Captain Bill's Blog

Cannon Depth Cycle Feature

2012-02-03T00:05:00Z

We've been using Cannon downriggers ever since we started trolling and have gotten to know the folks there quite well over the years. In this short video one of my good friends, Dave Maryanov (Sr. Brand Manager for Cannon) describes the depth cycle feature that is available on the new Digitroll series of riggers. Just another one of the many reasons why we use Cannon downriggers exclusively!

~Capt. Bill

New from Dreamweaver for 2012

2012-02-01T23:19:00Z

Well, here it is - the new stuff from Dreamweaver! You know that we love it, and we'll have lots of it on the Billy V again this year!

You can check out all of the latest from Dreamweaver at: http://www.dreamweaverlures.com/

Until Next Time,
Fish On!

~Capt. Bill

It's been a while!

2011-12-05T16:28:56Z

I'm sure that most of you know by now that I went to work for Elite Archery as VP of Sales over the summer. I'm loving my new job and have jumped in with both feet but my fishing and this blog have had to take a back seat while I got my feet wet with Elite. I'm settling in nicely now and have recently begun thinking about our fishing plans for next year. Lately we've been kicking around ideas about where we'll keep the boat, what our tournament schedule will look like, and how much time we can commit to a charter schedule. It's funny how life can get in the way of what we've always loved to do, but rest assured that we'll be chasing trout and salmon somewhere next year. Once we've made a final decision about our plans I'll be sure to post it here and to share it with our email list of clients.

Until we announce our plans for 2012, I thought you might enjoy this video that my buddy Jeremy Sage shot of us running to the fishing grounds during one of the Pro-Am's last year. Jeremy was fishing on our good friend Rick Hajecki's boat, the Yankee Troller. We had been letting Rick and his 10 meter Trojan serve as a wave break for us for a while but decided that we needed to pick up the pace a little bit so I gave her the throttles and smashed our way around them:

That's about it for now. Time to get back to selling bows! I'll try to be more diligent about posting here over the winter and will be sure to post any updates that we get from Cannon, Humminbird, Minn Kota, Daiwa, Dreamweaver, Siggs Rigs, Northern King, etc. here as well.

Until Next Time,

Fish On!

~Capt. Bill

NEW from Elite Archery

2011-09-29T02:03:33Z

As many of you know, I've recently gone to work for Elite Archery as their VP of Sales. Today we introduced our new logo and our new bow for 2012 - the Answer! Here's the official press release:

Henrietta, New York; Elite Archery is adding the Elite Answer to its 2012 line up this fall. The Answer debuts with a redesigned two track cam as well as two module options, a smooth mod and a speed mod for those customers looking for different options.

“Our customers and dealers told us what they wanted for 2012 and we listened, “ commented Elite Archery President, Peter Crawford. “Time and time again, we heard current and potential Elite shooters asking for a 33.5-inch axle-to-axle bow with a 7-inch brace height and today we are giving them the Answer to their request.”

Along with the new dimensions, the Answer has two different mod options available. “Our customers also wanted different draw cycle options on one bow platform. While all of our bows are designed to have a smooth draw and will ship standard with the smooth draw mod, Elite dealers can purchase the speed mod set for their customers requesting a little more speed,” said Elite’s Vice-President, Garret Armstrong.

The Answer is available from 27” to 30” draw lengths and from 40 to 80 lbs. The new bow is also available in all of Elite’s current colors; Realtree AP®, Max-1® and AP Snow® as well as the Ninja Black, the AT Editions and the target colors; Elite Blue, Cosmic Orange and Slime Green. When set up with the Smooth Modules; the Answer has an IBO speed of 330 fps and the Speed Modules provide up to an extra 10 fps. Dealers can order the bow in both right and left hand models.

The Answer is not all that’s new for the 2012 line up. Elite is also making changes to the existing Hunter, Pure, Pulse and Tour models and re releasing them to the public. All 2012 model bows will have an adjustable cable rod as well as Elite’s patent pending Rod Lock System

“The Rod Lock is a patent pending cable guard and string suppressor fastening system new for 2012,” explains Elite Design Engineer, Mike Derus. “Instead of a setscrew tightening directly into the rod, the Rod Lock wedges the rod inside the riser with minimal to no marring to the rod. It will allow you to tune your cable guard and string suppressor rod accurately and easily.”

