Why we do what we do?

I will be the first to admit that I am ADDICTED to fishing. I don't care if I am trolling for Salmon and Trout, or Bass fishing. However, hearing line peeled off our trolling reels by a mature Chinook Salmon is music to my ear. I haven't met anyone who doesn't enjoy battling a Lake Ontario King Salmon yet. Check out some videos from the 2010 season. If you like these I promise there will be more to come.

HELP say NO to Windmills IN our Lake!

On December 1st, 2009, The New York State Power Authority submitted a request for proposal to potentially build an industrial wind farm off the shores of Lake Ontario and Erie

This proposal would see the construction of 100-166 450ft industrial wind turbines offshore (50-150ft) stretching through from Parma, Greece, Rochester, Irondequoit and Webster with a possible power plant and storage facility location in Irondequoit Bay. There are several other potential projects targeting Niagara, Ontario, and the St Lawrence counties.

We have recently made the news regarding this issue and are looking for your help. We have went door-to-door in our community to raise nearly 700 signatures to oppose this development. I was put to the task to ask the LOU community to join in the fight. This will affect fishing in lake Ontario. Please go to the link provided and sign our petition to oppose the GLOW project in the Great Lakes. WE NEED YOUR HELP!

Online Petition

The Smart Fish by Legendary Products

Very few products come to market in the fishing industry that can be classified as truly innovative. Legendary Products did just that a few years back when it took an ordinary flasher, that we have all grown to love for big King Salmon on the Great Lakes, and revolutionized it. Some people love the whip a Pro-Troll flasher gives a fly, while other people are hooked on the action that Spin Doctors give to their flies. For the average Joe buying a few of each can be costly. This is why the Smart Fish has quickly become my go to flasher. 

Some of you may know the story about how I fell into the Legendary family, but most of you probably don't. I didn't go looking for it, or to be put on their Pro Staff. It came looking for me, and I am so glad it did! One fine Spring morning while fishing the Niagara Bar I was looking to put a white double crush glow paddle out on the 600 copper. I was down in my cabin digging around looking and I just couldn't find anymore. I had all of them already out on the lines. As I got to the bottom of the pile of paddles I saw this bag of Smart Fish. I didn't know anything about them other than it was the color I wanted. To be honest I thought they were a cheesy looking imitation of a Spin Doctor. I opened one up and looked at it. Being a man I saw the number 12 on the bottom of the flasher. and dialed it right into that thinking I would get the most whip on the fly at this setting. It want out there 10 minutes and we had a LOC Derby fish flopping on our deck. This type of success followed with us throughout the year as we placed 2 more fish on derby leaderboards with a Smart Fish flasher.

Just by adding the Smart Fish on the LOC derby leaderboard was all the company wanted to see. Within a week I had a box of these flashers on my door step to show some appreciation for getting legendary that exposure. This is when the relationship between Legendary and the Yankee boyz began, and it has grown immensely since then.

We had some custom blades made for us (Wonder Dot and a Green Blade with Twinkle Tape on one side and crushed glow on the other) that have really helped our boat put fish in the box. The custom green blade helped us obtain the 2nd largest box at the 2009 Sodus Pro-Am. This happened in the same water other flashers were working on other boats!

With the Smart Fish you can be versatile with just one flasher. If you want a lot of whip then 11;30 is the setting you want to dial the flasher into. This was the setting that brought our big box at Sodus in 2009. If you want your fly to quiver then I have found the 8:30 setting to do just that. Another setting that has been known to work well is 4:30. A very respectable captain in Oswego found this setting, and through underwater testing we found out this setting gives a little something extra to the fly. You can also take this flasher and align it to your Spin Doctor to obtain the same action that a Spin Doctor provides.

If your looking for something new to try put a few Smart Fish in your spread. I am sure you wont be disappointed. If you see our boat around don't hesitate to pick our brain on these flasher as well.

