Paul Czarnecki

The payout is dependent solely on the number of entries. This tournament will be 100% payback. Keep in mind though, the Olcott event had nearly $2000 in sponsored prize money to help with the payout. Because this was a last minute thing that we just put together we won't have that luxury. All I can promise you is that it will 100% payback in CASH. See ya there! paul

Coming off the HUGE success of the Don Johannes/Pete Deangelo Memorial Tournament last week in Olcott we have decided to run a similar event this Friday in Oak Orchard. This no rules, no observers, FUN Friday Tournament will become an annual tradition in the Lake Ontario Pro Am Series. It is designed for the everyday angler, the amateur angler out prefishing for the ProAm, and the seasoned Pro working a charter or prefishing for the tournament as well. You DO NOT have to be entered in the Pro/Am Tournament to enter this tournament. You can register ONLY at 4 C's Marina and Restaurant. The entry fee is $100 per boat in CASH ONLY. The Rules are very simple: --Entry deadline is Friday, June 6th at 6:30 AM. You MUST register at 4 C's Marina. --No Observers --Only trout and salmon may be weighed in --Heaviest 3 fish (one entry per team) --No more than 3 fish in a cooler --Fish must be caught Friday June 6th --Fish may not be altered in any way (such as adding weight) --Weigh in between 1 PM and 3:30 PM at the ProAm tent in the Marine Park --All awards will be paid in CASH --Winning entrants MUST be present at Awards Ceremony to win. --Awards Ceremony immediately following the ProAm Captain's meeting. Don't miss this terrific opportunity to get paid for Pre fishing! See ya at the Weigh in. Paul

Not that my opinion matters either but I, too, would like to see the size limit raised and I REALLY like Tom's suggestion of expanding the "Buffer" for Captain's discretion. I think it would make things even more interesting as far as a strategy is concerned. One thing to keep in mind.....the direction the Tournament Rules have gone is toward the simple rather than the complex. If you raise the size limit it will have to be across the Board---for all species. Raising it for kings and not cohos would put a lot of responsibility on the teams, the observers, the pre check people and the tournament official that would have to DQ you for having an undersized king in your cooler when you thought it was a coho. Let's see how the rest of the tournaments play out this year. You might be pleasantly surprised at how these new rules work out for the Ams---especially if the fishing gets tough. I really don't think you'll see that many limits again in a ProAm though....so I hope you enjoyed it---I know I did! See you all at Oak Orchard! Paul

Great suggestions Tom. You guys should be on this end of the rules! We try to make rules that are fair to everyone WITHOUT the gray areas that 3DFX mentioned. I'm not sure which areas he thinks are "gray"...perhaps he could explain. We also try to make rules which are conservation oriented and fair to the fishery. What a LOT of people seem to have forgotten is that, historically, the fishing has been VERY tough in the ProAm. We had several factors contributing to the tremendous fishing this year in Niagara. First, was the drawn out winter and very cold May which kept water temps colder than normal. Second, was the incredible amount of two year old fish that we have---courtesy of the many pen rearing projects. Finally, the Niagara tournament was a week earlier this year than normal. I fished out of Olcott for 13 years before moving my boat to the Oak and can tell you confidently that the last week of May is ALWAYS a good one. Its no surprise that there were 20 limit catches on Saturday in the Pros and 36 on Sunday. That said, would you guys that are wanting the size limit increased feel the same way if there were NO kings around--only cohos? We had that situation two years ago in Orleans and I've seen it several times in Niagara as well. I can't believe ANYONE wants to revisit the cull rule after the flak we recieved last year on this very Forum about all the dead fish. How easily we forget! I, too, would have like to have fished longer. I was done with my 12 fish on Saturday at 9:03 and at 9:00 on Sunday. Like you, I wait all year for these tournaments and got to fish only 6 hours out of a 16 hour tournament. Am I disappointed? Hell no! In 22 years of tournament fishing its the FIRST time I limited out on both days of a ProAm. My team and I were elated....and we finished 13th! The ProAm Committee welcomes any and all suggestions---as always. We want to hear what you have to say. However, ****ing about limiting out "too early" is kinda silly. Let's enjoy the tremendous fishing Lake Ontario is offering us this year and try to remember back a few years when a five fish catch of cohos and two year old kings got you a top ten spot. Also, keep in mind that next year the calendar will put the tournaments back to the more "traditional" dates. Niagara--the first week of June and Orleans the following week and Oswego the first week of July and Sodus the week after. We should all be well aware of how much difference a couple of days can make when it comes to transition time in Lake O. See you in Oak Orchard! Paul

