Oswego Scotty Event

So, this past weekend was the Scotty event out of the Port of Oswego. Considering we are a deep water team, and we had two top 10 finishes on the East end of the Lake this year, we thought it was going to be a good tourney. Well, we were wrong! Fishing was TOUGH, but the good times had both on the water and at the dock made up for it. Saying goodbye to all the tourney teams until next April, and talking about the 2009 highlights made for some good laughs.

Friday 21st (Practice) - We went out and dropped our lines at 80'. The picture on our fish finder was amazing. We worked the 80-150' depths East down to the Power Plant with just one fish. My custom SmartFish (Green blade/Crushed Glow on the back/Twinkie tape on the front) pulling an A-TOM-MIK Hypnotist was the combo that took a dark 18lb Salmon. He hit on the wire diver. We then pushed North out to the 400' area and worked that West past the college. We took 2 shakers out there, but it just didn't look as fishy as the inside waters. So, to finish the day we headed back into 150' of water and trolled it East back to the Oswego River mouth. With minutes to go before we picked up our lines the Wire out 350' starts singing! We were battling another nice Salmon. This was the same combo mentioned above that the fish took. At the end of the day we heard the bite was tough for EVERYONE, and figured we should stick it out in that shallow water and see if we could scratch out our 5 Salmon.

Saturday 22nd (Day 1) - Well, we headed straight out and the screen was still loaded with fish. So we set out our usual 8 rod tourney spread (3 downriggers, 2 wires, and 3 junk lines). Everything but the middle rigger had flasher/fly combos. Our first fish took a Wonderbread SmartFish pulling an A-TOM-MIK Glow Hammer down 120 over 120 on the rigger. Another one of our keepers would take a Chrome E-Chip pulling an A-TOM-MIK B-Fly later in the day on our wire diver out 180. Those would be the only two fish we would catch on day 1. We lost a salmon on a wire diver throughout the day, and would toss back 2 short fish and a Brown Trout. After everyones catches hit the scales we were sitting in 17th out of 37 teams. Well within striking distance of another top 10. A total of 3 limits were brought to the scales all taken 20+ miles from Oswego.

Sunday 23rd (Day 2) - Well, since we were unfamiliar with the water 20 miles away we figured we would stick it out in front of Oswego again. The fish were there, but they were just not eating. WE figured if we could scratch of 3-4 fish we would be contending for a top 10, which in this tough tourney wasn't a bad thing. However this day wasn't as good as the previous two. We would go 1 for 4! Our lone fish took a Northern King Glow Froggy (white cup) fished 240 out on our wire diver. We lost a screamer on a 375 wire, a fish off our 240 rigger, and a fish off our 700 copper throughout the day. All of which were various flasher/fly combos. That one fish would drop us a little deeper in the standings, and leave us wondering is we should have just made the run!

August 15-16 Point Breeze (Oak Orchard) - Pics to follow!

Fishing out of "The Oak" continues to be strong! There are some majors hanging in that inside water (70-120) along with some skippy Salmon and  decent Steelhead. If you head offshore action can be fast and furious with the Steelhead, and the Kings are right there too. Some HUGE steelhead are swimming around out there.

August 15th (Morning) - We headed out with a friend from work who brought along his wife and daughter. We stopped and fished the inside water to see if we could find a few larger Salmon to play with our baits. It didn't take long and we were hooked up. First to go was a 80 rigger pulling a couple of Stingray Glow Aliewives. A Small Chinook Salmon hit the deck within minutes. Next was out 180 wire pulling a White/Green dot SmartFish followed by an A-TOM-MIK Hypnotist. He made a run. Gave a few headshakes, and he was gone. We would work the inside waters for a little longer making about 4 passes total. We took 7 shots inside and managed a few fish. A nice 18lb Salmon took Ed for a ride on the 10 color pulling a NK28 Lazer Spook. That fish stood no chance to the Daiwa Saltist's gear ratio. At 6.4:1 Ed had that fish and all of the 500' of line in the boat. One surprise that we had while fishing that inside water was a beautiful 7lb Walleye. He took a NK Mag Sea Sick Waddler mupped on my 70 rigger. About 8am we pulled lines and made a dash for the 27N line. We set lines and trolled north to the 33N line picking fish the whole way. The same program that has worked for weeks produced for us this day. Stinger Gator Glows on our 80 rigger, Dreamweaver Gators on our 70 rigger, NK28 Copper NBK's on our 60 rigger. Our wires would not fire at all out there today. We tried every color combo under the sun, but I never did try just running a clean spoon! We boxed a few steelies and threw a bunch back. The highlight of the day (sorry Walleyes may be highlights to some people, but if they don't run or jump there is no highlight for me) was a 23lb King taken by the 14yr old daughter. This fish took a White/Green Dot SmartFish trailed by that A-TOM-MIK Hypnotist fly. A deadly combo the last month! She fought this pig on the 400 copper, and it didn't take it lightly on her arms. She passed out in the cabin shortly there after. The other highlight was a 11.5lb Steelhead that was jumping like mad on our 10 color fished off an Otter Boat. This fish was out of the air even before we got to the rod. He made some nice runs and tossed in a few flips. He sure thought that Stinger Copper Glow Green Alewife looked good, but all it end that lure brought him to our cooler loaded with Salmon and Steelhead! At the end of the trip we were scorched! It was flat calm and hot out there on the lake. We totaled up the bites and we ended the trip with 21 bites. Oh, by the way.....those Walleyes have some tough skin!