July 24 - Little Salmon River Challenge

We had Casey Prisco (Cold Steel team member) and Mike Decker (White Cap Charters 1st mate) on board as they were looking to grab six big guys to win the Little Salmon River Challenge. We left the dock at the Oak at 5:30 and headed out to check the inside waters. We set down in 100' and worked our way East down to the glass house. We set up a three rigger, 2 wire, 2 copper set up. On our riggers we ran spoons with sliders. We started off with a DW SS Midnight Special, Stinger Later Gators, and Stinger Glow Green Alewife's. On the wires we ran an Albino Gator/A-TOM-MIK Ultra Green Glow and a 42 combo. The 300 copper pulled a Stinger NBK mag, and the 400 copper had a Wonder dot SmartFish with an A-TOM-MIK Hammer fly.

All the rods would fire as we trolled down to the glass house. The screen was very good between 100 and 110. Lots of bait and marks, but the fish were DINKS. Mostly Salmon, and they hit everything we had to offer to them. Once we reached the glass house we made the decision to turn it North. As we did this I put down my overcast spread which consisted of DW SS Green Eye Ghost's and Shiznits. Well, it didn't take long and the Green Eye Ghost went. We started picking more Dinks, but now we had a few nice Steelies playing with our spread. 

With less than 2 hours to fish we got a call from our buddy in the Maniac boat. He said rumor had it some Majors were being taken about 10 miles West of us. We cleared lines and made the run. Once we got down there we set our lines and rods began to pop. We changed out the Albino Gator Spinny/A-TOM-MIK combo for a White Spin Doctor/A-TOM-MIK Little Boy Blue on the wire. Our first two shots came on the wires. The Gator Spinny with a Green Crinkle A-TOM-MIK fly took a nice Steelie and the White Spinny A-TOM-MIK Little Boy Blue took the Major. This Salmon took a few nice runs, and it didnt help that we were fighting it in 3-5' waves. I had to drive due to the conditions, so Casey was on the net. On our boat we run our leads off the divers long. Well, Casey went to net this hog and came up short. He caught the hook and popped it out. From the bridge I could tell it was a nice fish. One we NEEDED. 

We set back up and it didn't take long as we came back upon our waypoint. Doubled again. That same White Spinny/A-TOM-MIK Little Boy Blue, and the rigger with the DW SS Green Eye Ghost. Target on the fly and a nice Rainbow on the spoon. This rainbow would take some great jumps behind the boat and multiple short runs, but it found its way to the cooler. We would finally get the King to the net, and it was time to head in. Five bites in the last hour allowed us to get our box of fish to weigh in for the LSR Challenge. We had 5 nice Rainbows and 1 low teen King. 

About 3pm I get a call from Casey, and I hear we were DQ'd because we had a block of ice in the cooler. He said we would have had a top five box. I also got a call from my brother who fished with the Sea devil boat in Oswego and they were DQ'd because they had an extra fish in their box. They had the winning box, and all those massive Kings were laid over a little Brown trout. Oh well, I think Casey and Mike had a lot of fun on the "West Side!" I never counted the amount of bites we took today, but we had non-stop action all day. We just laked the size, which we found at the end of the day. A huge thanks to Maniac for that phone call.

Sodus Pro/Am 2010

Saturday 7/17 (Day 1) - Our plan was to Brown Trout fish the two points West of Sodus because that is where Billy V SMOKED them on Friday. I told our team if we can get 10 BT then we need to pull off them and go get two big guys. Well, as fast as we could get rods down BT were smoking our offerings. Well getting to 10 BT took us about an hour and a half, and that was with a lot of stockers that had to be put back and a few short fish. Not to mention the few we lost die to the soft mouths that these Trout have.

Our program was very simple and consisted of 3 downrigger, 2 wires, and a chute core. On the downriggers we ran cheaters on each rod. On the downriggers we ran a pair of Stinger Penguins, a pair of Blond Chicken Wings (which got changed out to Stinger NBK’s), and a pair of Dreamweaver SS Midnight Specials. On our wires I set up a pair of Walker Deeper Divers in the clear color with a 20lb McCoy fluorocarbon leader. I wanted a stealthy approach for this presentation. We set them out on a 3 setting, and we put a prototype Stinger Stingray Sea Sick Waddler on them. I would say that the wire divers accounted for half of our fish, and even accounted for the larger fish of the day.