That's not a problem Tim. Observers can be changed at the last minute and day to day. As long as you have your observer with you at the Captain's meeting and sign in you are good to go. See ya there! Paul

HUH? Just guessing here but I "think" you're asking how many people you're allowed on a team. The answer is somewhat complicated. For the AM division its based on a 3 person team running a limit of 6 rods and taking a max of 6 fish. You may fish with only 2 people if you choose but must purchase a license for the observer on your boat. For the Pro Division its based on a 4 person team running 8 rods and taking a max of 12 fish. A Pro Team may also fish 8 rods with 3 team members by simply buying a license for the observer. I hope that answers your question. Paul

No checks Ray-just GREENBACKS! You have to be present at the Awards Ceremony Friday night to collect YOUR cash though. Good luck everyone! Paul

Its definitely NOT a new problem Jax. However, I think you'll find that in a short period of time the Super Glue will crystallize and lose its adhesion. I've used 5 minute epoxy and (more recently) pure 100% silicone caulk with much better results. Save yourself a lot of aggravation and order a dozen replacement caps from Big Jon. I keep a box in the cabin to sell to all my "friends" who haven't learned to glue the caps on yet....HA!

HI Shaun, Yep....its unfortunate but you have to mail separate checks to Niagara and Orleans. The reason for that is simple. The events, although related, are hosted by separate entities. Niagara is hosted by the Newfane Business Association and Orleans is hosted by the Oak Orchard Business Association. You can include your Challenge Cup entry fee in with your Niagara entry. Perhaps there will come a day when some huge, non profit, tournament GOD will step in and fund all 4 events but, until that day, we all have this burden of 4 separate entries to deal with. Sorry for any inconvenience but I had to mail two separate entry forms today as well. See you at the meeting. Paul

HI Todd, NO OBSERVERS! I believe both McDonough's and Hedley's have slips if The Town marina doesn't. I also think there are some left in Wilson--though I'm not sure what marina. Give Kevin Jerge a call at the Boatyard or call Sunset Bay. See ya there

That looks like a compilation of Oswego and Sodus events Mark. The last time Candy was in Oswego was the time the houseboat sank (I believe) and the other segment was definitely Sodus. Cool video and awesome song. Who wrote the song and who sings it?

Thanks for the compliments Rod but, honestly, I had nothing to do with it. This is a joint cooperative effort between Olcott and Wilson. Mike Johannes, who has run the Don Johannes Memorial Derby for several years, saw the wisdom of teaming up with another "good cause" and recognized the need to unite the towns of Olcott and Wilson in this effort. ALL the credit for this great event goes to Mike Johannes (Wilson), Dawn Wilson (Olcott), Bob Cinelli and a few others in Newfane, Olcott and Wilson. All I did was post the announcement. See ya there! Paul

