If Daniel Williams, of Groton, were a baseball player, he would have been facing two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning and needed to come through with a big hit to win the game.
He did the fishing equivalent in the Fall Lake Ontario Counties Trout and Salmon Derby held Aug. 19 through Sept. 5. Williams swung for the fences and connected with a big derby salmon … on the final day.
Fishing on Labor Day, Williams and Brandon Nielsen, of Locke, assumed the spot they had taken for all 18 days – trolling salmon baits in front of Selkirk Shores State Park in Oswego County, where they camp every year. They were in Williams’ 21-foot Regal boat named Expectations (named by Williams’ father when he first purchased it) in 80 to 100 feet of water when the rod went off at 8:30 a.m. The lure was an A-Tom-Mik green UV fly behind a Pro Troll flasher and rigged to a diver 150 feet back on a No. 3 setting.
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Forty-five minutes later, they netted the king salmon at the back of the boat. They knew it was a good one, so they headed into Woody’s Tackle and General Store in Pulaski. The official weight was 29 pounds, 9 ounces – just 2 ounces better than the leader at the time reeled in by Wayne Culverwell, of Ransomville. It was heavy enough to win the $25,000 grand prize.
“This is past comprehension,” Williams said at the awards ceremony at Riley’s Bar and Grill in Sodus. “I have never won anything like this in my life. We fish hard – from sunrise to sunset – and we’ve been fishing together for 4 to 5 years. We didn’t force it. It all clicked. It might take me a month to comprehend that we’ve even won.”
Culverwell missed out on the top prize, but he still earned $6,000 for his big fish, as well as an additional $500 from the Lake Ontario Trout and Salmon Association for the largest salmon caught by a member in the second half of the derby. The first-half $500 LOTSA winner was Walter Smith, of Danville, Vt., with a 28½-pound king.
Culverwell was fishing Sept. 1 with Albert Bodolus of Athens, Pa., in the afternoon on the Niagara Bar.
“We never fish in the afternoon,” said Culverwell. “It was a spontaneous trip.”
Trolling in Bodolus’ 25-foot Wellcraft named Big Fatty, they had a green froggy glow meat head with a herring strip behind an old school Pro Troll Big Eye when the downrigger down 81 feet over 136 feet of water went off. Forty minutes later, they had their big salmon. It wasn’t big enough.
It’s interesting to note that Bodolus was the guide for his sister last year, Terri Stofko, and the same thing happened to them – they lost out on the grand prize by a couple of ounces right at the end of the fall derby. In the 2020 summer derby, Culverwell’s wife, Cindy, won the grand prize.
Second place in the division went to Matthew Riley, of Williamsville, with a 29-pound Niagara Bar king salmon. He was fishing with Capt. Matt Yablonsky of Wet Net Charters. On Sept. 4, the group of friends (who all share adult beverages at Al-E-Oops bar in Lancaster) were following through on a commitment they made to go derby fishing.
“We drew cards to see what order we would be in for reeling in fish,” Riley said. “This is the first derby that I have ever fished in. I was No. 3 in the order, and it turned out to be the biggest salmon that I have ever caught in my life.”
Yablonsky said they caught the fish on a different kind of bar – the Niagara Bar – around 8 a.m.
“At that time, the wind was howling 17-20 knots out of the northeast and the waves were easily 4 to 6 feet,” he said. “We were in 75 feet of water working the ledge when the salmon hit a 150-foot diver pulling an A-Tom-Mik ‘41 fly’ behind a flasher.” Riley won $2,500 for second place.
Youth winner for the Salmon Division was Brandon Cherry, of Williamsville, with a 28-pound, 2-ounce king salmon he caught out of Wilson. He finished in ninth place overall.
In the Rainbow/Steelhead Division, Daryl Jenkins, of Factoryville, Pa., was fishing with buddies Matt Milne, Matt Forsythe and Charlie Simone, all from Tafton, Pa. They had scheduled a trip in late August 2021, but it didn’t work out for them weather-wise. They rescheduled during the same time in 2022, for what they called the Salmon Redemption 2022 trip out of Olcott with Capt. Nick Glosser, of Newfane, aboard the Viking Sportfisherman, Thrillseeker II.
“We had caught a decent-size salmon right off the bat in the morning,” Jenkins said. “Trolling a Dreamweaver Green Alewife spoon, behind a Ninja board and a 200-foot section of copper over 400 feet of water, the fish hit around 9 a.m. It took less than 10 minutes to reel in.
“At first, I was a little disappointed because it was nowhere near the size of the salmon, but when I found out it was a derby fish, we all got excited.”
It was the biggest steelhead of his life at 13 pounds, six ounces and it earned them $2,750. They will be back the same weekend next year.
Second place in the division was a 12-pound, 8-ounce steelhead reeled in by Jayden Hubert, of Newfane. At just 10 years old, the youngster had been fishing out of Olcott on the first day of the derby with his uncle, Eric Bickel, of Newfane, aboard his 23-foot Sea Ox named Kim’s Destiny. Also on board was Dylan Hubert, of Newfane, Jayden’s cousin.
They were trolling out deep, over 500 feet of water with a Northern King 28 spoon 50 feet down on the rigger when the fish hit. It turned out to be a personal best for Jayden, fishing in his first LOC derby. However, he is a regular in the local Greater Niagara Fish Odyssey Derby in the Youth Division. Jayden also won the Youth Award for the Fall LOC this year.
As luck would have it, a second rod went off that same morning and Jayden reeled that fish in, too, because his cousin was sleeping. It turned out to be an 11-pound fish that would have made the top 20 had Dylan been awake.
In the Brown Trout Division, Kathryn Covin of Howard, Pa., decided to fish in the Fall LOC Derby at the insistence of husband Douglas. The last time she went fishing out of Wilson, where they keep their 26-foot Hewescraft named Thinktank, she caught a big brown trout, and she wasn’t in the derby.
After trolling in deeper water for salmon Aug. 27, they decided to come in closer for brown trout. They left one meat rig in the set, 62 feet down over 70 feet of water. At 11 a.m., the rod went off and Kathryn grabbed it. It was a 16-pound brown trout that took the top prize and big fish of the day award for a total of $2,750. The lucky lure was an A-Tom-Mik meat rig named UV 190.
For a complete leaderboard, check out loc.org. Dates for 2023 will be posted on the website.
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