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BIG FISH SO FAR FOR 2005

STEELIE 15# COHO 7# KING 22# LAKER 16# SM. BASS # 5.75 BROWN #11.25 WALLEYE #11.25 DRUM #10.2

Oct 7th-11th

As of this writing Lake Erie was rough (and has been) and the inner waters were very dirty. It will take 2-3 days of calm water to settle the water down and be suitable for trolling in close. However, the shoreline should have a good run of fish to pick from as soon as it is fishable. (Check out the hot lures age for pics of my in close favorites for Trout & Salmon. Also, I posted my hot spoons for Eyes & Steelies in 2005)

October 1st and 2nd

Saturday-decided to fun fish at the west side tribs in 5-12 f.o.w. Water was murky-brown from prior storm and deep water was rough due to heavy south-west winds, so we made a go of it at the inside waters. Fishing was slow as we managed a hook up an hour plus a couple Sm. Bass bites. Orange worked best. Shallow Kabooms worked well and took the most bites. Not a lot of fish caught today-water still warm-67 degrees. It will only get better. Majority of the fish are still out in the Lake, some up the streams and some milling around the shore-line.

Sunday-another story.... The Lake calmed and cleared so we headed out to 80-85 f.o.w. and spanked the fish. Hooked up 32 fish plus three Yellow Perch by 1:30PM. A limit and time to head in... Landed (14) Steelies and (8) Walleyes. No small Eyes today.-All quality. Riggers, divers and cores working the 53-68 ft. zone scored well today. Despite a huge bait picture in the top 40 f.o.w., we could not catch or see fish up there. That may change with time. A fab. day for October 2. All the Steelies were FIRED up and as bright as a silver dollar-no sign of these fish coming in soon. They must be the November fish and someone should tell them their time is almost up- They think it's July still.. Walleyes were coming from the 80 f.o.w. while the Chrome came from the 85 f.o.w. During one North troll, we hooked up 8 Steelies, landed 6 in 20 minutes tops.... Turned the boat doubled and were done. A great way to end an awesome day. The weather is supposed to be awesome through Wednesday...

September 24th (good afternoon fishing)

Fished in First Trench from 1pm-6:30pm in 2-4 ft waves from the dreaded North East. Fishing was good and came in flurries. Our best flurry was a 7-bite performance in 20 minutes. We landed 5 of the 7. All Steelies. Ended the evening with (11) Steelies and (3) Eyes. We lost (2) keeper Eyes and missed (3) Steelies plus 2 more good rips that never set up. The Trench looked sparse in terms of bait fish and marks, unlike last week. The heavy winds all week changed the water and moved the fish. It is still windy as this writing and look for things to change again by this weekend (for better or worse ?) Anyway, we enjoyed a good afternoon of fishing with 22 bites on a less than good picture.

September

With lake conditions still warm, look for fishing to be excellent in the deeper waters into early October. If enough rain and cools temps. happen, look for a good run of Steelies in close to shore and within range of the Vision Quest's high powered shallow water trolling program.

September 17th (Rough but Good Fishing)

Fished the 1st Trench today as part of a 3-boat charter. Fishing was fair to good and was as good as water condition would allow. For most of the day, a one-way troll was the best choice due to 4-5 ft. waves and sea sickness. Action was good in the trench for a variety of fish: Steelhead, Walleyes, Yellow Perch, Silver Bass, White Bass and Drum. My boat, Vision Quest led the 3-boat affair with 17 legal kills, while CIAO and Reel Deal managed 11 kills each. All boats caught a lot more Eyes that were just under the 18" min. size limit. We landed 30 Eyes and 2-Steelies but only 15 legal Eyes. For a 17 fish total. We wre just 1 fish short of our 4-man limit. In addition, we boxed 10 good Yellow Perch. Everyone had a great time today and they all want to do it again, soon!

See group photo and pic of the winning catch (Ted, Jim, Brian & Kip).

September 11th (Deeper is even Hotter)

Went back to the same area as Saturday and the bite started of at a good pace. Things slowed down after a couple hours until there was no bite at all= The sun was high and the Lake flat. We decided to troll North in search mode and were pleasantly rewarded. We went on a 1.5 mile nonstop action troll out to 114 f.o.w. Mostly Steelies but did land several Eyes during the 2-hour BLITZ. Finished the day off by trolling back through the same waypoints and picking a few more before calling it a day. Finished with 12 Eyes and 15 Steelies plus released a few small Eyes. Another great day under perfect September weather.

