CAPTAINS JOURNAL.TIMESTWOCHARTERS.COM

February 5

Capt. John — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 03:37:08 GMT

The brown trout have been hitting pretty good the last week or so off the local city
pier, and we saw a couple of dandies taken yesterday.   So, with no wind, a blue sky
and 38 degrees Jack and I decided to try our luck today.



We ended up getting about a 1/2 dozen of the big shad, and I hooked up with 1 trout casting
a hammered silver spoon.    Which makes me wonder....where do these shad go in the summer?
We never, ever catch one incidentally.......

The guy next to us changed over to a orange/silver cleo and got a dandy brown pushing 8lbs!
Kind of reminds me of years ago now when we used to catch coho in the harbor.......

January 28

Capt. John — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 03:29:56 GMT

Today was one of those days.....blink and it's raining; blink again and its snow; blink again and
its sunny.....and 35 degrees.     Ran some errands this afternoon and took a ride by the creek
on the way home.   Water was a touch to much color and a touch too fast for my liking, so
I kept going.

Winds picked up considerably thru late afternoon. Evidently, Mother Nature was not happy
today.



Helping our bud, Gerb in the morning with some drywall.......

January 22...so what's going on??

Capt. John — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 04:09:04 GMT

January 22....figured it was time for an update.....

**
We've gotten word that we will again be on the programs for Dreamweaver Lures,
Gamma Line and Okuma rods/reels for 2012. Awesome! We really appreciate the chance
to spread the word about these great products and are honored to be part of each companies
team for 2012!!

**
Took a walk down on the beach this afternoon with my son.   Very little shoreline ice,
so the chances it's going to freeze this year look like slim and none...perhaps, with
fingers crossed, that will mean the lake warms up a bit earlier in June?? We're due for
a walleye bite that starts early and last ALL season!

**
We are still working on getting our show schedule finalized, but we know that we are
going to be at the Lake Ontario Trout and Salmon Association (LOTSA) show FOR SURE
on Sunday, February 26 in Lockport.   I've known the guys behind this show for a long,
long time.   It's a great show, put on by a bunch of great guys for the benefit of the
Lake Ontario fishery.   What a great way to spend a Sunday...talking fishing with your friends!

We're coming up with Capt. Gary (Kongo Charters) and Marty (Canadaway Creek
Outfitters) so it should be lots of fun! Hope to see you there!

**
Our 2012 calendar is OPEN!   So far, it is looking really good for us that for the first
time in several years we will be spending a few days up on Lake Ontario out of
Wilson, NY.    We're going to try to mix in some fun fishing with a couple of trip dates,
so right now it looks like we would be open for May 2, 3 and 4 (and possibly the 5th too).

Let me know if you have any interest in trying out some great spring salmon fishing.


**
We are a long way off from our trips to S. Carolina, and Northern Ontario, but this
weather's got the cabin fever going big time!!

January 7-First fish of the year!

Capt. John — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 02:40:02 GMT

Another beautiful Fall, I mean Winter, day in WNY.   45, and sunny with no snow on the ground.
Got done washing the cars so I decided to shoot over to the creek for an hour or so before it
got dark.   Color was a bit cloudy, and a bit fast, but overall not too bad.




Reward was the first fish of the year! A steelhead about 4lbs or so on a woolie bugger on
the fly rod. Tip of the hat to Marty (Canadaway Creek Outfitters), as he suggested we make
the change and about 4 casts later we hooked up.



Also had another fish hit before we quit for the day.

Stream report-December 30

Capt. John — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 03:38:32 GMT

Another 45 degree December day....we're starting to get spoiled!

Got a call from Marty (Canadaway Creek Outfitters), who said that the creek looked
good, and he was going to head out to check it out. Jack and I got our gear and joined
up with him, just after he hooked, fought and broke off a 30" steelie!

Although the creek was running a bit faster that the last few times out, Jack and I still
ended up hooking up 3 times, but again couldn't keep them glued!

Took a ride upstream before we quit to check another spot and we watched a local
angler land about an 8lber! Beautiful color!

December 27

Capt. John — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 02:21:38 GMT

Despite the threat of heavy weather coming later in the day, and snow in the forecast
for overnight for really the first time all year, today was another great December day!
Light rain, no wind, and low 40's again, so Jack and I decided to take about a mile and
an half walk down a local tributary.

I hooked up with a nice fish, and handed that off to Jack.   Really nice fight, but the
current, and a sharp rock edge was enough to break that one off.



