salmon. It totally took me back to when my grandfather took my brother and I fishing all the time. Although we had a morning trip booked I said I’d be more than willing to take them out on an afternoon trip. We met up at 4pm and ventured out, but given the mediocre fishing to the East we pointed the Yankee slight NW and ran it out to the 26N line where we started to set our gear. Our charter program hit the water and we continued to troll it NW all the way out to the 29N line. That whole troll resulted in a small Steelbow. It was a pretty boring troll! When we got to the 29N line we turned the boat around and put her on a SW troll. When we got to the 27N line with about an hour left in the trip all hell would break loose. It started with the 300 copper and a Carbon 14, which the grandson jumped on. While this battle ensued the 500 copper with a Dreamweaver Live Wire Spin Doctor/A-TOM-MIK Ace Fly started to scream. Grandpa jumped on that rod and now they were doubled! The story couldn’t have played out any better than that! When it was all said and done both Grandpa and Grandson stood in the back of the boat holding identical 21.11lb Chinook Salmon. The rest of the hour was just hectic. The 90’ rigger got hot with Salmon. Initially a Dreamweaver Mountain Dew Spin Doctor/A-TOM-MIK Big Fin Glow was going, but when we cracked that off a Chrome green dot flasher/A-TOM-MIK Sweet Pea fly started to take them. Our 55’ rigger with a pair of Dreamweaver Lemon Ice were also producing fish. In the end the grandson got his limit of Salmon, and his Grandpa had his limit of silvers.

I've seen that on Lowrance, Furuno, and even now on my Humminbirds. I'm dying to know myself. A friend of mine has sent this image to the engineers at HB, so i hope to have an answer soon.

July 5th - We left the dock around 5:30am with Ed and his family from southern New York for a day of fishing. Derby tickets were on board, and we were looking for the one. We started in the water from the previous day only to find things slowed down a little. Fishing was tough today with only a few shots coming from Lake Ontario’s bruiser Salmon, but the Steelies more than made up for it. There are some nice chromers out there and more than willing to play. The highlight of the day was a LOC Derby placing 28lb Chinook Salmon that hit a Dreamweaver Raspberry Dolphin on our port Cannon downrigger. It ripped over and into the starboard diver before it went to the front of the boat. It then proceeded to go under the boat and get caught in our rudders. This lead to our client having to hand line it to the boat. If that isn’t EXCITING then I don’t know what is! July 6th - We left the dock nice and early hoping for a productive day on the water. We had Pete Crawford (Owner of Elite Archery and the Outdoor Group) out with his two sons and a fellow co-worker. The day started off GREAT! However, the bite would turn into a slllooowww pick. We ran our three Cannon downriggers, two wire divers, and three junk lines. Our Cannons pulled mostly spoons with Dreamweaver Sea Sick Waddlers, Raspberry Dolphins, and Silver w/ Green Glow tape being the best producers. On our divers we had both the green glow and blue glow Hijacker A-TOM-MIK flies going. The glow green was going behind a black double glow Dreamweaver Spin Docotor, and a white green dot Dreamweaver Spin Doctor. The glow blue version was good behind a Hammertime flasher. July 7th - These guys were a returning group with high expectations. They fished with us last June, and we filled the cooler with big kings, so the pressure was on us to repeat. We left the dock around 5:30am and headed out for a fun day of fishing. We saw a great picture on the inside while motoring out, so we dropped in around 90’ and gave it a go. It didn’t take long and we were into a screamer! Our 100’ diver was singing pulling a Hammertime flasher/A-TOM-MIK Hammer fly. We would go on to take a few other small kings along with busting off another big guy on a Dreamweaver Green Eyed Ghost. That bite died off, so we ventured North and found that the low 25N line was holding some active fish. We would go on to work that water the rest of the day. Our studs were a Dreamweaver Green Glow Tip fished on our 40’ rigger, and a MAG Dreamweaver Sea Sick Waddler was good down 60’. Other lures that took fish was a MAG Dreamweaver Green Gator on a 10 color, meat was good on our 400’ A-TOM-MIK Copper, a Green dot Dreamweaver Spin Doctor/A-TOM-MIK Ultra Green Glow on the 300’ A-TOM-MIK copper, and Dreamweaver Raspberry Dolphins.