August 15th (Evening) - We headed out to the 27N line and set rods. Just my brother, his friend, and I on this trip. We fished for about an hour and a half in between run times, and took 9 fish. We got into some big guys on the 29N line! I took a 20lb King Salmon on Stinger Gator Glow fished down 80' on the rigger. We took a 12.5lb Steelhead on a Dreamweaver Gator fished down 70 on our rigger, and at the end of the trip we lost a pig just out of net range that hit our Captain Valium combo (New Spin Doctor/ATOMIK combo - chrome spinny w/ Green dots trailed by an A-TOM-MIK Wiggler fly) fished off our 300 copper. This trip was a decision maker for the following day!

August 16th (Morning) - We had the guys from Rowe Video on board today. 4 guys and a son along with my brother and I and there was a packed boat! Considering the great class of fish we had out on the 2N line we skipped the inside water. We got a call on our way out that the 26N line had a great picture, so I stopped the boat a few miles short and continued on a North troll. It didn't take long to get a few fish going, but they were rather small. Same program as the day before. As we trolled north the fish began to get larger and by 11am we had 18 fish hooked up. Our wires helped us out today as I changed up some settings and slid them a little further back. I went from a 2 back 150-210 to a 2.5 back 180-240. Should of mattered too much, but they started to fire again. One was pulling a Green SmartFish that I had custom made for me with an A-TOM-MIK Hypnotist, while the other was that deadly Gator Spin Doctor pulling an A-TOM-MIK Hypnotist.The Captain Valium combo did some damage today and took the largest steelhead of the day weighing in at 11lbs. Our big guy of the day was a solid 18lb Salmon that took the White/Green Dot SmartFish trailed by that A-TOM-MIK Hypnotist fly off our 400 copper. These guys where great and the kid took as many fish as he could get his hands on! His Salmon was just a shy smaller than the largest for the day, which I think might bring him back next year!

August 7-9 Point Breeze (Oak Orchard)

Another action packed weekend on Lake Ontario. The wind blew a little during the week, but the fish seemed to stay right out front of the creek. Mixed catches of Steelhead, ranging from 3-12lbs, and Salmon into the mid 20's kept us busy! 

August 7th (Night Scouting Trip) - We headed out and shut down on the 25N line. We worked North to about the 28N line and picked fish the whole way. The program didn't change much from the previous week. Gator Stingray spoons and Dreamweaver Gator SS's parked at 65 and 80 on the riggers were taking most of the fish. 

August 8th (Mornin) - We hit the water and were setting lines by 6am. We made a few passes in the shallow water looking for a few big guys, and ended up with one 10lb Salmon and a "Drive By" that straightened out our hook on an A-TOM-MIK Mirage Glow behind a White Double Crush Glow SmartFish. A "Drive By" is when you get a Salmon that hits the wire diver and line is ripping out before any head-shakes only to drop the bait and leave you shaking your head! Anyway, we headed out after that short time to the 25N line and began our journey out to the 29N line. We picked fish the whole way out. We took a couple of nice Salmon, but we also took a few beautiful Steelhead. One tipping the scale at 12lbs. As the day progressed it seemed as if copper colored spoons took the stage. Northern King copper NBK's and Stinger copper Glow Green Alewife's were the spoons of choice. On our copper rods we had White/Green Dot SmartFish pulling A-TOM-MIK Hypnotist flies, and Green Pro-Trolls pulling A-TOM-MIK Pro/Am Glow flies.

August 8th (Evening) - Took a fun trip with my father and uncle. My uncle's biggest fish prior to this trip was probably a Pike. WE would change that real quick! Rods weren't even down and they started firing. We did 5 fish in the first hour. Lost a big guy, and boated a few steelhead. That same Northern King Copper NBK was firing regularly as was a new spoon color I put down for the heck of it. A Stinger Nuclear Green parked at 65' on the rigger took two nice Salmon. The first being about 13lbs, but the next was a short, but fat, 23lb fish that took my 6'3" 275lb uncle for a ride! It took him out to 600' according to our Daiwa Sealine Line-Counter reels, and when he gained a few feet the fish would take twice as much! He had quite the grin when that fish hit the deck of the boat! The Stinger Gator Glows also accounted for a few steelies off the 80' rigger.

