Finders Keepers

I hope the lake has time to settle a bit before the wind does its 180, otherwise we'll have quite the washing machine down there: 7-10's out of the east with 3-5's out of the west/SW!! Yeah, I just hope all this wind swithing up doesn't shut the fish down or push them super deep! Either way we're prepping for a snotty weekend - our version of deadliest catch!!

I'm not liking the current forecast for the Pro-Am this weekend: Friday East winds 10 to 20 knots increasing to 30 knots in the afternoon. Rain. Waves 1 to 3 feet building to 5 to 8 feet. Friday Night East winds to 30 knots becoming southwest and diminishing to 10 to 20 knots. Rain in the evening...then showers likely overnight. Waves 7 to 10 feet subsiding to 3 to 5 feet. Saturday South winds 10 to 20 knots becoming southwest 15 to 25 knots. Showers likely...then a chance of showers. Waves 2 to 4 feet building to 3 to 5 feet. Sunday West winds 10 to 15 knots becoming northwest. A chance of showers. Waves 2 to 4 feet. Doesn't look like we'll be running 45 mph anywhere, that's for sure!

Ok, yeah it looks pretty snotty this weekend with rain and wind - not the best forecast for the Pro-Am tourney!!

What forecast are you looking at? Current offshore NOAA forecast: Friday Southeast winds 10 to 20 knots becoming east and increasing to 30 knots...then becoming south and diminishing to 10 to 20 knots overnight. Rain likely. Waves 2 to 4 feet building to 5 to 8 feet. I like your outlook much better!!

We top out at about 45 mph with 4 people in the boat (with just my brother and I we can get to about 52 mph).

Took me a bit to get this out, but here are a few pics of the sunrise leading up to the shotgun start: And here is the video:

Hey Nick, Sounds like fun out there! What releases are you using on your downriggers? It seems you're missing a lot on them... We use the Scotty 18" releases and I don't think we have missed a single one yet!

Due to lack of connections, and how big the other events are becoming, we have narrowed the events down to three for our first year: Tupper Lake, Chautauqua Lake, and Sodus Bay. There will still be a Triple Crown Award for the overall best team, but it will be the best two events, not three. We're keeping the name of the award the same since our goal is to move to 5 or more events in future years. We're currently building the registration website, which should go live within the next couple weeks along with the official tournament rules and regulations. 4-wheelers are in the works, where we are looking to swing 4 or 5 per event, including at least one in the door prizes. The trophies are going to be nothing short of stellar and we will have food and beverages available at both weigh-in and at the awards ceremonies. Stay tuned and look for registrations soon with a sweet freebie from Frabill for those who pre-register by September 1st!! www.NYSiceproam.com

Hey Nick! Great to see your reports on the water again!! Last week we found a great class of fish out in 280-320 fow a little east of Wilson. We didn't mark much on the screen, but we boated many upper teens/lower 20's kings. Our hottest set-up was a white with green dots spinny pulling a hypnotist fly on the riggers and wires. May also want to try different speeds - one day they wanted us moving 2.6-2.8, the next they wanted it slower at 2.2-2.4. If we were slow or fast we didn't get a touch! Finicky suckers!!

Nice job guys!! We'll see you in a couple weeks at the Niagara Pro-Am!

And Fat Nancy's in Oswego usually runs the one there.