Headed out in the fog knowing the lake had a little flip the past few days. We were going to try pounding the beach for Brown Trout, but the water was really cold with 50 degrees on the surface in 20' of water. Figuring in I didn't have Brown Trout leaders tied up we pointed her NW. We checked 75', 100', 150', and finally at the 25N line (200') we had decent water temps. The plan was to drop lines and troll it out. Our spread consisted of our three Cannon downriggers and two wire divers. On our boards we pulled a 5 color and a ten color. It didn't take long and we were into them. The divers took most of our Salmon ranging between 18-25lbs. One diver pulled a Green E-chip/A-TOM-MIK Glow Blue Hijacker fly, and the other was pulling a Dreamweaver Hammertime Spin Doctor/A-TOM-MIK Hammer fly. They were out 75-125' on a 2 setting. Our riggers were on fire taking all the Steelbows you wanted. They were set at 35', 45', and 55' with Dreamweaver Green Eye Ghost, Glow Froggy, and Raspberry Dolphins. All run with the regular size on the main line and the SS sliding above it. The 5 color core was on fire in the morning with a Dreamweaver Coyote SS, and later in the day our 10 color core started to get hot with a Dreamweaver Gold 42nd. We didn't smoke the Salmon, but ended the day 5/6 on majors, and we also found a few skippys. The Steelbows were a dime a dozen, and they weren't a bad year class. Most ranging in the 6-9lb range. We also managed to find a Laker and a Brown Trout out there. All in all it was a solid day and a lot of fun. Let's wish for some stable weather so the Summer Salmon set up and we can pound on them!

We left a little late due to some over sleepers, but it didn’t affect our bite one bit. We headed NE out to 150’ of water and began to set up a spread. We could see that a majority of the marks and bait were in the top 80’. We went down with our three Cannon downriggers. Two had spoon programs on them and a third went deep with a large flasher/fly. We deployed our divers as well as a 10 color and 300 copper out on the boards. The best water we found was 175’-250’ down by the glass house. Our stud for the day was our 300’ A-TOM-MIK copper pulling a green flasher trailed by an A-TOM-MIK Bobblehead fly. The 10 color was also going consistently with a Stinger Stingray Black Widow. It was a junk line kind of day for us. Although the riggers did take a few our 200 and 300 A-TOM-MIK copper and our 10 color took a majority. We even tripled on all of those rigs at one time. Our biggest fish of the day would end up falling victim to a downrigger. We had a Mountain Dew flasher trailed by an A-TOM-MIK Ultra Green Glow fly parked at 101’ when it hit. After Lloyd dropped at least two other screamers earlier in the day, but he managed to put this on in our Grizzly cooler! Sunday we stayed dockside and listened to everyone complaining about a tough bite. Breakfast at the 4C’s cafe was good, and we got to do some work on our gear after the great Spring we had. The Lake is slowly transitioning out of the June doldrums. Any day now the West end is going to break open and it will be on!

June 22 - We moved our charter this weekend back a few weeks due to a motor that was acting up. Oh, the fishing was less than stellar too! Personally, I wanted to hit the BT up first thing, but we decided to chase the Kings since we heard the bite the previous two days yielded a couple nice ones. We set up in 100’ of water pointed NW and trolled it out to 180’ before turning it back in. All we had to show for our efforts were some Lake Trout. After a few hours we decided to head in to check on the Brown Trout. As we were getting into 40’ of water our Starboard diver fires out 35’ on a 3 pulling a Stigner Sea Sick Waddler. After some flips and a few short runs we put the net under a 13lb Atlantic. This was one of the best fights I’ve ever seen out of an Atlantic. A few minutes later in Brown Trout waters the other diver starts thumping out 25’ on a 3 setting pulling a Stinger Stingray Glow Alewife. A few minutes later and we slid the net under a porker of a Brown Trout weighing close to 15lbs. We put him gently in our new Grizzly cooler, and figured we were going to put a whooping on some fish in these waters after hooking two in 15 minutes. The picture in 15-25’ was great with bait and hooks. The temps were perfect in the lower third of the water column. No one was around, so we were just chomping at the bit looking for some more monster Brown Trout that no one ever bothers with out West. Granted it was 10/11am, but we had a full moon. Well, we fished in there for 2 more hours without a touch. Finally, on a lure change a Brown Trout came up and whacked a new Stinger Stingray UV Chicken Wing right as my brother was going to lock it into the downrigger. That would conclude our day of derby fishing. June 23 - We left the dock around 7am and figured we’d try the Brown Trout thing out first down East. The water East seemed to be a few degrees warmer, so we had to push out a little further, but the bait and hooks were still there. However, the cottonwood on the surface made it impossible to fish those waters. We tried it for an hour but having to clean lines constantly, and the lack of bites, made the decision easy to head out to see if any Kings were around. It took some time to change out leaders, and put a whole other program down, but once we did the Lake Trout were like those little annoying ankle biter black flies. You couldn’t keep them off! We continued NE out past the fleet because we knew all they were catching were Lake Trout. The screen got good again in the 250-300’ range off Eagle Harbor. There was a lot of bait in the top 80’ with a few hooks around it. However, all we could manage was a nice 8lb Steelie on a Dreamweaver UV Lemon Ice down 60’ before we called it quits around 11am.

