WHI REPORT


First congratulations to Team Silver Junkies on a well deserved win.

Our Team for this tournament was Rob Crowe, Dave Sullivan and Eric Santoro our observer.

Big Fish Friday

Woke up Friday morning with the plan of fishing a deep water program.  Report were not good all week, everyone complaining about the Kings disappearing.  Dave and I discussed running to the Canadian side of the line and staring there.  Load up the Tiara and off we went.  We set up in 200 feet of water not knowing what to expect.  It's tournament time and information on whats going on isn't easy to come by. Water looked great, temperature was good and we had marks.  We troll through that water for 2 hrs not moving a stick. We decide to start looking for active fish and start trolling towards the line.  Another  hour and nothing.  Still in that 200 to 250 range, finally the rigger rifles and it our fist king ( Sully salmon slapper).  I know, trust me I heard about it.  We loose it and continue our troll.  Circle back and our diver fires at 180 back with a Dreamweaver SS.  Dave grabs the rod and puts a 10 lb king in the boat.  No point beating up these fish so I decide to move into the pack of boats on the wall.  Again great water and marks and I'm talking lots of marks but no takers.  We troll for two more hours with nothing. it looks like the wall is setting up for a solid bite but when, who knows, the next day or the following week.  We come in to the dock with not much but at lease we had something to work with for the following morning.  Like every tournament no matter how tough the fishing may be someone will be on them and today some teams got them on the wall.  Some nice fish too.  Now what are we going to do for the morning?

Game Day

I don't remember discussing our team decision on where to go but it felt like we all knew we had no choice but to fish with the big boys on the drop. We get up to heavy fog, I'm thinking this is great autopilot and radar still not installed on the new boat.  Shotgun start and were off.  Taking our time we work closer and closer to the bar. We pass a few boat fishing and think this is crazy were right on them before we knew it.  Stop short Dave said and we will troll over. Dave and Rob set the rods and were fishing, fishing in circles LOL.  For the life if me I couldn't keep the the boat straight in that thick fog.  Finally I got it figured out and we going straight. 7:30 no fish keep trolling west. we start seeing some of the big guns, ok we must be in the right area.  8:30 no fish, lets turn east and work back through the pack. 9:30 NOT a shot, we haven't even seen a net out yet. Turn again and told the boys we're going to die here, we're heading back to our point from the previous day. It's three miles away and to foggy and risky the run. We need to troll over. 10:30 no fish, no shots.  We need something to work with.  Finally (11:15) we get a rigger shot,  RIGGER,RIGGER Rob runs over, its gone.  We haven't made it to our points yet so lets keep going.  11:30 starboard rigger fires our fish king 6 lbs. Ok skunk out of the boat DW Mag Blue dolphin Rob put out 80 down.  Dave asked for another and sets it out on a 400 copper in the shoot.  10 minutes passes and it buckles over, gone.  We're not happy but I think we're on to something. Set the divers back 300 3 setting and 260 2 setting. Turn back on our numbers, 300 diver fires, Dave grabs the rod and a 20 lb king is in the box. Fighting that fish pushes us off our fish. We need to get back.  We're running out of time and I need KOTL points. Rigger, rigger, we land a shorty.  Reset the rigger and the 260 diver starts screaming, again Dave on the rod.  He start yelling 500,600,700,800. we need to turn on this fish.  Just as I start our turn the other diver fires A DOUBLE, WOW.  Rob puts another 6 lb fish in the boat.  500,400,200,100,50, get the net! Rob net our biggest fish of the year a 22 lb King.  15 min go by and we're just about out of time, with the new format  I'm not sure what to expect when we get in.  I need the points, pull rods I don't want to be late.  Dave pops the rigger and a HANGER. He reels it in and we boat our fifth fish, 23 inches.  We're hi-fiving each other when Dave said " Lets see if my magic works on the other rigger". Guess what another one! Reeled it in 18 1/2 inches too small.  Extremely happy with the way we finished I was confident with the tough conditions that we would be in the money. 

