Captain Pete Alex
7007 Mooreheadville Road - North East, PA 16428
Phone (814) 725-0694
Cell (814) 602-8432
petealex@dreamsteelie.com
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Captain Pete Alex
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2009 Fishing Report Biggest fish of 2008 so far: King(Lake O.): 24.25#....King (Lake Erie): 23.5#...Coho: 4.25#....Steelhead: 13.6#, 13.4#, 13.0# and 12.8# ....Lake Trout: 19.5# ....Smallmouth Bass: 4.5# ...Walleye: 11#....Brown T.: 10.75# Note: some of our photos are taken while still fishing and just before we go in to fish cleaning mode. While cleaning fish and breaking down the program, we often catch additional fish and add them to the "box". 2008 in Review: This season was pretty darn good for us. There were very few "tough" days. I guess you need some once in a while to keep you working hard. Weather was pretty good all year with some rough days mixed in. We had a productive tournament fishing season. The Vision Quest took numerous Steelies over 10 pounds and landed a King on Lake Erie over 23 pounds, what a trip that battle was in 5 foot seas. That Salmon was the largest fish we have ever landed on Erie after 30 years of fishing. Team Vision Quest won two tournaments and finished in the top ten numerous times. 2008 RESULTS: (1st, 2nd, 6th, 7th, 15th, 5th, 5th, 1st, 5th, 33rd, 1st, 2nd, 27th, 6th, *4th Lake Ontario Challenge Cup, *6th West Challenge Cup, *5th East Challenge Cup). Keep in mind that most of these events are not held on my Lake and we travel to fish which is not easy! There is a full tournament report available under the "Tournament Report Section" 2009 should be another good year. I expect an awesome spring Steelhead fishery, steady Walleye fishery all summer with a lot of nice sized fish and a great fall fishery to conclude.
Our rates will remain as posted and I hope fuel prices are a lot lower than 2008. For booking a trip please call: 814-725-0694 or email me at: petealex@dreamsteelie.com
"HAPPY NEW YEAR and GOD BLESS YOU"
End November Fishing Report: Our November season ended earlier than expected due to extremely cold and miserable weather conditions. Our last two charters finished good and bad. On Friday, we boated 16 for twenty some bites and had our five man limit. It was not fast fishing but a steady pick.We found fish in a few spots and the day ended under warm-sunny conditions. On Saturday, it was another story. The massive front was upon us under calm eerie conditions and 100% rain. It took an hour and a half to even get our first bite. ??? Then once we started to dial into a program in the Bay, we were enveloped in debris, leaves and eventually mud as the tribs. that feed into the Bay LET LOOSE big time. Our best spot was totally trashed (literally) and we finished with a 4 for 15 score. We went in a litle early as temps fell, wind kicked in and no one was left with a dry stitch of clothing. We would not get out again as WINTER officially arrived and never left.
November 9th-11th Report: Wow, with the recent summer weather, Lake and Bay temps. are going backwards and forcing us to look outside and in the Lake for Steelies. Bay rose to 52.7 (from 47.8) degrees and Lake to 54.8 (from 51.5). However the fish are still coming ut it is taking a little longer. We were plagued with 2 flat dead calm high sunny days recently and it made it a tougher bite but we still did good and finished a little early. Some big Steelies out there. Ones over 9# are normal and we have been catching ones over ten regularly. Recently, we even ran into a nice Brown Trout and a couple Lakers. Fishing in T-shirts on Friday and Carharts on Saturday. That's Erie and November.. Fishing remains good and will even get better this coming week now that the miserable weather is here, it will bring in some nice fish and a lot of them (my prediction)
November Report: Steelhead fishing has been very good to end October and start November. We had one tough windy day so far but all other days have resulted in limit catches. Even had a catch and release crew out recently-3 guys, and we caught and released 14 fish and had about 21-22 bites. We have had 6 fish between 9.6# and 10# pounds and two over 13# pounds recently. They keep getting bigger. We have been mostly fishing the Bay or Channel-Lake areas. Bay water temps are 47-48 degrees and Lake is 51 degrees. The fish are feisty and really ripping the baits. Hi lite was a quadruple of mostly silver fish that all hit long seconds apart. We also boated a nice Northern and lost a Musky in the prop wash that was pushing 50". Super Slims have been very good as well as the usual stock and crank baits. Now is the time for some world class Steelhead fishing.
October Report: The Steelies have showed up off the Tribs. and the Bay area. Recently took a limit of 12 fish and lost as many by 11:30 AM. Have had some good trips now that the water is getting cold. The Bay fishing should really take off now and these has been some decent catches as of this weekend 10-25-08. The VQ will be fishing Steelhead thru Thanksgiving weekend.