Fishing the Toronto Islands is something I think every Lake Ontario angler needs to do at least once. You wont fish a better shoreline, or a prettier one for that matter. The structure is similar to the Niagara bar, and the fishing can be some of the best you will see on Lake Ontario. For some reason the Kings over on the North shore seem to fight harder than when they are on the South shore. I wish I could explain why! Practice - We checked out some water to the East of Bluffers Park Marina first thing Friday morning. The screen was never there. We gave it a few hours looking in tight and out deeper, but we couldn't buy a bite. We picked the rods and headed West to the filtration plant and set back up trolling West. The further West we got the better the screen got on our Humminbirds. The gap seemed to be the best picture for us all weekend. Throughout the rest of the day we would go on to pick a few mid 20lb Kings, and an annoying amount of Coho's. We never "crushed" them, but we had a game plan to start with on Saturday morning. Tourney - We headed right for the Toronto Islands at blast off, and our picture wasn't bad. We put out our spread which included all three of our Cannon Downriggers, two wire divers, and a 500' A-TOM-MIK copper. Flasher/Fly combos were on everything except the copper, which had a meat rig on it. The bite wasn't there right away, and it took 45 minutes to watch the first rod go. After that we dialed in on the fish and would end the day taking nine shots. Five of which we boated. Four were in the low 20lb range, and the fifth was a 8lb King. Our hot presentation was our divers on tourney day. They accounted for four out of the five we weighed in. Those four diver shots all were pulling an A-TOM-MIK Glow Blue Hijacker fly. Two shots came with it behind a Hammertime flasher, and two came behind a Double Crush Green paddle out 275-350' on a 1.5 setting. The fifth fish took an A-TOM-MIK Hammer fly behind a Hammertime paddle. We missed a couple fish on meat rigs throughout the day. One was on a deep rigger, and the other was on a long copper. While we fueled up the boat, after dropping off our cooler, we started to hear how tough it was for teams who fished in many different areas. We knew we had a good day given the tough bite, but we were still short one fish from our tourney limit. When the fish hit the scales we slid into 3rd place, but by the end of weigh-in we would end up falling into 5th place. That worked for us! Anytime you finish in the top ten in a tourney you did well!

Thanks guys!

