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Yeah you should be ok in shallow, wind is blowing here, but doesnt look bad, guess we'll see... Let's go fishin! [ Post made via Android ]

Yea and if they dont know, they should be able to point you to the right person. [ Post made via Android ]

if you were testing how to post pics... test successful Nick

Time to get back to my live reports! The Sodus Bay Healing Waters Salmon Slam went amazingly well last weekend, a big thanks to everyone who helped pull the event together! If you missed the reports and write up about the event check out the thread over at: http://www.lakeontariounited.com/fishing/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=32689&start=225 Well, we had planned on heading up to the lake last night, but on my way back from DC yesterday I76 was shut down and I had the absolute pleasure of sitting in traffic for what seemed like forever So we're headed up now and hoping to fish this afternoon through Sunday. The weather report isn't looking too promising though! Rest Of Today Southeast winds 5 to 15 knots. A chance of showers late this morning...then showers and scattered thunderstorms this afternoon. Some thunderstorms may produce gusty winds late. Waves 1 to 3 feet. Tonight Southeast winds 10 to 20 knots becoming south 5 to 15 knots. A chance of thunderstorms in the evening. Occasional showers. A chance of thunderstorms after midnight. Some thunderstorms may produce gusty winds in the evening. Waves 1 to 3 feet. Saturday South winds 5 to 15 knots becoming southwest. A chance of showers. A chance of thunderstorms in the afternoon. Waves 1 to 3 feet. Saturday Night Southwest winds 10 to 20 knots. A chance of showers and thunderstorms. Waves 3 to 5 feet. Sunday Southwest winds 15 to 25 knots becoming west 10 to 20 knots. A chance of thunderstorms. A chance of showers. Waves 4 to 6 feet subsiding to 2 to 4 feet. With any luck we'll be able to get out a bit and not get too wet! I haven't heard much in regards to fishing this week, but what I did hear is that the water is warm and stable for once. Temp is down deep all the way out to 400fow. Hit and miss fishing pretty much everywhere.

Sounds like a good idea John, let me know what I can do to help. You may want to contact the site admins though, I'm not sure what level of fundraising we're allowed to do if any on LOU. Just to make sure we're playing by the LOU rules, I love this website and wouldn't want to do anything we're not supposed to do! Nick

Troy, here are the best screenshots I could grab from the video...

Yup, you might have been trolling just a tad too close to that boat that was trying to net their fish

Oh it's just those guys? Well this thread is a let down I thought it was some new hot shot moving down from Alaska or something. Now I'm disappointed, Jeff and Tim are a great couple of guys... if you don't like em... send em over to Sodus, we'll gladly take them!

Nailed it! Only way I could justify calling myself an expert is to be a Pro fisherman along with many years of biology studies on Lake Ontario Salmonoids, feeding habits, lifecycle analysis, lots of research papers and studies... then maybe.

If 30lbs is your milestone to mount, you better start saving... a couple more weeks and I won't be surprised if you hit that mark! Lots of em around this year and it's only a matter of time! Nick

A video of our Veteran Dave catching a 10lb steelie. Not sure why the quality is so bad, I might need to remake the video... EG7ioGo_VWA&feature=plcp

hmmm... I might be able to setup my lamprey pie roadside stand yet! Nick

Finders Keepers also posted a video of their vet catching a beauty of a steelie! You can hear how excited he was! mM2VOyz9AGw&feature=plcp

Here's a video one of our volunteers (Jack) took from shore... he was using one of my old video cameras, so please excuse the quality, but it gives a great view of the honorary escort we received on our way out... eMir_CcjY2c&feature=plcp

Musky, It was an honor to meet you this weekend. Thank you for everything you did this weekend. Even though fishing was tough, your vet was all smiles back at dock. I imagine between you and Ray, he had a day he won't soon forget! Nick