For more information on the Answer as well as other Elite Archery products, please visit www.elitearchery.com or call 877-503-5483. Media questions can be directed to Maggie Armstrong at maggie@elitearchery.com

Orleans County Pro-Am Report

2011-06-29T15:41:38Z

We'd had a great couple of weeks fishing down in Wilson, but we were really looking forward to fishing in Orleans County this weekend. We've never done well at this tournament in the past and we were committed to doing what it took to get it done this year, including making a 40 mile run back to Wilson to get in on the King fishing that was still good there. We spent Thursday night on the boat in Wilson and had planned to fish there on Friday, but after checking the forecast on Friday morning we decided it didn't look favorable for a 40 mile run over the weekend, so we decided to run east and fish closer to the Oak to try and figure something out closer to that port. We found lots of smaller fish willing to take our baits out in 140-200FOW west of the Oak, but we really didn't feel like that class of fish was going to be big enough to put us in contention over the weekend. To be honest, we didn't have much of a plan B figured out if we couldn't run west but fortunately for us the forecast had changed and it was looking like we could make the run back to the west on Saturday morning. It was either run west on Saturday morning if the weather allowed, or head out of port on Saturday morning and try to figure something out on the fly. Not the best feeling to have the day before a tournament...

Mother Nature cut us some slack on Saturday and we were able to make the run West like we had hoped, although the run was a bit bumpier than the 1' or less that NOAA had forecast. We made it down to 6 mile in about and hour and 15 minutes and set up the same program that we had run the previous weekend at the Niagara Pro-Am - 400, 500, and 600 Blood Run coppers (awesome stuff BTW!), divers out 240-350, and riggers 85-120' deep. We gave up about an hour of fishing time in the morning and we were worried about the weather all day long, but after our first hour of fishing we had 5 good Kings in the boat and it looked to me like we were going to have our 12 in another 90 minutes or so. Unfortunately we then encountered a bad case of the drops and we dumped 4 or 5 more good fish and had to throw back 3 or 4 smaller ones. Then the bite stopped and we had to grind. We only put two more Kings in the boat before 10am and we were all starting to sweat the clock. We knew we needed to be on the road back no later than noon and our bite had dried up. I was convinced that all the boats back at the Oak were hoovering up their 12 fish like they did the day before, and when we saw Cold Steel pull up at 10:30 and run back east I was even more convinced that we were way behind on our numbers. We had a quick team meeting and decided that we needed to get out of there and run back to the Oak to pick up a few "easy" smaller fish like we'd found the day before. We put the hammer down and ran into 2-3 footers out of the East at about 30mph - not a fun ride at all, but the Penn Yan handled it beautifully. We got back to our waypoints from Friday at 12:30 or so and set up our program from the day before to get some of those "easy" fish. Man was I wrong. There were no "easy" fish for us. We pulled two bites in the last 90 minutes of our day, one we dropped and the other was a 16" throw back. We went back to the dock with knots in the pits of our stomachs because we just knew we'd blown it. You gotta love not knowing what everyone else has. Turns out most everyone struggled on Saturday and our 7 fish box put us in 11th place, which was a pretty big surprise for us.

The forecast looked good for another run west on Sunday and we were committed to heading back to do something about our case of the drops from the day before. When we got out to the lake we found perfectly flat water and we let the Penny hum along at 34mph. We made the long run in just over an hour and set up in 140 FOW a mile or so west of where we were the day before. There was a slug of colder surface water from Wilson to 6 mile and we didn't like what we saw at our waypoints from Saturday so I kept pushing west till we found 61 degree surface temps. We ran the same deep program as we had the day before, but we got off to a much slower start. Our first bite didn't come for almost an hour - talk about stress on an already shortened fishing day due to the long run. Once we had that fish in the boat I looped back around in a big circle and we took 2 or 3 more Kings on that troll. As soon as we got back to where we took the morning's first fish we hooked up again and landed another good King. So around the loop we went again, although this time I made a smaller circle in an attempt to get back on that spot sooner. On our third pass over that spot we doubled up and landed both Kings - one on the 88' rigger pulling a pro-chip/Sigg's gangster, and the other on the 400 Blood Run copper pulling a green dot spinny/Sigg's green hypnotist - those two rigs would take over half of our fish on Sunday. As soon as we landed those two Kings back around the loop we went again. We did this for 5 passes, and each time we hit that exact spot we hooked up. It was pretty cool to see on the GPS - we took 6 fish from a spot the size of a postage stamp and each time we looped back around I made the return trip tighter so we could get back to that spot faster. We had our 11th fish in the boat at 11am and then it died for us. We watched three competing boats pull up and leave early (we thought they had all boxed and were going home - again you gotta love no comm!) and we were sweating the clock and the bite again. We never did pull that 12th fish and at noon we pulled gear and pounded our way home into the 3 footers that had come up in the last couple of hours. We had a few minutes left on the clock when we got back to the Oak so we threw a Hail Mary in 40FOW right in front of port hoping to pull something from there, but to no avail. When we got back to the dock it was quickly apparent that most boats had another tough day and we had hopes of moving into the top 10. When it was all said and done we ended up with the comeback of the day and wrapped up the tournament in 4th place. We took a beating and burned a lot of fuel running 80 miles each day but in the end it was worth it for us.