September 10th (Deep Water=Hot)

Decided to try in a bit closer today since fall is near and we have been having cool nights. We set down straight north of the Point in 85 f.o.w.. Rods started to fire right away and we were fast into some Eyes-BIG Eyes. After a while, the bite slowed so we started on a north troll to look for more Eyes & silvers. At 11AM, we had no Steelies by 2PM we were 9 for 12 plus more Eyes bit the ice. Finished the day with 15 Eyes and 9 Steelies. Lost 8 more good fish and returned 4 small Eyes. Another great combo. day on Lake Erie. We had 3-Eyes between 9 and 10# and our largest DRUM ever. A whopper of 10.2# (see pic.)

September 4th (Excellent again)

Lake Erie is hot with a good bite now. Big Eyes and Steelies. My favorite combination. Fell (1) fish short of a 5-man limit oy Eyes but also anded one big Lake Trout and 8 Steelies. Same spot and same program but much nicer seas today. A perfect day on Lake Erie. We were done fishing today by 1:30PM today. The fishing can't get much better right now. Today, we had 5 Eyes at the 9# mark-HAWGS plus an 11# Laker.

September 3rd (HOT again....)

Fished the deep waters again in ROUGH Seas today. Took a while to get to the spot but by 1:00 PM we were done fishing with a (4) man limit of Eyes and 14 Steelies. see Pic. The mate neglected to hang the other 5 Eyes laying in the back of the built in fish box. Ended up 30 for 37 plus let 5 small Eyes and unharmed Steelies go. Shallow Glow Kabooms off Divers worked well AM, then it was Deep Kabooms fished off LC off boards, Big Divers and spoons and riggers & spoons. Excellent fishing despite tough water conditions.

August 28th (HOT FISHING)

Fished same area as the 26th. Same program and same results except todays crew landed a higher percentage of fish. Hooked up more Steelies today (22) landed 18 including a few small ones and 2 that were released with success. Boxed 12 Eyes also and put 6 back. Hooked up 41 fish today by 1:30pm, another solid day of COMBO. fishing on Lake Erie. Should continue to remain excellent fishing into the fall.

August 26th (Good Day)

Fished straight north of the big city today in 88-100 f.o.w. with good results. Finished with 4-man limit of Eyes and 6 nice Steelies. We also landed (12) small Eyes that were returned to the drink with success. That was the good news, the bad news is we fell short of a MONSTER box day because we dropped (15) good fish AND my crew was about 1-hour late. . Half were Steelies and the rest were big Eyes. Plenty of action and verbal abuse today. Hooked up 49 Steelies and Eyes today, A great day on the water with a good crew. Even trained a new mate today (bottom right corner assisting with fish rack). TONS of bait in these waters. The fish will continue to key in on this bait until a BIG BLOW changes things.

August 19th (Short Trip)

Well the weatherman decided to change the forecast overnight to decent winds to flat out WIND. Only fished a short bit this AM despite throwing in the towel. 2-4ft. waves increased to 3-5's by 8:30am with no sign of stopping. The rest of the weekend looks like it may be a wash due to storm systems and wind passing through....

August 18th (Grind Fishing)

This morning's action started fast as we doubled up(Steelie & Eye) before half the program was out. We were 4 for 5 by the time when we had all the lines in. Then action slowed as fast as it started. We pecked away at fish all morning until 10:30 when all stopped. The water became flat and the sun came out.....We ended about a 2 hour dry spell with a rippin' Steelie followed by a couple others and 2 Eyes to end the day. Ended up boxing 16 fish (9 Silvers including a chunky Coho and 7 Eyes) We also released 6 more Eyes and lost 2-3 good fish.

August 14th (Weird weather morning=short trip)

Today's weather pattern was a Duzy (sp?). Headed out this AM in dead calm waters. Within an hour winds were light from south east, then changed to windy southwest. Then we were hammered with strong (25-30knot) winds from north-north east. It cooled things off as the temp. dropped to 70 degrees. This quickly turned nice am water conditions to 4-6 ft. seas. Time to go. Despite the weird weather, we started with a double and ended up boxing 6 fish, let 5 small Eyes go, missed 4 and landed 3-sheepshead by 9:15am. Too bad we got blown off, we had a good start to our fishing trip. All fish came at the deeper levels which produced Saturday.

