Yankee's Sandy Creek Shootout and Weekend Charters @ the Oak

[Yankee Troller]

7/25 Morning – Morning of the Sandy Creek Shootout we broke the pier heads at 5:15 with the intentions of heading West. A last minute decision to go East between my brother and I found ourselves down off the lighthouse in 130’ of water at 5:40 with a boat load of clients. We set lines and the chaos began. We couldn’t get an 8 rod spread down, and the bite went like this until 9am. We ran one 400’ and two 500’ A-TOM-MIK coppers pulling Familiar Bite meat. Our divers pulled a Wonderbread Smartfish/A-TOM-MIK Glow Blue Hammer fly, and a Hammertime Chip/A-TOM-MIK Hypnotist fly our 200-250’ on 2 settings. Our deep Cannon downrigger pulled Familiar Bite meat down 90-120, we had a rigger set at 80-90’ down with flasher fly combos, and a high rigger down 60-80’ with Dreamweaver Sea Sicks MUPPED.

We found we had to troll NE/SW to deal with the current. 130’ to 225’ seemed to be the loops we were working, but 175’-200’ was where most waypoints laid on our Humminbird ONIX. We went to weigh in knowing it would be close. We've come up a little short a few times already at this event, and it happened again! Congrats to the winners, and thanks goes out to the organizers!

7/25 Evening – Nicholas from Norway joined us again this year. We headed out and it was a slow go. First bite came on a 500 A-TOM-MIK copper pulling Familiar Bite meat. We would sit and rot for most of the evening until 7pm. Watching our Humminbird ONIX units I see a few fish shoot off the bottom in 145’ off the ladders. Deep rigger pulling meat fires, and Nicholas is into a good one. We get it 40 yards from the boat and it finds our 500 copper and we have a mess on our hands. As we are slowly working it in the 500’ A-TOM-MIK copper fires with a Salmon. We net the first one, and Nicholas is into the second. He pulls a double alone with a 17 and a 19lb Salmon. Both took Familiar Bite meat.

7/26 Morning – Nicholas joined us for a morning outing looking to crack the 20lb mark. He’s got 3 at 19lbs between last season and this season, so the quest continued. The fishing was slow. We went 5/6 from 5:30 to noon. He landed a two small Salmon, a Brown Trout, a Steelbow, and a Lake Trout. As it’s been the last few weeks the noon bite kicked into gear, and between 12 and 1:30 we went 3 for 4 on some nice Salmon. They came on deep Cannon downriggers pulling Familiar Bite meat, and 400 and 500 foot A-TOM-MIK copper pulling Familiar Bite meat.

7/26 Evening – Wasn’t looking forward to an afternoon boat ride with these clients. The Povio’s fish with us every year, and they’ve had some stellar catches throughout the years. It started slow. We worked out to the 25/26N line and our South trolls seemed to be best. We actually did quite good for an afternoon charter. Stinger Black Tuxedos and Frost Bites on Cannon downriggers 55-80’ down. Divers out 250’ pulling a UV Hammertime Dreamweaver Spin Doctor/A-TOM-MIK Hammer Lime Live, and our 500 A-TOM-MIK copper pulling familiar Bite meat.