September 26th-28th: Good Walleye fishing continues down west of the Point in the First Trench. The further west the better it is. Recently on 3 trips out we boated about 60 fish in 2 full days and one half day trip. This is pretty good eye fishing for late September. However, not everyone is getting them. Many boats reporting 0-8 fish....Super Slims in black ice, greasy chicken, lemon ice and 42nd spoon have been good as well as Heavy plugs run far from the boat. Current water temp on the surface is 66-67 degrees. Very few Steelies caught. We lande done and had two others on in past 2.5 days. Trollers inside are reporting little to no activity. They just have not came in yet in good numbers although there are some in the tribs.
September 11th-13th: Great Walleye fishing continues. Saturday was a wet one but 38 boated fish later in under 4.5 hours sure dried off everyone. Fishing has been good for Eyes but our Steelies have not shown in force yet. They remain outside of the Walleye schools and will come in soon. We are hooking some ach trip but not many. Expect that to change soon. September brings change and the Walleye become very unpredictable and move a lot. It becomes a day to day fishery now. Plenty of dates remain available for fall Steelhead fishing.
August Ends and September begins: Still good fishing... Our deep water fishing still is very good. 40 bite days are common and limits or near limits have been the norm. As long as the weather holds, so should our fishing. Steelies have not shown yet. These remain further offshore and deeper than our Walleye schools. Expect this to change any day or if we get a crew that prefers chasing Chrome in lieu of Steelies... Currently, we are fishing 78-100 f.o.w. and catching the fish deep in the water column. September started well as we took our first limit of September on Wednesday.
August 21st-26th: "Hot Fishing Continues" Fishing still remains excellent, we are hooking up with an average of 35-40 fish per trip and sometimes in short order. The fish are on the feed and will continue to be caught as long as we can stay on them. The offshore Steelies have not shown up yet mixed with the Eyes. They are still further out but expect that to change any day. The fishing should remain strong well in to September unless we get a prolonged North Blast.
August 14th-18th: "HOT FISHING" Fishing is currently the best of the year. We are offshore catching Hawg Walleyes, lots of walleyes and Steelies. These fish are all being caught now in 85-105 f.o.w. using a variety of tactics. Recently, we took a 6 man limit of Eyes plus 5 Steelies before the trip was over. Also on Monday, a 4 man limit plus 3 Steelies were boxed by 8:35am on 8.18.08. The fish are very large now and are in their pre-winter feed binge... I expect this excellent fishing to continue until we receive a big blow which will move these fish from our waters.
August 9th: After a huge blow on Friday and even Thursday, I was curious how the fishing/catching would be on Saturday. To my surprise, the Lake was nice and only 1-3 ft. waves. Fishing was good and it did not take long to get into fish. Our wire divers were the first to fire and from there, riggers, wires and boards all began to do their thing. The bite as steady all day and we were chased in a little early today from a marine warning and large thunderstorm over the Lake. We had 31 bites today and boated 18 fish. The fish were on a lite bite and were difficult to put in the net. However, we ended with a very nice ox of fish. (pics to follow)
August 5th: Wow! today I may have had my best fish reelers of the season on board. These two young boys were 20 for 21 by 10am as they wound in their 3 man limit of Eyes plus a 11# steelie and one extra fish for the Captain...These youngsters could fish and boy did they have a good time doing so. The brute of a Steelie ate a SS Gator Getter parked at 65ft off a rigger. (pics to follow)
July 18th-Aug. 4th: Walleye fishing has been very steady lately with some mixed in Steelhead. If it is just Steelhead you want-they are here now and offshore. They are also very big this year with 9-12 pound fish almost common. Recently, we boated 3 over 10 pounds and lost an even bigger one. Also, on one of our trips, we boated a 23.5# King-WOW... We are experiencing the best Combo. fishing of the season and the boxes are heavy. The Eyes are starting their feeding binge and will so in to September. Epect the fishing to remain good. Recently, we competed in a Dreamweaver Lures Big Catch Friday Tourney and we finished 1st crushing the competition by 7 pounds. This was a weigh your best 3 fish event. We did it with 12.8, 11.5 and 10.5 pound steelies. What a nice box... The Pro-AM event was held this same weekend and we managed 2nd place... Just 11 points shy of 1st place. We were ithe "ONLY" Pro team to weigh a limit of fish "each day". The last three years we finished 1st, 2nd, 2nd and 1st in the Friday Big Catch event. Each day we averaged 30 bites and boated 23 fish. (walleyes and steelies). Team Vision Quest IV, fishing with a charter/sponsor trip and Captained by Mike Hinkle finished in 6th place again during this years event.