August 13th (Fair day on the Pond)

Today's fishing was a bit slower than the past several days, weather fronts pushed through in the AM and dead flat water prevailed most of the day which presented tough conditions. The higher (top 35ft) Eyes could not be taken today except one and the balance came from deeper set lines due to the conditions and dropping cool waters. We still managed a decent catch today. Boxed 10 Eyes and 2 Steelies. One Steelie was over 10# and 4 Eyes were over 8#. We lost several fish today and put back a few smaller Eyes. Most boats today struggled to put together a decent box. (2) boats I talked to did not box a legal fish and several caught less than 10 fish. A Tough day... I feel it was related to the AM fronts and dead calm hot weather that was upon us most of the day. Sunday will be a new day.

August 10th (Good Fishing)

A good AM bite enabled us to coast to a nice box of fish today. The Steelies were not present in the numbers I have been used to lately and they were not marked on my fish finder. They are on the move. Walleye fishing remained consistent as we hooked about 21 good fish and boated 15. We also landed between 6 and 8 small Eyes. The most we have caught at my NorthWest spot. Things are changing... Again, Deep Kabooms killed most of the Eyes. However, some came on deep set Divers and 10-color rigs. Expect the strike zone to deepen and divers and riggers to become more active players. Overall, hooked 30 fish counting the little-but growing Eyes and killed 20 including a whopper Yellow Perch. Water was 2-4 ft. waves with occ. 5 footer mixed in.

August 6th (Hot Fishing again)

This morning started much slower than yesterday but turned HOT around 11am-12:30pm. Finished at 1:15pm with 15 Eyes and 9 Steelies. Overall 24 for 29 plus 2 throw backs. Another steady day of fishing on Lake Erie. Fishing should remain good for our combo. fishery.

August 5th (Great Fishing)

Started out to sea with 3-6 ft. waves and was skeptical if we were even going to fish today. However, the seas began to calm on the way out and after an hour run, we set lines. We were unable to get the entire program out until about 8:30am because fish after fish came aboard the V.Q. We were 11 for 13 by 9AM. Finished up with a 4-man limit of Eyes plus several Steelies. Finished 22 for 29 plus a few throw backs. Quit at 1:15pm. The boards took most of the Eyes using weighted deep Kabooms in a variety of colors. Riggers from 40-55 ft. down took most of the silvers and a couple Eyes.

July 31st

Good news, bad news... My scheduled trip cancelled at the last minute and left me stranded with my pal John. So we decided to go out anyway. The Lake was flat and the day was beautiful. Headed back out north and west and were 3 for 5 before we had the lines set. Ended up landing 19 fish in short time. Landed our limit of Eyes plus had to release some plus Steelies. Decided to roam way north and look for more Big Steelies but only found (1) more before calling quits to a picture perfect day. Same program as the last 2 outings but riggers at 40, 55 and 60 all took the Steelies. Fire Tiger and Metallic Green Scale Deep Kabooms weighed down took the Eyes.

July 30th

Took (2) customers out on a solo trip today. Conditions started out rough 3-5ft. seas with the occasionsl 6 footer. Fished a limited # of rods today but still managed an almost double limit for my (2) guys. They landed their limit of Eyes (8) lost 5, and (9) Steelies, lost 3. We fell 1 fish short of a double-double. We released 2 little Eyes also. It was a nice outing despits rough AM conditions. The fish cooperated. Ran same program as JUly 29th outing. Finished landing 20 fish, killed 17 and lost 8.

July 29th

Fished the 80-90 ft. waters down west and north for the first time this year, a pioneer trip. Started at 10am and quit at 4pm. Landed 20 fish including 4 small Eyes we released. Lost 7 quality fish also. Catch consisted of Steelies & Eyes. Steelies came on riggers fished at 50ft. and divers fished at the 45 ft. zone. Eyes came mostly on boards using weighted Deep Kabooms but did take (2) Eyes on 40ft. riggers. Out deep, you can catch a nice mixed bag of fish right now. This quality fishing should continue in to mid-September. Today was a great day despite the late AM start and missing the hot AM bite.

