Yankee Troller

I feel your pain

My 6th: Our clients this morning were a little late. We didn’t push off the dock until 7am. When we got to the fishing grounds it was crowded! We had a tough time finding a spot to set down in, but we eventually got far enough West and it opened up. Our program today was strictly spoons. On our Cannon Downriggers we ran mags on the main lines and regular sized spoons on the free sliders. UV Mongolian Beef was our best spoon. Sea Sick Waddler was responsible for a few deaths as well. Our DW Deeper Divers were run out 200-225’ on a 2 setting with DW mags. Lazer Spook on one side and Martel on the other. As for the junk Lines. One board ran a pair of 10 color FishUSA Stealthcore rods while the other side ran a pair of 300’ A-TOM-MIK coppers. The copper was going well. Parked on those were DWs Gold 42nd and a Green/Glow mag. Our big guy today was a 21lb Salmon which caused a lot of ruckus at the back of the boat. It was all caught on film! A buddy spent the day filming some content, so look forward to some great footage down the road. May 8th: Happy mother’s day to all the mothers out there. Dean and his crew from the East end of the Lake joined us to fish the LOC derby today. With the persistent NE wind the last few days we were greeted with icy blue water in front of the harbor, so we headed West to the Niagara bar. We found a great bite on the bar, and water temps up to 46*. It was mostly a spoon bite for us. Our Cannon Downriggers were parked 50-100’ down. Divers were going 150’ out on a 2 setting, and 10 colors of FishUSA Stealthcore went very consistently. Top spoons were Dreamweaver UV Mongolian Beef, 42nd, Lazer Spook, and UV NBK. Later in the morning we put down some meat rigs and took a few fish on our deeper downriggers. No Salmon were placed on the LOC leaderboard today, but we did put a big Lake Trout on it.

OMG.... My hands by Sunday morning were aching. I think I cleaned over 50 Salmon and Trout in 2 days

Ya ya lol, but what do you really learn when it's that good?

Saturday Morning: This group is no stranger to Lake Ontario's fishery because they fished with us a lot last season. We left Wilson around 6am this morning and sat down in 40' of water. We trolled it NW from there. In 50-70' we took a lot of Coho and Lake Trout with only a few smaller Kings. Call into VQ and he had some deeper fish going. Pointed it North and ran into King squadrons. We cleaned our silver limit, and most of our Lake Trout limit. A lot of Coho and smaller Kings went back to grow up. We ran three flat lined orange baits off one side. The man was Bay Rats Fat Rat in orange. On the other board we ran a couple FishUSA Stealthcore 10 color setups. On those UV NBK was the best. On our three Cannon Downriggers we ran DW spoons. Mags on the bottom with regulars on sliding cheaters. Sea Sick Waddler, Rodfather, and Martel were our best spoons. Divers were quiet, but they did take the big guy of the day. Lastly, our 300' A-TOM-MIK copper took off a few times down the chute with a mag green/Glow spoon. Saturday Afternoon: We fished our first double of the season Saturday. On our afternoon trip we were joined by Jessie and his crew from Massachusetts. The trip started off slower than expected, and the fish we were taking were on the small side. We went out to the water we finished up the morning in, but couldn't turn them. We slid the Yankee back inside to that 80-100' level and rods started firing consistently. Our big guy took a UV Mongolian Beef slider on our 80' Cannon Optimum Downrigger. Rodfather and Chartel fired on the other two riggers. We ran mags on main lines, and regulars on sliders. Our DW Deeper divers were out 160-180' on #2 settings pulling a mag Martel and Lazer Spook. On one side of the boat we ran two 10 color FishUSA Stealthcore setups. UV NBK was our best spoon on them. On the other side of the boat we ran three surface plugs. Our best plug was a Bay Rat Lures Fat Rat. The 300 A-TOM-MIK copper down the chute took a few nibbles as well. It was a busy night with a good sized program. They all had fun, but the highlight was Jessie's daughter netting her father's fish, and vice versa. Memories that will last a lifetime! You're reading this while we're all back out there doing it again. Stay tuned for their second day's report. Sunday Morning: There's no way the bite could have been any better this morning. Six limits of Chinook Salmon came over the Yankee's transom before 8am. Maybe we should have deployed less rods, but damn that was fun! Jessie's crew from Massachusetts witnessed a bite very few people will ever see on our fishery. This weekend I feel the fish really picked out the spoons with ladder backs on them. FishUSA 's custom DW's in Martel, Chartel, and Glow Gladiator took a fair amount as did a Lazer Spook. The non laddered spoon that went the best was a UV Mongolian Beef. Set up this morning was four FishUSA Stealthcore rods. A pair of 7's and a pair of 10's on our boards. Our Cannon Downriggers were parked from 40-60' down. Mags on the main lines, and regular DWs on sliding cheaters. DW Deeper Divers with wire out 85' on a 2 setting.