As I mentioned above the 10th fish hit the deck about 8a.m. and it was decision time. The fish seemed to be getting larger, and our Easterly troll was taking our larger fish. SO 3 out of 5 guys said let’s stay on these fish, and that’s what we did. It didn’t take long and our limit was completed by 8:30a.m and we were headed back to the dock for some breakfast.

At noon we were able to put our fish on the scales, and by the end of the day not getting a few kicker fish hurt us, and we were sitting in 15th place. From 15th place to 2nd place was about 10-15 pounds. Well within reach of a good box on day two.

Sunday 7/18 (Day 2) – Our plan was to duplicate Saturday’s game plan. Same program and same lure selection. Well, when we set down and started to get lines down we noticed the warm water piled in. We ran our waypoints for an hour and we knew we needed to make a move. We picked up and headed west.  

We set down a few miles West of where we were and Billy V said he had some fish going. He had cooler temps, and a better screen. Right away we started to hook up. Boat control was critical today as we battled 4-6’ waves, and at time even larger. We started to pick away at the fish, and thought it would not be a problem to box on this day, but the warm water kept piling in and we had to keep trekking West, which was a chore because that meant going into the waves the whole way. Again our stealthy diver set-up was our top producer.

By the end of the day we would box 9 fish consisting of 8 BT and 1 small King. We would throw back 4 or 5 stockers and 1 17.5” fish. We would also go on to lose 3 keeper fish mainly due to Mother Nature. Those three lost fish cost us a check, but that is fishing! I’m sure A LOT of people lost fish this weekend.

Anyone who knows our team can attest to the fact we DON”T BT fish EVER. So, this weekend was a fun weekend because we learned a few things about fishing for these fish. The only time we target BT is when we are banging the shoreline in April. So even though we came short of boxing on day 2 we gained a real confidence boost when it comes to targeting these fish. We would finish the tourney in 13th place, which is 3 places out of the money! It was our first time in 2 weeks and 4 tourneys that we didn’t place with a check.

On a side note our 17.04lb Steelhead we put on the Summer LOC derby leaderboard ended up in 2nd place. It now sits at Mountain Man Taxidermy where I will have it mounted.

Captain Jack's Shootout - 5th Place!!!!

We were supposed to have a camera crew on our boat this morning, and what a morning it would have been for some TV footage! We talked with Billy V on our practice strategy, and it was going to happen like this. We were going to run about 5-8 miles West and set up and troll West, and Billy was going to start fishing right out front. I knew from my brother that East was a total dessert when he fished there Thursday. Well, 5:30a.m. came and there was no phone call or no camera crew, so I did what I do best at 5:30a.m. on a tourney day….I left the dock! Phone call came around 6a.m. from the producer saying they found my dock, but I wasn’t there. Too bad, because we had a heck of a day!

We ran west until we came about a mile from Pultnyville. We set up in 50-60fow with a Brown Trout program, and it didn’t take long! We ran a 3 downrigger, 2 wire, 2 core set-up with mostly Stingers and DW SS’s. Our BT spoons of the day were a Stinger Blond Chicken Wing, and my favorite BT spoon, the Stinger Penguin. We did a few BT, but not anywhere close to a limit down west. Reports from Billy V were that his BT bite was on FIRE! We kept pushing west and we started to put a little more water under us. My brother put a 300 copper out of the back of the boat with a DW Mag Gator once we cleared the 80’ mark. Once we hit the 95’ mark that rod exploded with a screaming reel. After a few great runs a 20lb King Salmon hit the deck. OK, so we have Kings around do we? Well, the screen lit up at 100’ with bait and fish, so down went the King program. DW Spin Doctors, Legendary SmartFish and A-TOM-MIK flies on every rod but one. It didn’t take long after that and the new DW Spin doctor called the Albino Gator trailed by an A-TOM-MIK Sweat Pea was ripping line off our Daiwa Saltist/Heartland wire combo. I grabbed the rod, but I just held on for the ride until he spit the hook and continued on his way down to the Salmon River for his September ritual. Mean while the 10 color off the board takes a shot, and a 10lb King hits the deck of our boat.