I gotta say that we had a lot more fun as a team under the no communication agreement and it made for some real suspense for us. Not knowing who has what really impacted our decisions over the past two weekends and at times left us feeling like failures because we mistakenly assumed that others were way ahead of us because they pulled up and left our area early. Two very enthusiastic thumbs up to Pete Alex and Vince Pierleoni for spearheading the effort for no communication - we love it and will be signing the agreement for the rest of the year.

It's been a fun two weekends on the west end of Lake Ontario for us and we're looking forward to the last two Pro-ams of the year on the east end. We'll be taking a few weekends off to rest and spend some much needed time with family before we get back after it in July.

That's about it for now - stay tuned for Pro-Am reports in July!

Until Next Time,
Fish On!!

~Capt. Bill

Niagara County Pro-Am Report

2011-06-29T15:31:55Z

Sorry I've been so negligent in posting reports here lately - I've had some pretty major life changes going on (all good stuff) and it's been all I can do to make it to the boat on weekends to fish let alone post reports afterwards. Here's a quick report from the Niagara County Pro-Am for our team. It's been a crazy couple of weeks so some of the details are kinda fuzzy...

We pre-fished right out in front of Wilson and had a great day taking lots of Kings and a few cohos in 125-150. We primarily fished the top 70 FOW with spoons and found both big and small fish in those depths. Best spoons for us were the NK glow frog, DW midnight special, and NK Die Hard fished off of riggers. A green dot spinny/Siggs Gangster fly was our best paddle set-up, but it really was pretty much a spoon bite for us on Friday. We felt like we had a pretty decent program put together for the weekend and we were hopeful that we could put together a decent box each day.

On Saturday morning we went back to our waypoints from Friday and found that our 60 degree surface temp had plummeted to 56 degrees. We checked the sonar for about 10 minutes and didn't like what we saw, so we saddled up and made a 15 minute run West towards the red can and sat the boat down at 6:00am and set up in 150 FOW and pointed it NW. We had a lot better water temps there and we found tons of receptive fish. Like most of the rest of the field we had a stellar day and were completely wrapped up with our 12 fish by 10:30 am or so. The same spoons and flasher/fly combos we'd used the day before worked great, but we didn't have the size of fish that we had the day before. It was primarily a spoon bite for us on Saturday but late in the day we figured out a program for pulling a couple of bigger fish that would end up saving us on day 2. We saw all the boats around us fighting fish all day long, so we knew that there were going to be a lot of limit catches and we figured that we'd be mid-pack with our box. Turns out we were in something like 22nd place after day 1, but we were part of that tight group of boats bunched up with 220-240 points or so and we figured with a better box on Sunday we might be able to cash a check.

On Sunday we headed back to the same water off the red can and set up out a bit deeper in 240-300 FOW where we found our biggest fish on day 1. The program that we put together on Sunday was entirely different than the way we had fished on Saturday. On Saturday we'd been fishing the top 70' with mostly spoons and took a lot of smaller fish, but late in our morning on Saturday we threw out a 400 copper pulling a flasher/fly combo and that pulled our two biggest fish of the day for us. Hmmm...could it be that we fished over the top of the bigger fish?? We thought so, so we loaded up our east end deep king program on Sunday and had at it. We set up with 400, 500, and 600 Blood Run coppers, all pulling flasher/fly combos, divers out 270-340' loaded with flasher/flies, and riggers with spoons down 80-120'. Turns out our hunch on fishing deeper with flasher/flies was right on as we found bigger kings and came in on Sunday with the 3rd biggest box of the day at 263 points. Our best combos were a green Spinny/Sigg's Greeen Hypnotist, and a green dot Spinny/Sigg's Gangster fly fished off the 400 and 500 Blood Run coppers. We also took some nice Kings on the deep riggers pulling a variety of our favorite spoons - Glow Frogs, Die Hards, NBK's, and Midnight Specials.

