Yankee Troller

What state do you want to fish from?

He says he's gonna make me take him back there. He wants a trophy Smallie from there.

June 20 - A good client from Maine has been asking me to take him to Lake Erie so he can check that lake off his bucket list. When we found out the Spring Tightlines Salmon Tournament was cancelled he jumped on the open weekend. So, here we are fishing Lake Erie. First things first we want to give a shout out to Damian, the owner of Bay Rat Lures, for dropping off a "care package" to our hotel. He said "you're gonna need spoons" and since they're all on our other boat we didn't have any. Those Bay Rat Lures 3.5 spoons saved the day! Reports earlier in the week said the lake flipped and fishing was tough on the NY side. We were met with very flat conditions and a blazing 🌞 today. Captain's we communicated with to the East of Barcelona this morning were dealing with a tough bite. The Captain's we talked to in Erie, PA, however, were crushing it. Spoons seemed to be the ticket for them so we got on the NY/PA fence and deployed a spoon program. Leadcore and jet divers were working for the Erie Captain's, but we had neither. What we did have was snap weights to 6oz. A good client from Maine has been asking me to take him to Lake Erie so he can check that lake off his bucket list. When we found out the Spring Tightlines Salmon Tournament was cancelled he jumped on the open weekend. So, here we are fishing Lake Erie. First things first we want to Bay Rat give a shout out to Damian, the owner of @, for dropping off a "care package" to our hotel. He said "you're gonna need spoons" and since they're all on our other boat we didn't have any. Those Bay Rat Lures 3.5 spoons saved the day! June 21 - One last hurrah before we get back to screaming drags next weekend. We set out around 5:30am and stopped at the log cabin West of Barcelona Harbor in 45' of water. The Humminbird said there were fish below, and it didn't take long to get a nibble. Boat control was tough with the wind direction we faced in the morning. Our program consisted of Bay Rat Lures@ LXDs 200' behind Off Shore Tackle Company OR12 inlines. Some on 10lb mono and others on 20lb braid. On our Fishing - Chinook Diver-Stainless Steel Troll Fishing Divers we ran worm harness probing the bottom. Our second fish hit during a little tangle, but I'll tangle lures again if it means a double digit walleye will hit! It took a Bay Rat LXD in the Machine color. That same set up would take a second hog belly Walleye about an hour later! Sticks did us well in the morning while there was a slight chop on the surface. As that went away the Bay Rat 3.5 spoons behind 3oz Offshore Guppies started to produce better. Size was down from yesterday minus the two trophies. Scroll through the pics to see the lures that did us well this weekend. Those three Bay Rat spoons were great for us with the Raspberry Lemonade (left spoon) and the Raspberry Dolphin (center spoon) doing most of our bites behind 3 & 4 ounce snap weights.

Check out Stealth Core at Fish USA. A very successful walleye captain on Lake Erie developed this. We use it on Lake Ontario and love it, and I've tried most other brands. Typically, Walleye don't pull much drag, so I'm guessing 150yds of 30lb braid will work just fine for backing. 25'-50' flouro leader between the core and the lure.