Fishing Report Your Name / Boat Name: Finders Keepers ============== TRIP OVERVIEW ============== Date(s): 5/11 - 5/13 Time on Water: Early AM to 2 PM Weather/Temp: Nice!! Wind Speed/Direction: Light Waves: 2-5's to flat Surface Temp: 50 Location: Olcott to the Bar LAT/LONG (GPS Cords): =============== FISHING RESULTS =============== Total Hits: 19, 17, 21 Total Boated: 15, 16, 18 Species Breakdown: Kings and Coho's Hot Lure: White green dot spinny/hypnotist fly Trolling Speed: 2.2-2.8 Down Speed: 2.5-2.8 Boat Depth: 80 - 320 fow Lure Depth: 20 - 130 ft ==================== SUMMARY & FURTHER DETAILS ==================== Friday: Got on the water at 5:30 and ran to the red can to pre-fish the WHI. It was pretty sporty at first with 2-4's and an occassional 5 footer, but the rods were popping pretty good. We started the day off with a 12 lb king followed by a 21 lb'er. Then we hit several more in the 5-14 lb range with some coho's also. Then the morning bite died and the moss moved in. We went into search mode for a bit but didn't find much other than an occassional coho, so we made out way back to the can by early afternoon and as soon as we hit our waypoints from the morning, we boated two more in the low 20's and several in the upper teens. That evening while my dad and I were at the captain's meeting, the team fished outside of Wilson to see what they could find there. They did several kings in the low to mid teens, but didn't see much on the graph nor caught anything over 20 lbs. While we didn't have a ton of fish at the can, they were quality fish, so the plan for the WHI was to come back to the red can, provided the wind forecast of light SW winds held. Saturday: Got to the front of the pack waiting for the shotgun start, then it was full throttle to the red can!! After a quick 20 minute run, we set lines and soon thereafter had a screamin' drag! First fish to hit the deck was a healthy 15 lb king. Then we boated two more in the mid teens and we were feeling good, but still needed to find a few 20+ lb'ers. The moss moved over our area early and shut the fishing down, so we worked eastward and only found small kings and coho's. So we made the decision to run to Wilson where the team had marked some waypoints from the day before, but after an hour or so of washing lures and a blank screen, we decided to run again to Olcott and work a honey hole from previous years there. Again, only a couple coho's and a blank screen. With time running out (2.5 hours) and only 3 quality fish in the box (we had let the small kings go), we now needed numbers, so we pulled lines and ran back to the red can and fished both high and low in the water column for 3 more kings. We started popping coho's right away, but needed kings for the tournament! With an hour and a half left, we hit another king in the mid-teens. Then all we could manage were coho's. As we pulled lines to head back, the wind began to howl out of the WSW and what was ripple turned into 1-3's, making for a slower, bumpy ride back! We made it back to pre-check with about 5 minutes to spare, and began to hear of good catches from east of Wilson. We finished bottom third, and even though if we had kept two of the smaller kings we could have moved up on the list, we were still going to be far away from the top, so I didn't feel too bad about not boxing out. Sunday: Based on the larger class of fish caught east of Wilson on Sat, we decided to target that area to try for a LOC fish. We worked the 80-100 ft range to start and had huge marks on the screen. It wasn't long before the white with green dots spin doc pulling a hypnotist fly took off screaming! Followed by the starboard rigger with an NK black/green glow mag firing and doubling us up! Two kings in the upper teens soon hit the deck. We then continued to boat kings in the upper teens and low 20's through the morning, working deeper as the day wore on, finishing at noon with 18 kings boated (most over 14 lbs). It was a great weekend and a lot of fun!! Kudos to Kevin Jerge for setting up such a great tournament!! Pictures and videos can be found on our website at: http://www.fksportfishing.com/SummerPics2012.html

Good luck to all those fishing the WHI this weekend!! We're heading into town this evening and staying at the Lakeview Motel all weekend. Feel free to stop by and say hi!

Looks like the tactics and tips we showed you are paying off! I would recommend a Frabill net - they're simply the best!!

Nice fishing Rick! Looks like we should have slid your way on Sat, as we had decent fish, but it appears the numbers and size had slid towards Wilson.

Thanks! Yeah, this isn't boding well for the WHI this coming weekend! While I won't be able to fight any fish, I am at least hoping to be able to do some rigging. If not, I'll be stuck behind the wheel all day! The number of big fish this spring is staggering! I really hope my shoulder is good to go by August when these fish are getting to be upper 30's and 40's!! I have a feeling this fall LOC leader board is going to look like the one in '99!

