Mr. "Lucky"

We've all heard the term "Born Lucky". Someone who, no matter what he or she does, that individual comes out on top, and smelling like a bed of roses. We've all seen the type. "They" purchase one raffle ticket for the gun club raffle, (to your ten!) and invariably they'll come away winning the rifle or shotgun. "They" always seem to be cashing in winning lottery tickets. Hunting season rolls around and the "lucky ones" usually have the giant eight to ten point buck hanging on opening day. Or, they come away with the heaviest, long bearded, dagger-spurred gobbler during spring turkey season. And fishing season is no exception. When the smoke clears at the
end of opening day,

Mr. Lucky always seems to have beached the lunker trout.

Now, I happen to know someone who fits that description to a tee. Hailing from Dalton, Pennsylvania (just north of Scranton), William K. "Billy" Hall is just such an individual.

Bill has been a loyal trout and salmon client of mine since 1980. Now first, let me explain right away that over the last twelve years or so, Bill has had no real need for a guide. Bill Hall probably has, tucked away in his memory banks, more trout and salmon tributary fishing knowledge than most of the "New Wave" class of 2000, Johnny-come-lately river guides currently plying their trade on the streams of the Lake Ontario region.

I feel confident in saying that Bill has forgotten more about trout and salmon tributary fishing than most people willever learn.

Now-a-days, Bill fishes with me because he enjoys my company, and knows that I'm a good man with a net. But most importantly, Bill seems to have his best luck while he's out-fishing me.

Bill has fished every season, and for every species available on Lake Ontario and tributaries from walleye and bass, to brown trout and salmon with me and is truly the consumate, all-around angler.

Bill's Forte, however, is trophy steelhead. Monster steelhead!! Make that mammoth steelhead!!!

Starting in the spring of 1997 and continuing right up to April of 2002, Bill has landed more large Lake Ontario steelhead or rainbow trout than any man I know. Bill uses a #7 weight fly rod spooled with six pound test line, a #8 mustad bait holder hook, and a pink or chartreuse fresh tied steelhead egg sack in the dime to nickel size range. He favors fishing very early in the morning or very late in the afternoon.

Bill has always had his best luck fishing extremely deep pools bordered with thick bushes and logjams. If he can see bottom in the pool, or if there are no logjams or other "lumber" lining the borders of the pool, he generally won't even fish the spot!
Bill uses a leader from 24" to never more than 30" in length, just enough weight to get deep quickly, and usually casts upstream at a 45 degree angle to insure his egg sack reaches it's greatest depth potential. He maintains a low rod tip and a taut line while following the swing of his drift downstream at the speed of the current with his rod tip.

Since these considerations are the basic tenets of proper steelhead drift fishing, Bill seldom misses a take or strike.

In mid April of 1997, we were fishing a fairly heavily fished section of public stream when Bill announced he was into "a big one", as he calls them. I was upstream on the opposite bank and by the time I had crossed in my hip boots, Bill and the trout had moved quite a ways downstream. I could see a rather stout looking male rainbow thrashing and headshaking in about 3 feet of water.

Upon closer inspection, I realized this huge trout had wrapped Bill's line up in a tangle of grapevines and was just seconds from snapping off. After falling face-first into the stream, a quick recovery, and a deft scoop of my short handled landing net, the rampaging 37" rainbow was ours. Digital scales soon confirmed what we already suspected.

Billy's big bow would pull the scales way down to #21.50 lbs., his biggest ever! Certified scales later lent legitimacy to our streamside assessment and Bill's whopper was soon on the way to taxidermist Dave Fish to be mounted!(see photo)

Late April 2000 found us dunking egg bags in a fairly remote lower section of a lightly fished Lake Ontario tributary lined with yellow P.F.R. (public fishing rights) posters. The sucker run was there in force, the trout run seemingly "over". I was fishing a float and spinning rod rig in a less challenging "open" pool and "had" Bill five to one. Darkness was fast approaching and being "ahead", I was ready to call it quits. Bill was below me fishing beneath a forrest of multiflora rose bushes overhanging the stream's log strewn high bank. One of those...."why bother, you'll never land 'em, if ya hook 'em" type spots!