August 9th - I was joined my Mike Avino, his brother, and both of their wives. We decided to hit up the inside water 100-120' to see if we could hook into a big guy prior to heading off to those fertile Northern waters we had been fishing the last few weeks. It didn't take long, and we were into a brute. First to go was a wire diver out 150 on a 2 setting pulling a Gator Spin Doctor/A-TOM-MIK Green Crinkle. We dumped that fish almost immediately. Not 30 seconds later the other wire out 180 on a 2 setting starts screaming! My customer SmartFish with crushed glow on the back and twinkie tape on the front pulling an A-TOM-MIK Hypnotist was hooked up. This has been my big fish rig for a few weeks now. It took us all of 30 minutes to bring this one to the net, and when we put it on the scale it was a nice 22-23lb specimen. We would loose one other Steelhead in that water before we turned North and started searching. Well, the searching took about an hour and we were into them thick at the 25-26 North lines.Once I dialed in the program we started to put a hurting on them. We ran Stinger Gator Glows, Dreamweaver Area 51's, and Northern King Lazer Spooks on our rigger. We pulled the two combos above on our wires, and our junk rods were a 10 color with a Northern King Copper NBK, 300 and 400 coppers had White/Green Dot SmartFish and an A-TOM-MIK Hypnotist flies. We were done by noon with a four man limit, and some seriously satisfied customers!

August 1 & 2 from Point Breeze (Oak Orchard)

This weekend was a "Gator done".........Weekend! As long as the lure was in a gator pattern it was taking fish. Spin Doctors, Stingers Spoons, and Dreamweaver SS's all took numerous fish.

Saturday (August 1st) was a two trip day. We had Mike & Mike along with Mike's 2 sons aboard for the morning trip, and Greg Simmers and his gang from PA aboard for the evening trip. Both groups were a blast to fish with, and I'm pretty sure they left with soar arms. Those poor kids were battling teenage size King Salmon like champs! On the morning trip we dropped lines and were set up by 6am and it didn't take long for rods to start flying. The first few were small which gave the two young ones a chance to get used to handling the rods, but as the day went on the fish started to get bigger and bigger. On our afternoon trip it started out slow, but the last two hours of daylight was fast and furious. We fished a total of 10 hours and took a total of 24 shots. All our fish came between the 24N and 26N lines today.

We fished a 7-8 rod spread this day consisting of 3 downriggers, 2 wire divers, a 10 color, and a 300 & 400 copper. On our riggers we ran Stinger and Dreamweaver Gator Glows, Northern King Sea Sick Waddlers, Dreamweaver Glow Froggy SS's, and Dreamweaver Area 51 SS's down anywhere from 40'-80'. Our wire divers out 150-175 on a 2 setting pulling Gator Spin Doctors with A-TOM-MIK Hypnotist and Green Crinkle flies were HOT all weekend. On our 10 color we had a Stinger Gator Glow firing, but we never did get one to the boat. The 400 copper took the big guy of the day tipping the scales at 25lbs. He took a Green SmartFish with an A-TOM-MIK Hypnotist fly. He hit like a freight train and didn't stop anytime soon. The 300 copper was quiet today. The other fish boated were mainly Salmon, with a couple of Steelhead tossed in.

Sunday (August 2nd) was one of those days you live for! We had Greg Simmers and his gang out again and fished from 6am - 12:30pm. We ran the same program as the previous day consisting of 3 downriggers, 2 wire divers, a 10 color, and a 300 & 400 copper. We boated 18 fish tossing back a few of the smaller guys, and we lost 12-13 fish! Nothing they did would have helped, but it was just one of those days. They would make a run give a few head shakes and off they would come. These fish were vicious today! I mean we took 30 shots today! That is an AMAZING day on the lake! On our riggers we ran Stinger and Dreamweaver Gator Glows, Northern King Sea Sick Waddlers, Dreamweaver Glow Froggy SS's down anywhere from 40'-90'. Our wire divers out 150-175 on a 2 setting pulling Gator Spin Doctors with A-TOM-MIK Hypnotist and Green Crinkle flies. The 400 copper pulling a a Green SmartFish with an A-TOM-MIK Hypnotist fly, and the 300 copper pulling a Lemon Ice Dreamweaver Spin Doctor trailed by an A-TOM-MIK Hammer fly were consistent all day. At one point we were quad'd up with 4 heavy teenage - 20lb Salmon. It was hectic! We thought a triple earlier that day was exciting, but the Quad topped it easily! We ended the day with 6 Salmon between 18-20lbs, a bunch of other Salmon from 5-15lbs, and two steelhead.

This weekend we came REAL close to hooking up with 60 fish in about 16 hours of fishing. The school of fish off Point Breeze right now is ridiculous, and they are hungry! Although it was an action packed weekend this is not the norm.