Yankee @ Wilson LOC Derby - Weekend 1

[Yankee Troller]

Saturday

Our group from PA met us at the dock at 5:30 with Tim Hortons in hand. Heck of a way to start off the morning! We left the dock with John and his friends promptly after hearing that the bite had not slowed at all since last weekend. In fact it got better, which is hard to believe! We fished in 1-3’s, then 3-5’s, and I think it went to 2-4’s by the end of our trip. To be honest we didn’t even realize it was that bumpy out because the fishing was INSANE!

We stopped in 50’ of water, but would work 70-90’ for the entire day. Boat traffic was mediocre at first, but when Lady O kicked up we had much of the Lake to ourselves. The screen was loaded with Chinooks, and we started the day with a triple! We had a spoon program down all day, and we didn’t have to change much up. MVP’s for the day were Stinger Hawg Wild’s fished off our 10 color cores that were drug behind our Big John Otter boats. On our Cannon DT10’s pulled a Northern King Sea Sick Waddler, a Lazer Spook, and a Mulatto from 30’ down to the bottom. We also had those same spoons on our wires behind Walker Deeper Divers.

The NE wind pushed the fish down West a little bit as the day went on, but we figured that out quick and followed them. As I stated above we started the day with a triple, and we also ended the day with one. The amount of doubles and a few more triples in between were more than I wanted to keep track of. Our group wanted to take advantage of the LOC derby, and that they did! We put a Chinook on the leaderboard weighing just over 25lbs, which was good enough for 6th at that time. We missed out on making it with another one that was 23lbs and change.

Sunday

We awoke to calm winds, and not too much later the smell of more Tim Hortons! We pulled out of the dock again about 5:30 and headed for the same water we fished yesterday. The boat traffic was unreal! More boats than I have seen in many years, and they were all fishing the stretch from the power plant to the bar.

We didn’t change up our program much from Saturday. However, we did add two more wires to the mix. We ran a paddle fly combo on the low diver, and a spoon on the high diver. We quickly realized the bite was not as fast and furious as it was the day before, but we also knew the full moon may have allowed these beasts to feed through the night. With that being said we understood an afternoon bite may materialize. We would poke a few fish on the inside, but the combat trolling was terrible. We did drop a hog in there, but you can’t land them all!

As the morning pressed on we would slide out a touch into the 130’ range and we continued to pick a fish or two every 15-20 minutes. We also realized the size was down from the day before. We went about our day catching and releasing the small ones (when I say small I mean anything under 15lbs). About 11am the bite really turned on, and it lasted until 3pm when we pulled rods. We slid out to the 150-200’ range, and the 600 copper was a constant producer with a green Smartfish pulling an A-TOM-MIK green crinkle. That combo was also going well on one of our low divers out 300’. Our deep riggers were also pulling fish consistently down 120-200’ with Northern King Sea Sick Waddlers, and a Moonshine spoon I don’t know the name of. One of my brothers impulse buys, but boy was it hot! I’m pretty sure he called up Captains Cove and put the rest of those aside.

Right until we pulled rods fish were snapping. We ended the day with what we thought was another leaderboard fish that took the green Smartfish pulling an A-TOM-MIK green crinkle combo on our wire. That fish took us for a ride! Best fight of the year so far. On the scales the fished missed out by half a pound.

The fishing continues to be unbelievable all along the south shore, and you can tell the word is out! From Olcott to the West small businesses had to have made out well this weekend! Get out there and get in on the action!