8/29 – Charter

We got a very early start because we were so anxious to see if we could get those deep kings going. We set down over 150 fow and trolled NE. The marks were there, and they were still deep. I put out a simple 6 rod spread consisting of 3 riggers, 2 wires, and a 600 copper. EVERY rod had a paddle/fly combo of some color combination attached to it. We marked fish from 150 out to 300 anywhere from 100-200’ down. We never moved a rod, but it gave us peace of mind that the Kings are there. My guess? They are probably sick of Mother Nature pushing water back and forth every few days so they are hanging out in more stable water.

Once we figured out those fish didn’t want to play we pointed the boat due north and went in search of Steelhead. Out to the 32N line we trolled with no real WOW factor. Small Chinooks made up the catch the whole way out there. So small they wouldn’t keep, but our customers were very happy to see the time we put into making sure a 20” King gets revived!

By about noon we were headed back in on a southerly troll with only 3 or 4 fish in the box. We just couldn’t get on a pod of Steelhead like we hoped. Lots of action, but lacking size. At this point we were down to 3 riggers, one copper,  and 4 wires. On the riggers were DW gators, NK Copper NBKs, and a mix of other things that just wouldn’t get the job done on the third rigger. Maybe I should have thrown down one of the previous two color combos that were working! Anyway, on our deep wires we ran a DW/A-TOM-MIK Gator combo and chrome green dot paddle with an A-TOM-MIK Pro Am Glow fly. Both of which would go on to take the two biggest fish of the day. One being a 15lb Chinook Salmon and the other being a 15lb Coho Salmon. Our high wires pulled mag sized spoons, and took one shot on a Moonshine Bad Toad. We ran our low deeper divers on 1.5’s and out 225 and 250, and our high deeper divers were set on 3’s and set out 50’ more than the low wire. By the end of the day our box looked much nicer. We found a pod on the 26/27N line a tad East. First troll gave us 4 fish and the next two gave up 1 each.

8/28 – Evening trip

We completely tuned up the boat in the morning, and tackled some odd jobs we wanted to get done. Little things like fixing the navigational light that blew, organizing some tackle, and tying new leaders. Jobs still waiting to be completed are measuring some coppers that have been cut short, and spooling up another 10 color! Anyway, I was kept up to speed about the fishing by my friend Eric who runs the Maniac boat throughout the day, and the idea of a short evening trip was on the table. 5 O’Clock rolled around and Eric and his son were standing on my boat waiting to head out for some evening fishing.

We fished from about 5:30/6 O’Clock till about 8/8:30, and had a great time. It’s always fun to fish with different people, and when they have their own ride and crew it makes it tough. Anyway, we set down on the 27N line and trolled it north to the 29/30N line, and about 9W. We ran a very simple spread consisting of 3 riggers and 2 wires. We were out there to have fun! Especially when I found out that neither of them had DERBY TICKETS!!!!!! Throughout the night on the riggers were some DW Gators, Midnight Specials, NK Copper NBK’s, and Sea Sick Waddlers. Behind our Walker Deeper Divers we had DW/A-TOM-MIK combos in the 42nd and Gator patterns. Our DW Gator SS’s really had the spotlight on them for our evening trip. They took the first fish, which was about a 9-10lb Steelhead, and they would take 3 out of the 5 or 6 fish we would hook up with.

On the way in we trolled into the 26N/25N line and saw a GREAT picture down below 100’ on our Humminbird. I threw a few things down there that Kings like to eat, but it was getting late so that program lasted about 15 minutes. However it gave us something to look forward to in the morning.

By the way, our tune up which consisted of plugs, wires, and a cap and rotor really made a HUGE improvement in the performance of our ride. She really woke right up! Anyone who knows us knows that my father was the one who took care of this, but since his accident he just can’t do it. I guess we should have learned this stuff from him over the years!

Oswego Scotty Event

Friday 8/20 (Big Fish Friday) – Headed out around 6am and worked West all day. We like the West 9 mile area when we are in O town! Well, it would end up being a very disappointing day. On the way down to West 9 mile point we would take 2 shots, and 1 on the way back for 8 hours of fishing!