We worked this area off the Ginna Nuclear Plant for the rest of the day and even called in Billy V for some action. We would pick through a lot of Lake Trout up to 16lbs that were mixed in with the Kings. They were taking our DW Spin Doctors, Legendary SmartFish and A-TOM-MIK flies very regularly. At one point we had a rigger pop and I was on the rod. It was a Green SmartFish/A-TOM-MIK Hypnotist fly on the main line and a DW SS Shiznit on the slider. WE get the main line to the net and notice a fish was also on the slider. The paddle/fly had a 15” Lake Trout attached to it, and the slider took a 14lb Atlantic Salmon. This Atlantic would be one of the three fish we would weigh in at the Captain Jack’s shootout. The other two fish were the 20lb Salmon and a 16lb Lake Trout, and that would be good enough for a 5th place check!

We knew we had a solid plan for the weekend tourney after discussing what we had and what Billy V had. That’s the nice thing about having a GOOD friend to help cover some water in practice. We only get to practice one day before each tourney due to our work schedules. Lake O is too big to cover in one day!

Oswego Pro/Am 2010

Saturday 7/10 (Day 1) - We headed out to our waypoints from Friday, and right away we had a mess in the back of the boat. We got pushed in shallow by another tourney boat, which was my fault. I should have positioned us better while we were waiting for the official start time. We caught our 500 on the bottom and lost our custom Green SmartFish and then we dragged a wire and a rigger on the bottom. As we were letting the otter boats out the tether line got stuck in the tow line and the otter dove under our boat. A few choice words, and some high blood pressure and we got set back up and we were fishing.

Our program for the morning consisted of 3 riggers parked at 80, 100, 120. The two deep riggers had paddles on them and the high rigger in the center was run with spoons cheated. We ran two Deeper Divers set on a 1.5 setting out 275'-350' throughout the day. Lastly, a 10 color, a 500 copper, and a 600 copper. Coppers were towing paddle fly combos, and the 10 color had a spoon run on it. We sat for an hour without a bite, and then all of a sudden we went BANG BANG. We boated to Salmon. One took a Wonderbread SmartFish with an A-TOM-MIK Hammer on the 120 rigger, and the other came on a Green dot Spin Doctor with an A-TOM-MIK B-Fly on the 100 rigger. That would be the end of our Salmon bite.

Later in the morning we would find a few suspended Brown Trout over 170fow down 80'. One took an NK THAT spoon, and the other took a White Green dot SmartFish with an A-TOM-MIK Hammer fly. About 12pm we made the decision to slide into Ford Shoals and see if we could pick up a few Brown Trout. It didn't take long and we had rods poppin'. One Brownie took a Stinger Glow Froggy on the 10 color. Another would take a Purple Frog Fishlander on the 300 copper. We would drop another keeper Brown Trout and toss back a stocker. That was the extent of our day 1 box. Four Brown Trout and two Kings.

Sunday 7/11 (Day 2) - We made the decision as a team to try the King bite for two hours and then go chase the Browns. We began with the same program we had Friday and Saturday morning, and it didn't take long. We would pick away at the fish till about 11am. The bite was pretty nice, and we had action all morning. Mostly a paddle bite for us, but an NK THAT spoon kept us busy with the 17-18" Salmon on our 80' rigger. Our first two bites of the morning were both wires bites, and both on our new prototype Albino Gator Spin Docs. One with an A-TOM-MIK Sweat Pea and the other with an A-TOM-MIK Sea Sick Waddler fly.