Yup, headed there soon, but I enjoy fishing Salmon in that skinny water.

April 23rd - Today we were joined by locals who have their own boat and fish Lake Ontario regularly. This is our last weekend in Rochester before we head up West, but today Brown Trout were not the target species. We were 100% skinny water Salmon fishing. At the end of the day the Salmon won, but we did land 4 and lost at least 5. A few fish we lost weren't on long enough to tell. They'd rip the Offshore OR-12 back and then they were gone. We also landed a couple Brown Trout. We targeted 20-30' of water all morning. Our program consisted of six Offshore OR-12 inline boards. The outside boards were loaded with Bay Rat LS, and the inside ones pulled deep diving sticks. We also fished our three Cannon Downriggers and two divers. We took bites on all the presentations. Spoons were fished on the riggers and divers. Stick colors that worked were Citric Shad and Cracked Sea Coral. Spoons that fired were Wonderbread, Pickleseed, Sea Sick Waddler, Mixed Veggies, and UV NBK. April 24th - Today we had a single passenger due to some buddies oversleeping. Sam is from New York City, and is here going through medical school at the University of Rochester. Smart kid! Anyway, we left the Port of Rochester at 6am and started off with a Brown Trout program that grabbed us north of 15 Brownies. Most fish were cookie cutters, but we did wrangle up a porker. Best Bay Rat color was Ridin' Dirty. The Black Flash 3.5 took a couple as well behind a Chinook Diver. We worked 7-8' of water for those fish. On the way back we slid out to 25-30' looking for a Salmon. We ended the day 3/4 on Kings and we also poked a nice drop back Steelie. UV Pickle Seed took two fish on a 50' Slide Diver, another took a UV NBK on two colors of FishUSA Stealthcore, and two Kings took deep diving sticks.

OK, rods are yours. I will be in Wilson 4/30 & 5/1. Shoot me a message on Thursday to remind me to put them in my truck.

Nice day! That Tricky Ricky was good for me last year, but never put it in this year......

I would rather not ship. I live in Monroe County, work at Krenzer Marine on Sodus Point. (2) Daiwa Great Lakes Trolling Roller Rods - GL862MF-WL - $120 for the pair

We used the SIMRAD as a demo in our showroom for a season. The transducer is brand new in box. It's a dual frequency 50/200khz. $900 + tax for the combo (tax becasue we have to run it through the marina).

It's best when you can barely see the diver out 10'.

Green

This spoon/color worked well on a buddies boat a year ago, so I grabbed a few from the guys over at Bay Rat Lures. It was our hottest spoon behind a Chinook Diver this Spring. You may have read about it in our reports. Anyhow, it's back in stock at FishUSA. Get it while it's in stock! - Bay Rat 3.5 Black Flash

Saturday: Another great day on Lake Ontario with long time clients Doc, his son, Kurt, and Joe. The early morning Brown Trout bite couldn't have been any better! We also mixed in a Pike, a couple of Lake Trout, a Coho Salmon, and dumped a Chinook Salmon that headed for Niagara County. If you followed our page this morning you saw our starting line up. All Bay Rat Lures in SS and S3. Ayu, Ghost Wipe, Green Frog, Can't Afford It, Citric Shad, and Jail Bird all took fish. The riggers and divers were pretty quiet. After we took our only King bite, and learned of a few others, we upped our program to hunt down more King bites. We switched over to all Bay Rat LS baits on the boards and added in some slide divers. A 16 rod spread! Unfortunately, no more King bites were taken, but we did get a few Lake Trout and some bigger Brown Trout with that spread. Sunday: Make that four Sundays in a row fishing nasty conditions and snow. Thank God for our 10 Meter Trojan with camper top and heat today! Doc, Kurt, Joe, and Doc's son Nick from PA fished the last two days with us. They're regulars in the Spring chasing Brown Trout with us. We knew today might get cut short so we fished longer yesterday. For the first few hours it was great. The wind was manageable, but when it came it was wicked! We probably stayed and fished longer than we should have. Our typical Brown Trout spread consisted of eight board rods, two Chinook Divers, and three Cannon Downriggers. 98% of our fish came on board lines today. Bay Rat Lures S3's were the ticket as we had to put the boat in 7-9' of water with leads on our baits 125' back. The king took a Citric Shad. Other colors that worked today were Ayu, Ghost Wipe, Coho Crusher, Ghost Face, and a new Modified Green Frog.