There was only 3 of us on the boat, so we ran a simple 3 rigger, 2 wire, 1 copper  set-up. When we are in O town it is hard to even think about putting down a spoon! So, every rod had a Dreamweaver Spin Doctor, an E-Chip, or a Legendary Smart Fish on it trailed by an A-TOM-MIK fly. At one point we threw down a big 11” paddle with an MC Rocket, and I even put down a Tuna filled Super Cut Plug, but neither of those resulted in any hook ups.

Our first shot didn’t take much more than 30 minutes or so, and I think that was because we were still in the Oswego River water. Our 600 copper fired with a Green E-Chip/Green Crinkle A-TOM-MIK fly. During that battle our corner rigger down 80’ would take a shot on a Marv’s Fatty Spin Doctor (Green Spin Doctor/Double Crush Glow/Green Dots) pulling an A-TOM-MIK UV Dolphin. We would land a 22lb Chinook on the copper, but drop the King from the rigger. Our last shot would come very late in the day while we were off our game. It was the 600 copper that took off again. This was one of those fish that rips about 50’ of line out and drops it like there wasn’t a hook attached to our lure. Oh well, we knew that there was a decent bite East of the Harbor, and we decided that we would head that way on Saturday.

Saturday 8/21 (Day 1) – I was pumped to be in O town. I knew that we didn’t have to worry about guys going out and beating us with Trout! It was strictly a Chinook (king) Salmon tourney! Our forte! We ran a mile or two to the East and set up in 100fow. Screen was OK at best, but we set lines anyway. We worked the five stacks area East to the Alcan plant the whole day. Our best water was 140-160 down 60-90’.

We ran a 3 rigger, 3 copper, 2 wire program. One of two King programs we like to run. We started off with Spinny/A-TOM-MIK combos on our corner riggers, a Lyman plug on our middle rigger set back 60’ and ran 10’ above the corner riggers. I like to call it a tail gunner. On our Walker Deeper Divers we ran Smart Fish trailed by A-TOM-MIKs out anywhere from 180-300 on a 2 setting. Lastly, our coppers were a 300 and a 400 fished off our Otter Boats, and a 500 run down the chute. On the 300 we had another Lyman plug, but the 400 and 500 both had E-Chip/A-TOM-MIK combos. Well, everything we put down in the morning rotted for us besides the Lyman fished as a tail gunner on our middle rigger. That broke the ice with a 3lb Chinook. Big enough for the cooler, but not what we were looking for!

Little by little we started to change over paddle/fly combos. We saw the fish, but they just weren’t taking our rigs. Lots of streaking told me they were interested, but they just wouldn’t take them. As we were going through combos I put down a Chrome/Green dot Spin Doctor with an A-TOM-MIK Pro Am Glow fly on a corner rigger and stretched it back 30’. I literally turned my back after slamming it down to 80’ and our teammate Justin starts running for the rod. We put a teenager in the box, and got set back up. Well, not 10 minutes later that rig fires again. Another King! OK, so now we have something they LIKE!!! We scramble to find another combo and luckily we buy everything in even numbers. So we slam another one down to 80 on the other corner rigger. Those combos would take two more matures for us by the end of the day. The only other rig to take a Salmon would be a Green E-Chip pulling an A-TOM-MIK Misery fly, which would cull our first 3lb Salmon with a 4lb Salmon. With 20 minutes to go Our HOT combo would fire again with a King only to have him take 50’ of line and crack off our 50lb fly leader. That fish would have really given us a good cull! Even if it was a 20lb fish we had a 4lb fish we NEEDED to get rid of. We would end our day with 5 Salmon in the box, and from what we heard it was a tough day for a lot of the heavy hitters we are used to fishing against.

About three times during the day we would go to pull the Lyman from our spread and find a 6-8lb Brown Trout on it. Any other tournament I guess it wouldn’t be a bad thing, but not in a Salmon only event. Anyway, these Lymans have some great action in the water, and if you are a troller you know that these type lures really start to shine this time of year.

After all the boxes hit the weigh in stage we were sitting in 14th place. There were only 12 teams to bring a 5 fish box to the scales on day one. After we weighed in our fish we were in a mad dash to find more Chrome/Green dot Spin Doctors, but we would only end up finding one! During this tackle shopping adventure my brother would find Sunday’s HOT ticket!