At 11am we were sitting on 1 Laker and 9 Kings. Our fish were coming all over our spread. Green paddles had to have chrome on one side and glow on the other with either Green Crinkle A-TOM-MIKs or A-TOM-MIK Hypnotist. Our Mountain Dew E-Chip with an A-TOM-MIK TG went once, our new Albino Gator took two fish with an A-TOM-MIK Sweat Pea fly, and our Green dot Smartfish with an A-TOM-MIK Hypnotist went a few times. All the rods fired today at least once, but no one rod was HOT.

By 1:00pm we would have 9 Kings and 1 Laker in the box with 4 lost fish and 6 throw backs. My brother looks at me and says "can I check that rigger? it looks like its throbbing." I told him no, and kept an eye on the rod. A few minutes later I told him to check that rod, and sure enough there was number 11. A 20" King. At 1:40 we started picking the rest of the lines, and sure enough there was another fish on that NK THAT spoon. As we boated it we said it may go 18", but when the ruler hit the fish it was 1/4 of an inch short. 

We ended the day with 4 nice Kings, 1 small Laker, and 6 decent to small Kings. We were pretty excited because we knew some teams were struggling on the Brown Trout bite, and that no teams except for Billy V, Candy, and High Voltage were in the area producing all these Kings. When we hit the scales with our 11 fish we shot right into the top ten and never left it. We finished the tournament in 9th place to end a very exciting and eventful weekend.

7/9 - Fat Nancy's Shootout FIRST PLACE!!!!!!!!!

We broke the pier heads at 6am after sleeping in our cars with the AC on all night. The humidity was terrible, so sleeping on the boat was a no go (even with two fans). We headed West and set down in 90fow  and worked NW.

Our program for the morning consisted of 3 riggers parked at 80, 100, 120. The two deep riggers had paddles on them and the high rigger in the center was run with spoons cheated. We ran two Deeper Divers set on a 1.5 setting out 275'-350' throughout the day. Lastly, a 400 copper, a 500 copper, and a 600 copper. All the coppers were towing flasher/fly combos.

We got set-up and didn't move a rod for about 30 minutes. All of a sudden our new prototype custom Albino Gator Spin Doctor with an A-TOM-MIK Sweat Pea fly starts SCREAMING! I'm on the rod and he isn't stopping. AS we are trying to tame this beast I look right and here is a charter captains pinching in on us. I look left and there is Tom Burke from the Cold Steel. We are feeling the pinch. We call over to Burke and he makes a quick turn and allows us the room we needed. We had to raise our riggers so that we wouldn't take his coppers. Oh, by the way the other guy yelled at us for not knowing how to drive! Anyway, we boat that fish a while later and its a healthy 25lb BRUTE. It's on! We need 3 more decent ones now.

We trolled on to the NW and picked away at fish. Mostly small ones, but a few keeper Salmon would hit our deck. Our next big guy would come late morning on a 500 copper pulling our custom Green SmartFish with an A-TOM-MIK Hypnotist fly. He tipped the scale at 19 pounds. We knew we needed one more good one, so we kept trucking on to the West. We were on the phone with a few buddies (Billy V and the Candy Team) and knew that there was a pick all the way through to West 9 mile point. We have always done fish off West 9 mile point in previous years fishing this tournament.

It was early afternoon with about an hour and a half to fish and our new prototype custom Albino Gator Spin Doctor with an A-TOM-MIK Sweat Pea fly starts SCREAMING again. We get on the rod and within minutes our second 19lb Salmon hits the deck. We didn't think we had enough weight, but we knew it would be close. We continued to pick away at some smaller fish, but we would have never taken a tournament box of fish by days end. Our last fish of the day took the 400 copper (first bite that rod took all day) with a Chrome E-Chip/A-TOM-MIK Frozen Frog Fly. About 1:30pm we said enough was enough and headed for the scales to see where the cards were going to lay.

At the sales a few nice fish were weighed in, but only one other team was able to string three of them together. They missed out on 1st place my a measly 1 pound. We won with 63 pounds and change to take the 2010 Fat Nancy's Shoot Out.