At the end of the day on Sunday we ended up coming back from 22nd to finish 7th, which we all felt really good about. We loved fishing under the no communication agreement, had a blast fishing together, and were looking forward to fishing at the Oak the next weekend. Kudos to Yvan and his Get it Wet team for a great two days and the win, and also to the Pro-Am committee for their hard work in putting together another great show.

That's about it for now - stay tuned for more of our fishing adventures!

Until Next Time,
Fish On!!

~Capt. Bill

Fishing Report - Wilson, NY May 7th, 2011

2011-05-09T13:42:00Z

Today we were joined by Larry, Lenny, Kevin and Kody for a full day out of Wilson. The Kings hadn't shown up in any numbers prior to today so we decided to give the inshore brown trout fishing a try first thing in the morning. We set up just west of port in 8 FOW and trolled for about an hour without so much as a touch. We quickly decided to give up on that and I pointed the boat north. Once we got into 40 FOW the screen just lit up with fish, much like we saw last weekend. We put down a mixed Laker/King/Coho program and hammered that water pretty hard and only had one Laker to show for our efforts. Oddly enough, that Laker took a stick bait flatlined off the surface - go figure. Since the 40-70 FOW range just wasn't producing for us either, I kept pushing the boat out into deeper water. Once we got to abut 140 FOW we began taking cohos and a few small kings pretty regularly. They loved our Firetiger and Silver/Black KABOOM stick baits! In anywhere from 140-180 FOW we had plenty of coho action to keep everyone busy:

When we got out to 140 FOW the surface temperature was 45 degrees, but as the wind backed down the temp began to rise, and it peaked at just under 48 degrees by the time we had to pack it in for the day. The fish seemed to want our offerings at a faster speed today - 2.8 mph on our IntelliTroll was the magic spot. We didn't have a single bite on a downrigger or a diver today. It was all stickbaits all the time for us.

While the fishing was good today, the bugs were awful. The boat was just covered with them and it took Jay and I quite a while back at the dock to clean them off. They were literally everywhere!

We never did find the Kings we were after today, but we did manage to come home with a cooler full of cohos and lots of great memories. "Coho" Kody did his usual great job of reeling in fish today and the guys saw that we just have to take what the lake gives us sometimes!

We'll be fishing most of the week with charters and pre-fishing for the Wilson Harbor Invitational next weekend, so the reports will be a little bit delayed. Once the tournament is over I'll be sure to post reports from each trip out this week.

Until Next Time,
Fish On!!

~Capt. Bill

Fishing Report - Wilson, NY May 1, 2011

2011-05-02T14:19:00Z

Today we were joined by Chris and his Dad Tom for a morning trip out of Wilson. Jay and I had fished the day before, so we were pretty confident that we had a program dialed in for today. But, as often happens, Mother Nature had her way with us and threw some East winds into the equation. The nice colored water that we had yesterday had been replaced with coffee colored water everywhere we looked. Ugh! There were no definitive temp or color breaks for miles either direction of port, so we headed back to yesterday's waypoints and set up. We had a slow pick of Lake Trout for the first few hours of the trip and the East winds kept the lake riled up enough that we really had to pay attention to our GPS and the waypoints we were working. But then the winds began to subside just a little and we were able to find a very faint color and temp break in about 65 FOW just West of port. Once we got on that troll we began lighting up the Lake Trout and this was my view for much of the rest of the day - the guys doubled up!

We had a very nice class size of fish - most of them were low-mid teens fish, but no LOC Derby sized keepers and we didn't boat a single salmon today although we did have one real good rip on a diver that we lost. Whereas spoons had been the hot ticket the day before, today was all about our divers. We took fish on a white Spin Dr/Siggs Rigs Glow Ghost fished 140' out on a 2.5 and our Green Spin Dr/Siggs Rigs Gangster setup was the hottest of the day when it was set out 120' on a 2.5. We also took multiple spoon shots on a NK Die Hard fished at 57', and a DW Superslim Midnight Special parked at 45'. Oddly enough, we didn't take a single bite on our flatlined stick baits.

Of course, just as the trip was wrapping up the wind changed direction and we could see the color changing yet again. That's part of what makes this lake so much fun to fish - you jut never know from day to day what you're going to get and then its up to you to figure out what the day's gameplan is!

