2008 Reports/Blog

(Click on the pictures for a larger view)

 

12/26/08 - Salmon River w/ Chasin' Tail Adventures:

We, my brother and I, met Andy at Fat Nancy's around 7:30, and I got to play with my first float rod and reel set-up. I was super excited to go out and fight some of those winter steelies on it. We hit the water and its super packed with fisherman. It didn't take long for my brother, who is a first time drift boater, to hook his first fish. It also didn't take him long to kick our tails! I think we ended the day with my brother landing 5 fish (4 Steelies and 1 Brown), Andy landing 2 (One that tipped the boga grip at 12lbs), and me 0 for 2 on the new set-up and an ugly sucker fish landed. The trout don't get along with me on the lake, and they don't show any love on the streams!

As for the pluggin method.....it didn't pan out for us today. We tried it real quick, but I was so much into getting the new rod and reel broke in that we didn't give it much of a chance. here are some pics of our fish.

 

12/10/08 - Salmon River w/ Chasin' Tail Adventures:

I took my first Drift Boat trip with Chasin' Tail Adventures on Wednesday. I have never really steelhead fished other than the lifting I did when I was young and dumb. After the trip I had on Wednesday I am HOOKED! I would HIGHLY recommend this guide service. He knew all the holes to hit and does this EVERY DAY September-December.

For all you lake guys out there that LOVE to see a wire diver hit you will love the method used in a drift boat called "pluggin." It's a method of hanging your lures right in the face of a steelhead as you slowly drift down stream. Kinda like a back troll. The steelhead love this method!

OK, lets talk about the trip. We put the boat in at first light, and at the first spot Andy hands me the float rod. While he is telling me what to do and look for the float goes under. I lift up and "FISH ON" and very quickly "fish off!" I guess you have to set the hook, which is a tough thing to do with a 10' noodle rod. We fish a little more and nothing. We finally make it to a hole and we start whackin them. Much to my surprise in that hole I landed an Atlantic Salmon about 10 inches long. What a pretty fish! We go a little further and we do some more fish. Float fishing is fun, but I heard of this method called pluggin and I ask if we can do it. Once we got to a part of the river that Andy says was worthy of the method we deployed the rods. It didn't take long and we were 0 for 3. We get out of that hole and float fish for a while and then right before we end the day we plug another spot. We landed 2 real nice fish out of there using the pluggin method.

Total on the day was 7 for 13. Biggest was estimated around 9 or 9.5 pounds. The temp went from 40 to 25 throughout the day, which from my understanding is not the prime time for steelhead to eat.

 

9/14 - We were the first boat out of the pier heads and didn't see much on the screen as we worked the mouth for one pass. We turned the boat North and headed out to where we were the day before. WE got out to the 40' range and the fish were there. However, we again had a tough time getting them to open their mouths. First hit was on a Green dot SmartFish pulling an Ultra Green Glow A-TOM-MIK fly. He hit the 40' wire on a 3 setting and was off within the first minute. Next the other wire took off with a White SmartFish/Sweat Pea A-TOM-MIK fly. During this battle The middle rigger would take off and we are doubled up! That was also a White/Dew SmartFish pulling an A-TOM-MIK TG fly. We boated both of these and one was 20ish and the other closer to 15 pounds. Everything gets re-set and I'm leaning against my corner rigger (my back turned) talking to the clients and I feel something jumping. I turn around and see the rod bobbing. I grab it and hand it off to one of them. Guess what that fish took? Sea Sick Waddler Spinny pulling an A-TOM-MIK Sweat Pea fly. Now I'm stoked! We boat that fish and it was a 10-12lb fish. We would go a while with nothing then the 300' copper takes off. I didn't have it out the full 300' and when the albright knot passed through the eyes of the rod it must of gotten hung up and SNAP. The copper broke right above the knot, and I mean right above! Anyway, that was my last white e-chip pulling an A-TOM-MIK White Halo fly. That would be it for our day. We watched other boats pull fish slowly, but we couldn't turn anything the last few hours.

I have to say I went through more attractor fly combos this weekend than ever before. Staging fish are tough! Real tough!

 

9/13 - Was set-up by 5:45 and trolling out of the river. Went though 50 attractor fly combos and tossed j-plugs and spoons at these tight lipped predators. We took our only fish of the day at about 7am on a glow green j-plug off the rigger. It was an 8lb Northern Pike. Our next rip was on our 10 color pulling a glow green NK Mag. Got to the rod and no one home. The a screamer on the five color pulling a NK Wonderbread mag. Both of these hits came around 60fow. Finally, at the end of the day we trolled up the river to put the boat back on the trailer to have our wire on a 2.5 setting out 20' take a WHACK! We heard zip...zip...zip and then the rod went limp. We got snapped off. That fish took my Green dot SmartFish pulling my last A-TOM-MIK Glow Pro-Am fly.

Tough day and my worst performance of the year. LOTS of fish out there, but not many got them going.
 

 

9/7 - Fished a little open tourney on Honeoye Lake. This supposedly small tourney turned out to be close to 30 boats. Anyway, our first spot we pull up on and the Largemouth were schoolin! We tossed out our topwater baits and SMOKED them, but they were all small. So we started to flip soft plastics and jig n pigs. We were whackin them pretty good, but not many were something we wanted in our livewell. I tried to finesse them with 4" worms and that just brought on small fish. We fished from 5-18fow and we just couldn't find the big guys. At the weigh in it seemed that everyone was in the same boat. Limits of 5 fish for under 5lbs. was a common sight. The winners had 12lbs and second had 10lbs.

 

 

9/6 - We were excited to fish the last tournament of they year at the Oak only to find out about 8am that there were only 3 boats entered. So they canceled the tourney. Kinda hard to believe with the amount of traffic that was out there. I'm talking 40-50 boats.

Anyway, we started off in about 75' and the screen progressively got better as we trolled on a NE heading. Once we hit 150-200fow we could see all the big guys chillin down 125-150 in the water column. I'm thinkin......here's my program! Well, these guys weren't moving, and didn't want to eat. We were about to head offshore when we got the call about the cancellation, so we figured that would be a waste of gas. So, instead we figured we would go in and look for BT's. We started in 30' and worked out to 100 with pee warm water. Never found less than 60 degrees and that was on the bottom on 125. So we headed back to port on a 200-300 fow troll. We set up for Kings again and WHAM! The 350 diver on a 1.5 takes off with a black Spinny/A-TOM-MIK Hammer fly. Just a juvee...10-12lbs. We would end up taking two skippies the rest of the day and pulled rods around 1:30.

Sounded like a tough bite out there on this particular day. Only a couple of fish taken in the inside waters, and you had to be on a pod of fish offshore to get them going. Anyway, the screen looked good and it should be long before those fish make their way to the tribs around here in numbers.
 