July 23rd

Headed out today in 4 to 6ft. seas... Took a while to get to the 85 ft. waters but once we did, we caught fish. Fished 80-90 f.o.w. working northeast and southwest. The waves eventually subsided to less than 2 ft. waves and we ended up killing 17 Eyes and 3 Steelies. Finished 20 for 27 plus 4 undersizedEyes. All fish came from the top 40 f.o.w. Most came on deep Kaboom plugs in firetiger, metallic green scale and metallic purple-chartreuse. Big divers on 3.5# back 170-190 also took a few fish.

July 21 (Fair Fishing)

Fished hard today for our 3-person limit. Also landed one good Steelie and one nice Brown Trout. Lost 7 more good fish and landed and released 18 more undersized (Jr.s) Walleyes. Finished 32 for 39 overall including the dinks. Boxed 14 fish. Fish came on all devices, big divers, heavy board lines with deep Kabooms (fire tiger was hot) and riggers set at 40 and 50 ft. It was good to see the little fish but they kind of get in the way of the better sized fish espescially when they are swimming along on your program. Periodic line checks were required to make sure we were not drowning them... Fished 80 f.o.w. between the point and Shades Beach.

July 8th-16th (Lake O.)

Fished Lake Ontario several days during this stretch of time. Results were fair with mostly Kings, few Browns and few Bows. Kings averaged 18#. Most fish came on flasher and flies or spoons fished off riggers. Overall, we landed 20 Kings, 3 Browns and (3) bows. Lost an equal amount. Back to Erie to pick up where we left off catching Eyes and bows'

July 5th (Perch)

Ran a 6-man/child perch trip today and ended up with 107 perch. These were on the small size and we would have limited if we did not have a bait problem (ran out) The early morning trash fish frenzy ate up way to much bait. We moved out to 45 f.o.w. water to find more keepers and less trash. This will be the last Erie trip for a while because we are heading to Lake Ontario to fish back to back trout & salmon tournaments. All had fun and plenty of fish were caught and released in addition to the 107 we boxed.

July 3rd (Awesome Day)

Despite sloppy south winds and waves, we managed to land 27 Eyes and 2 Steelies by 12:45 pm today. Lost 12 more Eyes. This was our best day so far this year and it is good to see a decent Walleye population in our waters right now. The Steelies moved out deeper but it was good to hook and land the 2. Deep Kabooms fished in the 20 to 34 ft. one paid off. We had constant doubles and one triple. Big divers out 120 on 3 1/2 setting caught a few fish also but the boards produced the most action.

July 2nd (Walleyes-HOT Bite)

Fished from 7:00-10:30am and landed 19 Eyes out of 21 hook ups. Released the last 3 Eyes (limited with 16)that came in as we cleaned lines for the day. Choppy 3-5 ft. waves from the N.East made fishing tough but the catching was good. Deep Diving Kaboom plugs fished in 24-34 ft. range worked well. Took a couple rigger fish at 55 and 60. Fish averaged from 20"-27"

June 29th (Eyes & Chrome)

Fished late afternoon-evening from 4:30-8:45 and the fishing was steadddddy. Had 5 bites (3/5) before all the lines were set. This continued until we decided we had enough fish on ice. Ended up hooking 17 Eyes and 4 Steelies. Not bad for a late PM trip. Used deep Kaboom Shiners and fished them in the 24-34 ft. zone. Divers fished at 130 back also caught some fish but were not HOT. Expect the divers to start producing more fish as soon as the fish drop to the 45 and deeper levels. Today I had the pleasure of fishing with my son-Noah, friend Computer Man Tom Gleason and Lake Ontario Captain-Paul Czarnecki.

June 26th (Eyes & Browns ????)

