keith

Since 2008 or so, any vehicle with a total or combined weight of 10,00 used for business purposes must be registered with USDOT and have DOT numbers on the side. Wonderful new law designed to generate revenue.

Happy Birthday Captain Speedo

Don't get to discouraged, you might go out tomorrow and see a beast. The rut really just kicked in the last 48 hours or so. I know there was a lot of chasing and scraping the last few weeks but the last few days have been the first time I have seen mature bucks paired up with does. Watched a 10 pt in the middle of a field at 10 am Friday. Shot a nice 8 point this morning. Lots of fresh rubs and scrapes being made the last 48 hours as well. Scrape that haven't been touched in 3 weeks were all tore up again today. Continuous pressure will push deer off a property, especially if you continually hunt the same stands and walk in and out the same way. Deer are smart and they know your there after a while. With that being said, I shot my buck this morning in a stand that has been hunted 6 or 7 times already this year, so you never know now that the rut is going strong. If the corn is still standing that always has the potential for hiding some deer. Right now it seems the deer are in the thickest cover or very close to it. The does that aren't ready yet are hiding in the cover and the bucks are in there looking for them. Hunt close to the thick stuff or in it if you can. Be patient, spent 2 hours this morning without hearing a thing. In 15 minutes I saw 5 different bucks, the way the bucks are moving they could be a mile a way in half an hour, they are moving. My buddy had 5 bucks around his stand yesterday morning, he went back today and didn't see a thing. Right time, right place and a little luck go into it at this point.

Does anybody know anyone local who does European Mounts? Got a nice 8 point this morning I would like to get done. Don't really want to do it myself. Any help greatly appreciated.

And you weren't sure that pile of apples off the back deck would work.

Nice job Steve. Did you get it at your house?

Vince, I have owned both a Lone Wolf and a Summit Viper. Personally I prefer the Summit, in fact I sold my Lone Wolf last year. The Lone Wolf is a quieter and lighter climber, but I found it very hard to go up and down a tree with the Lone Wolf. The upper section of the LW has very small arm rests. I use the arm rest on climbers to help me climb and descend the tree, with the LW you almost have to wrap your arms around the tree to climb up and down. Some guys don't mind climbing like this, I was never comfortable climbing this way. With the Summit you can use the arm rest to climb, it was always easier and felt safer with my Summit. My Summit also has a larger platform and seat which makes it much more comfortable for long duration hunts. Regardless of which way you go, I would highly recommend trying to climb a tree with whatever you are looking at prior to purchase. Summits are about half the price of Lone Wolfs as well if that factors into your purchase. Good luck.

Doug, You might be able to call Tom at East Fork still 737-8499. He is running the derby. I'm guessing if you promise him to pay tomorrow he might let you in. I don't think anyone knew about this derby until today, hopefully next time we get a little more notice.

10 boats as of 5 pm. At least 4 more entering [ Post made via Android ]

Here are the results. Trout n About- 115.58 Yankee Troller-112.74 Legacy-110.50 Fishing Finatic-105.33 Misdeameanor-101.71 Silver Fox-100.77 Escape-99.60 My Mink-97.17 Big Salmon- Legacy-26.95 lbs Big Steelhead-Reel Drag-12.41 lbs Big Brown- My Mink-13.14 lbs Big Laker-Yankee Troller- 22 plus pounds, let the ribbing begin, seriously nice laker when he "wasn't" targeting them Thanks to everyone for a great turnout. Thanks to all the sponsors. Congrats to Jason, Trish and the Trout n About crew for putting the smack down on all of us for the second year in a row. Hope to see you all next year.

Landshark, if you are really interested call my cell in the morning, 585-314-6189. We will take cash entries tomorrow. Sandy Creek Marina has dockage as well as a few others, if you just want to trailer, Hamlin Beach State Park would be a good spot to stay as Scott mentioned. Both Scott and I will be around Sandy Creek mid morning. We can get you any info you need. Its a nice little tournament. Lots of the LOU guys will be there, even the big LOU guy Chad (BlueEye) will be there. Now that Ray is in, it's a party for sure. Lots of sponsor gifts and some nice cash prizes, plus a lot of ball busting to boot. To everyone else, feel free to call me with any last minute questions or if you want to still get entered tomorrow.

No real check in. There will be derby committee members at the public launch, Sandy Creek Marina and on the creek. This is a self policed type tournament. The biggest thing in the morning is don't start fishing before 5:00 a.m, you can leave and run to your spot before then but no lines in the water before 5 am. You can return anytime you like just remember you must be in line for weigh in no later than 3:00 p.m. Anyone not in line by 3:00 p.m. will be disqualified, no exceptions.

Matt, I heard there was something "stinky" happening at Sandy now.

We are going to allow entry through Pay Pal until midnight on Thursday night, there was apparently a typo in the original derby rules. We will take cash entries on Friday but you must get it to Scott, Rob or myself. My cell phone is 314-6189, Scott's 370-8068, Rob 703-0969. Remember weigh in is over at 3:00 p.m, you must be standing in line with your cooler at that time. Food will be served from about 1:30 until 3:15 pm, food is not included and will cost extra if you choose to eat. You are welcome to bring your own beer. We will post updates daily if we can, as of today we have 21 boats entered. Any comments or questions feel free to PM me. Any gripes or complaints please PM Scott, he likes it.