 

9/1 - What a difference a day can make! We started in shallow (40-70 fow) and there was a decent picture. We never moved a rod and worked West/North West out to about 150. Got a call from a friend stating that we needed to head out to the stomping grounds of the prior two days as the picture and fish were everywhere. Well, he wasn't lying! We got out there and there was more bait than I have ever seen in my 20+ years of trolling. It seemed as if there was a bait pile somewhere on the fish finder at all times. We didn't mark a ton of fish, but they were there. We got out there a little later than we should have, but we still managed 8 or 9 bites. Mostly steelies with a 2yr old Salmon tossed in the mix. Lures today were all spoons! Dreamweaver SS "Da Shiznit" took a few fish. This is turning into a nice steelie lure! Stinger Orange Crush Stingrays off our 250 wires on 2.5 took a few. Watermelon NK 28 took a fish as did a Dreamweaver SS Area 51. Our riggers were parked anywhere between 30-70 down depending on where the boat and fish were marked. There was a better class of steelies out there today. Nothing into the double digits, but some fat 7-8 pounders.

 

BTW.....If you look down through these reports you can see that the Dreamweaver SS's have played a big role in our spread lately. These spoons are steelie candy! I had a hard time at first getting them to go on the Kings, and I still love my Northern Kings when kings are around, but these steelhead are loving any SS that has green or orange in it.

 

 

8/31 - Well, I thought yesterday was tough but today topped that! I had my worst charter performance ever on this very day! Prior to today 10 bites on a charter was my worst performance. I guess you cant always take 15-25 bites, but I sure did take those days for granted. We went 6 for 7 all steelhead, biggest being around 8lbs, with a skipper king tossed into the mix. We figured it would be worth it to skip the inside waters and head right out to the spot we fished yesterday. We stopped short by about a half a mile and the screen was lit up! Fish from 30-150 down. I set up half a Salmon program and half a Steelhead program. By the time I was set up and we turned on that screen it was gone! So, I quickly re-rigged for steelies. The first rod to fire was my 10 color pulling that Hammertime Spinny with an A-TOM-MIK Pro/Am Glow fly. I went to release it off the otter boat and the leadcore breaks 4 inches from the knot. Well there goes that one! We waited till almost 11am till our next bite and we had a very slow pick till we quit around 2:30. The other 10 color would fire with a black spinny/ A-TOM-MIK Hammer fly. Then the wire out 150 on a 1.5 setting started throbbing with a shaker steelie that took a white spinny pulling an A-TOM-MIK Hammer fly. Then the corner riggers took over. One with a Dreamweaver SS called "Da Shiznit" and a Dreamweaver SS Area 51. Our center rigger would take a small king with a Dreamweaver SS Glow Froggy. I went through more spoon colors today trying to find something they wanted to eat that it was frustrating. Anyway, a good time was had by all, and some very tasty Steelhead meat was taken home.

 

 

8/30 - Today was a derby fishing day for family and friends. We started out in front of Sandy creek around 6am. Setup in 30fow due to heavy fog and a lot of boat traffic. We trolled north and only took 1 shaker on the 125 wire pulling a NK Mulatto mag. Once out around 300fow the picture on our Furuno started to look a lot better. It didn't take long after that to find a group of fish that wanted to play. We would take another 9 bites ranging from our 150' wires to 10 colors of lead, but most fish came off our riggers. On our cores we had a couple of fish take a black spinny pulling an A-TOM-MIK Hammer fly. Our wires would each take a fish. One was pulling a NK Mag Copper NBK and the other was with a NK 28 Coyote. Our riggers were firing with NK 42nd spoons, both mags and 28's, and Dreamweaver SS glow froggies. Two salmon, one which was about 13lbs, and the rest were nice steelies.

 

 

8/24 - Well, yesterday was tough. But today was tougher! We had John Condemi and family out for a derby fishing day. We had high hopes of a big guy considering some slobs were taken between Rochester and Oak Orchard the past few days. Again we tried the short water to match yesterdays bite, but we never moved a rod. We tried the 50' line from Sandy to the Pump House, and then the 70' line back to Sandy. TONS of bait, but not many fish. We soon turned it north to look for some active fish. We hit 250fow and rods started to pop. Our low diver went off first with a Black Spinny/A-TOM-MIK Hammer fly. Very soon after that the high diver went with  Dreamweaver SS Glow Froggy. We landed this one and it was a 2yr old Salmon. The same low diver took off again and we boated another 2yr old. Next we got the 45 rigger to go with NK Glow Froggies. That would take a few fish, but we seemed to have a case of the dropsy's. We got a 42nd spoon to go on the 35 rigger only to loose our only Stealhead of the day right at the back of the boat. Our copper rig with the same set-up as yesterday took two shots. We ended up going 5 for 10 from 6am-12pm. Then the crew decided on trying to get a Lake Trout on the leader board. We were in a great place considering Watoma Shoals was right there and Lake Trout LOVE structure. We put down our Hammerhead cow bells and the fish just started flying in the boat. We ran a chrome/Mtn. Dew set, and a chrome/Blue set with peanuts behind them. Fish ranged from 5lbs to 12lbs. They made a slow day very active and filled the cooler up a little more.

 

8/23 - Today was a two part trip. We headed out early in the AM with Mike Povio and Family. Action started immediately with the first fish taking a NK Sea Sick Waddler Mag parked at 50' on the corner rigger. Next fish took a Dreamweaver SS Daves Salmon Slapper down 40' on the middle rigger. Both of these fish were skippies. Next our wire set on a 2.5 setting out 125 with a Black Spinny/A-TOM-MIK Hammer fly went. This ended up being a 10lb Lake Trout. We re-set and the same wire takes off! After a little battle we boated a 15lb short/FAT female Salmon. A short while later the other corner rigger fires down 45' with a NK 42nd spoon. This was an acrobatic 8lb Stealhead. Our other wire took off shortly there after with a White on White Smart Fish pulling a White Halo A-TOM-MIK fly. Another short/FAT 15lb female Salmon. The last fish we would boat was a 22lb Salmon that hit a White on White Smart Fish pulling an Ultra Glow Green A-TOM-MIK fly. He hit our 60' corner rigger like a freight train. The rod never came up. Throughout the day we also dropped a screamer on the 300 copper pulling a Hammertime Spinny and an A-TOM-MIK Glow Pro-Am fly. This has been a super set-up the last month for us off the copper. We dropped a small fish on the 10 color that hit a NK Mag Purple Thunder. While pulling rods we found out we were dragging a 12" Stealhead that found our NK 42nd spoon, but couldn't release it form the rigger.

 

After we dropped them off we headed back out for 3-4 hours of derby fishing. The bite wasn't as good, and we went 3 for 3 with all 8-10lb Salmon. We tried the deep bite that some guys found productive in the AM, but we only managed two fish out there. The first one came 60' down on the corner rigger pulling that same White on White Smart Fish w/ a Ultra Glow Green A-TOM-MIK fly. Second one took the 300' copper with that hot rig I mentioned above....Hammertime Spinny and an A-TOM-MIK Glow Pro-Am fly. We trolled back into the area we fished in the AM to find our third fish on the 300 copper. 13 bites today on a day where temps were ice cold in the AM from a lake flip, but they are warming up real nice.

 

 

8/17 - Second day of our derby kicked off with a small crew (my brother and his girlfriend). We got out early with hopes of getting a good inside bite. We knew with a light crew we weren't running 8 miles out again given the conditions. The picture was spotty until we got down east a tad ,and there we found bait with fish mixed in as well. We worked 120-140fow most of the morning. Sea sick Waddlers were our #1 lure today on our 100 rigger, which happens to be the set-up that took a 30.03 Salmon for us today. He hit the NK Mag Waddler 5' above the 28. Other rigs today were the 42nd combo on a wire dipsey, White/Purple Spinny pulling a purple mirage A-TOM-MIK fly, #3 Green glow j-plug on the 300 copper, and a hammertime spinny pulling a glow pro am A-TOM-MIK fly on the 600 copper. That's our first fish on the Fall LOC leaderboard. Two weekends left to go!