We knew this section had gotten some pressure the last few days, but we still had
2 hookups walking thru, before we quit for the day.

December 26

Capt. John — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 03:41:09 GMT

40 Degrees in Western New York on the 26th of December??!   No snow on the
ground, and trout in the streams.....

So, off Jack and I went to fish with our friend Marty (www.canadawaycreekoutfitters.com)
and his son Ethan on a local tributary.   Between the 4 of us, we had 7 or 8 hookups, with
Marty landing a couple of steelhead.   Jack hooked up 3 times, which was pretty good
considering he is still pretty new to using fly rods!



Marty and Ethan had to go; and Jack had enough, but when I dropped him off I told
my wife that I still had all my gear on, and it was nice, so I was going to go back out
for a while.   Beautiful early winter afternoon, but no other takers.



Got reports from our friends Capt. Gary (Kongo Charters) and Sean Patrick McGraw
that they too got into a few fish a bit farther upstream than we were.   All in all, not to
bad for late December.

Now if I can just find that pinhole in the foot of my wader...

Season's Greetings!

Capt. John — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 03:25:26 GMT

                   Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
                                            from
                             TIMES TWO CHARTERS!



               We hope you all have an enjoyable holiday season,
                      and hope to see you in 2012!

A Few Christmas Ideas....

Capt. John — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 14:28:26 GMT

Still looking for a christmas gift for the fisherman or fisherwoman in your life? If so, we took a
look over our sponsors and friends pages, and would like to offer up some ideas for you....

Need a rod or reel?   Okuma makes a great selection of spinning, fly and downrigger rods
and reels!    We use nothing but Convector reels and Blue Diamond rods aboard Times Two
and love 'em!   If you need a new spinning reel/rod combo, you'll be really happy with an
Epixor 25b paired with a 6'6" Reflexion rod; or try an Integrity fly reel for your stream fisherman.
Check them out at www.okumafishing.com

How about a gift certificate for a day of Lake Erie walleye fishing?   We can set it up anyway
you want, either for a specific trip length or a dollar value towards a trip.   We'll send you a
nice gift certificate and a Times Two Hat to put with it under your tree!

You can't beat a selection of dreamweaver spoons (see www.dreamweaverlures.com) for your
walleye or salmon fisherman!   WD's and Super Slims are awesome Lake Erie walleye baits.
Try alibi; mojo; green melon; chicken wing; tequila sunrise to name a few of the good ones.

We use only Gamma line on our non-braided line setups. It's durable and dependable.
We like the 20lb copolymer as well as their flourocarbon for our leaders.   We will also
use the 12lb in the creeks for steelhead, with 6 or 8lb leaders.    Next to your lure, this
is the most important piece of your setup.   Go with Gamma!

If you are in need of someone to do silk screening or embroidery, then Jeremy at CIS is
your guy! No job is too big or too small.    They helped us get our new logo set last summer,
and do all of the Times Two shirts, sweatshirts and hats you've seen us wearing.    Jeremy
(or us) can assist you if your looking to get any custom Times Two apparel, or if you need
help designing a logo for your own purposes.   Their site is www.creativeimprintsystems.com

SEAN PATRICK MCGRAW
We certainly cannot forget our friend, country musician Sean Patrick McGraw!   If you want
to check his music out, you can do so at www.seanpatrickmcgraw.com or look up his
videos on CMT!    Seans' getting ready to work on a new CD, which hopefully we'll have
available for you this coming summer on the boat!

Joey and Zman have been great to us!   We just wish they were still making the chatterstick
However, if you want some great skirted or plastic bass lures, go to www.zmanfishing.com to
see their tournament winning products. They also have a great offshore line for your saltwater
anglers!

EBC, WING CITY GRILLE and ROCCO'S
Hey, fishing makes you hungry, right?   If you are planning on staying overnight when you
come to fish Dunkirk, or if you are from the local area, you can't beat our friends at the EBC
Brew Pub, Wing City Grill or ROCCO's.   All three offer gift certificates!   If you are from out
of town and need some help arranging this, give us a call and we can certainly help you out!

***
Other suggestions for you......

For my birthday this year, my wife got me the lifetime fishing license from NYS.   That
was a cool idea!

A Gift Certificate to go stream fishing with our pal, Marty!   www.canadawaycreekoutfitters.com

How about a new filet knife?   Rapala for the manual version, American Angler for the
electric version.

A quality rainsuit.   Took me years of working thru other suits until we got into the Guidewear
Series from Gander Mountain. Cabela's offers it to.