Sunday 8/22 (Day 2) – Why change anything when we were so close to a top ten, and we thought with the right bites that a top 5 was well within reach. When we set down in 90fow the screen just lit up! When I got done setting 2 riggers I realized we were pointed North and not in 90’ of water anymore. Not to mention our screen went blank. I had to let my uncle have an ear full! LOL We couldn’t get back in there with the traffic, so we went into search mode and started to head over to our trail from the previous day.

Same program went down from the previous day, but as you can imagine there were a lot of green dot combos that saw time in the water. We didn’t move a rod for a while! We went through more paddle/fly combos than ever before. We saw the fish, but they were just not interested in our gear. At one point my brother takes a fly he bought at Fat Nancy’s Tackle shop on Saturday afternoon and sets it out on his wire. It didn’t take long and that Daiwa Saltist was singing! Of course he was screaming that his new fly took a shot at the same time. The combo was a Marv’s Fatty Spin Doctor pulling an A-TOM-MIK LBB Live. I must admit my brother made everyone in the boat see how cool this fly looked in the water before he sent it out to 200’, and we all were amazed at how different it looked.  Well, at 10am we had one major in the box, and we had released a 12lb Lake Trout. Word had it there were some fish off Fairhaven, so we made the run.

When we got to West 9 mile point we set lines and quickly the same combo that took our first King was back in action. This time it was a 10lb Coho Salmon that fell victim to the combo. That would be our last Salmon of the day. That same combo would go on to take two Lake Trout down off Fairhaven.

Saturday was tough, but Sunday was even tougher. Even less 5 fish boxes were weighed in, and when it was all said and done we dropped 3 places to finish in the middle of the field. (17th Place) Congrats to the Popeye boat who won the tourney with an all women team!  

8/16 - Charter

We had some guys from ROWE video out with us. I love when these guys come out because I know that I will be getting some GREAT pictures! The downfall is.....your going to have to wait until I get them to see them. Well, when we broke the pier heads you could feel the cold water still pushed into the shallows, so off to the depths we went. We dropped in at the 29N line, and for once I was able to get all 8 rods in the water without a single fish. However, that didn't last long!

We ran the same program as the day before with the exception of switching out a 300 copper for a 400 copper. We would continue the droppsy theme this morning. One of which was definitely a King that took the 400 copper pulling a green Smart Fish/A-TOM-MIK sherbet fly. Our Dreamweaver midnight specials were great until we had a beautiful Steelhead go under a wire and then rocket out of the water. So down went some Northern King 42nd's and they continued to rock. Our Northern King Sea Sick Waddlers took a back seat today, and pair of Stinger Nukes really started to shine.

The highlight of the day happened around noon when a high wire pulling a Moonshine Bad Toad started to sing. We knew it was a King, but had no clue how big. He made multiple long and strong runs. After what seemed to be forever a hog hit the deck and tipped our scale at 29lbs. Here is a picture of my brother holding it until we get some photos from the Rowe guys. 

8/15 - Charters

Morning - Was told Friday night that the Lake had flipped. Thats all we needed to know. When we broke the pier heads the water was chilly! It stayed that was all the way out to the 28N line. Even out there we had 55 degrees down 40'. We ran a simple 3 rigger, 4 wire, 1 copper program. On our riggers we started off with Norther King Sea Sick Waddlers, Dreamweaver Gators, and Dreamweaver Raspberry Dolphins. During the day we would pull the Raspberry Dolphins and the Gators for some Dreamweaver Green Eye Ghost and Midnight Specials. We parked our riggers anywhere from 50-100' down. These fish were in the ICE water! On the wires we ran mag spoons on the high divers set on a 3 out 275 and 300. One was a Sea Sick Waddler the other was a 42nd. Low divers pulled paddle fly combos like the 42nd combo, and the Gator spinny/A-TOM-MIK Hypnotist fly. Our copper rod was a 300 copper with a Dreamweaver magnum Gator. 