The salmon fishing should be just around the corner so stay tuned for our reports from Wilson over the next month or so.

Until Next Time,

Fish On!!
~Capt. Bill

Fishing Report - Wilson, NY April 30, 2011

2011-05-02T12:34:00Z

Today the guys from Krenzer Marine towed the boat down to Wilson for us. We met them at the Wilson Boatyard at about 11:30am and then drove over to Tuscarora State Park, where we launched the boat. The boat trailered really well (the guys at Krenzers do a great job with that!), and all we had to do once she was in the water was put the nets and antennas up and start the engines. Jay and I were anxious to start fishing so we headed right out front and set up in about 50FOW. There was a ton of color in the water - chocolate brown on the shore, coffee colored water just outside that, and some brownish green outside that. We set up in the greenish water and within 5 minutes had our first two fish in the boat, both Lake Trout. Late April/early May in Wilson is often a lake trout fishery, and this whole weekend was no exception. Jay and I ran a simple 4 rod program - two riggers and two divers, but at times we swapped out one diver to run the new Daiwa Tanacom Bull 1000 copper reel, which we have filled with Blood Run Super Copper. What a great setup!

We took fish on riggers from 20-50' down pulling spoons - the NK Glow Frog and Die Hard were both hot for us. We also took fish on divers on a 2.5 setting out 120-150' pulling Spin Dr./fly combos. Our best combo was the new Siggs Rigs Gangster behind an 8" Green Spin Dr. Like I mentioned earlier, most of the fish that we took were Lakers, but we also managed a King, and Atlantic, and a Coho today as well. It sure felt great to see that first silver fish come to the boat!

We had a great time today and got to spend some time playing with our new Cannon DT10 riggers and that Daiwa reel I mentioned earlier - both of which are going to make fishing even more productive for us.

Be sure to stay tuned as we're going to be fishing a lot out of Wilson this May.

Until Next Time,

Fish On!!
~Capt. Bill

NEW from Sigg's Rigs in 2011

2011-03-17T01:01:00Z

'Tis the season for hot new colors here at Capt. Bill's Blog! Today we're happy to publicly unveil the new colors from our favorite trolling fly manufacturer, Sigg's Rigs. We had a hand in designing one of these patterns....can you guess which one? I'm sure you'll see it in our fishing reports over the coming months! Here's what's new in 2011 from Sigg's Rigs:

The 72 Monty

The Gangster:

The Joker:

Eclipse:

Black & Mirage Crinkle

Blue & Copper Crinkle

Look for some of these behind some of the hot new Spin Dr's we talked about here last week!

Until Next Time,
Fish On!!

~Capt. Bill

NEW from Dreamweaver for 2011

2011-03-09T22:05:00Z

You know we love our DW products, so we're really excited to share with you the new colors from them for 2011! You saw it here first!!

Look for some of these to find their way into the water behind the Billy V this year!

Until Next Time,
Fish On!!

~Capt. Bill

2011 LOTSA Expo

2011-03-03T22:52:00Z

This past weekend I was at the LOTSA Expo in Lockport representing Cannon, Humminbird, and Daiwa. My good friend Capt. Rick Hajecki joined me in the booth for the day, and boy were we ever busy! The new Cannon Mag 10 STX and Digi-Troll 10 downriggers got a lot of very positive feedback and an awful lot of people were impressed with the demo we had running on my Humminbird 1198c SI unit. As you know, we tested the new riggers for most of last season and we're definitely looking forward to running our production units this year! We've also been running Humminbird products on our boat for the past three years or so, and they just keep getting better. We're excited to have Side Imaging on the boat this year and we're looking forward to using it when we're in skinny water chasing browns.

On the other side of our booth we had most all of the trolling rods & reels that Daiwa offers: Tanacom Bull 1000 , Saltist , Sealine LCX, Sealine SG-LCA , and Accudepth Plus reels as well as the full lineup of Heartland rods. The Sealine LCX and Saltist reels were well received and are proving to be fantastic Great Lakes trolling reels, but the talk of the Daiwa lineup was undoubtedly the Tanacom Bull 1000. I had it spooled up with 600' of Blood Run Tackle's new 45lb. Super Copper and most people were surprised at how compact and light an electric reel like that was. We're definitely looking forward to running it this year!