 

8/16 - First day we were able to fish the 2008 Fall LOC Derby, so we headed out with aspirations of putting some fish on the leaderboard. We hit the water off of the Oak around 6:30. We tried the inside waters again for 30 minutes until they dried up and managed to loose a good one on the wire Green double crush glow Smart Fish with a Green Crinkle A-TOM-MIK fly, and we landed a skippy off the rigger that took a NK 28 Suplerglow NBK. We dropped in at the 27N line and worked out till the 30-31 and had a slow pick. At one point all four wires took off with the low wires out 125 and 150 on a .5 setting, and the high wires out 200 and 225 on a 3 setting. Riggers were firing, but there wasn't a HOT color until late morning when our NK Copper NBK's  started to fire on the riggers down 50-100, and on our wires out 225-300. I guess the fish went a little deeper than expected for us at least. The last rig we had go was our 300 copper with the same #3 Mongoose colored J-Plug. We ended the day with 19 bites, and we landed 15 of them. Only had 2 big guys on throughout the day, and we dropped them both. Nothing for the leaderboard today, but we will be out again on Sunday morning to give it a shot. We had some nasty conditions to deal with out there working the 28-30N lines. Here is a cool video I captured from driving on the flybridge.

 

 

8/9 - We teamed up with some members of the Irondequoit Bay fish and game club for a little tourney today. We figured if we wanted to catch fish then we needed to be off Point Breeze (Oak Orchard). We checked the inside water and took a shot on a Sea Sick Waddler down 70' on the corner rigger. He got into a wire and he left with one of my spoons! The picture dried up real quick because of the traffic, so we picked up and headed for the 27N line. We stop there and start setting lines to have the middle rigger parked at 50 fire. It ended up being a 10lb king that we threw back. He took a Dreamweaver Glow Froggy SS. That spoon would take fish throughout the day just like the previous few trips out. Another hot spoon was our NK copper NBK. We had it on the rigger between 60 and 80 and it took our majors, and some great steelhead. 300' copper pulling a #3 J-plug in a Mongoose color was another HOT rig. That took 5 shots throughout the day, and we dropped a screamer on it towards the end of the day which would have been part of a triple header. Our low/deep wires were firing at 150 out on a .5 setting pulling Kelly Green Spinnies and A-TOM-MIK Wiggler's. Our high wires out 200-225' on a 2.5-3 setting were going with Dreamweaver green sparkle SS's and orange Yecks. We had another 20 fish day that was anchored by a 25lb Salmon and a 12lb Steelhead. We ended up taking 2nd and 3rd in the Salmon division, and 1st in the steelhead division. I have to loose some weight so these big fish can look big! When that fish hit the deck we though it was high 20's! Boy can these fish fool ya, and I have been doing this for 20+ years! Green was definitely the color today! Keep an eye out for my derby reports in the upcoming weeks!

 

 

8/4 - Maureen and Kyle were vacationing on Conesus Lake and wanted to do a little fishing. Kyle is head over heels when it comes to bass fishing, and his smile went from ear to ear when he took his first ride in a bass boat. We fished the evening bite, and had some success. We boated 7 largemouth all around the 12" mark, but Kyle took a nice 2-2.5lb largemouth on a 1/4oz slider head rigged with a 4" Berkley power worm. We worked some of my best waters come dusk to try and find a topwater bite, but we couldn't get much to come up and check out our baits. Anyway, they had a great time and I think Kyle's itch just got worse! He will be a great fisherman in his years to come.

 

 

8/2 - Today's trip was a new bunch of guys from PA. I'm pretty sure they had one of the best fishing days of their lives! We took 22 hits throughout the day. We left the dock around 5:30am and were setting lines around 6am. We stopped at the 26.5 line and didn't turn until the 30 line as we picked fish all the way out. Spent the day doing N-S trolls between the 27 and 30 lines. Dreamweaver glow froggy SS was the hot spoon parked at 50. Dreamweaver area 51 SS was our second best parked at 55. 42nd's, and sea sick waddlers took shots too. First fish in the box was a monster king measuring 42" long. He took a glow froggy on the cheater parked at 40 in 60 degree water. Many Steelhead in the 6-10lb range. 300 copper went twice with a Green double crush glow Smart Fish pulling an A-TOM-MIK green crinkle. 10 color went once with a NK Hawg Wild. Wires parked at 100-175 took a couple of fish with a dreamweaver green sparkle SS and a white/green edged spiny pulling an A-TOM-MIK glow pro-am fly.

 

 

7/27 - Wanted to fish a small tourney on Conesus, but I couldn't find a partner. So, I went down there anyway and fished for fun! I wanted to try a new topwater bait and some new spots, and that's what I did. This new bait called a Deps Buzzjet Jr. was a KILLER. I took many great smallmouth in the 3lb range and a bunch of largemouth. It was sick how bad the bass wanted this bait. I fished the rest of the day picking away at fish, but never scoring a MONSTER Conesus bass. Broke out a crankbait thinking this is something the bass don't see often and ended up smashing Pike after Pike on it.

 

 

7/26 - Today I spent the morning with a father daughter team on Honeoye Lake. Tom wanted his daughter to hook into some largemouth, and I said there is no better place for action than Honeoye lake. We met around 6:30am and were fishing by 7am. We bounced around to a few spots with some success until we figured out they wanted a craw pattern on the weed edge in 10-15 fow. We caught a ton of those Honeoye "cookie cutter" fish in the 12-14" range. With about 45 minutes to go Cora hooks into this monster 4.5lb largemouth! This is a fish she wont ever forget, and she owes it all to her father. He is making sure she gets a good dose of what New York State has to offer in the outdoors.

 

A HUGE THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS!!!!!

I want to give a shout out to some of the companies/people that have really helped us compete at the highest level during the 2008 Lake Ontario Pro Am trail. Without you guys we don't stand a chance out there against some of the toughest lake Ontario tournament teams.

 

First, I want to start off by thanking John and the family over at Northern King Lures. The week of the Niagara Pro/Am I called him in dire need of some Sea Sick Waddlers, because I had lost my prototypes on a recent charter. He had them for me by Wednesday, and they played a huge role in our 7th place finish.

Next, I would like to thank Tom Allen of A-TOM-MIK flies for getting me the flies I needed when I needed them. His flies have been responsible for more money taken by anglers than most of the other products used on Lake Ontario for King Salmon. All my coppers are now A-TOM-MIK copper on Penn reels. He is a copper guru now, so if your thinking about getting some you need to talk to him.

Legendary Products is a new company for us, but the owner is one heck of a nice guy. He is the maker of the Smart Fish flasher, which has taken so many big fish for me this year its unreal. From the 2 Spring LOC Kings to the 1 Summer LOC King, and they also played roles in the Pro/Am tournaments while also putting fish in the boat during charters. I have said this before and I will say it again......these flashers are the most versatile flasher on the market. He makes them in all the good colors, so you cant go wrong when buying one. Tom Allen at A-TOM-MIK sells these flashers paired up with his flies. They are in deadly combinations ready to put fish in your boat.