Niagara Pro Am Our charter bookings were great during the month of May out of Wilson Harbor, so we had a lot of time on the water to dial in a solid program. Looking back our program didn’t change much after the first weekend of the derby. Nor did our location! Both days of practice was spent probing the waters a few miles West of Wilson Harbor fishing deep King Salmon. We also found a nice pod of fish between Olcott and the power plant, so we kept that as a back-up in case our primary area dried up. Thursday seemed to be better than Friday, talking pure size, but each day we had our bites. The waters we worked ranged from 150’-350’. Our spread for the weekend consisted of three long A-TOM-MIK coppers. We pulled a 500 and a 600 off the boards with a 700 down the chute. The coppers pulled meat rigs the entire time, and were our hottest tickets when it came to big fish all four days. We also ran our Cannon Digitroll 10 downriggers with 20lb Shark weights to probe the 125’-275’ part of the water column. Dreamweaver Spin Doctors, and Stinger E-Chips, were primarily used down there to get the attention of the Salmon that were lying on the bottom. Our best flies were A-TOM-MIK Big Fin Glow and Ultra Green Glow on various flashers. Marv’s big Fatty was a good in the mornings, but the Hammertime flavor was easily the best for us. Our chute downrigger pulled a Dreamweaver Sea Sick Waddler Mag, and was a work horse chasing the few fish in the top 100’ of the water column. That chute downrigger went up and down all weekend long chasing marks typically in the 40-60’ range. I’d go out on a limb and say it took 1/3 of the fish for the weekend. Most of which were small Chinook Salmon or Coho, but they helped our box tremendously. Last but not least were our wires. These were HOT for us Thursday-Saturday, but dead on Sunday. We didn’t change out the combos too much, because we had two studs that were taking a majority of the shots. A Dreamweaver Hammertime Spin Doctor pulling an A-TOM-MIK Glow Blue Hijacker fly, and a Stinger frog E-Chip pulling an A-TOM-MIK UV190 out 250’-350’ on a 1.5 setting. When the weekend was over we had brought enough weight to the scales to take first in the Classic and Trophy divisions! Our team couldn’t have been happier with the win, and that’s when the pressure hit us knowing that the Western Cup was ours to lose. Orleans Pro Am Our lips were sealed all week long hoping we could fish the same program we fished in Niagara, but Thursday’s big NE blow iced the waters down a lot and flipped the lake. When we made it out on Friday for some practice we ran North until we found warm water. That water happened to be out on the 31/32N line a few miles West of Oak Orchard were we found 52 degrees on top. That’s where we began to dial in our offshore Steelhead program. We also checked out the Brown Trout waters off Green Harbor and Johnson’s Creek Friday afternoon, but the inside waters were so chock full of bait it was unbelievable! Alewives were jumping out of the water behind the transom of our boat trying to get away from the downrigger cables, and our baits were constantly snagging them. When the event began on Saturday we headed offshore in some dense fog and deployed our Steelhead spread. Our three Cannon Digitroll 10’s never really went deeper than 60’ and all three had sliders attached to their main line. We ran two divers and sometimes we had wire in the water while other times we had mono slide divers in the water. For junk lines we started each day with surface lines off the boards, but eventually changed those out to 5 color Stealth Cores. Our chute junk line was a 10 color stealth core which we played with reeling in and letting out a few colors until it fired. Dreamweaver Super Slims seemed to be the ticket for us during the Orleans Pro Am. Those Steelies wanted it fast, and they wanted the spoons small. The new DUV series has been HOT for us this Spring. The Green Dolphin and the Lemon Ice DUV were our studs on Sunday. Saturday was overcast, and the Sea Sick Waddler took most of our fish. When the weekend came to a close our team ended up third in the Orleans Classic division and fourth in the Trophy division. More importantly we were able to hang onto, and even gain points on everyone for, the Lake Ontario Western Challenge Cup. The Western Cup has been something we have been chasing for many years watching some of the greats like Cold Steel, Thrillseeker, and Top Gun take home many times.

We weren't planning on running any trips this weekend, but we made an exception, and boy are we glad we did! We met this nice family from Colorado, and they had been on numerous charters all over the US. Most of those taking place in saltwater. These charters have gone so bad for them that they didn't bother bringing a cooler for any fish to take home! We left the dock around 5:30 and headed out to a lumpy Lake Ontario. We set down in 130’ pointed her North into the waves and set rods. Fish were coming fast, but given the rough waters holding onto them was a challenge. A nice mix of King Salmon and Coho Salmon. Our big guy of the day hit a 400 copper pulling a Green Smartfish/A-TOM-MIK Green Crinkle. I believe each person on the trip took two turns bringing that fish to the boat. Other good lures today was the Dreamweaver Sea Sick Waddler down 60’, and the new Dreamweaver DUV Lemon Ice SS on a free slider. We worked the waters right out front from 150-300 on N/S trolls. Lady O picked up as the day went on, but we were fortunate enough to get our limit early and be back for lunch so we didn't get pounded any more. Needless to say, these guys had to go into town and look for a cooler so they could bring their catch back home with them!

One thing to remember about Coppers fellas is the twist rate per inch. Each manufactures is different. The more twist between the stands per inch the heavier the copper is and the more it should sink. The Smart Troll will take a lot of guessing out of the equation if it works the way it's supposed to.