Jet divers in 20; 30 and 40 or slide divers both big and small.   Again I like black first, then green.

Assorted drop weights and releases.   Offshore Tackle Co. makes a great kit.

A gift certificate to your local tackle store

For stocking stuffers.....
blacks downrigger releases; quality snap swivels (we like the dreamweaver products);
sunflower seeds; sunscreen; blackbird phantom floats (for perch fishing or streams);
hook removers; slide diver rings; batteries for the camera; Guiness and Doritos!

Hope this helps!

Bills/Titans

Capt. John — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 02:21:34 GMT

Had the chance today to take Jack to his first ever Bills game.  Thanks, Lou!
We lucked out and had another really great December day.....man, is Mother Nature
going to make us pay for this!!



Didn't leave quite as early as we did back when we went to a lot of games, but gave
him the full tailgating experience including grilling awesome godfather burgers from
Tuscany meats in Fredonia, plus chips and orange soda. He was happy! As an aside
for the burger lovers out there, its a 1/2 lb patty made of ground pepperoni, sausage,
beef, cheese and pizza seasoning. Delicious.



Too bad the Bills lost, but a great day with my son!

November 27

Capt. John — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 03:32:49 GMT

Sixty degrees on my truck at 11 am! Awesome.

Grabbed Jack, the fly rods and our waders and headed to Canadaway Creek under
threatening skies.   Figured we could handle a bit of rain, and hope that it might
have pushed some of the guys away. It didn't.



Quite a few cars where I wanted to start, so we dropped in a little farther
upstream.   I ended up with one real small steelie on sucker spawn, and that
was it Jack did really good with the fly rod too!

Moved up into Fredonia to try one more spot, but ran into a stream guide
we knew who had been working that stretch to no avail. More rain and
Jack's desire to have lunch finished us out for the day.

Still, I'll take sweatshirts at the end of November anytime!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Capt. John — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 03:27:31 GMT

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our friends and family!!!

Thank you for another great season....except for the motor issues, don't get
me started We really enjoyed having you on board, meeting you at shows,
or just talking fishing at the dock.

Thanks also to my wonderful crew (Tom, Marty, Frank, Gerb and Gary).
Without you guys, I wouldn't be able to do what I do! And to Lisa and Jack
for putting up with my habit!

We hope you will all have a chance to get together with your families,
watch a little football and eat too much turkey! Have a safe holiday!

Trip Deposits via PAYPAL

Capt. John — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 03:40:45 GMT

We have now added the option for you to use PAYPAL to send your deposit to hold
your charter date. Simply click on the PAYPAL button located on the contact page
of our website, and go from there! You don't even need to have your own PAYPAL
account to use this option.

Of course, for those that prefer to use the US Mail, checks are still fine too!!

Booking for 2012!

Capt. John — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 03:35:05 GMT

We've got our tournament dates finally, and we've taken care of a couple of
trips that we had to roll to 2012 due to weather, SO.....

We have our 2012 book OPEN AND READY!

If you're thinking about a Lake Erie walleye trip in 2012, now is the time to start
talking to your fishing partners! Plus, by booking now, you get the pick of the dates
we have available AND we'll honor 2011 pricing!!

Feel free to give us a call or shoot us an email and we'll be happy to answer
any questions you might have!

Great Lakes Steelhead Expo

Capt. John — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 02:31:59 GMT

Took a ride into Erie, PA this afternoon with Jack to check out the Great Lakes
Steelhead Expo at Rainbow Gardens at Waldameer Park.   Got slightly off
track on the way in, but thanks to the guy in the Pittsburgh Steelers attire that
pointed us in the right direction! This Expo was decidated primarily to stream fishing
tackle and equipment.

We got the chance to finally meet Dale Black, the new owner of GAMMA line, which
we use exclusively aboard "Times Two". I'm happy to report that GAMMA is alive
and well, and also that we will be back on board their Pro-staff for 2012!!

We also had a nice talk with the guys from Ultimate Angler in Erie, and also
the rep for Mystic Fly Rods! Nice talking to you guys!!

**
Decided to have dinner at BREWERIE on 14th Street, just off State St. on the way
home. Awesome!!

Jack and I split a nice order of mussels, and followed that up with a couple of great
burgers (blue cheese for Jack; peanut butter/bacon on mine).   Delicious!!   A great
selection of brews, and Jack loved the Root Beer! I'd highly recommend stopping
there if you are ever looking for a neat place to grab a bite in Erie!