"I've got a big one" Bill says suddenly. I could hear his fly reel chattering off line unevenly and noted Bill's rod tip was "down and tight," surging with the streaking lunges of an obviously very significant trout.
Running past Bill through the rose bushes, slipping and sliding down the steep mud bank, I positioned myself in a short, shallow riffle between Bill's trout and an impenetrable logjam just downstream. I was only going to get one shot at this!

Bill applied just enough pressure to his six pound test to keep the slammer steelie's head up and shaking as the fish thrashed tail first thru the riffle. In the gathering darkness, I sort of guessed where he was headed, jabbing the net down as he passed by, with my best "Hail Mary" stab, and got lucky! He was in the bag!

Another absolute toad! Although the trout measured just 35 1/2" long, he was a hefty 20lbs. 2ozs., Bill 2nd twenty pound plus trout! Soon, another phone call sent Bill's latest monster trout to the taxidermist. (see photo)

Late April 2001, we were working our way back upstream after a four hour walk through a very heavily fished section of public fishing stream.

It was a sunny, bluebird day and I was ready to go for lunch. We were fishing a section of s-curves and I decided to take a shortcut upstream detouring past the serpentine section of stream. I told Bill I'd meet him at the falls pool. Arriving there, I picked a large boulder to sit upon, and waited. Fifteen minutes ticked by and no Bill?? It was only a 5 minute hike the long way. "I'd better go have a look," I decided. I headed down to a pool known locally as "The Blue Hole", and immediately spotted a huge trout airborne over the water. There was Billy, hanging on for dear life! In a moment of absolute dumb luck, the giant trout, which had just leaped clear over a low hanging willow branch, struck it's head upon a boulder knocking itself unconscious, and was laying stunned on the surface of the "Blue Hole." "Bob!" Bill screamed, "Net him quick," "My line's broken off inside my reel spool".... "don't miss!" Bill pleaded as I waded out while noticing Bill's severed line wrapped around his fingers. Over my hip boots I went, flooded , and still I couldn't reach. "Steer him over" I yelled, as the huge trout began to come back to it's senses. Gottem! And Bill Hall's third twenty pound plus trout since 1997 was on the bank! 21lbs., 13ozs., 37" long (see photo)

So, I guess you could call Bill Hall "Mr. Lucky" with what? three twenty pound plus trout between April 1997 and April 2001.... or, maybe he just knows what he's doing; fishes the right tackle; uses proper techniques; pays attention to details; fishes the right place at the right time; and makes the right moves when he hooks up???
Nah! It's dumb luck! I'd rather be lucky than good, anyday !

Good Fishing!
Capt. Bob Jordan
AAA Tughill Sportfishing
Adventures
Port Ontario, NY

P.S. Billy's best April 2002 steelhead at 37" and 18lbs. 8ozs., while a nice fish, wasn't quite worth mentioning for this story!

Editors Note
You hear it all the time: "The Lake Ontario Steelhead fishery is all washed up"... "It's not Disneyland anymore"... "There's not the numbers of steelhead there used to be"... "They're catching all the steelhead out on the big lake." You hear it all the time that "The Glory Days" of the late 1970's to early 1990's are gone forever! DON'T BELIEVE IT!

Fact is, since 1997, there have been more big twenty plus pound rainbows or steelhead caught on Lake Ontario and it's tributaries than in the entire previous history of the New York State Steelhead/Rainbow Trout Program combined, dating back to 1976. Looks like the good ole days are happening right now.

New York's state record rainbow/steelhead history at a glance.

1946, Earl Crane - 21lbs. Keuka Lake
Dec. 22, 1979, Jay R. Reed - 21lbs. 9oz., Salmon River
Feb. 17,1981, Richard Redsicker - 21lbs. 14oz., Salmon River
Dec. 1984, Bill Marscher - 23lbs. 13.76 ozs. - Salmon River
May 15, 1985, Gerald Szmania 26lbs. 15oz., Lake Ontario