Port Delhousie Scotty Event 4/23-4/25

This was one of our favorite tourneys last year! Fishing shallow Spring Kings last year made for a fairly new experience. We had a good day on the second day last year, but struggled on the first day. Putting together two solid days in a tournament is a crucial thing. So, for the last 12 months we looked forward to this tournament, and putting together a top 10 finish.

4/23 - (Practice) Given the warm Spring we have had we launched the boat at the Niagara bar hoping to find some Kings on the Niagara Bar. Well, they were there, but they weren't stacked in there like they will be in a week or two. We caught 7 Kings and as many, or more, Lake Trout without an issue. We found them on top of the Bar in 35-50' of water. Downriggers in the top 30 took half the shots while our 5 color cores took the other half. Maybe a fish or two off a slide diver. On the downriggers the Sea Sick Waddler Norther King was the popular lure. 28 size on the main line cheated with a Mag above it. On the 5 color cores a Dreamweaver Carmel Dolphin in the Super Slim size seemed to be the go to bait. Our largest Salmon was just shy of 18lbs on Friday's practice. Our biggest five on Friday would have looked like this: 17lb, 17lb, 12lb, 10lb, 5lb. Back at the dock it sounded like a tough bite for most, so we felt good about what we had done.

4/24 - (Day 1) With high hopes we took off from the back of the pack and headed East. We saw some warm watter off the Welland Canal on the way in Friday, so we stopped to take a look. That 30 minutes yielded nothing, and the picture was bleak. We pulled rods and ran to our waypoints from Friday! When we got there the water had changed. Down Temp dropped 2 degrees as did the surface, and the green water turned clear. We set lines and started looking. We found some decent marks in our area from Friday, but all we could pull were Lakers. We went into search mode and headed East and North. We had a decent picture most of the time, but getting them to go was almost impossible. About 9:30 the corner rigger fires with a Dreamweaver regular sized Roy's Salmon Seeker. We ended up boating a 7lb Salmon. Thinking we were onto something we changed over some gear and gave it another run through our waypoint. Well, not another rod fired the rest of the day with a Salmon on it.

We ended the day with one Salmon in our box. Very disappointed! When we got back to the dock we started talking to other teams and most struggled, but a few got the bites they needed. The top three teams fished the same area we did! Out of 66 teams about 15 teams brought in a limit of Salmon. Plain and simple we got out fished! It happens! We also heard the they were calling for 30+ winds from the North East on Sunday, and we made the decision to get out of Canada Saturday night given the fact we weren't in contention for anything, and we all had jobs to get back to on Monday. I heard they canceled day two when I woke up Sunday morning, so we made a good decision.

Check out a video of a screaming King. Please excuse the language at the end of it. 

4/18 - Some More April Action!

Yesterday's weather was miserable! Todays weather was tolerable. However, the 1-3' waves out of the North West put some rock and roll into our lures. Unlike yesterday, todays fish wanted more natural looking baits. Yesterday they wanted Chartreuse and Orange Rapalas, and today they wanted Black/Silver and Black/Gold Rapala J11's. The water was 49 degrees when we started fishing and warmed up to 51 by the days end. We did manage to find 55 degree water off the Genesee river at one point. The bite for us today was mainly off the mouth of the Genesee River, but we did hit 3 or 4 on the troll down and back from Irondequoit Bay. There was a good school of Cohos hanging in the warmer dirty water right off the Summerville Pier. Every pass yielded a fish or two. Today was mostly a Coho bite with 2 Brown Trout mixed in. One of those Browns was a real Beauty! 

That Brown Trout took a Stinger Stingray Mixed Veggies 50 back down 4' on the corner rigger. We had just come out of the deep side of the Genesee River plume. That smile tells it all! On the boards the lines set back 150' took more shots than the lines set back 125's on the other side. We kept our down speed between 2.0 and 2.4mph for most of the day.

These last few days of Brown Trout Fishing has been FUN, and we love to fish for them during this time of year, but next weekend we will be moving on to Port Delhousie, in Canada, for our first tournament of the year. This is typically the start of Salmon season on Lake Ontario for us. After that tournament we will be fishing Spring Kings on and around the Niagara Bar from the port of Wilson. We have 3 days left, so if your thinking about giving Spring Kings a try May 23rd, 29th, and 31st are the dates left.