Set up in the same general area again and the bite was slow to start. One fish and one miss in the first hour and a half. Thought-Gonna be one of those days?? However, when all fails, troll north.... We did and the bites started. There was a steady (not fast) bite the rest of the day. We went on to hook 17 Eyes (land 10), 4 Steelies and 2 Browns. Finished with a chunky 16 fish box by 1:45pm. Not bad after a slow start. The browns were a pleasant surprise. The Ciao Charter Boat, fishing next to me also landed 2 of these Beautiful and rare fish. Ours weighed in at 11.25# and 6#. The deep water program is starting to set up and it should improve as we continue to trol further offshore. All of the fish came above 45 ft. and in depths of 60-84 f.o.w. We had to get the board baits (Deep Kaboom Shiners) deeper today. The target depths were 24-34 ft. down. The hot color was the baby brown.

June 24th (Nice Catch)

Walleye fishingw as excellent again as a 4-man limit of Eyes and 2 Steelies died. Again, the key was to get the Kaboom Shiners in the 20-24ft. zone. Fished the 58-63 f.o.w. again and all but 2 fish came off the boards. Finished 16 for 21 on Eyes and 2 for 2 on Steelies. Looking forward to our Sunday trip.

June 23rd (Excellent Evening Bite)

Walleye fishing heated up a notch today on an evening trip. Fished 5:30-9:30 in 58-63 f.o.w. and landed 12 Eyes. All fish came off the boards using the new Deep Kaboom Shiners. The key was to get these medium sized baits to the 20-24ft. zone where they were quickly aten. Tried the new green glow bait and charged it just as the sun was beginning to set. It paid off. Our last 3 out of 4 Eyes ate it. This may be the new early AM late PM weapon. Time will tell. Will be out for a day trip on the 24th.

June 17th-June 22nd (scattered)

Walleye fishing on Lake Erie is underway... Fishing is sporatic right now with an average catch of 8 fish right now. Occasional limits are happening but the overall the fishing is TOUGH. Fish are being caught at depths of 25-35 f.o.w. and 50-60 f.o.w. No one has been looking deep for silver fish or our deep large suspended eyes.

There are not a lot of good locations right now. Few areas are holding fish and if you find one, you will need to work the spot over. The fish are not yet scattered and roam trolls will produce few fish right now. Additional reports and pics. to follow.

June 10th & 11th (Lots O' Action)

Fished a full dayer on Friday and half day on Saturday. Water and weather conditions were great. Despite reports of very few or no Walleyes being caught along the Erie, PA shoreline, we decided to try it for ourselves. It took a while to find some fish and we ended up 13 for 21 over the day and half. Hi-Lites were a 11.8oz. HAWG that ate a deep Nitro Shiner and the non-stop fishing action we provided our people. It was entertaining to say the least. We hooked up well over one hunderd "fish" of many species. Doubles and triples. We literally had to weed through the "Other" species to catch the Walleyes. (that may have been part of the problem). It took (2) of us rigging lines to keep them in the water.

The fish ate a variety of colors: metallic rainbow, fire tiger, "Goby", brite red and baby brown. We used the deep Kaboom Shiners and shallows off downriggers and planer boards using "heavy lines".

We fished from 22 f.o.w. to 36f.o.w. and trolled from 2 to 3.0 MPH.

June (Lake Erie)

While my boat has been in NY, reports have been filtering in of slooow bass and slooow Walleye fishing reports. To date, I have not heard of any good Eye catches, Lake Trout catches and scattered good-bad smallmouth reports. NO ONE has ventured out looking for the "Bug Eaters" (steelies) Things should get better with the heat wave that is upon us. Look for the Walleye and deep water fishery to begin very soon. We will be looking for the years first Eyes this Friday and Saturday to see if the rumors are true...

June 3, 4, 5 (Lake Ontario-Skip Hartman Niagara Pro-AM)

Back to Lake O. to fish the often difficult and inconsistent Pro-Am out of Olcott N.Y. & Wilson N.Y. This year was no different than the last (2). On our Friday pre-fish day, we limited out by early afternoon. 14 for 17 which included (2) put backs. Good fishing but not easy. Our catch consisted of Steelhead, Coho, Kings and one Laker. We pulled fish from the surface down to 90ft. We made a 20 mile run to find our box of fish. That was to be our Saturday spot to start the tourney.

Saturday, we lost a fish before all of the rods were set. A bad start. We fished our spot for a while and found a slooow bite. We worked hard to put 3 in the box and lose a few more. After a major lull, we picked up and ran back west to spot #2. We promptly hooked a fish off a side planner, a 5# Steelie. We ended up hooking a total of 5 fish in this area in about 2 hours. 2 of which we boxed, one we put back and we missed 2 good rigger (KIng) bites down deep. Ended up 6 for 13 on Day #1. A disappointing start to this tourney again.