Fishing was fast and furious from the 29N line to the 32N line. LOTS of Steelhead and a few small kings mixed in. We did a good job of landing our first 6 or 7 Steelhead this morning. Just like last week our Saturday morning trip didn't give up even just one screamer.

Evening - We had the owner from Michelinas Italian Restaurant out with his boy and his cousin. We wanted to get Anthony some fish, so we headed back out to the Steelhead rich waters offshore. We ran the exact same program that we finished with on our morning trip, but we would go on to drop our first 5 or 6 fish. It was very frustrating considering this was just a four hour evening trip, but the meatball and chicken parm sandwiches really took our minds off the dropped fish. Eventually everyone would get to reel in a few fish, and we even had our first screamer of the day. He took the 42 combo on our low wire out 225. The fish gave up a great fight, and they were able to see how tough a mature Salmon really is. 

We would not go hungry on this trip, and Anthony had a blast reeling in fish along with watching his dad battle about a 17lb Lake Ontario King Salmon. This fish made multiple hard runs, and turned those meatball making arms into mush.

Don't miss out!!!

We are running out of time slots for charters as the season comes to a close. Currently these are the dates we have available:

August 28th - Evening trip (4hrs)

September 6th (Labor Day) - Morning(8hrs)

September 4th, 5th, and 11th - Evening Trips (4hrs)

I know I have said it a lot this year, but this year has become know as the year of the HOGS! So many fish have been taken over 30 pounds! There are even 40lb BRUTES out there! Don't miss your opportunity to battle one of these Lake Ontario MONSTERS. It will be something you will never forget.

8/8 - Charter

Well, Mother Nature was not nice to us this weekend! Given the fact you NEEDED to go offshore to get into any numbers of fish, or even a shot at a big guy, even a S or SW wind had enough time to get it rough. Regardless of the weather we caught A LOT of fish. However, I felt like we were ice fishing for perch! We had to "weed" through the small ones to get a few big ones. We had the same guys from the night before, and Mr. I got a big fish was still running his mouth! Well, Mother nature put the kibosh on that! 3-4's building to 6-8's by the end of the trip had him hanging over the side of the boat most of the day. 

We started at the 27N line and rode the waves out to the mid 28N line. This ride yielded 1 fish! We had some decent bait, so I turned on it and went through it at a different direction. Straight into the waves, and some added lure action, was all it took to get the rods firing. Almost instantly rods began to pop, but sighting the same story from yesterday size was an issue. Most fish were under the legal size limit.

Our program today was a very simple 6 rod spread. 3 riggers, 2 wires, and a 300 copper. The riggers pulled the same lures we pulled on Saturday, but the Dreamweaver Shiznits would never take a hit. We exchanged them out for some Dreamweaver Raspberry Dolphins, which put their share of fish in the boat. Our wires pulled many combos during the day, but the ones we would end up with was a Dreamweaver Green blade double crush gow with green dots pulling an A-TOM-MIK L225 UV Dolphin, and a Green Smartfish with an A-TOM-MIK Sherbert fly. Our 300 copper continued to pull that dreamweaver Mag Gator.

8/7 - Two Charters

Morning Trip - Took a ride out to the 29N Line straight out front of the Oak and got into fish immediately. I couldn't get 8 rods in the water until about 9:30am. Tons of fun, but a lot of work for such small fish. We were catching mostly Steelhead with a few Chinooks mixed in. Our program consisted of 3 riggers, 4 wires, and 1 copper. On the riggers we had Northern King Sea Sick Waddlers on the deep rigger, Dreamweaver SS Shiznits on the middle rigger, and Dreamweaver SS Gators on the high rigger. The 300 copper pulled a Dreamweaver Magnum Gator, and we ran it down the chute with all the copper in the water. We ran flasher fly combos on our low wires (42nd combo, and Albino Gator Spinny/A-TOM-MIK Hypnotist), and on our high wires we ran Mag Spoons (Northern King 42nd and Northern King Sea Sick Waddler). We cut our trip short with a nice box, and some tired arms! Justin reeled in most of the fish on this trip as his father and his friend Phil watched. Justin broke his big fish record multiple times today! He left with one heck of a smile.

