Yankee Troller

I have spoke with a few Captains, and they are very upset. A lot of them are thinking about boycotting the entire trail. These are Captains that place in these tournaments too. Im most likely going to fish them, but onyl becasue it is a family thing with my father and my brother. I too think the communication rule stinks!!!!!!!! You talk about not being able to enforce a rule? A good friend of mine said it like this: We have speed limits, but those arent truly enforceable. But we still have them. What happens when you get caught breaking it? You get penalized. So if you get caught communicating during a non communication tourney you should be disqualified! Its that simple. Observers ar there to protect this rule!

Fishing was mediocre at best. Started around 11:45 and fished till 3. A lot of medium sized fish. We fished 30-50 most of the afternoon. Still great to be out!

I had to share this with you guys.....Some of thee are way too funny! http://www.ffbookmarks.com/fishing_quotes.htm

Chinook - I ran McCoy Mean Green this year on all my downrigger rods. During the middle of summer when everything was picking up fleas this stuff worked mint! Yeah you would get a couple of inches here and there, but for the mosty part they couldnt cling to it. Im talking during the period where the wire couldnt be in the water for more than 30 minutes without getting a few feet of them on it. I ran it in 25lb test (mainly becasue I was running all spinnies). The 15lb test (which I ran my spoons off) did well too when it was down. I am running it again this summer and will report on the flea issue next winter, but Im sure satisfied with it.

I wouldnt say Im using the "right" rod, but at the moment I am using a 10" Dipsey rod. I just figured that with the extra length I could pull in more line per pump. I see the leadcore rods for sale are much shorter that 10'. It will be interesting to see whats said about this topic.

Let me know how that goes.

Go with the Tekotas! Penn's are nice reels but the ratio sux. I have Penns. Smooth drags, but slow!

As far as I know they are still on for Oswego. And yes they are all Saturday/Sunday.

Thanks Clarke!

I thought that was the case too. I wasnt sure so I didnt post it.

OK all here is what I found out last night: Rules - they are all unified! Everything is the same at all 4 tournaments. Communication - Open at all 4 events. Mike Waterhouse's explanation was as he quoted Dave Mull (GLA owner) "Why have a rule you can enforce?" I know we here dont like that but he has a valid point. Challenge Cup - Cost is $100 towards the West 2 tournaments prize structure and $100 towards the East 2 tournaments prize structure. $200 if your doing all 4. Challenge cup will go to a ponits system to even out the playing field. If you are looking to fish all four, at this time, they think they have a sponsor for that. If so that sponsor is going to donate 5k towards that prize structure. So in reality if you fish all 4 events you could win the West the East and the over all. I think this is a great move to increase competition in the cup series. Amature division - A few rule changes here. For one Amature teams can now consist of 2 people and an observer. Im not sure on how they are going to work the 6 rod rule, so Im gonna wait till they post these new rules on thier website. Amatures will be able to cull as long as the fish isnt netted. This means a release at the back of the boat. They are really trying to increase the amature side becasue of the lack of participation. Lets face it there are more amatures out there than there are Captains. I think thats it, and if I forgot something I appologize. I figured I would post this seeing how Steve is very busy. I hope I was also clear enough on the new changes. Please dont hammer me if I was wrong on interpreting these new rules!

Hey Capt. Ace - how about making that picture a little bit smaller? Better yet get rid of it. This is Steve's website, and he is a charter captain. Your pretty much trying to use his site for free advertising and I dont think that is appropriate. Im not trying to be a punk here, but I do feel it is disrespectful.

I have a feeling that the bar isnt going to be as good as it has been the last few years though. We had a fair share of East winds this Spring and that kept it good longer than it should have been. But with no ice on Erie, and this warm winter those fish are going to be on the move early. But I have no doubt that with the mild winter these fish are eating up some bait and we will see some more monster fish this up coming fall!

Mike is right. I ran 13# Ridgebacks all season and did very well on them. I thought they tracked great even in the rough stuff when your bouncin around pretty good. If your talking about attraction I had a coho come from 15' down to hit my spoon at 90' down.

Opti Tackle is where I am going to buy mine. They seem to know quite a bit about it.

Going down to Irodequoit tomarrow morning, will report when I get back. Tried the bass thing today, and this is what happened: That was Canadaigua as I was witing for the truck. My windshield was covered in sleet after the 3 mile run back to the launch. Anyway, no smallies today!

My GF said the same thing to me the other night!

Welcome TrimTab......Cool name too! Hey Tom........when you gonna post the new pictures on your site of your new flavors? I have been waiting since like September brother!

Before? Isnt that supposed to be coffee time?

I hear ya bro! Plus if I remember correctly arent you obligated to keep all devices that aid in navigation on as a captain? For example I know if you have a radar unit it has to be on. I know a vhf isnt going to aid in navigation, but it is an important tool. Anyway, I'll see you at the meeting this week. I have been playing soccer on Tuesdays and couldnt make it out. It will be nice to see some of the guys again.

Yeah, but dont you think that people would be more prone to turning the radios off if they arent getting used? Not to start a dumb bickering blog but if the radios are on then you could still get "reports" from a weekend angler. So where is the closed communication? I totaly would go to the no communication though!

I agree, although I have used the open communication thing in Niagara. Pesonally I would be all for no communication for the entire trail. I do have to say though this past year it was a good thing we could use communication becasue a fellow angler in the tourney was taking on water and the fact the radio was on and people could use it got him home safe! So on a side note......Who is fishing the Pro-Ams this year and which ones?

Aint that the truth!

Didnt do as good this weekend as we did last, but it was still a blast to be out. I will be out this weekend because Saturday looks mint! Look forward to seeing you out there then next year.

Keep it up Tom! I'll go Howie on ya! Just Joking, I dont think I would be able to. They dont make a Hammer .