Here it is. The anouncement you've been waiting for. On Friday May 30th THE DON JOHANNES/PETE DEANGELO MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT will take place out of Wilson and Olcott. This tournament is, without a doubt, the most exciting thing to happen to Lake Ontario Fishing in a while. It is designed for the everyday angler, the amateur angler out prefishing for the ProAm, and the seasoned Pro working a charter or prefishing for the tournament as well. You DO NOT have to be entered in the Pro/Am Tournament to enter this tournament. You can register at The Slippery Sinker or The Boat Doctors in Olcott or the Wilson Boat Yard in Wilson. The entry fee is $100 per boat in CASH ONLY. The Rules are very simple: --Entry deadline is Friday, May 30th at 6:30 AM --Heaviest fish (one entry per team)---for the Don Johannes Award --Heaviest 3 fish (one entry per team)--for the Pete DeAngelo Award --No more than 3 fish in a cooler --Fish must be caught May 30th --Fish may not be altered in any way (such as adding weight :shock: ) --Weigh in between 1 PM and 4:30 PM at the Lions Club Pavilion in Krull Park in Olcott. --All awards will be paid in CASH --Winning entrants MUST be present at Awards Ceremony to win. --Awards Ceremony at 7:00 PM at the Pavilion---immediately following the ProAm Captain's meeting. PAYOUT BASED ON 50 TEAMS Don Johannes Award for Big Fish 1st--$850 2nd--$510 3rd--$340 Pete DeAngelo Award for Best Three by weight 1st--$1300 6th--$400 2nd--$800 7th--$350 3rd--$700 8th--$300 4th--$600 9th--$250 5th--$500 10th--$200 See ya there!!! Paul Free Spirit

Here it is. The anouncement you've been waiting for. On Friday May 30th THE DON JOHANNES/PETE DEANGELO MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT will take place out of Wilson and Olcott. This tournament is, without a doubt, the most exciting thing to happen to Lake Ontario fishing in a while. It is designed for the everyday angler, the amateur angler out prefishing for the ProAm, and the seasoned Pro working a charter or prefishing for the tournament as well. You DO NOT have to be entered in the Pro/Am Tournament to enter this tournament. You can register at The Slippery Sinker or The Boat Doctors in Olcott or the Wilson Boat Yard in Wilson. The entry fee is $100 per boat in CASH ONLY. The Rules are very simple: --Entry deadline is Friday, May 30th at 6:30 AM --Heaviest fish (one entry per team)---for the Don Johannes Award --Heaviest 3 fish (one entry per team)--for the Pete DeAngelo Award --No more than 3 fish in a cooler --Fish must be caught May 30th --Fish may not be altered in any way (such as adding weight :roll: ) --Weigh in between 1 PM and 4:30 PM at the Lions Club Pavilion in Krull Park in Olcott. --All awards will be paid in CASH --Winning entrants MUST be present at Awards Ceremony to win. --Awards Ceremony at 7:00 PM at the Pavilion---immediately following the ProAm Captain's meeting. PAYOUT BASED ON 50 TEAMS Don Johannes Award for Big Fish 1st--$850 2nd--$510 3rd--$340 Pete DeAngelo Award for Best Three by weight 1st--$1300 6th--$400 2nd--$800 7th--$350 3rd--$700 8th--$300 4th--$600 9th--$250 5th--$500 10th--$200 See ya there!!! Paul Free Spirit

You WERE downstairs making a sandwich, weren't you?!?!?

Wouldn't that be a "lake mine" then? If your boat wasn't 3 miles an hour faster than mine you might have been able to see it coming. Now, Bob, why don't you just tell the truth. You were running on auto pilot while coming back from Rochester and weren't even at the wheel. You were probably downstairs making a sandwich or God knows what else! LOLOL See ya this weekend!

I agree it sounds like a battery or connection issue. When the needle fluctuates wildly its because its either getting intermittent power or not enough power. Just my experience.

I only have the locations for Niagara and Orleans. Niagara will be at the Olcott Firehall on Rte. 78 (not sure of time) and Orleans will be at the Marine Park at 6:30. At ALL meetings you will be required to sign in and MUST be PRESENT and ON TIME. The Niagara meeting will not be split this year but you will be required to go back to Krull Park for the awards ceremony for the PreFish Friday Tournament. The CASH awards will be presented immediately following the Captain's meeting and winners MUST be present to accept their cash.