Goose and Duck Decoying/Rigging Seminar by Final Flight Waterfowlers

Where:  Gander Mountain in Henrietta, NY

When:  October 1st @ 6:00pm - 8:00pm

Sponsored by:  Final Flight Waterfowlers, RigEm' Right, and Flambeau

Join us for the Final Flight Waterfowlers Decoying/Rigging Seminar at Gander Mountain brought to you by RigEm' Right Waterfowl & Storm Front Decoys by Flambeau. Pick up some great tips/tricks as we discuss Decoying and Rigging set-ups for both field and water. We will discuss Rigging techniques and Decoy set-up along with Decoy presentation along with some great tactics for setting your spread apart from the "other" guy!! And since their is no one expert I would like to open the last half hour of the presentation up to the floor to discuss some of you own personal techniques, tips, and tricks.

Hope to see you there,

Scott Mastowski
Final Flight Waterfowlers
http://www.ffwaterfowlers.com/
585-509-2618

Today we had a guy that works with me at my day job join us with some of his friends. This was his 3rd time out with us, and believe me when I say he was spoiled last year on his August trip by Mother Nature and the fish god. We headed out to the 29N line where I wanted to set-up and troll north. It was bumpy when we got out there, but I knew that is where the bite was. We fished a total of 2 hours before we had to head back in with a sick member of the group. In those two hours we smoked them, although you wouldn’t have known by looking in our cooler.

At first I ran a simple 3 rigger, 2 wire, 1 copper spread. We were in 3-5’s for most of the morning until they built to 4-6’s. After a disappointing show from our wires I decided to add two more to try and dial the wire bite in.

On our riggers we pulled DW Shiznits, Stinger Later Gators, and NK Sea Sick Waddlers. They were parked from 50-80' down. The first fish took our Stinger Later Gators, and I mean that literally. Bye Bye Stingers! Thanks Mr. Steelhead! No more Later gators onboard so down went a DW SS Gator. The riggers would take most of the smaller fish on this morning. On the 300 copper I ran a Mag DW Gator. This rod alone took 3 majors. One of those fish was even able to crack me off into the copper. Very disappointing! We landed 1 of those 3 majors. Our 4th major came off the wire out 175’ set on a 1 pulling a DW 42nd Paddle/A-TOM-MIK 42nd fly.  Dropped him too!

The Kings that we did hook into were pizzed! They were making 3 and 4 runs. It was actually pretty exciting to see them fighting like this. The waves made it much harder to fight these guys, and they definitely stuck it to us on this morning. The cool story of the day happened when I was setting out my high diver. I was holding my low diver in my hand off the back of the boat and had a King hit it. He hit it and just started SMOKING line off the reel. It’s a wonder the rod didn’t end up taking a swim.

Our set-up today consisted of 3 riggers loaded with a variety of spoons, 2 wire Walker Deeper Divers pulling Paddle/Fly combos, and 2 300 coppers with spoons. The HOT spoons of the day were DW Shiznits, Midnight Specials, Gators, NK Sea Sick Waddlers, and Stinger Later Gators. We also tried out some of those LJ Shoehorn spoons and they took a few fish also. For paddles we ran an Albino Gator, a Gator, and a Wonder dot. These were trailed by Hammer and Hypnotist A-TOM-MIK flies.

I guess you can’t always catch the big ones, but what made this trip fun was the fish we were catching were the right size for the two boys. Given the size of these fish most of the time they could reel these fish in on their own without any help from their dad. I really enjoy taking kids out and getting them into some fish. It really puts smiles on their face like you wouldn’t believe.

(Evening) – This was a special trip! We surprised my father by taking him out on his boat for the first time this year. He had a serious accident in November and wasn’t able to fish any tourneys with us in 2010. We only had a few hours to fish, but I wanted to check out the offshore bite. We headed out to the 30N line and worked it North to the 32N line and in a couple hours of fishing mid day we hooked and landed 5 fish. 2 of those 5 were keepers. We had heard when we got off the water in the morning that there was a great bite out at the 34N line in the morning. We tried to get there, but just never made it. However, it solidified the decision to head there in the morning. The DW Shiznit and NK Sea Sick Waddler were the spoons that took the shots on our evening trip.