At the dock we hear of how tough it really was, over half the boats with 1 fish or less.  Maybe we got a shot at big fish.

Final Results.  We finish 5th in the tournament, win big fish and finish 3rd in the Calcutta.  Thanks to our sponsors for all there help.  Special thanks to Dreamweaver and Gamakatsu a deadly combination.  NO stock hooks for us.

Looking forward to Whitby!

See everyone there.

GREAT JOB KEVIN BEST I EVER FISHED.
 
 
VITO
 
 

 

 

 

 

2011 Spring King of the Lake Report

 

Its been a while and it feels great being back into the tournament scene full time again.  With the horrible weather this spring it was almost impossible to hit the Easter weekend target to get the new boat into the water.  Finally got it in the water a couple of days before the spring KOTL.

 
Here is how our weekend went.


Started Friday morning loading the boat with all our gear. We left the dock at 7 and I was a little nervous not knowing what to expect with the new boat, this would be the first time running the boat.  Took it easy and made our way to the canal to start our pre-fish, boat ran great.  Set up in 40 feet of water, 2 riggers, 2 wire divers 2 long lines putting out a mixed bag of baits letting the fish tell us what they want. This is when we found our first issue, no down speed. Started trying to figure what was wrong with the unit and the Roys Salmon Seeker on the rigger fires.  My brother Peter grabs the rod and starts battling a spring king.  Issue number two, riggers staving for power they wont come up.  I'm thinking to myself good thing its Friday. Peter lands a 18lb king and we continue fishing.  20 minutes go by and our five colour fires, 10lb king on NBK Super Slim.  We fish for three hours and land six kings.  I'm pretty happy on how the boat is running and the picture was great so we decided we needed to get in to address the Sub troll and the riggers.  We spent a few hours at the dock and got everything worked out.

Game Day


Shot gun start and we run over to our points from Friday with 90 percent of the field.  Set up and noticed the picture change, almost no
hooks.  Trolled for an hour without a sniff and went into search mode.  Another 45 min and nothing.  OK boys pull rods were out of here.  Losing half our pre-fish  due to problem the day before i didn't have a second spot to go to but I did hear there was some fish towards Jordan.  Off we went.  We set up just outside the pack of boats at Charles Daily ( 45 feet or water) and nothing.  Told the boy it skinny water time we're moving into the pack get the stick baits out. its now 10:30 not even a hit.  we tuck into 30 feet a take our first king on a spoon.  Don't ask me what colour i put out so much sh#t out i cant remember.  30 min later our second king on a Lyman almost the same spot.  Maybe we got something here. 15 min later another on a Renosky. we fished a small pocket of water and work our butts off to scratch a box together.  We ended the day with 5 kings and 2 cohos.  52.74 lbs on day one put us into 14 place.

Guess where were going in the morning.

 

Day Two


Shotgun start and again we run with 90 percent of the field to our points from the day before.  Set up or tried to set up and three of our first five rods rifle.  20 minutes in 3 kings in the box.  Lyman on five colour,  DW hot pickle on wire diver and another Lyman on the rigger. Reset our spread and the same rigger fires again.  After a short battle we land our fourth fish.  20 min later we get a wire shot on a Dr fly combo and lose it. 15 min later same rig takes our fifth fish.  We got our box pressure is off. We boat 11 fish by 9:30 but our fish were getting smaller not bigger.  We start moving looking for some bigger fish.  We try deeper clearer water nothing.  We try further west nothing.  We try further East nothing.  OK lets try in front of Port D. Started trolling home and noticed my starboard battery was running low and not charging.  Team made a decision to call it a day and not take a chance hurting the boat or not making it in at all.  Came in at 12:30.  We had a good box and felt it would move us up into the top ten which was our goal for the weekend.  Our day two weight was over 71 lbs. and moved us up 8 spots to sixth place. it was the forth biggest box on day two.


Thanks to Rob, Peter and Steve for a great weekend.  Wouldn't of been able to do it with out you guys.


Looking forward to Wilson.  Boat should be dialed in by then.