Saturday 7/17 (Day 1) - Our plan was to Brown Trout fish the two points West of Sodus because that is where Billy V SMOKED them on Friday. I told our team if we can get 10 BT then we need to pull off them and go get two big guys. Well, as fast as we could get rods down BT were smoking our offerings. Well getting to 10 BT took us about an hour and a half, and that was with a lot of stockers that had to be put back and a few short fish. Not to mention the few we lost die to the soft mouths that these Trout have.
Our program was very simple and consisted of 3 downrigger, 2 wires, and a chute core. On the downriggers we ran cheaters on each rod. On the downriggers we ran a pair of Stinger Penguins, a pair of Blond Chicken Wings (which got changed out to Stinger NBK's), and a pair of Dreamweaver SS Midnight Specials. On our wires I set up a pair of Walker Deeper Divers in the clear color with a 20lb McCoy fluorocarbon leader. I wanted a stealthy approach for this presentation. We set them out on a 3 setting, and we put a prototype Stinger Stingray Sea Sick Waddler on them. I would say that the wire divers accounted for half of our fish, and even accounted for the larger fish of the day.
As I mentioned above the 10th fish hit the deck about 8a.m. and it was decision time. The fish seemed to be getting larger, and our Easterly troll was taking our larger fish. SO 3 out of 5 guys said let's stay on these fish, and that's what we did. It didn't take long and our limit was completed by 8:30a.m and we were headed back to the dock for some breakfast.
At noon we were able to put our fish on the scales, and by the end of the day not getting a few kicker fish hurt us, and we were sitting in 15th place. From 15th place to 2nd place was about 10-15 pounds. Well within reach of a good box on day two.
Sunday 7/18 (Day 2) – Our plan was to duplicate Saturday's game plan. Same program and same lure selection. Well, when we set down and started to get lines down we noticed the warm water piled in. We ran our waypoints for an hour and we knew we needed to make a move. We picked up and headed west.
We set down a few miles West of where we were and Billy V said he had some fish going. He had cooler temps, and a better screen. Right away we started to hook up. Boat control was critical today as we battled 4-6' waves, and at time even larger. We started to pick away at the fish, and thought it would not be a problem to box on this day, but the warm water kept piling in and we had to keep trekking West, which was a chore because that meant going into the waves the whole way. Again our stealthy diver set-up was our top producer.
By the end of the day we would box 9 fish consisting of 8 BT and 1 small King. We would throw back 4 or 5 stockers and 1 17.5" fish. We would also go on to lose 3 keeper fish mainly due to Mother Nature. Those three lost fish cost us a check, but that is fishing! I'm sure A LOT of people lost fish this weekend.
Anyone who knows our team can attest to the fact we DON"T BT fish EVER. So, this weekend was a fun weekend because we learned a few things about fishing for these fish. The only time we target BT is when we are banging the shoreline in April. So even though we came short of boxing on day 2 we gained a real confidence boost when it comes to targeting these fish. We would finish the tourney in 13th place, which is 3 places out of the money! It was our first time in 2 weeks and 4 tourneys that we didn't place with a check.
On a side note our 17.04lb Steelhead we put on the Summer LOC derby leaderboard ended up in 2nd place. It now sits at Mountain Man Taxidermy where I will have it mounted.