May 16th - Our afternoon trip started around 4pm with reports of a tough bite. Rumor has it the morning was good, but after that the picture and fishing got spotty. We set up a high/low Coho/King program. We had a mix of spoons and flasher/fly combos fished off our Cannon downriggers, a pair of wires pulling flasher.fly combos, a 200’ copper, and 4 surface lines. We worked the water between Wilson and the red barn in 50-100’ of water all night. The picture was there, but the Salmon had lock jaw. The Coho bite was pretty good. Everything in the water took fish. Red Brads Thinfish, Challenger Lady Bug, Dreamweaver Orange Slurpee SS, and a Dreamweaver 6†Orange Spinny with an A-TOM-MIK Coho fly. Sometimes these Coho get picky and want a body bait, and other times they want metal. We try to put a little bit of everything out there and let them tell us what’s tasty for them on any given day. We did take one King bite, but as quick as he was there he was gone. The 200’ copper pulling a Black Dreamweaver Spin Doctor with a new A-TOM-MIK Hijacker fly was the combo that went. We just got our hands on the new Hijacker series, and I think they are going to be a good one! Although we didn’t pound any Chinooks the Coho, and a nice drop back Rainbow, kept us busy. May 17th (Morning) - The first half of the trip was slow, and a few cracked off fish in the morning made it even worse. A phone call from a buddy changed it all, and when we got to that water it was on! The surface bite for Coho was cranking with a Challenger Lady Bug, and an Orange Spin Doctor/A-TOM-MIK Coho Fly taking most of the shots. The king bite was starting to slow, but not before we grabbed a few quick ones. They would fall for a Dreamweaver Mountain Dew Spin Doctor/A-TOM-MIK Big Fin Glow fly down 175’ on our Cannon downrigger, and a Mountain Dew E-Chip/A-TOM-MIK Glow Blue Hijacker fly 325’ out on a wire. May 17th (Afternoon) - We headed right out to the same water we finished in, and quickly took two matures on a Mountain Dew Dreamweaver Spin Doctor/A-TOM-MIK Big Fin Glow fly down 175’ on our Cannon downrigger. After that it was a Coho bonanza the rest of the night with no more Chinook hook-ups. Again, the Challenger Lady Bug was responsible for most of the Coho bites. Our first fish of the night was our 2013 personal best weighing in at 25lbs. Now we are looking for Mr. 30lb’r! May 18th (Morning) - Lady O was good to us on this particular morning. We started in 70’ of water with the intent on heading to the deeper water we worked the day before. We put out a Coho/King Spread in the morning, but less than a few hours in we cleared out the Coho stuff, and had just a King program down. We ran our three Cannons, two wires, and two junk lines. Our Cannon downriggers took most of our fish. The Dreamweaver Sea Sick Waddler was hot first thing down 40 back 40. A Stinger NBK was going well down 30 back 40 as well. We took a few diver shots, and they really liked a Stinger Black Widow fished 100’ back on a 3 setting. With no real temp breaks we also saw and took a few fish down deep on our Cannon downriggers at 150-175’ on a Stinger Hammertime E-Chip/A-TOM-MIK Big Fin Glow fly. A 10 color Stealth Core took a few fish with a Yeck Black/Silver Green Glow. May 18th (Afternoon) - Our second double in as many days, and we knew leaving the dock it was sloppy out there from the NE. We battled 3-5’ waves for the entire length of the trip, and the bite was fairly consistent. Cold clear water was rolling in, but we still had somewhat of a picture. The last hour was on fire right out front, which yielded back to back doubles for these guys who have never ventured out on Lady O for Salmon and Trout. Even though it was rough we were able to get out three surface lines on one of our boards, a 200 copper on the other, three rods down on our Cannon downriggers, and a pair of wires. At times we’d throw a 300 or 400 down the chute depending on where the last rigger shots were coming from. Challengers Lady Bug, and Nuclear Green plugs pulled the Coho and a Steelhead off the surface. The Kings were coming from our riggers mostly pulling Dreamweaver Sea Sick Waddlers, and a Stinger NBK. We had a case of the dropsies BAD, and I had it pinned on the sloppy NE wind making it tough to land fish. May 19th - Same group showed up ready to do some battle, and we were happy to see Mother Nature had calmed down a lot. We left the chute at 6am and shut her down in 60’ of water right out front. A day which many ran West or offshore because of the cold clear water, but we found a great pick right on the inside out the front door. We let out 3 challengers on one planer board, a 200 copper on the other, a 300 copper down the chute, a pair of wire divers, and all three of our Cannon downriggers. The 100-125’ wire on a 3 setting pulling a Stinger Black Widow went a few times as did a Dreamweaver Sea Sick Waddler, and a Stinger NBK on our downriggers with Kings The Coho were also playing with our surface baits. Action was HOT, but the landing was way less than desired. I couldn’t blame Mother Nature on this beautiful morning, so I blamed the clients! Even though we all knew they weren’t doing anything wrong we had to put the blame somewhere other than ourselves….LOL. By the end of the day we ventured offshore, and took a few bites after the inside bite slowed around 10am. We put together a nice mixed bag of fish minus a Brown Trout and an Atlantic. A frustrating trip to say the least because of the lite bites, but very fun with a great group of guys!

