Some New Products

McCoy Fishing Line

McCoy Fishing Line will be introducing a Fluorocarbon line into their line-up this summer. This line was used to win a recent Elite BASS tourney. We have had it since mid April and we are blown away by the performance of it. It has great knot strength, and it holds up well to these feisty Spring Kings.

Legendary Products

BIG John Emory, owner of Legendary, has added a new color to his arsenal. The Wonderbread color pattern has been a great color for us so we asked to have some made up. He didnt take long to get one in my hands, and now I want more! It took a majority of our fish this past weekend. 

Memorial day weekend (My Birthday Weekend)

It started Friday night by arriving to the Wilson Boat House around 4pm. I found a buddy at the dock so I said come on lets get out there! We got out about 6 and fished till about 8 with somewhere around 9-10 bites. We were surprised at how high the fish were coming in comparison to the previous 2 weeks. Our 75 rigger with a Dreamweaver SS Gator took the first shot with a teenage King. It would take another shot not soon there after. Our other hot rigger was our 65 rigger pulling a pair of Yeck Mixed Veggies. The only deep rig to go would be our 325 wire pulling that HOT White/Green Dot SmartFish (exclusive to A-TOM-MIK) with an Ultra Green Glow A-TOM-MIK fly behind it. Lastly, with about 30 minutes to go I let out the 10 color with that DEADLY Stinger Penguin and it did its job twice. It was an action packed couple of hours just a click or two East of port anywhere from 100-200.

Saturday we took our time getting out. It was just my brother, my girlfriend, and myself. We all agreed that breakfast was the right thing to do that morning. We finally got on the water about 9:30, and as luck would have it we found out that was about when the bite shut down. Not wanting the skunk to hit the boat I decided to toss out that Coho Killer from Dreamweaver on a 2 color off our Otter Boat. It wasn't out there for long when the Orange Slurpee did what it does best and hooked a Coho. A little bit after that we called it quits as the NE wind got the lake rollin' pretty good. So, 4 hours of fishing left us with 1 small fish and concern about the charter the next day.

Sunday's charter showed up VERY early, which was fine by me given the fantastic morning bite the day before. Our charter today was a graduation gift from father to daughter. So, she brought some friends along to join in on the fun. We headed out just at day break and found a decent screen, but they were exactly jumping in the boat. This trip was a tad bit different than others with 3 women and one guy aboard, but I must say they handled the rods better than some of the guys I have on board! We ended up losing our first 3 or 4 fish on the wire divers, and once we dialed in all the gear we had a steady pick till it was time to pull the rods. Divers were firing out at 300-375 with the deadly combos pictured above. Those two combos have taken 75% of our fish the last 3 weekends! SmartFish are now offered in that deadly Wonderbread pattern, and I promise you they are deadly! We would end the day with 9 fish in the box with 3 great Kings all in the mid to upper teens. The rest were that 10-13lb range with a few cohos mixed in. Again the Dreamweaver SS Orange Slurpee took the Coho. Our riggers would take only a few shots with Dreamweaver's SS Dave's Salmon Slapper, and NK's Sea Sick Waddler taking them.

Monday was another relaxing day of fishing with friends. We headed out around 7:15 and got word that it was SLOW. We set lines in front of the harbor and it didn't take us long to loose our first wire fish out 325 pulling a White/Green dot SmartFish trailed by an A-TOM-MIK Ultra Green Glow fly. Not long after we re-set that rod it fired again! After that we went blank! So we went into search mode. We headed West and Deep and finally found some fish in 300'. A few Coho's and Stealhead in the top 40' that took Dreamweaver SS Orange Slurpee's and Glow Froggy's of 2 colors and 10 colors. We would take another shot on our 600 copper pulling a White/Green dot SmartFish trailed by an A-TOM-MIK Live Ultra Green Glow. Finishing off our day was a slider on our 75 rigger with a teenage King that ate a Dreamweaver SS Dave's Salmon Slapper.

 Slammin' Salmon on 5/16/09

We gave it a go this morning for the few hours we had before mother nature began to blow! We ran a tad bit West of Wilson and set up in 160fow. It didn't take long to hook up! The first fish took the wire diver at 325 pulling that deadly Wonderbread Spinny/A-TOM-MIK Hammer fly. While we were battling that fish the 600 copper took a whack. That fish was on and off after a little run. We would pick away at them for about 4 hours not waiting more than 10-15 minutes in between bites. Same program as last week. Divers out past 300, riggers well below 100, and our 600 copper. Word has it some fish were coming up higher today, but our program was working so we didn't change it. Our largest fish today was around 17 pounds with most fish being between 8 and 14 pounds. Paddles that worked were the Wonderbread Spinny, White Double Crush Glow SmartFish with Green dots, and a White on White Double Crush Glow SmartFish. The flys were A-TOM-MIK Ultra Green Glow, Hammer, Hammer Glow, and Green Hammer. I got my girlfriend her first Salmon! She did a great job fighting it even in those nasty Easterly rollers.

The Wilson Scotty Event

After the St. Catherine's event Team Yankee Troller was looking for revenge. We felt we were better than a 35 place finish! The team for this event consisted of myself, my father, my brother, uncle Eric, and Jeremy Sage. In our favor we had two solid days of chartering allowing us to find, and figure out the Salmon. Day one we blasted off and ran to our waypoints from the previous two days. We were met with hungry fish eating the program we had been running the previous two days. Only difference was the fish were running a tad bit smaller than we had been catching.