Rod, rusty rat has it right---no culling...period. You may release a fish in the half inch buffer zone but the first six tournament legal fish must be kept. You may have only one laker but that will be counted as part of your six. Dave, you are right about the DQ part. We adopted a "zero tolerance" policy on a lot of the rules for this year. It eliminates abuse of the rules and whining about penalites----something the tournament heads have, historically, been soft on and provides uniformity of the rules across all four events. The rule is written deliberately vague so that it can be customized to each port and the weather at the time. Remember, we have one set of rules now that covers all four tournaments. Each port will have its own version of what "in the pierheads" means based on the configuration of that port and you will be made WELL AWARE of what the policy is for that tournament at the Captain's meeting. For example, "in the pierheads" at Olcott and Wilson will be markedly different from "in the pierheads" at Oswego. Discussions like this before the Captain's meeting are a good thing---as long as they don't turn negative and nasty. I don't mind answering questions and providing the reasoning behind the rules---hopefully it will help the veterans and, possibly, encourage some more new people to enter. As long as we're on the subject...I will be doing a separate post on this shortly but there is some VERY exciting news coming out of Olcott regarding a separate Prefish Friday Tournament held in conjunction with the Don Johannes Memorial Big Fish Derby. This friendly, no observers, NO RULES tournament will have a $100 CASH ONLY entry and may be paid up until 6:30 AM Friday. Teams will compete by weighing their three biggest fish of the day. CASH PRIZES will be awarded to the top ten teams and for Big Fish. You can leave whenever you want and only need to be at the weigh-in site by 4:30. Weigh in will be at Krull Park and the awards will be distributed after the Captain's meeting Friday night. This is the first year for this "mini tournament" and it promises some HUGE payouts IF we get the entries. You'll be prefishing for the ProAm anyway so why not enter this one and maybe win some big cash. Have many of us have big days prefishing....only to tank the first day of the ProAm? LOL. Now you can capitalize on your big day.....for only $100. More info on this great event will be forthcoming! Watch for it! Paul

Howie, or anyone else that needs observers for Niagara. Dawn Wilson at the Town marina has an active list of people that want to be observers. Check with her and I'm sure you'll get hooked up. Word to the wise though....ask to meet, face to face, the person who agrees to be your observer. Every year we have observers not show up and teams have to foreit a member at the last minute. Don't let it happen to you!

Cowman, I don't think ANYONE is "being singled out and made whipping boys here". In fact, I think its just the opposite. Dave and Team Screamer, Del and Team Liquid Plumber and several others are top notch competitors who have done extremely well in the tournaments because of their SKILL and DEDICATION and they would do just as well if they entered the Pro Division. They bring a tremendous amount of enthusiasm and integrity to the events and the tournaments are better because of them. If you've been around long enough you might remember Pete Lahosky and Team Prime Time who dominated the AM Division for YEARS before moving up to the Pro Division and dominating THERE for years as well. The initial point I was trying to make to Dave (Highway) was that the Tournament Committees have tried to listen to requests from competitors about rule changes they would like to see and lots of them have been implemented. But, ultimately, the committees have to do what is best for the events themselves. In this case, rule changes were made to make the "Top Five" more accessable to the "little guy" that had to go head to head with the "juggernaut" of Screamer, Liquid Plumber, Wizard, Official Business etc. The rule change to 6 fish allowed the little guy to at least "feel" competitive. While the 6 fish limit does keep one team from "blowing everyone else out of the water" it certainly does nothing to keep the top team from winning as we have all seen the past two years. I'm sure you'll agree that this rule change was much better than simply "forcing" those top AM teams to fish Pro when they didn't want to---which is what was suggested many times. Finally, I would like to formally apologize to Dave and Team Screamer, Del and Team Liquid Plumber and any other top AM contender that may have been offended by my earlier inferences. My intent was not to criticize or diminish their successes but rather to demonstrate the reasons for some rule changes. I purposely never mentioned any team by name---you guys did that--because I did not want to offend anyone or imply anthing other than what I was trying to say. And that is that sometimes Committees have to do what is best for the events and the majority of the competitors not just what a select few "top" competitors would like. For what its worth, guys, the Pro Division has had similar changes over the years as committees tried to keep it fair and competitive for EVERYONE---you just didn't get to read about it here. Now, let's get ready for a GREAT Tournament Series! See ya on the water! Paul