The LOTSA Expo raised over $3,300 to help fund the pen rearing projects out of Olcott and Wilson. The pen rearing projects are great initiatives that have done nothing but help to improve the quality of our fishery lake-wide. Rick and I had a great time talking fishing equipment all day long and it was especially nice to see some of our fishing friends there. If you missed the event this year, you'll definitely want to put it on your calendar for next year - it's a great cure for cabin fever and will help get you pumped up for the coming season.

It's hard to believe but we'll be splashing the boat in about 30 days and banging the beach off of Sodus for a few weeks chasing browns. Then we'll be headed to Wilson for 6 weeks or so for our favorite time of year, the springtime King fishing at the Niagara Bar. Spring can't get here fast enough!

Until Next Time,
Fish On!!

~Capt. Bill

DEC ANNOUNCES “STATE OF LAKE ONTARIO” MEETINGS

2011-02-23T14:21:00Z

Biologists to Update Status of Lake's Fisheries

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) today announced three upcoming public meetings during the month of March to discuss Lake Ontario fisheries. The annual “State of Lake Ontario” public meetings will be held in Niagara, Monroe and Oswego counties.

“DEC is committed to sound management of Lake Ontario fisheries to maintain high-quality angling opportunities and associated economic benefits,” Chief of DEC’s Bureau of Fisheries Phil Hulbert said. “The State of Lake Ontario meetings provide an excellent opportunity for individuals interested in the lake to interact with the scientists who study its fisheries.”

Lake Ontario and its embayments and tributaries support thriving populations of fish, including a variety of trout and salmon, bass, walleye, yellow perch and panfish. New York’s waters of Lake Ontario comprise over 2.7 million acres, and a 2007 statewide angler survey estimated over 2.6 million angler days expended on Lake Ontario and major tributaries. The estimated value of these fisheries exceeded $112 million to the local New York economy.

The meeting dates are as follows:

Wednesday, March 2, 2011: 7 - 10 p.m.at the Oswego County BOCES, 179 County Route 64, Mexico, 13114 (Oswego County). The meeting is co-hosted by the Eastern Lake Ontario Salmon and Trout Association.
Thursday, March 3, 2011: 6:30 - 9:30 p.m. at the Cornell Cooperative Extension Building, 4487 Lake Avenue, Lockport, 14094 (Niagara County). The meeting is co-hosted by Niagara County Cooperative Extension and the Niagara County Sportfishery Development Board.
Monday, March 14, 2011: 7 - 10 p.m. at the Imaging Sciences Auditorium, in Chester F.Carlson Building (76) on the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) campus, Rochester, 14623 (Monroe County). The meeting is co-hosted by RIT and the Monroe County Fishery Advisory Board.

DEC, United States Geological Survey, and Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources biologists will make a number of presentations, including updates on the status of trout and salmon fisheries, forage fish, lake trout, warmwater fish, and sea lamprey control. There will also be an update on the status of Lake Ontario Sportfishing Restoration Program projects. There will be ample time at the end of the scheduled program for the audience to interact with the presenters.

Navionics cartography = an edge that you need!

2011-02-14T22:21:00Z

I've written about our Humminbird GPS units here many times and you undoubtedly know that we love them. But one thing that I haven't mentioned here are the charts that we use in those units. We've been running Navionics products for several years now and have been especially impressed with their Fish'n Chip and Platinum + Chip . The Fish'n Chip features the most detailed inshore and offshore US fishing charts available - with up to 1' HD fishing bathy on select inshore estuaries and bays of the US East Coast, US West Coast and US Gulf Coast, High–resolution 1 meter bathy covering the entire Great Lakes, high-resolution offshore and canyon fishing bathy, vegetation and marsh areas, rocks, wrecks, offshore safety navaids, tides and currents, and professional guide waypoints. Available in the US and Canada (Great Lakes) only. In short, the Fish'n Chip will show you every detail you could ever want to know about the structure in the Great Lakes. We've been amazed to look at our waypoints in comparison to the bathymmetry on our charts - we're constantly finding subtle humps and ridges that our waypoints are clustered around. Could it be that those minor changes in bottom depth are spots that deflect current and subsequently hold fish? Our data says YES! Here are a couple of Fish'n Chip screen shots from two of our favorite spots on the lake: The Niagara Bar:

And the Oswego area:

While we love our Fish'n Chip for all the detail it provides when we're out fishing, we've also become big fans of the Platinum + Chip for navigational purposes. The Platinum +charts are Multi-dimensional marine charts that offer navigators and fishermen a selection of bonus information beyond the best available navigation charts such as panoramic pictures, 3D/2D views with satellite imagery, coast pilot guides, POIs & built-in offshore fishing detail. Check out this shot from the St. Lawrence:

Or this Humminbird shot that shows the 3D birds-eye view of the Platinum+ on the left and the paper-chart view on the right - pretty cool stuff, and worth their weight in gold when navigating unknown waters or entering an unfamiliar port.
We'll be running both the Platinum+ and the Fish'n Chips on our Humminbird equipment this season. Feel free to stop by the boat and ask us for a tour of the latest cartography from Navionics - we'd be happy to show it to you!

Until Next Time,
Fish On!!

~Capt. Bill

Niagara River fishing report - January 30, 2011

2011-01-31T23:41:00Z

Today Dad, Rick Hajecki, and I spent the day fishing the Niagara River with Capt. Vince Pierleoni of Thrillseeker Sportfishing. Vince runs what is easily the most decorated tournament boat on Lake Ontario and we've gotten to know him at those events over the years and decided to book a river trip with him. Dad and I had never fished the Niagara before, so it only seemed to make sense to ask Vince to be our guide for the day. After some family events on Saturday, Dad and I drove up to Olcott and spent the night at Vince's cottage. The next morning we followed Vince over to the ramp at Lewiston and met up with Rick. After we launched the boat we made a short run to the spot that Vince had picked out for us. From the minute that we put our lines in the water the action was fast & furious. On virtually every drift that we made with the boat we were doubled and tripled up on fish - it was crazy! We took a very nice mixed bag of Lake Trout, Brown Trout, Steelhead, and even a bonus Walleye. Vince obviously knows the river and what these fish want to eat and he had our presentations dialed in from the onset. If you're considering a guided trip on the Niagara I wouldn't hesitate to call Vince - he put us on what was truly one of the best days of fishing that we've ever had anywhere! Here's just a few of the dozens of pictures that we took today:

If you're looking for something to cure that case of cabin fever, why not get out and fish? This trip on the Niagara was a great representation of what Lake Ontario has to offer, and there's no better way to get into fish like this than by hiring a qualified guide. Capt. Vince Pierleoni knows his stuff. Give him a call today and enjoy a unique fishing experience. I'll tell you this much - we'll be calling him for another trip again soon!

Until Next Time,
Fish On!

~Capt. Bill

Cannon downriggers to sponsor the Wilson Harbor Invitational

2011-01-26T22:36:00Z

Cannon downriggers today announced that they have signed on as a sponsor for the Wilson Harbor Invitational . We appreciate their support and are looking forward to their involvement as we move forward with what is fast becoming a must-fish event here on Lake Ontario!

If you haven't registered for this event yet, you're going to want to get your RSVP in soon. We're expecting a sell-out and once it's full, it's full!

Until Next Time,
Fish On!!

~Capt. Bill

Keep those batteries fresh!

2011-01-10T23:48:00Z

Have you ever stepped onto your boat and turned the key and heard.....nothing? Ugh, a dead battery! Most of us have been there before, right? It's no fun and can get your fishing trip off on the wrong foot, that's for sure. Last year we took some steps to prevent that from ever happening to us again when we installed a couple of different battery chargers on the boat. First off, we installed a Minn Kota MK440D on-board battery charger that keeps the batteries fully charged while we're hoked up to shore power at the dock.

Here are a few of the MK440D details:

Digitally-controlled microprocessor design protects your batteries so you can stay on the water longer
Up to 2X faster charging in high temperatures
Enhanced status codes provide comprehensive feedback on charge stage, maintenance mode status, error notification and full charge
Convenient on-board mounting eliminates the hassle of traditional portable chargers
Fully automatic multi-stage charging (bulk, absorption and maintenance) so you get a full charge each and every time
Automatic temperature compensation delivers fast charging recovery, even in extreme temperatures, while protecting your batteries from overcharging
For use with 12V / 6-cell batteries (40-130 amp hour rating) that are flooded/wet cell, maintenance free or starved electrolyte (AGM) only
Waterproof*, shock- and vibration-resistant construction
Short circuit, reverse polarity and ignition protected
Saltwater tested and fully resistant to corrosion
FCC compliant
UL listed to marine standard 1236
Includes: one pre-wired on-board marine battery charger with four 6' fused output cables and one 6' AC power cord, installation instructions and owners manual

We also took things one step further by adding a Minn Kota MK-2-DC DC alternator charger. A DC alternator charger uses current from boat’s alternator to re-charge trolling batteries when main engine is running. While it might not sound like much, it's actually a great piece of equipment to have on board. We never have to worry about running our batteries down when we have all of our electronics on at once - the MK-2-DC keeps our batteries fully charged all day long!