4/16's Shakedown, and 4/17's 1st trip of the year!

4/17 - Boy did it feel good to be back on the water today. Chris and some friends from Newberg, NY joined us for some HOT April Brown Trout action. The only problem was it turned into some HOT Coho action. The weather looked bleak all week. They were calling for 6-8's at one point! We headed down to Irondequoit Bay because that gives us the option to fish in the Bay. We peaked outside the breakwalls and it was fishable, so we set lines. It wasn't Fast and Furious, but we had a slow steady pick most of the morning. Chartreuse F9 Rapala took most of our shots with a J9 GFR Rapala coming in a close second. Off the planer boards we ran them between 100-150' back, and on the rigger 50-75' back. The bait was LOADED on the shore. You wanna know how I know this? Well, first off the birds were divebombing all morning, but every time I would go to change out a spoon on my riggers there was a Alewife on the hook. Funny and irritating at times. I guess if you want to catch some Alewives run the alewife Stinger Stingray, because that seemed to always have a alewife on it. Chris and the boys left with some very tasty Coho meat, and they had a great time given the 40 degree or colder day mother nature threw them. Oh, by the way we did land one little Brown Trout. So they sorta got what they came for! We will be out tomorrow, so stay tuned for another report! I apologize about not having any pictures. I forgot the camera at home! I wont let that happen again!

4/16 - We had our shakedown Friday night. Everything went well thanks to Krenzer marine for the tune up and the Summerization. We managed to fish for about 30 minutes in between running around, and we put a little Brown Trout slime on the deck. 125' back off the planer board on a Rapala J11 Firetiger.

New Legendary Fishing Products Website!

Legendary, the makers of the Smart Fish we love so much in front of our A-TOM-MIK flies, has developed a new user friendly website. Stop by and check it out! You can make purchases directly from them, and view their line of products developed and manufactured for Great Lakes Salmon and Trout fishing. Videos of different Smart Fish settings are located on the website for your viewing pleasure.The Smart Fish has put every fish we have placed on the Lake Ontario Counties derby leader-board over the last few years.

Fish Legendary 

What you may have missed.......and what you can look forward to!

OK, so here is a quick rundown of the things that have happened in the last few weeks:

Lake Ontario Tweets - A website dedicated to the promotion of Lake Ontario through INSTANT fishing reports. Never done before to our knowledge! The top full time Captains and Tourney Teams on Lake Ontario Tweeting with up to the minute fishing reports. This is something you will want to watch ALL summer. As it picks up speed with the upcoming season and more reports start flowing in we think this will help everyone catch more fish.

Hatfield McCoy Trail System - I spent the last week down there, and boy did we have a GREAT time. Riding the roads and trails made by coal miners and loggers have become a great source of income for the small towns in Southern West Virginia. If your into ATV'n you have to check out this place. We stayed t the Big Bear Lodge in Gilbert, WV. Great hospitality, and great people make this state very enjoyable.

Now, to the things we are looking forward to:

Hummingbird Electronics - We put some coin into upgrading the electronics on our boat. This will help us find the fish much easier. The functionality of the newer Hummingbird electronics seem to be well above most other electronic companies. We linked an 1157 and a 958 together, so they will share GPS track and waypoint information. We also went with a thru-hull transducer to improve on finding fish while on plane. Here are some pics of the new units:

This weekend coming up we will run our first two charters of the 2010 season. We are super excited to get some of this new gear wet. Our new Daiwa Accudepth rods coupled with our Daiwa Accudepth rods will hopefully take a beating from those bulldogging Brown Trout. We hope to get tested by an early King Salmon on our Saltist Levelwind Line Counters too! The weekend following this one we will be in Canada fishing the first tournament of the year. The Spring Scotty held in Port Delhousie , which is just West of the Welland Canal, has quickly become a personal favorite! That tournament is like a Grand Opening to the 2010 King Salmon fishing season. We are psyched! Stay tuned for reports and pictures this weekend!