 

Lastly, I want to thank the McCoy Fishing Line Co. Since I started running their "MEAN GREEN" I haven't had to deal with any fleas in the summer months on Lake Ontario. This line is supper tough, and handles those MONSTER Lake Ontario King Salmon with ease.

 

7/20 (Day 2 Sodus Pro/Am) - The decision to go right back out to the waters we had fished the prior two days was an easy one. When we sat down and dropped lines the screen looked good, but the fish had lock jaw! It wasn't long before the screen would disappear and we would be in search mode. We trolled around till 11am without a single strike! We traveled out to over 300' and the screen just never looked promising. Our team made the decision to hit up the Brown Trout waters, so we pulled lines and ran in. Finished setting rods and the corner downrigger fires and we have our first fish on. We stuck it out in there pulling in 4 Brown Trout. 3 of the 4 took a Stinger Penguin, and the other took a Stinger Gin and juice. Our score for the day was just under 70 points and we finished the tourney in 16th place out of 37 Pro teams.

 

7/19 (Day 1 Sodus Pro/Am) - We passed up the Brown Trout water and headed right for the Salmon waters. We had no idea what we were in store for! It took us 15 minutes before we took our first shot, but it was a good one and we couldn't turn him on the wire dipsey. Eventually he won and we were back looking for our first fish. Next rod to fire was our 80 rigger with a Dreamweaver SS Glow Frog. This was our hottest rig the whole day and would take many fish. Our 400 fired with a Chrome Frog Spin Doctor pulling an A-TOM-MIK Packer fly. We dropped that screamer within the first minute of him striking. The 600 went with a Green Smart Fish pulling an A-TOM-MIK Ultra green glow fly and we drop that screamer within the first few minutes. The wires were pulling Chrome E-Chip's with A-TOM-MIK Big Fin flies, or White Smart Fish with A-TOM-MIK Ultra green glow flies. What a disappointing day as we ended it by going Brown Trout fishing to scrounge up a few quick keepers. We boxed 5 Salmon, lost 5 screamers, threw back 6 short Salmon, and went 1 for 2 on the Brown Trout. After everyone in the tourney weighed in we sat just out of the money. I can say we lost the leading box without a doubt, but as they say "That's why they call if Fishing and not Catching!" The leading boxes were all Brown Trout boxes. Not many people were targeting Kings this weekend. Our box for the day scored 107 points.

 

7/18 - Friday Pre-Tournament - Well, we left the dock about 5:30am and headed out to practice for the Wayne County Pro-Am. We stopped in the short water around 50 foot to check out the screen. We saw bait and fish so we dropped our lines. It wasn't long before we had our first Brown Trout in the boat. A healthy lb brown that took an Orange Yeck Frog off a rigger. We would end up taking one more Brown Trout heading out to check the Salmon waters. We get out to 150fow and the Salmon rigs start firing. Mostly a Smart Fish/A-TOM-MIK fly bite with white and green being the colors of choice. 400 and 600 coppers, wires, and riggers would all take fish. We pulled lines around 1pm with a good box. When we weighed our fish we had 3 fish for 57lbs. That totaled 87 points and was good for fourth in the pre tourney.

7/13 - Sunday (Day 2 Oswego pro/Am) - We didn't make any other plans but to run right to our waypoints in front of Fair Haven seeing that the leader took his box from there on day one. We pull up around 6:30 and drop lines. We weren't even set-up yet and corner rigger down 100 fires with a short Steelhead on a copper NBK. Not much longer and the high wire out 350 on a 2 setting starts ripping. We boat a nice 22lb King on a White Double Glow Smart Fish pulling an A-TOM-MIK Ace fly. Next the 600 copper takes off with a 8-10lb Lake Trout on a Green Double Glow Smart Fish pulling an A-TOM-MIK Green Crinkle fly. Get it back out there and it takes off ripping. This time it wasn't a mud chicken! We boat a 21lb King. Middle rigger fires again with a nice 8-10lb Steelhead only to dump off 25 yards behind the boat. We would then end up boating a 7lb Steelhead on a NK Mag Froggie cheated above a Mini Spinnie. With about 30 minutes to fish we boat a short Steelhead and dump another keeper Steelhead. We boxed 4 fish for 97 points and ended up just out of the money. Below is a picture of Jeremy (a team member) with our biggest fish of the tourney weighing in at 22lbs and change, and Jeremy with Tom Allen (the owner of A-TOM-MIK) sporting some nice Lake Ontario King Salmon caught on A-TOM-MIK Trolling Flies.

 

7/12 - Saturday (Day 1 Oswego pro/Am) - Well, we let Fridays pre tourney throw us a curve ball. Guys plucked some good fish out of the inside waters (140 fow in front of West 9 mile), so we started our day there hoping for a couple of bug guys. Marks were there but we only ended up taking a Lake Trout out of there. With about 3 hours left we made a run to our waypoints from Friday and in no time we were hooked up. Every bite once we set down on our waypoints came off the same rig. Chrome E-Chip pulling and A-TOM-MIK Big Finn fly out 275 on a .5 setting. We boxed 5 fish for a total of 98 points and ended day one in 15th place out of 37 teams.

 

7/11 - Friday (Practice) - Did some looking around (from 100-500+ fow), and ended up finding 7 bites out in front of Fair Haven. All the waypoints were fairly close so we figured there was a school of fish there worthy of our time on Saturday. Our biggest 3 totaled just under 30lbs. Fish weren't big, but from the sounds of it we had more bites than most boats. Our hot set up today was a Dreamweaver SS Dave's Salmon Slapper parked at 100' on the rigger. We had two wire bites one took a Green double glow Smart Fish pulling an A-TOM-MIK Green Crinkle, and the other was a White double glow Smart Fish pulling an A-TOM-MIK Ace fly.

 

7/6 - Lit the water on fire today! We boated 18 fish and dropped 6. For the third day in a row we headed out of Sandy Creek around 5:30am and fished till 1pm. Much better than yesterday. 3 of the 18 were Lake Trouts in the 11-12lb range. First thing this morning we took a 24lb Salmon on the wire pulling a Wonderbread J-Plug. Right after we boated that big guy we took a teenager on a Wonderbread A-TOM-MIK fly behind a White Spin Doctor. Our program today was 3 coppers, 4 wires, and 3 riggers. Our high wires set on a 2.5 out 225'-275' were smoking hot with area 51's and super glow/green Northern King 28's. Our low wires set on a .5 out 150'-200' pulling various Smart Fish/A-TOM-MIK fly combos were our second best set-ups. Dreamweaver SS Green Sparkle, Copper NBK's, and Sea Sick Waddlers were taking fish on the riggers from 60'-125' down. We lost a SCREAMER on the copper pulling a White on White Smart Fish/Ultra Green Glow A-TOM-MIK fly. Couldn't turn that fish and when we pulled it back in we had a the Smart Fish minus a fly or leader (that's a first). We worked the 130-150 waters until it dried up around 11am and then slid out to 170-190 to finish the day and rods started to fly again. Plenty of fish out there for everyone, so go get 'em. Green was definitely the color today. We put a Steelhead and a King Salmon on the LOC Leader board today! Wish us luck, so we can stay on the board.

