Yankee's Scotty Report

[Yankee Troller]

Friday 8/20 (Big Fish Friday) – Headed out around 6am and worked West all day. We like the West 9 mile area when we are in O town! Well, it would end up being a very disappointing day. On the way down to West 9 mile point we would take 2 shots, and 1 on the way back for 8 hours of fishing!

There was only 3 of us on the boat, so we ran a simple 3 rigger, 2 wire, 1 copper set-up. When we are in O town it is hard to even think about putting down a spoon! So, every rod had a Dreamweaver Spin Doctor, an E-Chip, or a Legendary Smart Fish on it trailed by an A-TOM-MIK fly. At one point we threw down a big 11†paddle with an MC Rocket, and I even put down a Tuna filled Super Cut Plug, but neither of those resulted in any hook ups.

Our first shot didn’t take much more than 30 minutes or so, and I think that was because we were still in the Oswego River water. Our 600 copper fired with a Green E-Chip/Green Crinkle A-TOM-MIK fly. During that battle our corner rigger down 80’ would take a shot on a Marv’s Fatty Spin Doctor (Green Spin Doctor/Double Crush Glow/Green Dots) pulling an A-TOM-MIK UV Dolphin. We would land a 22lb Chinook on the copper, but drop the King from the rigger. Our last shot would come very late in the day while we were off our game. It was the 600 copper that took off again. This was one of those fish that rips about 50’ of line out and drops it like there wasn’t a hook attached to our lure. Oh well, we knew that there was a decent bite East of the Harbor, and we decided that we would head that way on Saturday.

Saturday 8/21 (Day 1) – I was pumped to be in O town. I knew that we didn’t have to worry about guys going out and beating us with Trout! It was strictly a Chinook (king) Salmon tourney! Our forte! We ran a mile or two to the East and set up in 100fow. Screen was OK at best, but we set lines anyway. We worked the five stacks area East to the Alcan plant the whole day. Our best water was 140-160 down 60-90’.

We ran a 3 rigger, 3 copper, 2 wire program. One of two King programs we like to run. We started off with Spinny/A-TOM-MIK combos on our corner riggers, a Lyman plug on our middle rigger set back 60’ and ran 10’ above the corner riggers. I like to call it a tail gunner. On our Walker Deeper Divers we ran Smart Fish trailed by A-TOM-MIKs out anywhere from 180-300 on a 2 setting. Lastly, our coppers were a 300 and a 400 fished off our Otter Boats, and a 500 run down the chute. On the 300 we had another Lyman plug, but the 400 and 500 both had E-Chip/A-TOM-MIK combos. Well, everything we put down in the morning rotted for us besides the Lyman fished as a tail gunner on our middle rigger. That broke the ice with a 3lb Chinook. Big enough for the cooler, but not what we were looking for!

Little by little we started to change over paddle/fly combos. We saw the fish, but they just weren’t taking our rigs. Lots of streaking told me they were interested, but they just wouldn’t take them. As we were going through combos I put down a Chrome/Green dot Spin Doctor with an A-TOM-MIK Pro Am Glow fly on a corner rigger and stretched it back 30’. I literally turned my back after slamming it down to 80’ and our teammate Justin starts running for the rod. We put a teenager in the box, and got set back up. Well, not 10 minutes later that rig fires again. Another King! OK, so now we have something they LIKE!!! We scramble to find another combo and luckily we buy everything in even numbers. So we slam another one down to 80 on the other corner rigger. Those combos would take two more matures for us by the end of the day. The only other rig to take a Salmon would be a Green E-Chip pulling an A-TOM-MIK Misery fly, which would cull our first 3lb Salmon with a 4lb Salmon. With 20 minutes to go Our HOT combo would fire again with a King only to have him take 50’ of line and crack off our 50lb fly leader. That fish would have really given us a good cull! Even if it was a 20lb fish we had a 4lb fish we NEEDED to get rid of. We would end our day with 5 Salmon in the box, and from what we heard it was a tough day for a lot of the heavy hitters we are used to fishing against.

About three times during the day we would go to pull the Lyman from our spread and find a 6-8lb Brown Trout on it. Any other tournament I guess it wouldn’t be a bad thing, but not in a Salmon only event. Anyway, these Lymans have some great action in the water, and if you are a troller you know that these type lures really start to shine this time of year.

After all the boxes hit the weigh in stage we were sitting in 14th place. There were only 12 teams to bring a 5 fish box to the scales on day one. After we weighed in our fish we were in a mad dash to find more Chrome/Green dot Spin Doctors, but we would only end up finding one! During this tackle shopping adventure my brother would find Sunday’s HOT ticket!

Sunday 8/22 (Day 2) – Why change anything when we were so close to a top ten, and we thought with the right bites that a top 5 was well within reach. When we set down in 90fow the screen just lit up! When I got done setting 2 riggers I realized we were pointed North and not in 90’ of water anymore. Not to mention our screen went blank. I had to let my uncle have an ear full! LOL We couldn’t get back in there with the traffic, so we went into search mode and started to head over to our trail from the previous day.

Same program went down from the previous day, but as you can imagine there were a lot of green dot combos that saw time in the water. We didn’t move a rod for a while! We went through more paddle/fly combos than ever before. We saw the fish, but they were just not interested in our gear. At one point my brother takes a fly he bought at Fat Nancy’s Tackle shop on Saturday afternoon and sets it out on his wire. It didn’t take long and that Daiwa Saltist was singing! Of course he was screaming that his new fly took a shot at the same time. The combo was a Marv’s Fatty Spin Doctor pulling an A-TOM-MIK LBB Live. I must admit my brother made everyone in the boat see how cool this fly looked in the water before he sent it out to 200’, and we all were amazed at how different it looked. Well, at 10am we had one major in the box, and we had released a 12lb Lake Trout. Word had it there were some fish off Fairhaven, so we made the run.

When we got to West 9 mile point we set lines and quickly the same combo that took our first King was back in action. This time it was a 10lb Coho Salmon that fell victim to the combo. That would be our last Salmon of the day. That same combo would go on to take two Lake Trout down off Fairhaven.

Saturday was tough, but Sunday was even tougher. Even less 5 fish boxes were weighed in, and when it was all said and done we dropped 3 places to finish in the middle of the field. (17th Place) Congrats to the Popeye boat who won the tourney with an all women team!

[Priority1]

Capt. Rich, Thanks for the detailed report. GJ in tough conditions.

Congrats to Popeye and it's Olive Oil crew.

[A-Fishy-Anado]

Great Report Rich:thumb: I was beginning to think Lake "O" didn't have these kinds of days

Middle of the pack is a fine finish for a tough bite like that.

[Yankee Troller]

They typically don't happen on the west end.

[GLF]

Nice job Richard!