Finders Keepers

Agreed. Conesus lake has multiple pike tournaments every winter where all pike are kept, yet it remains one of the best pike lakes in the state. Sent from my SCH-I545 using Lake Ontario United mobile app

We are looking at the possibility of a C&R aspect for next year, but at this point, without fully looking at the logistics, didn't seem feasible. Again we are open to suggestions. Sent from my SCH-I545 using Lake Ontario United mobile app

You act add though I am new to this game. Why stop at just pike? Make it for every species! The DEC is aware of our events as are the local agencies where run or events, and our corporation files all necessary taxes. But thanks for checking! Sent from my SCH-I545 using Lake Ontario United mobile app

As a tournament director I have to wonder how many anglers are in this season event, and how many muskies are caught on a daily basis, and how many waterways does this cover? Does it require a photo and is there photo analysis used? I'm not going to run a STATEWIDE event on hundreds (if not thousands) of waterways (where pike are prevalent unlike musky), involving $100,000's in prize monies, that has the chance of losing its integrity so a few pike can be released. Not to mention it is likely impossible to do any sound photo analysis on all the entries. A similar argument can also be made on the flip side where releasing the larger pike and keeping them in the waterways could be stunting the growth of the overall population. Please keep in mind, we are planning this event for future years, as it grows, where it will likely involve over 50,000 anglers, with first place prize checks of $25,000 or more and paying down 20 or more places. We've seen the temptation to cheat for prizes as little as $1,000, and it will only be that much greater when over a quarter of a million dollars is on the line! Nature of running large events! If it's not for you, that's fine, just don't enter.

It amazes me all the flack we get for starting something that can become great and generate some much needed revenue for many things here in NYS (fish stocking programs to name one), even the Ice Pro-Am events which are C&R events!! While the huge tournaments out west go on without protest, with 1,000's of anglers crammed onto small waterways, and yet their fishery remains strong. I guess their fish reproduce much better than ours... This event is based on the LOC derbies held on Lake Ontario - events that take many trout and salmon from the lake every year and yet the fishery remains strong. This event will take fish out of the waterways too, no doubt. But I strongly believe this event will have little to no impact on the fishery, just like all other events of this nature.

If you want to buy the photo analysis software and do the work of analyzing all the top placements, maybe that could be an option. With the ease of photo editing these days, a tourney of this magnitude would open Pandora's box for cheating. I've seen what smaller photo tourneys go through and there's no way it can be done with this event. I wish we could, but that's the reality of it. We have 55 anglers in at this point not counting in-person registrations at our weigh-ins. Now that the ice is forecast to set-up, we should see our numbers shoot up.

I wish there were a way to prevent it, but it's the nature of the beast and human nature at play. We're entertaining ideas on how to make a C&R category for next year's event, but the logistics are looking nightmarish so far.

Really? I haven't fished a tournament in my 30+ years of tourney fishing that has been won by a pike out of a private pond - I'll be amazed if someone can produce a 25+ lb pike out of their pond! And I'll be super jealous too!! Can't wait to see how it all turns out though!!

The NYS Winter Classic kicks off this Thursday - who's going to claim first place in the pike division and where will it come from? with so many great pike waterways in NYS, it's GAME ON for all pike anglers!! Remember, event with the slow start to the ice season, you can always fish the open water!! Good luck!! Check out all the details and watch the leaderboard at: www.NYSwinterclassic.com

They were on Black Lake yesterday. Haven't seen a report on how much ice, but they had 2" on Saturday when I swung through there delivering the Winter Classic scales.

Looking forward to it Tom!!