 

7/5 - What a frustrating morning! We dropped lines a tad bit West of Sandy creek in 150fow. We started off 0 for 7! By the end of the day we would boat 8 fish and loose 8 others. Many skippys, but at the end of the day we put one in the boat around 17lbs on a white on white Smart Fish pulling an Ultra Glow Green A-TOM-MIK fly on the 600' copper. We also dropped a SCREAMER on that same rig earlier in the day. Sea Sick Waddler off the riggers took a fish or two as did a Stinger Copper NBK. Riggers anywhere from 60'-100' down, and wires out 200 on a 2.5 took most of the shots.

Got off the water around noon and went home to hook up to the bass boat. Figured I would give Watoma Shoals a try for some Smallmouth Bass. Marked a few fish but only managed 3. I was dragging a a tube and tossing around a drop-shot with a 4' roboworm. Out of the three hooked I only boated 1, but it was a really healthy 3lb'er.

 

7/4 - Well, after a short break from trolling to chase Bass we got back on the water to sharpen our skills before the last leg of the Pro-Ams. We set up lines out front of Sandy Creek around 6am and took our first shot on the wire dipsey out 225 pulling a white on white Spin Doctor and an A-TOM-MIK Wonderbread fly (my new favorite fly). This set-up would also take a small Stealhead later on that morning. While we were fighting that first King Salmon the 600' copper pulling a White on White Smart Fish and an A-TOM-MIK Ultra Green Glow fly starts ripping line out. We eventually dropped that fish only to wonder if it was "the one!" We finally got our riggers to fire at 100', and guess what that King Salmon took????? If you guessed the Sea Sick Waddler then you guessed right! We would end up taking a few shots on that today with the biggest being in the 15lb range. Another rigger at 100' took a shot pulling a Dreamweaver SS Dave's Salmon Slapper, but we dropped it very shortly after it took our 100' rigger. Our 300 wires would both go pulling a NK28 Area 51 and a Dreamweaver SS Green Sparkle. Last fish of the day was another 600' copper fish with the same Smart Fish/A-TOM-MIK combo. This one also ripped out line uncontrollably! Another one we would have liked to see, but this time it won. Ended the day boating 6 and loosing 6. Of course two of the ones we lost felt like REAL nice fish. Nothing boated was over 15lbs. Stay tuned as we will be derby fishing Saturday and Sunday with reports directly after we get off the boat!

 

6/29 - Headed to Onieda Lake to try my luck on some Smallmouth Bass. Started off slow with only 1 topwater bite, but by the end of the day we had the 2-3lb Smallmouth figured out! We found them on the outside weededge off shoals. We drop-shotted 4' roboworms for our most consistent pattern. These fish put up a great fight on 6lb test!

 

6/28 - Oswego Mustad Challenge: Teamed up with a few friends (Bill Ruth who operates the Billy V, Eric who runs the Maniac boat, and Jay who mates for Billy). We fished out of Fair Haven on the Billy V. We ran out for Kings first thing and found a great picture on the Furuno in 150 fow. We threw down 8 rods in a matter of minutes! First rod to fire was the middle rigger down 60 with a 5lb Brown trout attached to a Dreamweaver SS Area 51. We trolled around for about an hour with not another bite. The good screen with bait and fish dried up so we were in search mode. We stumbled across them again and rods started to fly with the threat of lightening closing in on us. We dropped a skippy (slang for a small one) on the wire diver out 300 pulling a Green Spin Doctor Green fly. We dropped another fish on the diver out 225 with a white spin doctor hammer fly. We saw this fish and it was in the teenage range weight wise. While that was getting re-set the 600 copper takes off! This fish is burn'n the reel. He has 1000' of line out now and I am on for the fight! 30 minutes later we boat this brute!

He tipped the scales at 25.12lbs (my biggest so far this year) and put us in the 1st place position in the Summer LOC derby. http://www.loc.org/derby/leaderboard/currentadult.asp

While I was battling this brute the wire diver takes off and we land a skippy King Salmon on a white spin doctor pulling a hammer fly. So, we head in because lightening is crashing all around us. We head back out about an hour and a half later once the storms passed and immediately we hook up with a SCREAMER on the wire diver. He is peeling off line and all of a sudden nothing. Come to find out he took our offering of a white spin doctor/hammer fly and never gave it back. That would conclude our day and not another rod would fire. If we didn't miss any opportunities I think we had the tournament locked, but that's fishing and I don't want to take away from the winners! However we did land the big fish award which made up for it!

BTW...The big guy took a Green double crush glow Smart Fish off the 600' copper that was pulling a green fly. Just like in the Spring LOC the Smart Fish prevails again! This is an awesome flasher with great versatility. Not to mention there are some great things in the working on this to possibly make it even better. Get your hands on some of these flashers quick before they become a craze and they become hard to find. I know all the Gander Mountains are stocking them, and you can also get them from Tom at A-TOM-MIK pre rigged with fly combos that are deadly. http://www.atommiktrollingflies.com/Smart Fish.htm

 

6/24 - Fished a small tournament on Conesus Lake from 6pm to 9pm. This lake can get tough and it was on this night. We managed four keepers, which was more than a lot of other teams had. We were unable to weigh in because we got stopped by the Sheriff. I guess there is a speed limit on the lake! 2 fish came on top water lures and the other two came on jigs.

 

6/22 - Now that I have a break in between Pro/Ams I took a chance to fish an open bass tournament held on Sodus the first Sunday of Bass season every year. I teamed up with a buddy and the day started off kinds slow since neither of u pre-fished for this event. He is the Sodus guru so I played the driver for most of the day. His first spot didn't really meet his expectations with only a 2.5lb LM to speak of. I saw some Lilly pads near by I wanted to toss the frog around so we headed over there. First cast BAM! A keeper, but not a big one. So now we are pumped that we might be on a frog bite. We fished all the other Lilly pad stretches with not another bite. however we stumbled across some docks neither of us have ever fished that held fish to give us our limit. A couple of nice fish too! We go to another spot and it didn't yielded a things. On the way out we figured we would stop by a weed bed we have both fished. We pull up and once we located the school we were doubling up! Not many of them helped us, but we culled ounces. Once that bite died we went to the first area figuring it would have to turn on and once we were there we had the unfortunate mishap of having the trolling motor steering cable snap. There went our day! We went out to the Lake to try for some smallies, but they all ran too small. We ended the day with 12lbs and 14 was the winning bag. All we needed was a kicker fish to put us in the money!

BTW....Tony's Rod and Reel Repair service in Buffalo is top notch! He got me the parts I needed by Friday and the trolling motor was fixed! He fixes Downriggers, Trolling motors, Rods and Reels. If something is broken give him a ring: 1-716-662-5692.

 

6/7-6/9 - Niagara County Pro-Am:

Practice - Well, I had spent the month of May up there again this year, so you would figure I should know a little bit about the fishing come tourney time? Well, in practice we went out and found fish in the same places we found them the week prior, but the size was still down. The Sea Sick Waddler took it share again! We ended the day with getting our limit. In the Olcott Memorial tourney we entered one nice 17lb King and 2 smaller fish. Not enough to place in the top three.