We also took a ride down to the waterfront on the way back.  All I can say is Wow!

Brief "Oak" report

Capt. John — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 01:53:19 GMT

Had the chance to get up to the Oak with Capt. Gary (Kongo) to try our
hand at some stream fishing.    From what we were told, we were on the
backside of the salmon run.   Didn't see that many fish moving around,
and where we were, not too many taken.   The guy that was across from
me did have a couple of smaller browns, and there were a couple of salmon
caught upstream from me.   We both had a couple of hook ups, but didn't
land them.

The stream was pretty crowded, so we ended up fishing some quicker water
which was less congested.



Also got to roam around a bit up there, and finished up by getting another
great burger at the BNI. Thanks Jena.

October 24

Capt. John — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 02:58:23 GMT

Heading to work this morning along the lake, saw both ends of a rainbow coming thru
the clouds.....

East end..... West end.....

Pretty cool way to start the day......

October 14-16

Capt. John — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 01:39:33 GMT

Well, we should have known we were going to pay for the beautiful stretch of
weather we had last weekend.   That point was further brought home with a
forecast for Friday and Saturday that called for sustained wind over 35 mph, with
possible gusts to 60; 100% chance of rain; 1-2" of rain "possible"; and temps
in the upper 40's to low 50's.   Yikes!

But, we decided to forge on anyway, so Gary, Brian, Mark, Doug, Jack and I packed
up and headed back over to Chautauqua Lake after work Friday.   And it rained.
Hard.

So we hung out and laughed a lot, watched the Sabres on TV and hoped that the
fact it wasn't going to be as windy as they had called for, and the fact that the rain
had stopped at 11 pm would bode well for Saturday.   It didn't.    And did I mention
it rained. Hard.



A few of the guys tried fishing off the dock in the morning, and some of us did it again in the afternoon.   We probably got over 100 fish, mostly small perch.

Got up this morning and it didn't look too bad, so we got the boats in and headed across.   Learned
very quickly that it was still much windier on the east shore.   And it rained again.    Unfortunately,
not a whole lot of cooperative fish either.

But at least we still had a great time!

**
Hoping to have a few stream reports coming in the next few weeks.......

October 7, 8 and 9

Capt. John — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 01:23:55 GMT

Headed over this weekend with my brother, son and a friend to do some
fishing on Chautauqua Lake. Each day the fishing got better, and we probably
boated a couple hundred perch, sunnies and other fish, but never really got into the
keepers.

Could not have asked for better weather, though, and as usual, ate like pigs!
Nice way to spend a few days, for sure.

October 2

Capt. John — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 14:05:26 GMT

With the forecast looking pretty poor for the weekend, we made the decision to pull
"Times Two" out of the water for the season a few days earlier than we had hoped.
Saturday and Sunday brought us the Fall like weather (45-50 degree daytime highs)
and lots of showers that had been forecast, so in retrospect we made the right call.



2011 for the most part, brought us lots of great fishing!   We did have a few clunkers, but
thankfully they were few and far between. Whew!

Our "fishing" season started this year on Chautauqua Lake over Mother's Day weekend, fishing
for perch.   We really hit it just right and boated loads of fish over the two days we were there.
From there, we moved onto French River, Ontario for our annual pike trip. That too was awesome
again.



We finally got on to Lake Erie in early June, and Jack and I got our first walleye of the season
on our first trip out.   After a few more days doing that, it was on to South Carolina for some
family R & R (and of course, some fishing too).



Our July was real busy, with lots of charters sandwiched around the Ameracan Derby, a trip to
Moon River, and then in early August, the Con Club tournament. Then we had the engine issues,
and our trip to the Oak, before winding out the walleye charters and doing some perch fishing to
round out our season.





Again this year, we had really great groups on board, and very much enjoyed the fun days with you when we really got into the fish, and appreciate those of you that hung in there with us on those tough days!

We were honored to be affiliated again in 2011 with some great companies....Dreamweaver Lures, Okuma rods and reels, Gamma Line, and Zman Chattersticks!   Their great products makes our days on the lake that much better!

Coming up, we've got some perch fishing lined up on Chautauqua Lake; a least a trip or two up to the Oak to do some fall king fishing; and maybe even some steelheading in PA.   We'll post it as we do it!

We SINCERELY APPRECIATE your business and support, and hope you enjoyed your day(s) with us! And we hope you enjoy our journal too!!

Hope to see you all soon!

Capt. John