Hi Howie, The rules and applications are being posted right now on the old website: www.lakeontarioproam.com You will be able to print one off from there until the new site gets up and running. If you're over at the Town Marina stop in to see if Dawn Wilson has any. If she doesn't check with Bob Cinelli (Hotline). Talk to ya soon, Paul

Matthew, the "bonus" lake trout was dropped because a lot of AM teams expressed disgust at trying to weed through salmon, many of which died upon release, trying to catch a "bonus" laker. Its a good problem to have, I guess, too many salmon that you can't even catch a laker any more..LOL. Dave, the AM rules were changed to a 2 man limit in response to many requests by legitimate Amateurs wanting to fish with a buddy or their son or father in their smaller boats (less than 25 ft.). Putting 3 people plus an observer on boats of that size jeopardized their safety and the integrity of the tournaments. The new Am rules are designed to make the AM division more competitive for the "little guy"--the TRUE amateur. We have all seen, in recent years, the AM division completely dominated by "amateurs" driving around in 28 and 30 foot boats, rigged to the hilt, and sponsored by every tackle manufacturer in the country. While these teams may be "amateur" in the literal sense of the rule itself, these teams are anything but amateur. Instead of forcing those teams to compete with the "professionals" we have allowed them to continue to compete as amateurs but created rules that allowed EVERY amateur team to be competitive. Finally Dave, don't get me wrong, I don't mind answering questions about the rules or the tournaments in general. I am, however, a little surprised at you for several reasons. First, you know full well who to contact if you have a gripe, a concern or a question about the tournaments. There is no need to start "fires" on the internet. Secondly, given your releationship with Vince Pierleoni and the Double Play boys, YOU yourself, could hardly be considered an amateur. In fact, aren't you fishing in the Pro Division this year? If so, why would you even be concerned with the Amateur Rules? Lastly, the ProAm Rules Committee consists of ALL 4 tournament chairs--Bill Hilts Jr., Mike Waterhouse, Chris Kenyon and Dave Turner. Also on that committee are Bob Cinelli, Greg Gehrig, and myself. I hope I've answered everyone's questions sufficiently. If anyone has any other concerns or questions prior to the captain's meeting feel free to contact me or any of the other committee members I just listed above. Let's have a SAFE, successful 4 Tournament Series again this year! See everyone at the Captain's meeting. Paul Czarnecki

The Rule changes came about as a result of input from competitors, DEC Officials/biologists as well as Tournament Committees in other states, and are the result of a LOT of work by the Lake Ontario ProAm Series Committees. Whether you personally agree with them or not, I can assure you they are result of what the VAST majority of Am Teams told us they wanted and, most importantly, what is best for the events themselves. I guess I don't understand your point Dave. If keeping the first six fish " is not good for the fishery" how is the old "keeping the first 9 fish" rule better for the fishery? The Lake Ontario ProAm Series is a conservation minded series. We did away with the option of culling fish in the Am Division because it became apparent last year that a lot of the released fish in the East end tournaments did not survive because of the warm temps and the depths at which they were taken. See you at the meeting! Paul

The ProAm website has changed hands. Karen Evarts, who was handling it, simply had too much to do and turned it over to David Turner in Oswego and the Oswego Committee is putting together a new one. It should be up shortly. I highlighted the changes in the AM division for 2008 a while ago in this Forum. Perhaps you could go back and review. Posting the rules in their entirety would be a big waste of space on here. I can, however, email them to anyone that absolutely has to see them now. Paul [email protected]