5/9 - We trolled the 140-250 depth hitting our waypoints and here came the fish! Again our program consisted of 4 wire divers pulling a combination of SmartFish and Spin Doctors trailed by A-TOM-MIK flies. Our divers were parked at 300 and 325 for the inside divers and 350 and 375 for the outside divers. We ran 3 downriggers pulling various spoons anywhere from 75-180' down. Our BEST spoon was the Dreamweaver SS Dave;s Salmon Slapper. We couldn't get a Sea Sick Waddler to go for the first time in I don't know! Lastly we had a 600 copper down the chute with my favorite set-u! A SmartFish on a 9 O'clock setting White on White pulling an A-TOM-MIK Ultra Green Glow Fly.

After everyone hit the scales we were sitting pretty in 7th place! We had about a 15lb average in our cooler, but we lacked that kicker fish we had pulled the previous two days.

5/10 -We were met with high winds and we were hoping that the tournament would be called and we would cash in 7th, but when the lake was checked it was fishable. Once we started fishing it wasn't fishable anymore! We still gave it our all and immediately after we set up the 600 copper took off followed by a screamer on the 375 wire. We ended up 0 for 2 very quickly! We would end the day with 5 keepers and a bunch of lost fish. Not a 15 pound average like the previous day, but we tried! Same program as above, but the size went down for our boat. We would get bumped out of the top ten and finish in 11th place. Just out of the money, and by 4 pounds! That hurts, but the guys above us were all very solid fisherman and my hat goes off to them.

5/7-5/8 Salmon showed up, and they want to BITE!!!

So, after the previous weekend I was a little bit worried about the Salmon bite. But, just like years past that first week of May is hit or miss. So We had Nick, Nick, Gaylord, and Phil out for two days. Last year they were met with some bad weather and only got to fish one day. This years trip more than made up for that! Their best trip in 3 years (as far as BIG Salmon go). Typically, they were met with a few nice Salmon and a bunch of Coho and Steelhead.

5/7 - Took us no time to hook up with a BEAUTIFUL 10lb Steelhead. It took a 2 color core pulling a Dreamweaver SS Orange Slurpee. That spoon has been my best producer for fish on the surface during May. After a little searching we found the mother-load of Salmon along with what the Salmon wanted to eat. Our program was quite simple, yet effective. We did about 20 fish during the 8 hour trip with many teenage Salmon hitting the deck of the boat. A pair of 19lb brutes really made the box look pretty good. Our set up consisted of 4 wires. The inside/deep wires were set on .5 with the Dreamweaver large diver ring. One was out 300 and the other was out 325. We pulled a SmartFish White on White with Green dots/A-TOM-MIK Ultra Green Glow fly on one with a Wonderbread Spin Doctor/A-TOM-MIK Hammer and Glow Hammer. On the high/shallower divers we set them on 2.5 settings and had them out 350-375 feet. We pulled the same flashers on those with some variation. At times we would toss out the Black Double Crushed Glow SmartFish with an A-TOM-MIK Hammer, or the Black Double Crush Glow Green Dot Spin Doctor out with an A-TOM-MIK Green Hammer. Our riggers were parked anywhere from 75-150' down. Sea Sick Waddlers took a few fish, but the spoon of the week was definitely the Dreamweaver SS Dave's Salmon Slapper. We concentrated our efforts in 130-150' of water, so we were basically pulling these fish right off the bottom. Without the help of our 15lb sharks this would have been a chore!

5/8 - We went right back to our waypoints from the previous day and the fish hadn't moved, but they were eating well. So after a few passes we slid right out to the deeper stuff finding more active fish out in that 200-250' of water. Once it started it was pandemonium! We hardly ever hooked up with just one fish. Every time one rod fired so would another. Again we ended with a pair of 19lb brutes, but we couldn't pop that 20lb mark! Same program as the previous day. Nothing changed as far as depths and lure choices. That made my job pretty easy!

LOC Derby1st Weekend

We gave it our best! We thought that Canada was the place to be so that's where we headed on Saturday morning. We crossed the Niagara River to find clear water, which means cold water, and not a very good picture. We tried it and had about an hour of action in which we took 5 solid hits. All 5 hits ended with NO FISH in the boat. Yeah, we lost them all! Oh well, it wasn't tourney time. We finished the day 2 for 9 with a Coho and a Laker to hit the deck. The Coho took a Dreamweaver SS Orange Slurpee (a no brainer for coho) off our 5 color, and the Laker took a White SmartFish with chrome colored prism tape pulling an A-TOM-MIK White Hammer fly. The fish that came un-buttoned fell victim to our NK Sea Sick Waddler, Dreamweaver SS Glow Froggy,a NK Mullato, and a Dreamweaver SS Salmon Slapper. All of which were fished off our downriggers.

Sunday morning we figured we'd stay close to home. We pulled out of Wilson and saw a GREAT picture in 60-80 feet of water. It took an hour for the first rod to fire and it resulted in a small King. He hit the wire out 125 on a 3 setting pulling a Northern King green glow Mag. Our next fish took a NK Mullato fished off our downrigger down 50ish. That would be it for a while. We picked up and moved West to some water that was holding fish.  We took a Lake Trout off a White on White SmartFish pulling an A-TOM-MIK Hammer. Our last fish of the day took a Dreamweaver SS Gator fished off our 35 rigger. EVERYONE struggled today. Well, at least the boats I talked with did. Fish are here, but they aren't very active yet. This weekend coming up should change! We will be out Thursday-Sunday. Stay tuned for more reports.