Also, for any of you who were in contact with new stations and newspapers... if you could send this press release to them, I'd appreciate it: Healing Veterans One Bite at a Time Sodus Point, NY – August 4th, 2012: At 7am, over 50 disabled/wounded veterans and volunteers departed Arney’s Marina in their tournament boats. They received an honorary escort by the U.S. Coast Guard through the bay and out into Lake Ontario, where they sped off to begin their fishing for the first annual Sodus Bay Healing Waters Salmon Slam Tournament. Boats began catching salmon and trout and unlike most tournaments, quickly shared their lure types and fishing areas across the VHF radio for all of the other teams to hear. The teams realized this tournament was not about prizes and glory, but about sharing a hobby they love with the veterans who have sacrificed so much for our nation. By the end of the morning, fish were caught, memories were made, and everyone had found their smiles. Teams gathered up back at the dock and enjoyed a barbecue while recounting their stories of the big ones that were lost and the ones that were landed. Prizes were given to the biggest fish in each category, and raffle tickets were given to each team based upon the weight of their largest fish. Prizes were then raffled off to both Veterans and Captains. At weigh in, team Cold Water Affair’s veteran took big fish with a 25lb 5oz chinook salmon. Teams Half Wired’s and Fast and Silver’s veterans tied for second place both with 23lb 13oz chinook salmon. Team Drag’n Ball’s veteran took home the trophy for the largest brown trout with a 10lb 15oz bruiser. Team Ruff Rider’s veteran took the 1st place rainbow trout at 9lb 15oz. The Salmon Slam was coordinated by Nicholas and Theresa Allers along with Project Healing Waters (http://www.projecthealingwaters.org). Project Healing Waters is a non-profit organization dedicated to the physical and emotional rehabilitation of disabled active military service personnel and veterans through fishing education and outings.

Ray sounds like a good idea, let me know how much and I can chip in some $ as well.