7/6 - Charter

Steve and his son Tim joined us for a day out on Lake Ontario. They are AVID fisherman from NJ, and Tim wanted to experience trolling Lake Ontario for Salmon and Trout. I can assure you that he will never forget it! You can tell when someone really appreciates the experience because they can't keep the cooler lid CLOSED! LOL

Right away I knew that if we wanted some Kings there was a pile of them down on the flats. We started off right in front of the Oak and did the same troll down to the flats as yesterday. However, today the water chilled down and the temp came up. at one point we had 50 degrees down 50. The screen was blank, and we sat for the first hour and a half with not even a sniff. We finally made the decision to head deeper and that's when we found a little "honey hole" at the 24N/6W line. A great mix of Kings, Cohos, Atlantic's, and Rainbows. There was a break between 60 and 70 that was 15 degrees and the fish were all over it. If it weren't for the rods poppin' you would have never known there were fish there. The screen on our Hummingbird was BLANK the whole time we were out there on that 175-250.

Our program today started out with 4 wires, 3 riggers, and a copper. Once we went deeper we pulled 2 wires and sent out another copper. Our riggers were set between 50 and 80. Northern King Copper NBK was a good one today, but late in the day a Dreamweaver Raspberry Dolphin had a good run. Stinger Later Gators, Northern King Lazer Spooks, and Dreamweaver Midnight Specials all took a few fish. Our Deeper Divers were set out to 180' and 210' on a #2 setting. One had a Dreamweaver Gator Spin Doctor/A-TOM-MIK Green Crinkle the other had a Dreamweaver 42nd Spin Doctor/A-TOM-MIK 42nd fly. Our hot rigs today were the pair of 300 coppers that we fished off our Otter Boats. One had a Green SmartFish trailed by an A-TOM-MIK Pro/Am Glow fly, and the other had a Chrome E-Chip trailed by an A-TOM-MIK Frozen Frog (a Captains Cove exclusive).

We found all year classes of Kings. The biggest King tipped the scale at 20lbs. We did a few really nice Steelhead with the biggest being about 11lbs. We did a few more Atlantic Salmon today, and one tipped the scale at 9lbs. Just a fun day for a father and son out on Lake Ontario. Check out some pictures.

7/5 - More Derby Fishing

We left the dock at 6am with some friends looking for either a derby winner King, or another Steelhead since ours was knocked off the pedestal. My buddy Anthony joined me today with his buddy Matt, and his girlfriend. I knew that we wanted to head right down to the "flats" and see if we could get the Kings going like we did yesterday.

We set-up in front of the Oak and trolled the 5 miles down to the flats. We ran a 4 diver, 3 rigger, 1 copper program. Our deeper divers were set on 1 for the low divers, and 2.5 for the high divers. All pulled paddle fly combos. Dreamweaver Gator Spind Docto/A-TOM-MIK Green Crinkle, Dreamweaver 42nd Spin Doctor/A-TOM-MIK 42nd fly, Wonder Dot SmartFish/A-TOM-MIK Hammer fly, and a Green SmartFish/A-TOM-MIK Ultra Green Glow fly were the combos we choose and all took fish throughout the day. On one side we ran the divers at 175' and 250' back, and on the other it was 200' and 275'. We ran a mix of spoons on the riggers early then stuffed paddle/fly combos down deep later in the morning. Dreamweaver Midnight Specials, Stinger Later Gators, and Northern King Copper NBK's all had their moments. The copper (400') never took a shot all morning, I put a Green Dot SmartFish/A-TOM-MIK Hypnotist fly on it as it is a go to combo, but nothing wanted to play with it. 

We had a great mix of fish today. Our biggest King was about 23 pounds. He was a really short fish with HUGE shoulders and he took Matt for a ride on the wire making runs at Tuna speeds! We also did 2 Atlantic Salmon, which are always a treat. Thanks Canada! The bait, and fish, really moved in to the flats area today. Probably the best screen I have seen out at the Oak in a few weeks. Check out some pictures from today.