Day 1 - Headed out and stopped in the inside water to see if we could pull a big king first thing, without any luck we point the boat north and headed out. We proceeded to boat 9 fish in 1 hour between 7-8am. Most took a Dreamweaver SS Goby pattern off the rigger, but again the Sea Sick Waddler took a few fish. On the Coppers and wires we were running all Smart Fish with various A-TOM-MIK flies. Again the Ultra Green Glow was hot as was the Hammer. Our program was 3 riggers, 2 wires, and 3 coppers (400,500,600). We lost a good one that got into out 600 copper and I thumbed the spool only to have the hook pop out. We finished out limit by 10am and headed for breakfast. After day 1 we were sitting in 5th place. Highlight of the day was going through the flurry only to have the 400 and 500 copper in the water when everything was said and done.

Day 2 - Do the exact same program as Day 1.....skinny water then work out. By 11:30 we had 7 fish in the box. Now the stress pours on! So we make a decision to run over to 4 mile and work west till time was up and we had to head in. We set down in 100 fow to start trolling and fish were everywhere! Down we go with the same program we had been running. The sea Sick Waddler was the first to go. WE got that fish in and put it down and it went again! Finally we switched every rigger over to it and we did our last 5 fish in an hour! ALL on the Sea Sick Waddler. This spoon was amazing in those green waters off Niagara County these last few weeks I have had the spoon. We ended in 7th place for the tourney.

FYI….I was in Narby’s and Captains Cove this past weekend and I know they have some Northern King Sea Sick Waddlers. I watched people buying them off the counter before they made it to the shelf.

5/30-6/1 - Orleans County Pro-Am:

Practice – Well, we were warned before we got there it was tough fishing. So once we got out there we adjusted for the high Stealhead bite we were told about. If you know me then you know I am a Salmon fisherman. I don’t mess with Lake Trouts or Browns or Steelhead very often. So this is different fishing for me. We ran 3 riggers, 6 cores, and 2 wires in practice trying to figure out these fish, and in no time we had rods poppin. We started off with almost a triple. By the days end we were one of the few boats who got into the fish. We went 8 for 17. Riggers down to 50’, 1,2,3,4,10 color cores, and wires out 50-100 on a 3 setting. Lures were the Dreamweaver SS Orange Slurpee (this is a must for those steelhead and browns), NK C5 5 of diamonds, Copper NBK’s, Spooks, and One on the Sea Sick Waddler (the last fish that spoon would take during the weekend).

Day 1 – Headed out to our waypoints and found the water had warmed up from practice. We fished it anyway only to pull one measly fish from it on a 75 wire all day! This fish fell victim to an NK 28 in the orchard paint scheme. So, the thoughts of lat year start flowing through my head. Last year we won the first tourney, and took last in the next. Then on the east end we took 3rd in Oswego and finished bottom of the middle in Sodus. We get a report of fish on the bar with limit catches, so we fill up the boat and plan on heading there in the morning.

Day 2 – Well, 6 guys on board wind in our face and current against us with a full tank of gas and we could only get her up to 17mph. So, the trip to the bar was a long one and we only made it to Wilson by time I realized I had burned a half a tank of gas. So knowing that the can was 12 more miles I knew it wasn’t smart to make the rest of the run. We start trolling and everything looks just right. Temp. is there and the water is greenish. Marks were hard to come by. We started with a 24” Stealhead that took a Dreamweaver SS goby pattern off the rigger. It was a while before we started to mark some more in front of Olcott when the middle rigger rod takes off screamin. This was our 10lb King for the day which took a NK28 Hog Wild. AS we picked up to head back I pulled the 10 color from off the board and fish #3 is on. Got him in and that ended up being a 22” Stealhead that took a NK Dimple Light Wahoo with an orange ladder-back. Got a call from the same guy who gave me the report on the bar fishing and said it was good again on Sunday with guys limiting out!

So the curse continues! Cash in one tourney……falter in the next. The way things have gone the last few years I should cash a check in Oswego!
 

5/26 - Took the bass boat out since it hasn't seen water since the end of April. Headed to Braddock Bay and launched around 7am. Fished till 2pm and caught some nice Largemouth around the reeds and in Coopers pond. Small spider jigs took the weary bass that were cruising the shoreline in Coopers pond, and a chatterbait took the fish off the reeds. Had a few smallmouth follow a jerkbait on the rocks, but no takers. 

 

5/25 - Our charter for Sunday and Monday canceled, so we got in some Pro-Am practice. We were accompanied by some friends and left the dock around 6:30. Fishing started off slow but by the end of the day it was RED HOT with many teenage fish finding the deck of our boat. Today's bite was different from the day before in that more fish fell victim to Smart Fish/A-TOM-MIK flies. The 450' copper took our biggest fish today at just under 20lbs. Ultra Green Glow, Big Fin, and Hammer flies were the flies of choice. Yesterdays shocking moment came when a 12lb Salmon took a 3 color core, and today's was a 6lb Brown trout that took a Dreamweaver SS Orange Slurpee down 50' over 100fow. This same set-up took a few Coho and small Salmon. Wires out 300' took some great Salmon towards the end of the day. On the riggers we had success with our Sea Sick Waddlers until Mr. Salmon took them from us. Our HOT spoon for two weeks straight and I am fresh out of them! Our other spoon that took some shots was a NK Dimple light Coyote. This would have been a great box of fish if it were tourney day!

 

5/24 - Today's trip consisted of a father who had the intentions of getting each of his 3 sons a King Salmon, and that is what we did!! We left the dock a little bit later than expected due to the boat needing fuel. Once we got out there the fishing wasn't on fire like previous outings. We soon hooked up and for the rest of the day it consisted of a steady pick of Salmon. Our biggest fish was somewhere around 14lbs. Our first fish of the day took a 3 color core with a Dreamweaver SS Orange Slurpee. It was a small steelhead that we put back to fight another day. This same rig would take a few small salmon along with a nice 12lb Salmon by the end of the day. Our wires were going off consistently out 200' with Smart Fish paddles and A variety of A-TOM-MIK flies like the Ultra Glow Green and the Hammer fly. Our Sea Sick Waddlers took a few fish off the riggers as did Coyotes in an NK 28, and Dreamweaver's SS Salmon Slappers.. At the end of the day the 10 color fires with a NK 28 Wonderbread. Ended up boxing 8 nice Salmon and tossing back a few smaller fish. Not our best day this spring, but it was still eventful with a great group of people.

5/20 - Got out on the water around 5:30 and had lines set by 6am. Today was a weird day. The fish weren't hitting very good, and when they did it was tough to keep them on. It amazes me when a fish hits a fly with a tandem hook set-up and can just drop the lure as if it never had it in its mouth. Our first rip was on the wire with a White on white Smart Fish pulling an A-TOM-MIK Hammer Fly. Next good rip was on the other wire with a Black Smart Fish pulling an A-TOM-MIK Hammer Fly. In the mean time we took some Coho's on various spoons. Dreamweaver SS Slurpee on the 3 color leadcore rod, Sea sick waddler took only one today,  and a Mulatto NK28 took one. We took 2 shots on the high wire pulling an NK28 Area 51, which is a new color I have been pulling for them. We lost two nice Salmon on the 400 copper which had a white on white Smart Fish and an A-TOM-MIK Ultra Glow Green Fly. We finished the day 10 for 16 and the customers kept 7 fish for the grill. Our two big guys weighed in at 17.5 pounds and 18.10 pounds. Both victim to flies. Our last big guy of the day took 2 out of the 3 Area 51's I had when he hit the corner downrigger and went under the low dipsey diver. When it comes to monofilament vs. wire line the wire is always going to win, and it did again today.