Sorry for joining so late, needed to get some rest and a few things in order before posting today This weekend was nothing short of amazing. I have never felt so much pride in my fellow fisherman. You all pulled together and made this event happen. Trust me when I say, without each one of you, this event could never have happened! And let's not forget the wives, girlfriends, relatives, friends, and other volunteers who pitched in while many of us were on the lake, without them this event could not have happened either. To story line the morning... At 4:30am, I finally was able to get out of bed... I hadn't slept much that night, the anticipation had me amped like a sugar high 5 year old on Christmas morning. I crawled out of my boat to find that I wasn't the only one. Several fisherman were pacing the marina, I guess I wasn't the only one who was a bit excited! I went over and got the big fancy high tech user manual not included coffee makers ready. Then between Ray tripping the GFCI, me not knowing which end went up, and two or three others we were able to get the coffee brewing At least I was able to get the donuts ready easily enough! Captains began to sign in and the first 15 received awesome Stan's digital scales. I didn't take a scale, but after using one at weigh in, I think I need to buy one, because they were crazy good... didn't bounce around at all and had a "lb oz" mode. At 6am, we held the Captain's meeting with 19 boats in attendance. Mike from Bout Time provided a flag for each boat, which was awesome! We reviewed the plan for the day, answered any questions, and prepared for the arrival of our Veterans. It wasn't long and the veterans began to show up. The veterans from Erie, PA showed up first. Brian, a Project Healing Waters volunteer was their driver and had left at midnight to get them here I would see Brian throughout the day and for a guy that drove 4+hrs after midnight he looked like he was having a blast! The van from Batavia was running late, and a few teams agreed to wait half an hour longer for them. I really appreciated it guys and I'm sorry that the Batavia van didn't show up. These three teams still fished and were eligible for all prizes, except the veteran prizes. At 7am, the boats pulled away from the dock and lined up behind the United States Coast Guard. The US Coast Guard gave us an honorary escort around the point and out through the channel into Lake Ontario. At one point, I looked back and the sight took my breath away... All of those boats, all flying flags, all bonded together to volunteer their time for the event, what an amazing moment, it really choked me up. We reached the end of the channel and the Coast Guard came over the radio... they thanked the Veterans for their service and wished us luck and the boats took off while Finders Keepers and we stayed behind to film the boats going by. Once all the boats were out, we zoomed out and setup in 220fow pointed North. We talked to a couple of other boats before we left and we were going to try deep while they stayed shallow to try and figure out where the fish were. We put our port side diver into the water and started to let it out with a white board green dot spinny and green fly. As that was going out, I started to help Theresa with the starboard side diver. She got that sorted and started to put it out. While I put the probe on the end of the rigger, our Veteran Dave told us a story about a nice 21 inch rainbow he caught a couple of weeks ago... I leaned over to see the port side dipsey at about 200ft and still going out... at about 250 and still being set out ... zing zing ZING it started screaming and Dave was on the rod A few minutes later a 10lb steelie hit the deck! We were stoked! We announced what the fish was caught on and our depth and then we heard the radio come alive! "Green Dolphin hooked up on the salmon slam spoon over 130ft", "Tacklebuster hooked up on green penguin over 130ft", on and on all morning, teams helping eachother out with information and sharing in their joy. I've never had so much fun just listening to the radio. We took two shots on the 100ft rigger with no one home, and then took a shot on the 80ft rigger with the salmon slam spoon. The rod popped and we all just kinda looked at eachother thinking someone else was going to get it... once we realized no one was getting it, Dave jumped up to the rod, but the fish was gone. It slowed down for us over 400fow and the South wind was blowing hard with solid 3 footers hitting us hard. We heard boats hitting fish in shallower with smaller waves so we headed back in. Over 250fow, the SI Org flag our company gave us went flying off the back of the boat! Yikes it was windy, the flag sunk immediately and was gone. A few minutes later the 100ft rigger pops and Dave jumps on it! The rod didn't bend hard, but there was definitely something on it... a small laker or brown I was thinking... as it gets closer to the boat, we realize what it is... holy cow it's OUR FLAG!!!! The flag had somehow sunk and got caught not on the hook, but on the spin doctor!! It was just wrapped on it and came right off when we got it into the boat... AWESOME! With about 15 minutes left, we started joking about how maybe we'd finish the way we started, when the 275 dipsey with a bloody death board and fly started screaming... Dave was on it! As the fish started screaming out line he looked at us with that look everyone gets with their first big lake king... big smile, wide eyed, giddy. We got the fighting belt out, wrapped it around Dave, and said go get em! That fish didn't give up until it was in the net, an absolutely awesome fight! A few minutes later, 11:30 came around and we announced it was time to pull lines. A few boats that hadn't landed any fish yet asked if it was ok to stay out a bit later, absolutely! (I warned them we might not have any burgers left by the time they get in though We ended up having about 80 left over though haha) On the way in, a lot of boats were going in through the channel at the same time. The DEC was there doing creel surveys, but we had arranged ahead of time to have them let the Salmon Slam boats pass and have someone at the weigh in to do the creel surveys and head scans (sorry I'm not sure I let every boat know that). We docked and began the weigh in. It was definitely a tough day of fishing, but quite a few teams had some luck. A couple of the teams lost fish due to nets, a certain team almost lost a fish due to their prop. I need to buy them shirts that say "You might be a redneck if you've ever had to tape a fish back together..." After weigh in, Cold Water Affair took first place with a 25lb 5oz salmon, Half Wired and Fast and Silver tied for second place with 23lb 13oz. The rules stated that the first team to weigh in would be placed ahead, but since I got in a bit late I wasn't sure which team was first... so we drew for it and Fast and Silver was drawn. We were able to give Half Wired a nice Big Weenie prize pack, but I apologize for the lack of coordination. Next year, the rule will be changed to a drawing, which I think is the fair way to do it. My Ruff Rider team took first place for Steelhead with our 9lb 15oz. Team Drag'n Balls took 1st place brown with 10lb 15oz and were also the only team to hit a Salmon Slam grand slam, a king, a steelie, a brown, and a fish caught on the Salmon Slam spoon. They also won the Salmon Slam Spoon prize with their 10lb 15oz brown being the biggest fish caught on the Salmon Slam spoon. We then gave out raffle tickets, one to each veteran, and to the captains based upon their largest fish, 1 ticket for 0-9lbs, 2 tickets for 10-19lbs, 3 tickets for 20-29lbs. We had some great prizes that we raffled off to both veterans and captains. I was extremely jealous of Wayne (Stoutner) who walked away with an awesome Frabil net and Ray K who got the range finder. Guys would love to see some pics of those puppys out of their packaging! We then enjoyed some burgers, hot dogs, pasta, potato and pasta salad, salt potatoes, cookies, cake, and of course lamprey pies! Thanks to everyone who brought food! A special thanks to Katherine for the Wegman's donation and bringing it, sorry I never got to meet you or say hi! A special thanks to Brian from PHW for cleaning a ton of fish! All of the other photos I took can be found at: http://www.photobucket.com/salmonslam Please upload a copy of any pictures you took to that same folder as I'd like to put together a compilation of all of them! I have a lot of video as well, that I'll try to compile over the next few weeks. I need to get some video from Finders Keepers as well! Again, thank you all for putting together this event with us, there is no way we could have done it without you. I spoke with the regional Project Healing Waters coordinator today and he said he received multiple phone calls from the veterans letting him know what an amazing time they had. I can tell you I had several of the veterans come up to me and let me know how much fun they had out on the boats today. A couple of them said they didn't catch any fish, but they didn't care as it was one of the best days they have had in a long long time. Please know that the work everyone did today more than likely changed people's lives today. Now for the question on everyones' minds... who's ready for next year? Nick

Get the sea sickness patch, end of story. Theresa tried everything else and nothing worked... after several trips using the patches, she got "used" to the motion and now very rarely gets sea sick. Nick

Anything over 3 and we're out. [ Post made via Android ]

Thank you everyone who helped make this event a success. Ill have more after a bit of ac and rest, but here's the scoreboard! [ Post made via Android ]

[ Post made via Android ]

Let's go fishin! [ Post made via Android ]

Let's do this!!! [ Post made via Android ]