Our afternoon trip started around 4pm with reports of a tough bite. Rumor has it the morning was good, but after that the picture and fishing got spotty. We set up a high/low Coho/King program. We had a mix of spoons and flasher/fly combos fished off our Cannon downriggers, a pair of wires pulling flasher.fly combos, a 200' copper, and 4 surface lines. We worked the water between Wilson and the red barn in 50-100' of water all night. The picture was there, but the Salmon had lock jaw. The Coho bite was pretty good. Everything in the water took fish. Red Brads Thinfish, Challenger Lady Bug, Dreamweaver Orange Slurpee SS, and a Dreamweaver 6" Orange Spinny with an A-TOM-MIK Coho fly. Sometimes these Coho get picky and want a body bait, and other times they want metal. We try to put a little bit of everything out there and let them tell us what's tasty for them on any given day. We did take one King bite, but as quick as he was there he was gone. The 200' copper pulling a Black Dreamweaver Spin Doctor with a new A-TOM-MIK Hijacker fly was the combo that went. We just got our hands on the new Hijacker series, and I think they are going to be a good one! Although we didn't pound any Chinooks the Coho, and a nice drop back Rainbow, kept us busy.

We've run the 9'6" and 10'6" Heartlands for years when running double divers. They space out very nicely. This year we bought Daiwa's roller rods @ 8'6" but we have yet to run any more than 2 divers. I've seen guys run all the same rod lengths when running multiple divers, but I'm not a fan of that.

Another vote for the Heartlands. We have run them for a long time now, and they just hold up to the beating Salmon give them. Don't bother with a Twilli-tip until you start seeing grooves in the ceramic at the tip. Although, a Twilli will greatly reduce the resistance you get with wire through the tip.

Go deeper! Those are sharks down there!

We had 4 teams from Michigan come to fish this event. Diabolical Work N Bites Pole Dancer Flatout They called the Wilson Harbor Invitational the Super Bowl of Salmon tournaments on the Great Lakes. All of them spent a week here, and some cashed in on the Spring LOC, or other side bets held during the week. Stay tuned if you are interested in coming over to fish this next year. We are trying to make it worth it for you to spend the week up here.

We knew going into the biggest tourney on the Great Lakes it would be tough. This would be the first large event that we would fish a charter group in. This group was no stranger to Lake Ontario, and they fished with us last year. They showed up on Thursday morning, so we had two days to whip them into shape. Thursday & Friday’s Practice - As the week went on the bite got worse and worse. We saw the fish, but they were just inactive. The morning bite on Thursday was better than expected. We boated 9 Chinook Salmon, and a few Coho. Our Dreamweaver Sea Sick Waddler on our Cannon Downrigger down 50-60’ was on fire. We would work 50-100’ of water in the morning, and then slide out to 140-225 in the afternoon. Once we slid out our deep riggers down 150-200’ seemed to be the best, but those fish were few and far between. When they did go it was a flasher/fly combo, or a meat rig. Saturday’s Tourney - We had a bunch of waypoints to hit up just West of Wilson, and we figured why change our game plan up when it had been netting us 5-9 Chinook a day for the last several days. We started in tight (40’) where we kept seeing the schools of spawning Alewife on our way in every day. We slowly worked out as boats flew by us to their spots. It didn’t take long and there went the Dreamweaver Sea Sick Waddler on our Cannon out down. We boated that fish, and waited an hour for our next bite. That bite would come on our deep rigger down 175’ with a Stinger Hammertime E-Chip pulling an A-TOM-MIK B-Fly. Another hour went by when the Dreamweaver Hammertime Spin Doctor pulling an A-TOM-MIK Hammer fly took a ride on our 100’ rigger. Half way into the day we were 3 for 3 and I knew it was a tough bite. We hadn’t seen a net fly in any of the boats around us. I looked at the clients and told them if they could get me one more fish I would guarantee them a top 10 finish. With a few hours left our Cannon out down pulling a white on white meat rig fires 100’ down. We had #4 on for about 5-10 seconds and it pulled off. Nothing anybody could have done would have changed that outcome, but on the way into weigh in I had a sneaky suspicion that fish cost us money. When the scales closed we missed out on a top ten, and a check, by two positions. A tough one to swallow, but you can’t land every fish you hook. Our guys had a blast, and they were already asking about doing it again next year. Disclaimer - We only took 3 fish on tourney day, but the guy who lost the one took a beating. He wanted to hold something for the picture. I took anotehr boats fish to fillet up for these guys, so he grabbed one of them. Fish from the previous two days:

My $.02 says it's the ducer also. Keep us informed on what happens when you swap that out.