Yankee Troller

On my Lund it's just easier than having a mast system/planer reels, and finding room in the boat for the big boards. I also use this boat to troll for Walleye. When we Walleye fish we use different size snap weights and deep diving sticks. Our spread looks like a "V", so if the lightest weight/highest presentation takes a fish that is always the furthest rod from the boat. With big boards you can't re-set that line without clearing the others. With in-lines you can re-set it very easily. We use the in-lines on the big boat as well when running multiple types of lead/copper lines on a side with that same "V" formation. Re-setting higher rods on the outside is very easy. Another great time for in-lines is when fishing in April with a 20+ mile an hour South Wind. That wind likes to push planer releases up the tow line for the big boards.

12 miles more from where we set down to fish for an hour. 12-20' is where we tried to hang out.

Today a new group from North East PA joined us to harass Lake Ontario Brown Trout. We left the Port of Rochester around 7am and we were met with rollers from the West and lots of icebergs. Water temp was 34 out of the ice, and 32-33 in the ice. There was more color in the water than we would have liked. We tried to fish that ice water for over an hour without a touch. The icebergs were wreaking havoc on our spread, so we picked and ran 12 miles East. We ran a 12 rod spread today. On each side of the boat we ran four flat lined stickbaits behind Offshore OR12 inline boards, a Chinook Diver, and a rod on a downrigger. Glow cupped frogs went well on our Chinook Divers. On our Cannon Downriggers Sea Sick Waddler and Wonderbread took a few fish. Our best flat lined sticks were Bay Rat's Green Frog, Citric Shad, Ghost Face, My Secret, and Stairway to Heaven. We found a good mix of year classes in our catch today. The catch was all Brown Trout with a bonus Cisco. We'll take these Spring-like days for the next month. If you'd like to get out with us shoot us a message and we can reach out when the weather will allow us to get out.

These are some of our best patterns and when to use them. You can find them here - Dreamweaver Spoons

I think Vince covered that well.

What a sad day. He always had a smile on his face. I'll miss seeing him on the Oak Orchard River and in the Black North Inn. RIP buddy. Thoughts and prayers going out to his family.

I'd set-up two wire rods (they can be used for #3 & #4 divers at times). Buy a set (or two) of Torpedo Divers. With their chart you should be able to get close to the depths you want. Pair it with a Smart Troll and know exactly where they are. Use an Offshore OR-16 clip to attach them to your wire.

Today we're thankful for another chance to fish Lake Ontario in the middle of Winter! We had two local guys looking to get out and experience this fishery we've been posting about. We met at the launch around 7am and headed out. I guess we should have paid attention to yesterday's wind direction. When we set down the water was very dirty. We gave it 30 minutes before we picked and ran looking for the water color we wanted to fish. That didn't take long. As soon as the rods went in at spot #2 they were firing! 10-15' of water was our best Brown Trout water. At one point in the late morning we slid out to 50' hoping to swing on a Late Trout. We marked a few, but never turned a bite. As soon as we slid back into Brownie water we started moving rods again. Bay Rat SS's took most of our fish flatlined behind Offshore OR12 inline boards. Stairway to Heaven, Firetail Secret, and Citrus Shad were our best stickbait colors. On our Chinook Divers and Cannon Downriggers we pulled Dreamweaver SS Glow Frog patterns early in the trip. Towards the end of the trip we tossed in some Bay Rat 3.5's in My Secret, Black Flash, and Chicken Wing. All took fish. Last pic.......Brown or Atlantic?

December 29th: Well, we ended 2022 with a BANG! Thanks to Dave and crew for taking us up on today's charter. They had all the action they could handle the first few hours. Lots of small fish with medium and bigs sprinkled in made for a great catch. We launched at the Genesee River around 7am and dodged ice bergs in the river headed out to the lake. We set up over 25' of water and had fish going on the setup, so we stayed in that 15-25' the rest of the day. Sneaking into 10-12 didn't get us much and the Hummingbird side imaging showed schools of fish in that 15-20' range. We ran a typical spring spread with two Cannon downriggers, two Chinook divers, and six inline Offshore OR12 boards flat lining stickbaits. Our best colors today were Bay Rat Jailbird and Ayu. January 2nd: Some local guys jumped on the open date we had today due to this unseasonably warm weather. They weren't disappointed! We launched around 7am and had lines going in shortly thereafter. Again, our best water depth was 15'. We snuck into 9' at times and that didn't really work for us. We also slid out to 30' at times and did some fish in that 20-25' range. We ran six inline Offshore OR12 boards with flat lined Bay Rat SS & LS. Two Cannon downriggers and two Chinook divers. Both of those pulling spoons. Best Bay Rat's today were Citric Shad, Stairway to Heaven, and Ayu. Spoons that took fish were Dreamweaver SS's in Rod Father, Rosta Goose, and Wonderbread. We caught lots, and I mean lots, of small fish today in that 12-15" range. Nonetheless, it felt great to start the New Year off doing what we love! Hoping to get out this weekend if the winds let us. Let us know if you're interested.

I grabbed LOC derby results to compare Salmon size over the years. I didn't care about the winning fish becasue there are years you'll get a freak. I thought I'd look at the middle of the pack (spot 10) and compare. Orange highlights are 2lbs or more from the average on the low side, and green highlights are 2lbs or more from the average on the high side. Overall in the last ten years average size hasn't changed much. Maybe data from the 90's might show something different, but I have no clue how to obtain it. BTW....I did e-mail the LOC for the missing info I asked about above back in October/November with no response. Fall Summer Spring 2022 27.15 27.00 22.10 2021 29.03 28.04 24.10 2020 28.04 28.06 COVID 2019 29.12 27.15 21.01 2018 25.12 2017 30.08 27.09 21.11 2016 32.01 28.11 21.11 2015 29.02 25.15 20.12 2014 30.04 27.04 21.04 2013 33.04 32.01 26.00 2012 32.09 31.07 27.04 2011 32.04 29.00 23.14 2010 34.06 2009 31.15 26.02 2005 30.01 Average 30.49 27.76 22.68

I thought that was 1999 Fall where the top 10 on the leaderboard were all 40's?

Thanks Brian, don't understand why some of this is missing. I'm just doing some analysis on fish size over the years for the South shore.

@whaler1 I don't see the following in your screen shots? Salmon only division for: 2018 Spring & Fall 2011 Summer 2010 Spring & Summer

I know where the results are, but the derby's I listed above are not in those results from what I can see?

Thanks Whaler1, but the missing info I'm looking for is not on their website from what I can see?

I'm looking for the following LOC results for Salmon only: 2018 Spring & Fall 2011 Summer 2010 Spring & Summer

It should, but sometimes those 5" units are very basic. If it were a 7 I'd say absolutely.