Here are the MK-2-DC 2-Bank details

Charge-on-the-fly circuitry puts additional juice back in your trolling batteries on runs between fishing spots – turns off when the engine stops
LED indicators display power-on, charging and check connection
Waterproof, shock and vibration-resistant design delivers exceptional durability in harsh, marsh environments
Engineered with advanced corrosion protection to withstand the destructive effects of saltwater
For use with 12 volt systems with 12V / 6-cell batteries that are flooded/wet cell, maintenance free or starved electrolyte (AGM) only
Includes one 6-foot fused input cable and two 6-foot fused output cables
FCC compliant

You know us - if there's something that we can do to make our fishing more fun and more productive we'll add it to our list of must-have equipment. Our Minn Kota chargers aren't something we talk about too much because they're installed below deck out and out of the way, but they definitely add peace of mind and are something that I wouldn't ever want to be without again.

Until Next Time,
Fish On!!

~Capt. Bill

More on the Daiwa Tanacom Bull 1000

2011-01-06T01:38:00Z

I spent some time out in my shop tonight messing around with the new Daiwa Tanacom Bull 1000 reel that I wrote about here a while ago. I wanted to see how fast it would bring in a 600' copper line so I spooled one up and video taped it for you to see. I was very impressed with the speed - it took just under 2 minutes to bring in 600' of copper, but I was even more impressed with the incredible about of torque that the reel has. It won't have any problems bringing in a flasher/fly combo whatsoever. We're really looking forward to using the reel on tournament days when we have to swap out a bait on a long copper line. Gone are the days of a 6 or 7 minute grind on a slow manual reel - we'll just flip the lever and let the Tanacom Bull do the work for us! The extra few minutes that we'll save each time that we swap baits could mean the difference between cashing the big check and finishing out of the money. I'm pretty sure that this reel will fast become a must-have for the serious tournament fisherman or even for the charter Captain who doesn't operate with a first mate. Here's the video:

The Tanacom Bull isn't available in most tackle shops as an in-stock item, so be sure to stop into your favorite Daiwa dealer and ask them to special order a Tanacom Bull for you and be sure to tell them that you heard about it here.

That's about it for tonight - Stay tuned for more video reviews of equipment over the winter!

Until Next Time,
Fish On!!

~Capt. Bill

The Humminbird ICE Series

2011-01-04T21:44:00Z

Ice fishing season has recently gotten underway and guys all over the state are out chasing perch and walleye through the hard water. Humminbird is doing their part to help take ice fishing out of the ice age by introducing their new series of ICE fish finders. Their exclusive fiber optic displays and proven dual-beam technology give ice fishermen a distinct on-ice advantage. Take the new Humminbird ICE 55 for example:

The ICE 55 ice fishing flasher has a 6-color, industry-best fiber-optic flasher display that offers unmatched performance and gives greater distinction between targets in the beam. It also features an extreme temperature LCD with digital depth and automatic depth scale. Its unique purple target line allows fishermen to set a visual indicator at a specific depth to know exactly how far to lower their jig. A professional-grade carrying case is included. You can rely on Humminbird ice flashers to find your spots and keep your cooler full.

The ICE 55 is just one of Humminbird's full line of ice flashers . From the budget minded ICE 35 to the combo ICE 55/385ci combo flasher/gps unit, there's a flasher here for everyone. If you're headed out to the hard water this year, be safe, have fun, and put more fish in your cooler with Humminbird ICE flashers!

Until Next Time,

Fish On!

~Capt. Bill

Happy New Year!

2010-12-31T18:31:00Z

New Year’s Reflections

Looking back on the months gone by,
As a new year starts and an old one ends,
We contemplate what brought us joy,
And we think of our loved ones and our friends.

Recalling all the happy times,
Remembering how they enriched our lives,
We reflect upon who really counts,
As the fresh and bright new year arrives.

And when we ponder those who do,
we immediately think of you.

Thanks for being one of the reasons we'll have a Happy New Year!

By Joanna Fuchs

Until Next Time,
Fish On!!

~Capt. Bill