Wayne County Pro-Am Report
Our Pro-Am team for the Wayne County event consisted of Rich, Ed, Dad, Jay and I. No charters this weekend, just a bunch of friends fishing a tournament. On Friday we left the dock at Anchor at 5:30am and went out in front of Fair Haven to thoroughly fish that area. We had a nice fish on for a few minutes first thing on a Northern King Die Hard fished off of a rigger down 100' but dumped it. We had a ton of bait out in 130-150FOW but there were very few hooks around. We worked our regular waypoints for a couple more hours but didn't see much other than bait on the screen and we couldn't get anything else to go. We decided to pick up and head to our day 2 waypoints from last weekend's Oswego Pro-Am out deeper and a bit west of port. When we got there we found a few of the Pro-Am boats in the area as well as a few of the Fair Haven regulars. We got set up and found some nice hooks down 80' or so. We took a couple of nice steelies and a couple of small Kings before we decided to motor over to Sodus to get checked into our slip there for the weekend.
On Saturday we knew that some of the contenders for the cup were gonna head to Oswego to fish for browns. We hadn't seen much from Fair Haven to about Port Bay on Friday, but some friends of our had done fairly well just East of Sodus so we decided to give that a shot rather than run an hour for browns. We went out to about 170 FOW and got set up out in front of Chimney bluffs. We had all kinds of bait and hooks in anywhere from 140-180 FOW but we just couldn't get them to go. After we worked that area for a close to three hours I finally decided to move one of our Cannon downriggers up shallower than we had been fishing all morning. It wasn't up there more than 3 minutes when we took the steelhead that ended up being the biggest on the Pro side of the tournament:
That fish came on a NK Glow Frog spoon and weighed 10.21 lbs. We put that rig back in the water and moved another rig up higher. The rig that we had just moved up fires and we boated a King that came in at slightly over 23lbs at the weigh-in. Ed did a great job handling the big fish and we were all really pumped when it hit the deck of the boat! That fish came on a Green Double Crush Glow Spinny/Sigg's Green Hypnotist fly out 240' on a 2.5 setting. From there on out we hooked up another 7 or 8 times, all on rigs that we had moved up way out of temp anywhere from 50-80 ft. down. We lost a screamer on the wire dipsy, and broke a nice one off right at the back of the boat on our 400' copper that was pulling a Chrome Frog Spinny/Sigg's Super Lime Glow Pulse fly. Our riggers pulling clean spoons were by far the hottest set-up of the day for us and most of the fish that we boated came off of them pulling NK Glow Frogs. We ended the day in 16th place with 5 fish in the cooler and I felt like if I had just moved one or two riggers up out of temp sooner that we could've been in a lot better position. We knew we were going back to this same spot on Sunday and we felt like we had a good shot at making some noise in the standings if we could boat a few of the big boys that were out there.
On Sunday we went back to our waypoints from the day before only to find that the fish weren't there. We went into search mode and found some of them in just a bit closer but still on the same troll that we had been on the day before. As we made a turn in 125FOW our 600' copper pulling a Chrome spinny/Apple Glow Pulse fly fires and we landed our first Laker of the year. We got back on our troll and headed out to the deeper end of it and just before the rains came we landed a great King that came in at 24.91 lbs on the tournament scale after it bit our Chrome Frog Spinny/Sigg's Super Lime Glow Pulse fly that was out 225' on a 2.5. There were quite a few tense moments during the battle with the big King, and the whole crew was on edge while "Sharkman" Ed battled yet another big boy. It was pretty funny to hear just how quiet it got while Ed was hooked up. No one wanted to say anything at all that might jinx us!