Sunday, we fished in the same spot we finished at on Day #1. After we had 4 rods in the water, our 60ft rigger went and a 16# King died. A good start. This action continued until about 10:15am. We were 6 for 13 by 10:15am, then it was over. Not a bite the balance of the time we fished. We pulled lines at 1:15pm and headed for the barn. We once again, lost several fish including a 20# salmon we fought for 15 minutes. It was one of those weekends where bites were not solid and many misses occurred. There were no angler errors just a victory for the fish. As of this writing, the official results have not been posted but our team finished somewhere in the middle. 12 for 26 does not cut it in a tourney. My famous saying was repeated often on Sunday, it goes like this: "EVERY FISH COUNTS" We were just 2 average sized fish (6.5#) short each day of making the top 10. The fishing was overall tough except for a few boats that fished on the Canadian/US line at the Bar. These few boats did well but the balance of the field averaged 4-8 fish per day. The fish were in tight pockets and often moved from one day to the next. We will try again next year. The Lake was in the process of making her transition from the spring to summer fishery. Fish could be found in, out, on top, deep and in the middle.

Our next tourney will be the Oswego Co. Pro-AM in early July. Team Vision Quest pulled 12th spot last year in this event.

May 19,20,21,22 (Lake Huron-Blue Water Classic)

Off to Lake Huron for the Blue Water Classic Fishing Tournament. Reports of small fish and few fish filtered in before we arrived and during our recon. We prefished 2 days and did well, landing over 20 fish including a 15# bug eater (ate a pink Kaboom Shiner). We got a high program working and found pods of silvers that no one knew existed. Most people were fishing for their Lake Trout in 40-80 f.o.w. .We were excited that we found these fish and some quality fish and had a plan for Day #1 of the tourney.

Day 1: our pods of silver fish vanished overnight with an east wind. We started off 0 for 1 for the first 4 hours before giving up on locating the fish we had for (2) days prior. Switched to a Laker program and boxed (4) during the last 2 hours. I was not happy with our results and we were in 40th out 0f 108 teams after day 1. I hate when a plan fails.....There were a lot of Zeros and 1 fish catches after the first day.

Day 2: went to a Laker program (which was the predominant target catch there) and did much better. Boxed 8 trout and 1 King. The King was the largest (8.9#) caught on Day 2 and took second largest King overall. Good for a prize. Our strong day 2 moved us all the way in to 20th spot and 10th best catch overall for that day. A much better ending than our start. Looking back, we were (4) avg. size fish from finishing in the top 10 and would have easily completed that task if we fished our day 2 program on day 1. However, we comitted to trying to bring in a box of silvers in lieu of lakers (which everyone else did). Plan failed-fish swam and we ended up 20th out of 108.

Our hi-lites of the trip were landing the 15# bug eater and losing another near that size, weighing in the largest day 2 King (2nd overall) and boxing day 2 (10th best) box score. We will be back next year, a little wiser and hungrier.

May: (Lake Erie)

Fishing on Lake Erie has consisted mainly of Smallmouth Bass fishing. The fishing is good now and you can catch an occasional Walleye(s) using the proper tactics. Catches of 24-75 fish are common this time of year and fish can be fron 2#-6#.

Lake Trout fishing is good if you enjoy these fish smoked. We do not recommend playing catch and release with these fish because they are slow to recover after a long fight. however, if you like smoked Laker, they catch and taste well. These fish average 12-15 pounds and catches of 8-15 are common if you know how to fish for them.

May: (Lake Ontario)

Fishing is RED HOT on the Big O. right now. The Vision Quest is available the first week of June if you want to catch these fish. The catch consists mainly of Kings from 8-22 pounds and the occasional Coho, Steelhead, Laker and Brown.

