Yankee Troller

If there is SOOOOOOOO much bait out there then why our the fish so small? You would think the 20lb fish we caught in April/May would have surpassed 30lbs by August? I don't think we caught one over 25lbs this season. That's awful! Here's an observation. I'm pretty good with my electronics and I have all the various types on my boat. Traditional sonar tends to make things look grossly oversized. Watching bait on those lower frequencies it may seem like there is a lot of it. When I get offshore and utilize my side imaging/down imaging it gives me a much better idea of the size of the bait pods. The one thing I noticed this season was how small those bait pods were compared to previous years. The other thing I've noticed the last 10-15 years is our fishery has changed. Back in the day July, August, and September were the months we made hay on salmon. West end fishing was good most of the season and the East end got hot in July and lasted the rest of the season. Check out the Spring Salmon fishery we've had over the last half a dozen seasons all over the lake. You can go out and target Salmon in April - May from Oswego to the Niagara Bar. It's almost looks like we've trading a Fall fishery for a Spring fishery.

Mark was a good dude. Sorry to hear of this.

Over 600'

I have run these rod holders for 12 seasons. I have had pins get loose and work their way out. Some have gotten sloppy over time from use. I have never had that happen to one. I have a double set that holds an extra large fillet table and they haven't had that happen to them. The black piece on the grip to ratchet the rod holder is a break away piece to help avoid the issue you had. I have had those break multiple times. My recommendation would be walk, instead of run, over to the rod and be a little more gentle with things. Those are really cool!

August 20th: Our guys today drove in from Maryland. Some of them are new, and others have fished with us in the past. We left the dock around 5:15am and headed offshore to the 31N line a little East of Port. The bite seemed to get better as the day wore on, and our catch was 2:1 Salmon vs. Steelhead. A-TOM-MIK meat behind poka dot pattern flashers were good on 175' divers and 80' Cannon Downriggers. Our best spoon was a UV Apple Seed on a 65-75' Cannon Downrigger. Other lure mentions for today are an A-TOM-MIK Stud fly behind a 10" White DW Spin Doctor, A-TOM-MIK UV 190 behind a chrome Mountain Dew flasher, and early in the morning a DW Gold Sea Sick Waddler. August 21st: The Maryland group was back out with us this morning. Mother nature kept us on the inside scrounging around for a lucky bite until 7am because of passing thunderstorms. Once the radar cleared we picked up our gear and ran offshore to the 30N line. We were met with 2-4' waves which offered great lure action. The lake would eventually calm down throughout the day and the sun made its appearance. On the set up the 300' A-TOM-MIK copper pulling a Wonderbread spoon would take our biggest Salmon of the day around 23lbs. That spoon and presentation would go on to take a couple more shots. The other 300' A-TOM-MIK copper was loaded with a DW Lucky Charms cut plug. That was good for four nibbles throughout the day. A-TOM-MIK meat, a BAM fly behind a Hammertime flasher, and UV NBK were other lures that took fish for us. The 30-32N line dried up late morning so we pushed it North. We ended up finding good screens on our Humminbird's, and cooperative fish on the 34.5-35N line.

I've ran them for three weekends with three charters each weekend. So far, they are great. No complaints at this time. If you're grabbing them at FishUSA click the link above if you don't mind.

August 6th: This morning we had a group from Rochester out with us. The plan was to head offshore, so we left right before the sun came up. Good thing we did, because the first hour treated us well with 7 bites. After that it became a slow grind. We worked from 28-33N and 0-7W. Our target depth was 55-75' down. Our best presentations were Cannon Downriggers and A-TOM-MIK copper (300'). The best spoon in the morning was a DW Gold Spook. The best spoon for the day was a UV Bad Toad. Other spoons that took fish for us were UV Shelly Snack, DWs Gold Sea Sick Waddler, DWs Glow Roy Boy, DWs Moon Cricket, and Carbon 14. August 7th: We welcomed another group from the Williamsport, PA area onto our boat this weekend. I think we're up to three over the last two weekends. Not gonna BS everyone, but the chew at the Oak this weekend was a grind for us, and most of the boats we talked with! Yesterday's morning bite had us leaving the dock today at 5am. That head start didn't help us. Anyway, there is loads of bait in that 26-29N range, and fish scattered from the inside to the border. The hot spoon today was a UV Apple Seed on a Cannon Downrigger at 80' mupped. The fish pictured ate an 8" Christmas tree flasher/A-TOM-MIK Ultra Green Glow fly 200' out on a DW Deeper Diver. They left with 10 fish, and we're already looking forward to next weekend!

I have them headed my way. Probably wont get a change to run them this weekend, but plan to next weekend.

FishUSA just received them yesterday click the link to head over to the page - New Daiwa Saltist

My cheaters are a wing span and a half.