After we landed the fish it rained. Hard. For quite a while. And the screen went totally blank. We stuck to our spot and as soon as the storm passed the screen lit back up again. We took shots on both our 500 and our 600' coppers but didn't land either of them. We took three small Kings on our wire divers out 180 on a .5 and 225 out on a 2.5, but lost another big boy on those settings too. With just a few minutes to go before we had to pull lines and head in our 70' rigger pulling a Die Hard fired hard and after a brief battle we dumped yet another big fish. Ugh! We definitely could have used one or two of those majors. But that's fishin'. We made it to the weigh-in with another 5 fish box, moved up a few spots and ended the tournament in 13th place out of 37 boats, just a few points out of the money:
Here's a pic of our team and our box on Day 2.
Even though we didn't cash a check, we still had a great time and taking the biggest steelie on the Pro side helped ease the pain of just missing the top 10.
We owe a big THANK YOU to Matt Siggeman of Sigg's Rigs for putting the very latest fly patterns in our hands. His Pulse and Trophy flys were a big part of our program this weekend and we really love them. We truly appreciate all the help you've given us over the years Matt! We also owe John Ruffino of Daiwa a thank you for the hats & visors, but more importantly for the awesome rods & reels that we run on the boat. John Distaffen at Northern King has been a good friend of ours from the very beginning and his spoons are the cornerstone of our set-up and they took the majority of our catch on Day 1. Thank you John for all you've done for us. Keep the awesome spoon patterns coming! Shane Ruboyaines from Dreamweaver is another friend that we need to mention and thank for his awesome Spin Dr's and amazing DW and SS spoons. You make great stuff Shane and we're proud to be affiliated with you. To Kim Austin and all of our friends at Cannon & Humminbird, thank you for making the fastest downrigger on the market. Without those, we couldn't pull rods & set-up nearly as quickly as we can. For us, Cannon is the only choice in downriggers. We're also very happy with our new Humminbird GPS. The unit has worked flawlessly and we get compliments about it all the time. We'd literally be lost on the water without it. I don't mention them here often enough because all they do is perform flawlessly every time we go out, but our Traxstech rod holders are the best holders and track systems out there. Jeff and Melody, thank you for making a product that we never, ever have to worry about! We also owe thanks to Melissa at Berkley, Ed at Shark Cannonballs and Curt at Depth Raider for making what we believe are the very best fishing line, downrigger weights, and speed and temperature probes on the market. We run all of the products I've mentioned above for one reason and one reason only: Because they work.
I guess that's it for now. We'll be back at it with a busy charter schedule for the remainder of the season. There are still a few dates left open, so don't hesitate to call or email for our availability.
Until Next Time,
Fish On!!
~Capt. Bill
On Saturday we knew that some of the contenders for the cup were gonna head to Oswego to fish for browns. We hadn't seen much from Fair Haven to about Port Bay on Friday, but some friends of our had done fairly well just East of Sodus so we decided to give that a shot rather than run an hour for browns. We went out to about 170 FOW and got set up out in front of Chimney bluffs. We had all kinds of bait and hooks in anywhere from 140-180 FOW but we just couldn't get them to go. After we worked that area for a close to three hours I finally decided to move one of our Cannon downriggers up shallower than we had been fishing all morning. It wasn't up there more than 3 minutes when we took the steelhead that ended up being the biggest on the Pro side of the tournament:
That fish came on a NK Glow Frog spoon and weighed 10.21 lbs. We put that rig back in the water and moved another rig up higher. The rig that we had just moved up fires and we boated a King that came in at slightly over 23lbs at the weigh-in. Ed did a great job handling the big fish and we were all really pumped when it hit the deck of the boat! That fish came on a Green Double Crush Glow Spinny/Sigg's Green Hypnotist fly out 240' on a 2.5 setting. From there on out we hooked up another 7 or 8 times, all on rigs that we had moved up way out of temp anywhere from 50-80 ft. down. We lost a screamer on the wire dipsy, and broke a nice one off right at the back of the boat on our 400' copper that was pulling a Chrome Frog Spinny/Sigg's Super Lime Glow Pulse fly. Our riggers pulling clean spoons were by far the hottest set-up of the day for us and most of the fish that we boated came off of them pulling NK Glow Frogs. We ended the day in 16th place with 5 fish in the cooler and I felt like if I had just moved one or two riggers up out of temp sooner that we could've been in a lot better position. We knew we were going back to this same spot on Sunday and we felt like we had a good shot at making some noise in the standings if we could boat a few of the big boys that were out there.
