Gator

The crew that met at Nothing But Net at early dark thirty consisted of me, Tom Barbera, his daughter Mallory, and Jeff Ignaszak. Our game plan was simple. We decided to forego the reports of copious but smaller fish to the West and return to the outer edge of the Genesee plume that was dispersing off Wautoma Shoals, where Tommy and I had done a few quality silvers the day before at BFF. We started in 110 fow, trolled North, and only turned when we hit 400+. In fact, that was our mode operandai the whole day. I think we made four turns in total, and we staying off Wautoma trolling North-South right up until the final whistle. For most of the morning, we didn't have another soul fishing near us. We picked away at majors, with the crew doing a phenomenal job of landing what we were lucky enough to pick up. With the exception of a near triple later in the day (that didn't help our box), I don't think any one fish came within 100 feet of another. We'd hit one at 170, then 290, then 400, just picking away at them. I think that the plume was dispersing, and we did note that the edges were where we were getting bit. We started out with an eight rod set: riggers, double divers, and two deep coppers, but quickly pulled the outer divers when we weren't getting any hits up top. Our best rig was a Pro Troll Fish-n-Chips flasher in straight green with a John King meat head at 85 feet on the rigger. That one setup accounted for our three biggest fish. We also had good luck on a 42nd Spin Doctor later in the day, at 85+ down, and the 400 copper with a 10" Black Green Dot Spin Doctor (thank you, Scotty) carrying meat went a few times as well. Spoons were quiet, with a steelhead and a few skippies. In total, we boated eight decent kings and lost two, along with a handful of smaller fish. Our box consisted of a pair each of 24 and 20 lbers. I'd heard from friends that most of the crowd wasn't doing so well, but it wasn't until we got to the weigh in that I realized how poor the fishing must have been. This was the fewest folks I've seen there, given the normal size field of ~45 boats. Our traditional place at the SCS is ~13, usually a place or two out of the money, and we've only hit the top ten once. Last year, every team that weighed in had four salmon, and we figured that this would be true this year as well. So, we felt decent about our box being competitive, but never suspected that it would end up eight lbs heavier than the second place finisher. I guess it's better to be lucky than good somedays. We also didn't get into the Calcutta - I figured why give Brian more money lol - and I'm sure that the other teams appreciated that...but at the end of the day, at least we avoided weighing in a limit of lakers. But who would do that? (Smart play, by the way) Seriously though, this is the best (and only lol) tournament we fish, and you couldn't ask for a better group of guys running things. Shout out to Rob, Brian, and Tim for all their hard work. It's just a smooth operations all around, with the classiest and best looking fishermen on the lake competing in what we originally envisioned to be a working man / small boat tournament. Given the variation in rigs and the breadth of the field, from captains to weekend warriors, I'd say Mission Accomplished.

Next thing you'll be telling me is that Biden actually won the election. Or that you won the Shootout. Hot tub,, heh, heh, heh (yank, yank).

Upstream of you. Immediately downstream of the split where the stick is pointing out of the water. Reportedly lol.

Even though smarter men and saltier dogs than me insist it's real, I still suspect that the hot tub is a Sandy Creek urban legend lol

The first thing I said to her in the parking lot was, “it’s up to you now. If you love Brian, you will buy him a new boat” Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United mobile app

Great story. Thank you for sharing.

From what I recall of Plan 2014, subtitled "Protecting against extreme water levels, restoring wetlands and preparing for climate change", the idea was to have "natural" fluctuations in the water levels, with at least one year out of ten being really high and one year really low. The decisions were to be based upon the metrics laid out in the Plan (which is publicly available), but there are provisions for "Adaptive Management Strategies" that could lead to on-the-fly decision making. You have to be good at math to get the details, or to calculate "rule curve parameters", but the gist of it is that Plan 2014 was supposed to lay out the ground rules. So, either the IJC isn't playing by the rules, or we've had multiple 100 year events occurring in the space of five years. Which wouldn't completely shock me, since hundred year storms seem to come around every few years too. Even so, I doubt that there's any aspect of retaliation in the decision making process. But it would sure be nice to count on more stable water levels. I get that natural fluctuations are better for the environment. But trying to restore what we've already screwed up is akin to implementing natural fluctuations in the level of your pool (this doesn't mean by peeing in it lol). It makes little sense to implement a costly strategy once irreversible damage has been done. IMH and only marginally informed O.

The customer service is good, but having to update firmware on a camera that was just released this month (after having been held up for six months in production) is a bit concerning. I also bought two, and will check to see that the firmware is up to date prior to deploying them. A few of my test pictures were overexposed. Maybe that's the issue. The best upgrade IMHO from the bulletproof 7000i series is that the Delta cameras can transmit video on demand. If you set it to photo/video, it will send a thumbnail to your phone first, and if you like what you see, you can choose to have HD video (of pre-specified length) forwarded the next time the camera connects to the network. If not, the video will still be on your SD card. Most packages include some "free" video downloads, but it's also available a-la-carte at $1 per 50 videos.

Everybody and their brother was up there this past weekend!! Paul, Scotty, Tommy, you...sounds like a party! Glad to see you were able to show the girls a good time.

Buddy of mine a couple years ago while we were up in the Alburgh Islands on L. Champlain kept seeing the dogs rolling just inside of where we were doing bass, in the frog waters. He threw spinnerbaits at them, and they'd chase right to the boat, slashing at the lure, attacking, sometimes even running into the boat, but he had trouble sealing the deal with a single large hook and those iron mouths of theirs. I thought he was going to fall our of the boat setting the hook so hard. I think he turned some of them inside out. Finally, he managed to score and check that species off his bucket list. It is just crazy how aggressive they can be under the right conditions. Topwater in the back coves at Braddock's is likely on fire right now...

And what doesn't lol?

He's just off the first successful landing of the SpaceX rocket lol. I bet it has a glow ladderback!

bump. classified section is going NUTS...

Apparently, you can't order the replacement battery pack that holds eight AA batteries online. Awesome. I have corrosion on one of the terminals, and I think that it's playing havoc with my camera. Either that or the unit just crapped the bed for good. Anyway, last ditch effort - anybody have a battery pack from an inoperable camera they want to sell? Thx.

So, my understanding of Plan 2014 is that it incorporates both high and low water levels throughout a decade long progression, in order to mimic the natural fluctuations you'd see in a pristine environment. I'm not saying that's right or wrong, just that IMHO the low water levels this year aren't completely unexpected. I mean, there's not a reasonable person who would look at how low the lake was this winter and think that Mother Nature could possibly provide enough water to raise the levels to what they were during our record high years - remember, both of those years started high, and there was record input. This year, we started low. Even record input would have only brought us to average. My take home is that this was planned to be one of the low years, and that the lack of precipitation exacerbated the planned low, leading to the current situation. Yes, you can't predict influx, but this is not a completely random outcome that depended on Mother Nature's input. It's a situation that was created by intent, and the pendulum swung too far.

IMHO, any information is good information. Since captains are on the water more than most of us, they tend to have a good feel for what's going on. And I appreciate that time is money, so I don't mind a link rather than a full screen of pictures and a report (which I don't mind either). I get Les's perspective, the personal touch is nice, but up-to-date intel is paramount, even if it amounts to a weather report and hero pics. A guy can't give away all of his secrets lol...