Fishing Report Your Name / Boat Name: Finders Keepers ============== TRIP OVERVIEW ============== Date(s): 5-5-12 Time on Water: 6am - 7pm Weather/Temp: sunny warm Wind Speed/Direction:east 10-20 Waves: 2-4+ Surface Temp: 49 Location: Niagara Bar LAT/LONG (GPS Cords): =============== FISHING RESULTS =============== Total Hits: 47 Total Boated: 40 Species Breakdown: Kings & Coho's Hot Lure: NK Black Green Glow Mag Trolling Speed: 2.5-3.0 Down Speed: 2.5-3.0 Boat Depth: 50 - 250 fow Lure Depth: 35 - 75 ft ==================== SUMMARY & FURTHER DETAILS ==================== Headed down to the bar Sat looking for some king action, and boy did we have a blast! Heading out of the channel we were greeted with NOAA's 1-2 ft wave forecast (actually 2-4+ footers) - at least they got the direction right! Set-up just west of the Red Can and it was game-on! It didn't take long before we had a screamin' drag! First fish a heafty 15 lb king! Throughout the day we would find a pocket of fish and it was fast and furious for a stretch, then it would slow to a pick, then we'd find another pod. We ended up taking 47 hits and boated 40 fish, a mix of kings (up to 20 lbs) and coho's (up to 14 lbs). Pics can be found here: http://www.fksportfishing.com/SummerPics2012.html Mostly a spoon bite for us, with a few coming on spin docs/flies. Best lure was an NK black with green glow mag, followed by NK Raspberry mag and R&R Magenta Shad mag spoons. Just before we called it a day, a rod fired behind me, and when I turned in my seat to go get it my arm got lodged in the seat as my body turned and I pulled my arm out of the socket. That ended our trip a day early, as I was headed to the ER on Sunday for X-rays. Tomorrow I'm off to the orthopedic surgeon for a look-see and hopefully he won't find any rips or tears in my rotator!

That's what my brother and I call "Stupid Fishing" - so many fish, it's just crazy insane!! Nice job!! We're hoping to get into them like that this weekend and capture the action on our GoPro's!!

This year is going to be one for the record books!!

Fishing Report Your Name / Boat Name: Finders Keepers ============== TRIP OVERVIEW ============== Date(s): 4-19 Time on Water: 9-11 Weather/Temp: sunny 40's Wind Speed/Direction: 10-20 West Waves: 2-5's Surface Temp: 45 Location: Sodus Point LAT/LONG (GPS Cords): =============== FISHING RESULTS =============== Total Hits: 3 Total Boated: 1 Species Breakdown: Brown Hot Lure: R&R Majenta Shad Trolling Speed: 2.5-2.7 Down Speed: 2.6 Boat Depth: 10-20 fow Lure Depth: 2-8 ft ==================== SUMMARY & FURTHER DETAILS ==================== Got back from a conference earlier than expected, so we decided to get on the water for the last leg of Warren's Trout Derby. At the mouth of the bay we could see the whitecaps rolling by and knew we weren't going to be running anywhere, and we had marked quite a few large hooks near the boueys in the bay, so we decided to troll the bay for a bit. We couldn't get anything to go, so we ventured out the channel and worked the waters just east of the channel where it was a bit calmer. As soona s rounded the pierhead, both riggers fired but missed them both. Reset the lines and on our next pass the port rigger fired pulling a 3 7/8's R&R Majenta Shad spoon and it was GAME ON! After a short fight a heafty brown hit the deck! It pulled our scale over 12 lbs and we knew we had a contender for the derby! Since there was only an hour or so left in the derby, we decided to continue fishing for a bit to see if we could double on large browns, but the waves were really starting to kick up the seaweed and we had trouble keeping the lines clear. So we decided to call it a day and head to Warren's. The official weight came in at 12.7 lbs, 6 ounces shy of first place. With the lake kicking up and most boats already back, we thought we had 2nd pretty secure. But with 4 minutes left, a 12.11 lb brown hit the scales and knocked us to 3rd. That didn't feel so bad when our ticket was drawn for the 600 copper set-up though!! Both ours and the 2nd place brown were both released at Warren's to fight another day. We made our first video report of the year in front of Warren's which features our fish. It can be found at: Next weekend we're heading to the west end of the lake for the beginning of the Spring LOC. It will be interesting to see where the kings come from this year!!

Yeah, I would say the same thing. Maybe with spoons stacked above.

Hey Rick, we're still trying to figure this one out: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid= ... =1&theater And this IS the same boat as ours!

LMAO!!! It does look pretty close to ours!!

Hey Rick, is there any Big Fish Friday type of event the day before the WHI? Thanks!

These guys didn't see the sign and gave it a go: