Paul Czarnecki

My experience with Vanish has been similar to Rustyrat. Use it and you will definitely see things "vanish"---your fish, your lure.......

Things are being finalized Matt. We should have the unified Rules posted within a few days. Paul

Hi Dick, I have the bigger "Scotty" antenna on my Big Jon's. I needed it to use the Big Jon auto stop. Like Glen said..."No Problems".

I don't think it'll work. Perhaps Atomik Tom will chime in here but, in my experience, you won't get all that on a 47H. I use 47H's for my rigger rods and 5 color cores. With 5 colors of core I can only get about 200 yards of backing---at that's with only 50 yards of core. Of course, if you went with a superbraid backing and maybe not as much you "might" be able to do it. A 330GTI would be a better bet though.

The date is right Clarke. Everything got moved this year--Niagara and Orleans went to first and second respectively to maximize fishing opportunities in both ports and Oswego and Sodus both moved back a week because of when the Fourth of July fell. See you at the captain's meeting! paul

Hi Matt, For Olcott your best bet will be the town Marina. Call Dawn the first Saturday in April to reserve your dock. For lodging in Olcott there are lots of cottages for rent. You can find phone numbers on the Boat doctors website for both lodging and the marina. www.olcottfishing.com For Oak Orchard you should think about either Lake Breeze or Four C's. Again, cottages and rooms abound--just call early. www.attheoak.com See ya at the Captain's meeting! Paul

I wasn't telling Nick to "slander" the taxidermist. However, I've dealt with client complaints about taxidermists for the past 15 years as Taxidermy Association President and Taxidermy Examiner for the State of PA. Everyone is quick to complain but no one wants to "name names" and the situation just continues forever. As Tom B. said, Nick gave the taxidermist pictures with explicit instructions. Sure mistakes do get made but, in my experience, this is a pretty big "mistake". A mistake that a lot of people would just brush off and say "It looks nice". I'll stand by my initial impression here---the taxidermist took the "easy way out" and did a 2 hour paint job on a fish that should have had a 2 day paint job--in order for the finished product to look like Nick wanted (and the pictures suggested). Just my opinion. I hope things work out for the best for you Nick. Good luck! Merry Christmas everyone! Paul

Nick, you might want to let everyone know who did the work---just as an FYI so it doesn't happen to someone else. It looks to me that the taxidermist found doing chromers too tough and went the easy route in painting your fish. Did you research the taxidermist's work? Did you actually physically SEE chromers in his/her showroom? Painting a chrome steelhead PROPERLY is one of the most difficult paint jobs to master. Its also the most time consuming. Its not unusual for me to have three full days in just the painting on a summer steelhead. On the other hand, a stream steelhead is about the easiest fish to paint. I can paint a 34 inch stream steelhead in about 2 hours. Ship the fish back to the taxidermist with the PRINTED photos of the actual fish and ask that your mount be painted like the photos. There should be no additional charge (other than shipping) because it was clearly the taxidermist's fault. Good luck and Merry Christmas! Paul

Most good taxidermists can give you a reproduction with length and girth measurements and a decent picture. If no pics are available its not a big deal,with me anyway--I just need to know when (what month) the fish was caught. Prices for repros are (or should be) comparable to skin mounts. If the taxidermist is doing the amount of detail work he "should" be on a skin mount he will be putting in almost as much time as he would be in prepping and painting a repro. I won't post my prices (for anything) on Forums because it always results in an argument and does no good to anyone. What you need to keep in mind when looking for taxidermy work is that you will be looking at the mount for the rest of your life. If you actually "care" about what hangs on your wall or sits on your shelf you need to remember the Golden Rule of Taxidermy: YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR! That said, you can email me through my website and I can send you some rates and pics of recently completed client fish. These pics aren't on my site yet so I'll have to email them to you. Have a great Holiday! Paul www.tristatetaxidermy.com

LOL....Why would I mount a 13# steelhead from Erie when I catch much larger steelies every summer out of the Oak? It was a nice fish but really wasn't that pretty. I didn't do anything with that big wallyeye either (other than fillet it). It too was sort of an ugly fish. Most all of the fish I do any more are reproductions---certainly any fish I do for myself are repros, although I am planning on doing a skin mount of a brown my wife caught for some upcoming competitions. See ya on the water! Paul

For the past twenty years I have fished all over Lake Ontario. I docked for 13 years in Olcott before moving to the Oak 6 years ago. In fishing the ProAm Tournaments I have been fortunate to have fished from Port Dalhousie, CAN. to Oswego, NY and most of the ports in between. I can honestly say that, day in and day out, OAK ORCHARD is, BY FAR, the most consistent port on the Lake. And I will agree with Tim, it is one of the easiest ports on the lake to get info about. "Most" of the captains there are among the most helpful you will find anywhere. But, then again, I'm a little biased since that is now my home port. I still travel both west and east for the tournaments but I LOVE coming back to the OAK! Paul Free Spirit

DEFINITELY do it Bill. I did mine as well as my dad's last year and when we pulled the boats this fall they still looked like new. I doubt I will have to do anything to it in the spring.

Rich, Rich, Rich......sorry to hijack this thread but the statement you made about a salmon tail being "folded over" caused by the fish laying on the bottom is totally false. The condition you're referring to is a genetic abnormality and normally manifests itself by the fish's second year. I cannot remember the scientific name for the condition but "laying on the bottom" has nothing to do with it. Look at a live salmonid in a tank. ANY trout or salmon laying near the bottom will actually orient itself (angled slightly down) so that its tail is free and clear of the bottom---squashing its tail into the bottom would impede escape. While some salmon and trout may, occasionally, lay so close to the bottom so as to "fold over" their caudal fins it is physically impossible to actually permanently alter the bony fin rays and their originating roots in the caudal peduncle. I'll see if I can find the actual name of the condition you're referring to. Hope you had a good season! See ya in the spring. Paul

Mick, Mick, MICK.....we gotta work on your terminology. You are not a "cook". A "cook" is someone in an outcamp cooking beans and weenies on a camp stove. YOU are a "Culinary technician" or an "Executive Chef". Try those terms when you ask Steve for that pay raise. They will work MUCH better than "cook". See ya out there! Paul Free Spirit

East end Challenge Cup entry fees must be paid by the deadline for the Oswego tournament which is June 29th. Your entry will need to be paid to the "Greater Oswego/Fulton Chamber of Commerce"no later than June 29th. Simply send it in with your Oswego entry but make sure you properly designate everything on your entry form. You can see all the details and get the entry forms at: www.lakeontarioproam.com See ya there! Paul

HI Clarke, I'll try to answer your questions in order. #1. You may take your "bonus" laker at any time during the fishing day. A laker would only be a "throw back" if you already had one. #2 The verbiage in the rules is not the same for Pros and Ams because the rules are different. For Pros the "first legal limit" brought on board must be kept and there can be no releasing of fish except, possibly, those falling in the 1/2 inch buffer zone. For Ams the limit is 6 fish (salmon, steelhead or browns). Fish may be released provided they are are not netted or brought on board the boat. We suggest simply grabbing the lure with pliers and popping the hook out without bringing the fish aboard. This rule was worded as such to allow the more successful Amateur fishermen to release small fish and keep larger fish and to allow the "less successful" Amateur fishermen to at least "feel" competitive. In the end, the best fisherman will still win. #3. A "tournament legal" lake trout is any laker that is over the 18 inch minimum size set forth by the tournament. As you said, since there is no real slot limit now ANY laker over the 18 inch minimum qualifies as a tournament legal fish. Hope I've helped. If you have any more questions feel free to call me at 716-390-0085. Paul

The best thing for him/you to do would be to give his name and contact info to the tournament heads to be put on the observer list. They are: Mike Waterhouse--Orleans Co--585-682-4925 Dave Turner--Oswego Co--800-596-3200 Chris Kenyon--Wayne Co--800-527-6510 Every year we have teams that are scrambling to find an observer. We've been putting together "observer lists" to eliminate the anxiety of trying to find someone. See ya at the captian's meeting! Paul

The fishing should be great! With things delayed by all the ice coming down the Niagara the fishing should be really hot. I said "should". Nature has a way of catching up when she lags behind on things. Did you notice the leaves popping all at once? The fish could do the same thing---a couple of weeks of hot fishing and then right to transition. Who knows? The only thing I know for sure is it will be fun as always! While we're on the subject you should give some thought to fishing the Orleans County ProAm the week before. It will give you a chance to prefish for Niagara (which you should do anyway) and it will also allow you to qualify for the Western Challenge Cup. Oak Orchard is the perfect port for a tournament like this and the timing couldn't be more perfect with Niagara one week later. You can fish one while prefishing the other. The mail in deadline is May 18th and you can also pay via Paypal by visiting the website: www.lakeontarioproam.com Either way....I'll see ya at the Captain's meeting! Good luck! Paul Free Spirit

Teams may include minor children however, "someone" has to assume "guardianship" of the child if his/her parents are not present. As an older (over 18) brother that would be YOU. See you at the meeting! Paul

HI Jeff, Although there are several marinas upriver that should have dockage your best bet will be Lake Breeze or 4 C's. Both are WALKING distance to the Black North! Call Doug at Lake Breeze at: 585-682-3995 or Gene at 4C's at: 585-682-4224 I wouldn't delay too long Jeff. The last report I had was that BOTH marinas were getting full for the ProAm. I know for a fact that Doug only has 2 spots left--as of Monday. Its going to be a GREAT tournament. See you at the Captains' meeting! Paul

Scott, 15 to 20 inches seems to work fine. I haven't found one "perfect" length for the baby doctors--if its going to work it just works.

The orange flavors are probably the best coho medicine I've found in a long time. They worked very well for us and Team Vision Quest last year in the Niagara ProAm. Team them up with Sigg's Rigs "Coho Candy" in blue or blue/green. I run them on 5 and 10 color cores as well as my divers. Paul Free Spirit

Hi Janz, Yep, you read the rule wrong. I should preface what I'm about to say with, nothing OFFICIAL has been published on the rules yet. Everything that is out there is complete speculation based on the results of the committee meeting. That said, what I can tell you is that ALL Am observers are required to have licenses. If you want to only fish 2 members to a team you may still run the 6 rods. If you have 3 members on a team you may only run 6 rods. This rule was put in place because of many requests by (potential) Am participants that said they would fish the tournament if they could do so with just two team members and not feel "undergunned". It was designed to encourage more participation and build the Am Division. By the way, that rule has been used with great success by several tournaments in Michigan for several years now. It doesn't give anyone an advantage or a handicap it simply allows for more participation by more teams without compromising the event (like going to a smaller boat limit). See ya on the water! Paul

Steve You're right---I'm getting tired of typing. This will be my last post on this for a while because I really need to get to work finalizing these rules and, somehow, have to find a way to make some money this week. You think open communication sucks? Volunteering sucks MORE! I couldn't agree with you more about the enforcement of the rules. Actually that was the very reason I decided to get involved in the ProAm committees several years ago. There has always been a lot of waffling, flip flopping and indecision when it comes to things like this. "We don't want to offend anyone" is something heard a lot in areas such as this. That is why it is SO important to have a unified set of rules that everyone can understand and abide by. If you take away the questionable ones and everyone understands everything then AND ONLY THEN can you enforce the rules with any kind of authority. Lawyers LOVE cases of "mistreatment" or "unfair policies" being imposed on the little guy. Its a sad fact but ALL of the tournaments are on a VERY thin line when it comes to community support. Newfane Business Assoc., Oak Oarchard Business Assoc. and the counties of Wayne and Oswego are allowing us to put on these tournaments this year. How much support do you think they would give us if they had a pending lawsuit because someone was disqualified because of a technicality or an "unclear" rule and decided to get a lawyer? With a $10,000 purse in all 4 tournaments this year it could happen. Lawyers have been known to sue for a heck of a lot less. Personally, I would rather deal with a rule or a situation I wasn't particularly fond of than not have a tournament to fish at all. If anyone has any other comments, concerns or questions please feel free to call me, Bob Cinelli or your tournament directors. Simply sitting back and saying you're not going to participate because you don't like the rules isn't helping anyone. Get involved. Volunteer to help at the tournament or on the committee itself. NOW.....back to the rules. Paul

You are partially correct Steve. In Niagara, where the new GPS rules were first implemented, there was a lot of confusion and mistakes on the part of both the committee and the competitors. Not everyone paid attention in the captain's meeting (big surprise there) and, as a result, only 8 people had their scoresheets correct. Because the committee decided that it was as much to blame for the confusion as the competitors it was decided (on the advice of the County Sheriff) to simply advise the competitors that they did not follow directions and to allow the scores to count. What the committee should have done is include a sample scoresheet with the packets that clearly demonstrated what needed to be done. Mike Waterhouse did that in the Orleans tournament the following weekend and there were no problems. Please keep in mind that any actions taken by the tournament committees are done so for the good of the tournaments and often involve decisons that, at first, might not be very popular. Sometimes we need to be protected from ourselves. Everyone wanted unified rules. We finally have them. We also have some VERY exciting changes for the Challenge Cup and the Amateur Divisions. PLEASE, let's all try to calm down and wait for everything to be publicized. They will be easy to understand and follow. Try it for a year---if you still don't like something let the committees know and we will change it for next year. Taking your ball and going home and never playing again is not going to help anything.