On Sunday we went back to our waypoints from the day before only to find that the fish weren't there. We went into search mode and found some of them in just a bit closer but still on the same troll that we had been on the day before. As we made a turn in 125FOW our 600' copper pulling a Chrome spinny/Apple Glow Pulse fly fires and we landed our first Laker of the year. We got back on our troll and headed out to the deeper end of it and just before the rains came we landed a great King that came in at 24.91 lbs on the tournament scale after it bit our Chrome Frog Spinny/Sigg's Super Lime Glow Pulse fly that was out 225' on a 2.5. There were quite a few tense moments during the battle with the big King, and the whole crew was on edge while "Sharkman" Ed battled yet another big boy. It was pretty funny to hear just how quiet it got while Ed was hooked up. No one wanted to say anything at all that might jinx us!
After we landed the fish it rained. Hard. For quite a while. And the screen went totally blank. We stuck to our spot and as soon as the storm passed the screen lit back up again. We took shots on both our 500 and our 600' coppers but didn't land either of them. We took three small Kings on our wire divers out 180 on a .5 and 225 out on a 2.5, but lost another big boy on those settings too. With just a few minutes to go before we had to pull lines and head in our 70' rigger pulling a Die Hard fired hard and after a brief battle we dumped yet another big fish. Ugh! We definitely could have used one or two of those majors. But that's fishin'. We made it to the weigh-in with another 5 fish box, moved up a few spots and ended the tournament in 13th place out of 37 boats, just a few points out of the money:
Here's a pic of our team and our box on Day 2.
Even though we didn't cash a check, we still had a great time and taking the biggest steelie on the Pro side helped ease the pain of just missing the top 10.
We owe a big THANK YOU to Matt Siggeman of Sigg's Rigs for putting the very latest fly patterns in our hands. His Pulse and Trophy flys were a big part of our program this weekend and we really love them. We truly appreciate all the help you've given us over the years Matt! We also owe John Ruffino of Daiwa a thank you for the hats & visors, but more importantly for the awesome rods & reels that we run on the boat. John Distaffen at Northern King has been a good friend of ours from the very beginning and his spoons are the cornerstone of our set-up and they took the majority of our catch on Day 1. Thank you John for all you've done for us. Keep the awesome spoon patterns coming! Shane Ruboyaines from Dreamweaver is another friend that we need to mention and thank for his awesome Spin Dr's and amazing DW and SS spoons. You make great stuff Shane and we're proud to be affiliated with you. To Kim Austin and all of our friends at Cannon & Humminbird, thank you for making the fastest downrigger on the market. Without those, we couldn't pull rods & set-up nearly as quickly as we can. For us, Cannon is the only choice in downriggers. We're also very happy with our new Humminbird GPS. The unit has worked flawlessly and we get compliments about it all the time. We'd literally be lost on the water without it. I don't mention them here often enough because all they do is perform flawlessly every time we go out, but our Traxstech rod holders are the best holders and track systems out there. Jeff and Melody, thank you for making a product that we never, ever have to worry about! We also owe thanks to Melissa at Berkley, Ed at Shark Cannonballs and Curt at Depth Raider for making what we believe are the very best fishing line, downrigger weights, and speed and temperature probes on the market. We run all of the products I've mentioned above for one reason and one reason only: Because they work.
I guess that's it for now. We'll be back at it with a busy charter schedule for the remainder of the season. There are still a few dates left open, so don't hesitate to call or email for our availability.
Until Next Time,
Fish On!!
~Capt. Bill
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