May 7th (Oh Canada')

Back to Canada this Saturday to fish with some friends and try to land a few big ones. Mission accomplished. The morning started slow because we had no info. and did not know exactly where the Silver Fish were to start. We started off the Welland which is typically a good AM bite spot. We started with a steelie off a board on a Nitro Shiner fire tiger. Then it dried up. Saw no other action from the other boats and no picture on the fish finder. Decided to head to the Canadian side of the Bar and eventually found some fish. Ended up landing 8 fish and missed 8 more OUCH! Including 4 good Salmon. But it was fun. 5 and 9 color cores, riggers from 30 to 60 with spoons and Spin Doctors were good plus a couple diver fish. The water and conditions were great. We worked the ledge but found the most fish in 156 to 170 f.o.w.

Should be back next Sunday in Canada to try it again...

April 29,30 and May 1st (St. Catherines Ontario; Lake Ontario-Scotty Spring Tournamant)

Headed north for the annual Scotty Spring Tournament. Fishing was tough overall. Kings were not as plentiful as the past year but there were fish to catch. We started on April 29th (pre-fish day) looking for that hot spot. We were told by several locals that 1-2 Kings a day was a typical catch right now and fishing was "TOUGH". My plan was to look for a hot Coho spot because this tourney only allowed your biggest "5" Coho and King Salmon. The intent was to look for a for sure 5 Coho Salmon, then work on size. We were unable to locate the Cohos on prefish day but did find a variety of other fish. We boated (15) Lakers, largest was 17.5#, (2) Browns, (1) 17# King and (1) Steelhead and lost (6) fish. Not a bad catch total but we did not find the right species in the right numbers.

On Day 1 of the tournament, we decided to fish the Welland Canal mouth (a good spot for an AM bite). We went 2 for 4 in the first 2 hours including a fish that broke us off and then the bite died.The wind was a nasty North-Easter and the waves were 2-5 foot. Rain made conditions worse as temps. hovered around 44 degrees. We moved to a second spot to try our success and found none. With the clock ticking, frozen hands and a bad attitude, I made the move to inside waters. We switched our program from a deeper King bite program to a high and out program. We changed baits to primarily Nitro Shiners and ART Thin Fins. The inside waters were a perfect color and I felt good that we would get some fish going in there. It was not long before a Willy in line planer went flying backwards and a feisty Coho was on. It died. 3 fish in and 2 more to go. We continued to stay in the 7 to 14 ft. depths and fish continued to die. In a short hour and 45 minutes, we were 7 for 10 including a 17.5 King. With our 5 tournament fish plus some excess, we decided that we would head in early and weigh in. we were in 15th place out of 70 teams after day #1. There were 12 zero's and several 1-2 fish boxes. However, there were 14 other teams that managed their 5 fish.

On Day 2 of the tournament, we decided to fish near port and fish the deeper water in an effort to get 5 good Kings during the AM bite. If this failed, we would go in and hoover our Coho's and perhaps another rogue King. The plan almost worked, we were 1 for 3 in the first 45 minutes and then the bite died. After 2 hours and no bites, no marks and no one else seen landing a fish, we headed in toward shore and changed the program again. We were greeted with mud water out to 14ft. NOT GOOD. However, the wind was pushing the stained water in and we could see bubbles of decent water forming. As the day wore on, the fishing got better. We ended up hooking 13 fish inside and landed 8. We broke off our biggest fish, a 3-year old King that devoured a Willy side planner and a red Nitro Shiner. However, we hooked and landed a 12# King (our biggest of the day) on a Deep Nitro Shiner color: Metallic Sunglasses. The balance of the fish cane on Nitro Shiners in red and orange and the red ART Thin Fin. Once again, we got our 5 tournament fish with some excess. In fact, we concluded with a triple on Coho, landing 2 of the 3. At the weigh in, we discovered that the fishing was even tougher that Day 1. (8) of the top (15) team did not catch their 5 on Day 2. This enabled us to move into 10th spot. The tournament paid the top 15. This was our 3rd time in 4 events we finished in the winners circle.

April 17th (Sunday-Gods day & Heavenly weather and fishing)

Headed back to Presque Isle Bay again for more silver action. The morning stsarted a little slow. The right water we had from friday was gone & replaced with warmer waterafter Saturdays no-wind-warm and sun filled day. After about an 1/2 hour of nothing, a long flat was stroked hard and a King was headed East. After a 60-70 foot run, the hooks came out. Our next fish followed shortly, a plump Brown. We worked that area for a while and were 2 for 6. We decided to look for deeper and cooler waters and hopefully a pod of silver fish. We found them. In the next 3 hours, we went 10 for 17 including another Brown. All of the others were Steelies from 19" to 26". Riggers, flats and planer boards all produced well.