June 17-July 14th: Walleye fishing has been good, great and tough at times during the past few weeks. I guess that's why they call it fishing. Steelhead have started to show up when fishing out deep for Walleyes. recently, we took 7 but 4 were between 28" and 33". We are sill seeing a migration of Eyes and that's why it has been inconsisietn. Fish move in, stay and then leave and we work to find for more fish to pound upon. The fish are averaging a healthy 22-23" with an occasional 8-9 pound fish mixed in.
Week of June 9th and 16th: Walleye fishing has been good with limit catches or near limit catches. The fish have been located in the top 25 ft. and have been found both inshore and off shore. We have been catching mainly class of 2003 fish which are ranging in size from 21"-24". Look for the fish to begin to set up off shore and move lower in the water column.
June 11:
June 6-7-8: Pro-AM time... Round #2 of the NY Pro-AM series. We were headed to Oak Orchard-Orleans County to fish the 3rd annual Pro-AM event. Our prior two tourneys there netted a 6th place, 2nd place and a 1st place Big Fish Friday event. However, the aftermath of the N.East winds still hampered the fishing and it was tough. The VQ did well again and took 5th in the Friday tourney that had 41 teams participate and we took 1st place in the Pro dividion out of 36 teams. Team Vision Quest worked hard on Day one to boat 5 tournament fish and missed a few more. We also boated two fish just under the size limit for the tournament. We were in 10th spot after Day one and figured we had better have a stellar Day two to move up. Day two started good... More is posted on the Tourney report page.
June 5th Today I had some customers from Erie and we were going to fish after the North East blow.... Curious how this trip will go.... Well, as expected the water in close that was 56 degrees was now 43.9=chilly... So I headed the VQ far west looking for the warmer-green water. Found none inside so I headed north until the temp started to climb. 3 rods in the water and the outdown fires with a spunky 10# King. Good start. We worked this spot until we had 10 in the box, 2 short of a limit. We took pics and started to clean when a Steelie died from a hi diver bite and then we boated a small Salmon when finishing up. We had about 17 bites and took our 12 fish. The fish ranged from 2# to 11# and came as high as 28ft. and as deep as 160ft.... I will take it after the NE wind.
May 30-31, June 1st Niagara Pro-Am time: we prefished Friday with outstanding results again on the big fish and felt very good about our program and the "quality" of the fish we caught again. A lot of the other fishermen were reporting small fish catches but lots of them. We boated 18 fish and had 30 bites. See tourney report page for more info.
May 29th: Today we were part of a 30 boat charter for the Buffalo Sabres Alumni Association. We started late due (8:30 AM)to morning festivities but the fishing was good for us again. We started with a double on majors and boated a 20# and 18# Salmon to start our morning. The good bite continued and we boxed out early and headed in with our 9 fish plus one for the Captain. We also released 2 fish. The crew was great except they wore shorts??? and were VERY cold by the end. I fished the same places as the prior weekend as we started to dial in our Pro-Am program.
May 23-24-25: The Vision Quest moved up th Lake Ontario out of Port Olcott to do some fishing, run some charters and fish the Niagara Pro-AM Tournament. We fished a half day Friday and all day Sat and Sunday. We had very good fishing and boated several large Salmon each day. Biggest Salmon boated were around 19 to 20 pounds. Fish were choosy. They ate SPin Doctors well for periods then turn to an all spoon bite. Wire diver big Salmon bites are the best hits... The weather treated us well, cold but nice seas and the fishing was good. Over those 2.5 days, we had 75-80 bites and boated 52 Salmon and trout (Salmon mostly but we did boat one LT and one Steelhead)
May 7-8-9-10: St. Joe Michigan Southwest Steelheaders Summer Challenge: fished with the Dreamweaver guys in Lake Michigan for this event. Targetted Lakers mostly because the Kings did not show up yet in good numbers and the available Coho's were to small to weigh in for a weight tournament. Finished 1st in the "333" event where you weigh your largest 3 fish of the two day tourney. We took the 1st, 3rd and 6th largest Lakers of the event and walked away with this one. Finished 2nd in the Pro-Am against 39 other Pro teams. More on tourney page.