LBG, The derby committee met a couple of time to discuss all the changes we implemented this year, we even went so far as to discuss potential changes with people outside of the derby committee. Unfortunately, there are a million ways to run a derby, we could have a one big fish derby, we could have a $ 50.00 entry fee, we could have allowed any size lake trout. Take a moment to think about all these things and your head will spin, we have had some heated discussion over lake trout believe me. The elimination of Braddocks was because it is impossible for the derby officals to police Braddocks. Please don't take this the wrong way but it would be very easy for two boats fishing out of Braddocks to "combine" coolers at the end of the day. Bottom line is we didn't have the resources to keep an eye an things the way we wanted therefore we eliminated Braddocks. Also if we include Braddocks then where do we stop, next the Genny guys will be mad, some of the Oak guys are already mad. The increased entry fee was to help boost the prizes. I'm sure you would have been happier taking home an extra $ 300 or $ 400 for your second place finish last year. We didn't feel that an extra $ 25.00 would stop any one from fishing this derby. Regarding the date, we decided on a July date because the fishing off Sandy is usually more consistent in July, read the reports or hopefully you have been out the last two weeks. Lots of big kings being caught now. August can be hit or miss depending on wind, weather, etc. One big king for 29 boats last year proved that. The Pro Am dates played into our choice of dates as well. Scheduling the same day as the last day of the Orleans Derby put some time constraints on our derby. We had to make sure we had things close to wrapped up in case anyone fishing the Sandy Derby had to get to the Orleans award ceremony. It's nice to fish three derbies at once, but this year the Sandy Derby gives you an extra few hours before you have to weigh in. The North Star Gun Club schedule also plays into when we can schedule the derby, they aren't available for 100 fisherman every weekend. We went with four fish because we expect a lot of big kings this year, it gives a crew trying to win one of the trout prizes an option, catch 3 nice kings then go for a big brown or steelhead to take top prize in those divisions. Again as Scott posted, there's a lot of work that goes into getting a derby together, and there is no way we can make everyone happy. Every year we will look at the results of the derby and take suggestions, we will evaluate things and may make changes as we go. I'm sorry you don't like the changes we made this year, I heard a lot of positive feedback from others who have entered. For everyone else remember the last day to enter using Pay Pal is Thursday night. You can still get in Friday if you can track down Scott, Rob, Mike or myself on Friday and give us cash. We will try to help you on Friday but no promises.

Camo, last year 6 of the top 7 boats were private boats. There were at least 10 charter captains in last years tournament. The captains really don't have a big advantage in this type of format. There's a rod limit and its based on your 4 biggest fish, catching the big fish is a much luck as skill most days. Hope you change your mind, this is a fun tournament where you get to meet a lot of the guys on LOU. There some nice cash prizes and lots of sponsor gifts this year.

CD, We are hoping with a weather day on Sunday we are we won't have to cancel. In the unlikely event that we do, we will refund entry fees to all teams minus some small costs associated with putting together the derby.

Date: July 23, 2011 (Weather day will be July 24, 2011) Start: 5:00 am, End Approximately 2:00 pm Structure/Prizes: Largest 4 fish combined weight per boat, 2 men minimum per boat, 8 rod limit, 100 % Payout, Largest Salmon, Steelhead and Brown prizes. Entry Fee: $ 100.00/boat, Payout for top 25 %. Fishing will be limited to Sandy Creek only this year. Download Derby Flyer Download Derby Rules SIGN UP TODAY This year promises to be bigger and better with more prize money and sponsor gifts. We currently have approximately twelve sponsors donating gift certificates and merchandise. Please feel free to PM me, ScottB or Legacy with questions.

The derby committee meet tonight and started to finalize plans for this years Sandy Creek Shootout. The format will be very similar to last year with a fee exceptions. The offical rules and flyer will be coming in the next week or so. We have already doubled our sponsors from last year and will be adding more. Here are some of the early details, more to follow. Date: July 23, 2011 (Weather day will be July 24, 2011) Start: 5:00 am, End Approximately 1:30 pm Structure/Prizes: Largest 4 fish combined weight per boat, 2 men minimum per boat, 8 rod limit, 100 % Payout, Largest Salmon, Steelhead and Brown prizes. Entry Fee: $ 100.00/boat, Payout for top 25 %. Fishing will be limited to Sandy Creek only this year. Start making your plans now, last year we had a great turnout despite the bad weather. This year promises to be bigger and better with more prize money and sponsor gifts. Please feel free to PM me, ScottB or Legacy with questions.

It will be back in Jeremy's hands tomorrow. Thank Steve for spotting it floating in the waves and the great netting job he did.

Found off Sandy creek this morning. A valuable piece of fishing equipment, willing to return to the owner. PM me with details of what you lost.

Happy Birthday Rob, hope it was a good one.

He went smaller since his wife isn't used to riding anything big.

You're having a great deer season, hopefully it makes up for all the boat problem last spring. Congrats.

I'll second Rob's note for being safe. A safety harness will save your life. I think this make 3 guys who have fallen out of trees in less than a week. Let's not read about any LOU members next Monday. Good luck. http://www.democratandchronicle.com/art ... from-stand