With warming waters, expect the action in Presque Isle Bay to go to zero as the silver fish move out to cooler and more open waters. When this occurs, there may be a brief period of time when the immediate shoreline waters in Lake Erie produce good catches primarily in 5-15 f.o.w. and near the tributaries. This action should last until near shre waters hit 48 degrees.

April 15th (Excellent Bite-Big Wind)

Once again, headed into Presque Isle Bay for some spring silver fishing and was not disappointed. We started about 8:30am and were in C & R mode by 11am after we had our three man limit. The surprise of the morning came when an inside rod with a Baby Brown Nitro Shiner was crushed by a 2-year old King Salmon. A rare, rare bird for this time of year and our Bay. Our catch consisted of all Steelhead with the one King Salmon. We also landed a 12" Perch and a 5# Smallmouth Bass on the outing. Today we were plagued with a hard N.East wind and a wind chill of 35 degrees. However, the fishing was hot. Small spoons and Nitro Shiners accounted for all of the fish today. Best colors in the Nitro were Baby Brown and Ugly. Best spoon colors were green-silver, blue-silver, silver & pink.

Finished 12 for 23 on silver fish and 2 for 2 on non-target specie.

April 10th (Excellent Fishing & weather)

After a successful opening day, I was anxious to get my 4-man crew on the water and back into the fish on Presque Isle Bay... The morning bite was not as fast as anticipated but it was probably due to the 36 degree night and 39 degree morning air temps.. However, once we found our warm water again, we were quickly into fish. Today, we were able to fish a larger program so we added a rigger program with our planer board program. The results were a limit of fish by 12:30pm. We ended up overall with a 16 for 24 bite day (15 Steelies & 1 Coho). (See pic.) Largest fish was a mint silver Hen Steelie of about 9 pounds and 28" A beautiful spring Steelie. (See pic.)

Fish came on a variety of Nitro Shiners and Super Bait Spoons (2.5" size). Baits fished from the surface to 12 ft. down all took fish. With a forecast for sun over the next several days, expect fishing to be stable or even better. The Lake Erie shoreline is still full of ice making the water feel like mid-March. Thank God for sunshine....

April 9th (Good Start to 2005)

Start of trolling season day: Went out for the season opener Saturday afternoon with a friend and fished from about 2pm until 6:15pm. We were in pursuit of Silver Fish... We were unable to fish Lake Erie because of the large amount of ice in our channel and along the channel-lakeshore area. However, we able to work the slooooowly warming waters of Presque Isle Bay. Surf. temps ranged from 42.6 to 45.6 drgrees. Guess which water held fish? We were unable to run a big trolling spread so we concentrated on planner board lines. I was anxious to test the new Nitro Shiners by Daves Lures. Our metallic baits did not arrive yet so we fished the traditional, orange, fire tiger and green glow colors. I was not disappointed with the new baits. They had a nice "wiggle" to them and better yet, THEY produced. Although we mixed a few spoon Steelies in, most of the fish came off the boards on the orange and green glow Nitro Shiners.

We ended up with our 2-man limit (3 ea) after a couple hours of fishing and then played C & R with a few more for a score of 10 for 12. Not a bad start to the 2004 season. See Pic. below... (f.y.i., the limit goes to 5 fish on April 16th)

March 9th 2005 (Brrrrrrrrrr.)

Our first 6 lines in the water all scored before we could catch our breath. The score was 6 for 6. (3) Cohos and (3) Steelies. We continued to troll this morning and had flurry after flurry. Fish were all in the top 10 f.o.w. and ate........What A dream......

As of this writing, Lake Erie is mostly ice covered, our Bay is totally ice covered and the next week ahead says: COLD. The good thing is that when we have late ice, the salmon & trout fishing on the Great Lakes is great by the 1st of April and lasts for a while. Early spring warm ups cause waters to warm fast and fish to move out on there merry way before boats are rigged and in the water. The VQ will be in the water by the end of March weather, wind and ice permitting. See you then!