April 24-25-26-27: Scotty Spring Tourney: Going, going, Gone---described the last few days. Prefishing went good but the tourney was tough for us. Finished 27th out of 70 teams. More to read on the tourney report page.... April 23rd: "Fish clicker reads 25" by 11:30 Bay temps a balmy 54 degrees. Fishing still good... Boated a 3 man limit by 11am and a few extra for the Captain. Finished 18 for 25 plus a 4.# Smallmouth.Great weather day and nice steady fishing. The WD Buffalo Bill was hot and by far the best and most consistend producer. 2 color cores off the boards were best today and we did have 3 fish off the famous 12ft. rigger including the biggest that ate a Super Slim VQ Brown Goby. Off to Lake Ontario to prep and fish the Scotty Spring Tournament. Team VQ won it in 2006. (Pics from today to follow) April 20th: "Fish clicker reads 52" Todays charter trip was neat. A couple of the guys who mate for me sometimes booked the trip for their family and as a birthday gift for their father. In lieu of the Bay Steelhead program, I was able to talk them in to taking a ride down the Lake for a Laker/Steelie mission. WOW ! It was a chilly ride crusing over 43 deg. surface water but it was not until 9:30 did we get the full program out and that was with two mates working the boat. Why? because we had 29 bites by 9:30am. We boated 32 Lakers and 3 Steelies and had 52 bites by 1pm or so. Largest LT was over 19# with another around 17.5#. Needless to say, they gave their Dad (and family) a great birthday present-one he will always remember.
April 19th: Started in Bay again. Surf temp at 53deg. Slow bite again to start. Roamed out in the Lake for a while and hit some fish-missing most of them. Trolled back in to Bay and rods were firing again. Ended up with a triple to conclude just after lunch. Boated 12 Steelies for 20 hits. Late bite again??
April 18th: Ran a half day trip with some great guys and kids from the south. The morning started sloooooow. But things started to fire as the morning wore on. We boated 25 Steelies, kept 15 and had 38 or 39 bites by 11:45 am. We concluded by hitting 4 fish right at the end to conclude an awesome morning of fishing. It was a late bite but bite they did! Many fish came 12-18 down on riggers with the WD alewife and the holo blue dolphin SS producing best off the riggers. A red bomber and rainbow Nitro Shiner did well off one-color and clean. Great fishing continues.
April 16th: Fun fished for just over two hours with Kevin-my right hand tournament man. We had a fun contest. We each picked our side of the boat and our own lures. Kevin is a wise guy and grabs the lures that are shown in the report below. (he saw the pics). It was a tight contest as he held a one to two fish lead during most of the two hours but I grabed the lead when I hammered two consecutive 12ft. rigger fish. This lead prevailed and it was a narrow 9 bite to 8 bite victory. We boated 13/17 in a short time.
April 14th: "Fish Clicker reads 62". It was a cold morning but a HOT day aboard the Quest. It was about 32 degrees when we pulled out and had ice on the windows but the sun felt great. We only had a few lines out before they started to fire. The Dreamweaver WD's and some Super Slims fired all day. (Buffalo Bill, VQ blue alewife, alewife, green alewife, monkey shine and altered holo-blue dolphin) Our best body bait was the Thin Fin again in FL red. The Thin Fin XT aso did well in black/silver. We had a few triples and one quad today. Someone give me a break... It was a good day: 62 bites, boated between 42 and 44 Steelies by 1:50PM. We had a few large fish in the 8-9# range. The crew elected to release most of the fish and kept ones that were bleeding or were maimed during the process. Surface temp was a steady 47.8 all day. Should be one heckuva
fall bite in the Bay this year!!!
April 12th: Fished P.I. Bay again and had a great day. We fished from
8:15am-1:25am and boxed 20 Steelies, boated 23 total and had 40 bites
registered on the “Fish Clicker”. Largest Steelie was a whopping
13# hen that stretched 31.75” . She ate a Dreamweaver WD Buffalo
Bill stretched on a one-color off a Big Jon side liner board. We had several
other good fish today as well.
April: "Good start to 2008" So it begins..... The spring season started today in Presque-Isle Bay. 3 men=3 limits and done by 11am. Had 18-20 bites overall today which included several hit & runs. Water was 49-47.5 degrees. Last year it was 40 degrees at this same time. Did a lot of roaming and found the best spot in the middle of the Bay-south side. We had east winds and rain to start and were hit by 25knot south winds and more rain by 9:30am. One gust took my favorite hatoff my skull but we got lucky and scooped it 10 min. later. The red Thin Fin and orange Kaboom were the best body baits and the Dreamweaver WD and SS in the Buffalo Bill was the best spoon overall. Tomorrow the limit goes to 5 fish per angler and we will be there plying the waters of P.I. Bay again.
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