 

5/19 - Two words - BLOWN OFF! Yeah, it really blew this morning. So, I went to work. I'm really looking forward to tomorrow morning. Stay tuned for a report on how fishing is after the big West blow.

In the past few weeks we have had a few companies jump on board the team. Legendary products, which is the maker of the Smart Fish flasher that took our 10th place Salmon in the Spring LOC, has out us on their Pro-Staff. I have been running some of their stuff the past few weekends with some success. I feel its only a matter of time until I get real comfortable with their product. Another company is A-TOM-MIK trolling flies. I look forward to building a relationship with these companies.

 

5/18 - Another typical day on the water out of Wilson! Fish were plentiful and willing to play with us today. With just two guys chartering us today we kept them VERY busy boating over 15 fish. The highlight fish today were both 19lb King Salmon. One took a White Smart Fish with an A-TOM-MIK Ultra Green Glow fly down 150. The other took a Mulatto NK28 down 100. We were surprised when we pulled in about a 15lb Lake Trout that took the always popular White on White Spin Doctor pulling an A-TOM-MIK Hammer fly on the wire. Again our new prototype NK28 was firing all morning long on the 100' rigger.

This same lure also took some fish off on the high wire diver using the Mag size. Since its my spoon I'm gonna name it! So, when I talk about the "Sea Sick Waddler" this is the spoon! Other combo's that fired were the Black/Crush Glow Smart Fish with an A-TOM-MIK Hammer fly, and on the 400' copper a fish fell victim to the White Smart Fish with an A-TOM-MIK Ultra Green Glow fly. There are a lot of 8-12lb fish in the area so working for half a dozen BIG bites is what your job is right now. They are there you just have to be patient. I was taking my bigger fish down deep and a buddy of mine took one down 40, so there is no set program. Go out.......put some good colors down........and hold on!

 

5/17 - Another fun filled day on Lake Ontario. We got a lat start around 7am and dropped our lines. Only 6 rods today so we went with 2 riggers, 3 wires, and a 400' copper. It wasn't long till the action started. We took are first rip on the 400' copper that was towing a White on White Smart Fish with an A-TOM-MIK Ultra Green Glow fly. Fought it for 5 minutes. Set her back out and the rigger fires with a hog wild. that takes a 10lb king. Lost another on the hog wild after we put it back down and the 400' copper goes again. This time its ripping line out. Same Smart Fish/A-TOM-MIK set-up. We land it and its a nice 16-17lb Salmon. Rest of the morning we took a few smaller Salmon on various spoons and flasher fly combos. One fly combo was a black Spinny with a Hammer fly. We ran another NK spoon thatwe had custom painted and it took a few shots. I'll see if I can get a picture of it this weekend. Anyway I will be out here till Tuesday doing some fishing, so keep an eye out for reports.

 

5/11 - Sorry for the delayed reports! It wont happen again, but the laptop was having a hard time getting a signal this weekend. First trip of the year! Set our lines around 6am and the small King Salmon and Coho's were jumping in the boat. Dreamweaver SS orange Slurpee took a few on the 2 color. Small red dodger with a blue A-TOM-MIK Coho fly took a couple off the 3 color. The 10 color took two 10lb King Salmon with a Stinger Mag Penguin. A light green Spin Doctor/Ultra Glow Green A-TOM-MIK fly took one off the wire diver. Then a bunch of spoons did the job on the downriggers. Back/White/Green glow tape took a Salmon 150 over 150. Super glow/green 28 took a few in the top 50. Lost a nice salmon on a Mountain Dew Spin Doctor with an A-TOM-MIK Hammer fly. Silver Streak Screwball mag took a few, and a Mulatto 28 fired twice. Action was steady until the front came through and the wind picked up. Screen went from fish streaking to blank in a matter of 30 minutes. We tried to find them again, but just went to a pick after that.

 

5/10 - Got out nice and early with anticipation of running right to the bar and fishing the structure for a quick morning bite. Well, things changed when we found warm water in front of Wilson. We dropped out lines and began fishing. We took a small Coho almost immediately and then proceeded to watch fish fly all over our graph with no takers. Bait was loaded in less than 150fow and so were the fish. We dropped on on the 10 color with a white Spin Doctor/A-TOM-MIK Hammer fly. We fished till 2pm without a bite and then we found the active school. First fish took a light green Spin Doctor/Ultra Glow Green A-TOM-MIK fly. This was our second fish on the LOC Leader board. The next fish took a Mountain Dew Spin Doctor with an A-TOM-MIK Hammer fly. Then it went to a spoon bite. Copper NBK's, Laser Spooks, Coyote, Wonder bread, and Penguins all took fish. Finished the day with about a dozen fish.

 

5/9 - Dropped our lines around 6:30am and fished for 2 hours until we were blown off by the strong NE winds. We did 5 fish with two of them being around the 18lb mark. 2 fish took a Silver Streak Screwball mag, one took a super glow green 28, one on a laser spook 28, and the last took an A-TOM-MIK fly behind a Spin Doctor. We got back out around 3pm and fished till 8pm with only one whack on the wire with a coyote 28. Tough day after the blow.

 

5/4 - We hit the water bright and early dropping lines at the red can. We got set up and trolled around for about 30 minutes when the 3oo' copper rod takes off. Of course I am the only person who will reel in a fish on the copper rod, and that's why you see my face on the last two reports holding the biggest guy of the day. This salmon happened to be the 1st place Salmon after 3 days of derby fishing. Like our biggest fish the day before this guy hit the white Smart Fish with a Chicken Wing A-TOM-MIK fly behind it. This guy weighed in at 22.08. We burned up a few hours weighing in the fish and missed the best bite of the day. We ended the day with 6 bites/6 fish. Nothing went more than once. Our hits came on the above mentioned flasher fly, coyote, copper NBK, TC dodger with a glow green fly, mulatto, and a copper yellow NBK. Here is our big guy with the Chicken Wing fly in his mouth, and me all bundled up (Don't ya just love my expressions)?

 

5/3 - What a difference a day makes! We awoke to no wind and left over 2' rollers from the NE. We sat down in front of Wilson in 50' of water because the surface temp was there and so were some fish, but the clear water was ice cold once you got down past 30'. We quickly picked up and ran down to the red can where we set up and immediately got into them. For the most part it was a day of small fish, but it was a steady pick of Coho's and Kings except for a 2 hour lull in the afternoon. Best spoons were copper NBK's, Mulatto's, orange super glow, and green super glow 28's. The only big boy of the day was a nice 18lb King Salmon that took a white on white smart fish with an A-TOM-MIK Chicken Wing fly behind it on the 400' copper. We fished deeper than most today with all our rigger bites coming from 70-140 down. Here is a pic of the fly and the Salmon. Chicken wings have always been a good bar spoon, so why not a fly?

 

5/2 - East winds really put a damper on the fishing near the Niagara bar today. We woke up to a 1-3' chop and by 10am it was 4-6's and we were off the water. We got into as many Coho's as you wanted, and a small Lake Trout. Surface temps ranged from 42-44 degrees. Hot spoon of the day was a Dream Weaver SS in Orange Slurpee. A few Salmon we caught on the American side, but we weren't one of the lucky boats. As I type this up there is still a strong East wind blowing. If your headed this way tomorrow bring some west winds please.

 

4/27 - OK, here is the report a little later than expected but I have been experiencing some computer issues. I hope they are all figured out now. We got it handed to us on tournament day. Each day it seemed like our fish dried up more and more. It wasn't a good day for catching in our boat. There is always next year! AND we will be back! Just last year we had the fish on to place high, but they never made it to the boat. Anyway here are some pics from the weekend:

 

4/25-4/26 - The last two days I have been spent on Candlewood lake in Connecticut preparing for a bass tournament. This lake is different than the lakes we are used to in New York. Not as many weeds and lots of rocks, BIG rocks. You can be a boat length off the shore and be in 20' of water. The smallmouth here are supposed to be out of this world, but we haven't found that yet. We are constantly catching fish, but not the size we need to put a check in our pocket. So far our best patterns are using jerkbaits (Lucky craft, mega bass, and x-raps) and crankbaits (Bandit 200 and 300 series and Norman) or throwing 1/16-1/8oz hair jigs in various colors. I will chime back in tomorrow with pics and results on our finish.

 

4/20/08 - Well, second trip of the year. Another fun cruise with friends and a great day to be on the water. We ran some of our new rods and reels from Daiwa. We now have Daiwa's Accudepth plus 27LC reels for Brown's, Coho's, and rainbow trout. What a great set up these make when aired with a 7'6" Daiwa Heartland rod. Perfect for the above mentioned species, and light line Salmon fishing.

Put our lines in around 7:15 and headed west, which is where the least amount of boat traffic was. Got to the beach and fish on. 200' lead on a black and silver Yo-Zuri. We got about 100' of line on him and he takes a 200' run. I thought we had our second king of the season on. Turned out to be a FAT 12lb Brown. We turned around at Devils nose and headed back to Sandy and right when we got to the first point west of Sandy another board line takes off. This fish didn't fight very hard and we figured it to be a small Brown, but were amazed at the size of it when we boated it. I didn't see a scale like the 12lb fish, but we guessed it at 8-9lbs. This fish took a clear/blue bomber 200' back.

 

4/19/08 - Went Bass fishing today with a friend. Getting back into the swing of things before we head off to Connecticut for a large partners tournament on Candlewood lake this upcoming weekend. Fish were everywhere! Schools of fish that included pike, tiger musky, smallmouth and largemouth bass, walleye, sunfish, and bullhead were all from the shore to the first drop off. We had some success on crankbiats and jerkbaits ranging from chartreuse to natural colors. All of my fish took a small roboworm in the 4" size.

I got a chance to try out my new Daiwa Celio drop-shot rod, and what a rod this is. It is the ultimate drop-shot rod in my opinion. It has the lightest tip with plenty of backbone to turn a fish. The titanium tip is light and sensitive. These are fairly new rods with little exposure, but if your in the market for a nice drop-shot rod give this rod a good look.

 

4/12/08 - Took the boat out of Sandy Creek for its 2008 Spring shakedown cruise around 1:30, and out of the chute we headed east. Not a touch so we turn around and went west of Sandy. Almost to the pump house and the inside rod off the planner board on the starboard side releases. I grab it and hand it to Rob (a friend) thinking it was a Brown trout. WRONG!!!!! Line starts SCREAMING out. I'm say "you got a nice brown on dude, or someone lightened the drag!" The fish would get 100' behind the boat and out it would take off again. Now I realize this is no Brown trout. 10 minutes later was in the net, and we are all high fivin over a 14.14lb SALMON! It took a clown colored Rapala husky jerk 150' back. It was our only fish, but we'll take every spring Salmon we can get. Boat ran fine and we look forward to Wilson and the schools of salmon up there.

 

4/5/2008 - Well, my buddy and I launched the boat around 8am at Irondequoit and headed straight to Shipbuilders creek. 3rd cast and WHAM! It was crazy for a while with nice healthy browns/coho/rainbow. We doubled up on 8lb Browns in the outflow of the creek. Made a run to Hedges to fish that run off, and it looked great, but only yielded some small browns. Same with Webster park. Nothing much in that pocket of water either.

Fishing was great in the morning when the waves were creating some colored water, but when the lake laid down the water went gin clear and the fishing went to crap. Here are some pics. It was too fast and furious to take pics of all of them. We did close to 15 fish between the two of us.

I had a new bait to toss around today and it was key to all of my fish. I picked it up at Bass Pro. It has a chartreuse top and bottom with a black head and two green eyes half way back on the bait. I'm not sure what its called but I want to say its a BPS Laser Minnow.

 

3/31/2008 - OK, so this is an old report, but a successful one! A friend and I went out for a few hours casting for Brown Trout. We found a nice school of Browns and one Rainbow in the outflow of Shipbuilders creek. All the fish took firetiger sticksbaits. The first brown, probably around 7-8 pounds, jumped as much as a smallmouth would generally jump. It was amazing. Actually all the Browns were jumping today. Another cool fish was the one that took my buddies stickbait on the top. It was a very cool thing to watch the Brown take it off the top like a bass. Maybe they saw the bass boat and figured it was the right thing to do. We caught double digit numbers of fish in only a small amount of time.

 

3/16/2008 - OK, enough is enough! Winter HAS to leave! I have made a few trips with the bass boat out to Canandaigua this winter with little success. Do you blame them for not wanting to eat in 32 degree water? So, I hooked up to the boat and headed for another round of smallmouth fishing on Canandaigua Lake. Hit the water around 7:30 and fished around for a few hours with not a single bite. We tried drop-shotting and float and fly techniques with no success. Finally, we pulled up to a spot and I felt weight! I started to reel and it felt small, but it was exciting. I reel up and there is a crawfish clipped onto my line above the drop-shot weight. A little later and my buddy hooks into a nice perch. From then on we switched to perch mode and smoked the perch. A lot of little ones, but it was fun on a nice March day to get out.

So, I was headed home when I decided to stop by Irondequoit Bay. It was open enough to get my boat out to lake Ontario. I called another buddy and had him meet me down there for a little Brown Trout casting trip. We hit the first point called Shipbuilders point and I managed two nice Brown trout on one of my custom painted Rapala X-Raps, and lost another right at the boat. It is a white X-Rap with orange on the bottom right behind the lip of the bait. I took a yellow sharpie and colored the entire back yellow. So, since I customized it I get to give it a cool lure name.  I choose the citrus slam X-Rap....lol!

 

01/13/2008 - Pulled up to the launch at Conesus around 7am. Air temp was 22 degrees. Fished till 10am when my oil alarm went off. I figured the cold weather had something to do with it freezing up something. I pulled the boat and went to breakfast. 0 for 0 on bass. Its not cool driving through skim ice, and watching the ice close in on you and cutting of most of the lake!

Ate breakfast and called a buddy who happened to be on his way to Canandaigua. He tells me they caught 20 smallmouth yesterday. So I change course and head for Canandaigua. Launched the boat and the motor was working fine. Ran out to my buddy who caught one on his second cast, and lost another one quick nothing after that. We went the rest of the day with only a few small perch. We saw some smallmouth on the underwater camera, but they just weren't hungry today.

Felt good to run the boat! I will take these mild winters all day long