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A note from Theresa and I to the Captains that volunteered at Sodus and Hughes this weekend:

We thank each of you for your sacrifice this weekend and taking a Veteran fishing. Do not under estimate the difference it makes. We had Veterans come shake our hands in tears, because of how grateful they were for the day you spent with them and talk to us about how many of the Veterans look forward to our event the entire year. We hope that this single day helps them focus on the future, instead of horrors of the past, and builds memories to focus on, during those rough days.

For a bit, there wasn't much chatter on the radio... just "where's temp" and "what ya seeing?"... then bam! The radio came alive with joyous voices of FISH ON!

Boat after boat announced catching fish and you could hear the glee in their voices, likely due to watching the wide eyes of their Veterans as big kings screamed out line!

I think Theresa and I tried just about every lure on the boat and went from 100 to 250fow and just couldn't buy a bite! Finally, I looked at our Vet Bill around 11am and said "get out of Dave's seat!" Dave was the Vet we brought out the previous four years that couldn't make it this year due to a surgery. Bill started cracking up and called Dave and gave him heck for cursing us. Dave said "put out my purple lure!". So we put out the bloody death board and fly he caught his fish on last year. It wasn't down 5 minutes and started screaming! I handed the rod to Bill and he started fighting the king... that was when the 95 rigger popped... DOUBLED!!!!

I grabbed the rigger rod and a big king launched out of the water like a steely and started going bezerk! I swapped rods with Bill and his new king started peeling out line! The other rod went into the rod holder to wait.

Bill did an awesome job on the rod and I netted his 21lb king! He was ecstatic and a bit tired... so I did what any good Captain would do... I handed him the second fish and said get to it soldier! Hahaha

The second fish was smaller, but as he fought it he asked if I made any of my famous Ruff Rider Lamprey Pies. I told him I hadn't caught many this year, so no. Sure enough, his king comes in with a HUGE lamprey on it! Theresa said watching Bill and I dancing around the back of the boat yelping every time the lamprey came at us was hilarious! We put the fish on the cooler just as the bloody death started screaming again... really screaming! I handed it to Bill and it dumped the reel and then poof, gone. It was 12 at that point and we pulled to head in, picking up a shaker while pulling.

We headed in to weigh in and an awesome BBQ by RFH's Hideaway Restaurant... seriously, some of the best chicken I have ever had!

We began weigh in and team Its A Fishal took grand prize salmon

team Half Wired took first place salmon

team Harry Bee took first place steely

and team Tri-Lakes / Dipsy Draggin took first place brown

Team Dipsy Draggin also put their Veteran on a 20lb laker, which took 10th place in the LOC!!! The Veteran was ecstatic and was talking about getting his monster mounted [emoji2]

We handed out prizes and shared many stories from throughout the day, before wishing our Veterans farewell.

Saturday - Salmon Slam

The wind had died down Friday evening, giving many of us hope that the forecast was wrong. At 1AM, I woke up to the sound of the wind roaring, our scoreboard blowing over, and chairs flying... the next three hours were spent tossing and turning figuring out options for the event.

4am... I crawled out of bed and out of the boat and was greeted with a strong East wind. I checked the forecast and radar and saw a huge storm over Western NY headed our way... my heart sank. Wind and lightning. I said a little prayer and started picking chairs up.

A few minutes later, the wind slowed... Captains and Volunteers started showed up early to offer help in getting ready... my spirits were raised and the Salmon Slam began!

Everyone signed in and we had a quick Captain's meeting. Then the Veterans left with their Captains and boats began pulling into the bay.

The Coast Guard and Fire Department pulled up by boat, started their lights, and 30 boats were up on plane headed for the chute.

The piers had local residents waving flags to wish our Veterans safe voyage!

The chute was INCREDIBLY rough and I was worried many of us would need to turn around, but Theresa called out " Look the lake looks flat!". It wasn't flat, but it wasn't terrible! Let's go fishing!

We got out to 100fow and started setting up.

Wow, what a weekend! First, let me thank all of the Captains from both Sodus and Hughes who volunteered their time and boats to take our wounded and disabled Veterans fishing. As well, thank you to our many sponsors that take this event to the next level.

I was called on a last minute work trip last week and had to fly down to NC on Wednesday and then straight to Syracuse on Thursday. The lovely Mrs Ruff Rider and Ruff (Theresa and Tavion) picked me up and off we went! Thursday night was spent tracking down last minute sponsor donations, shirts orders, and BFF payments as well as finishing stuffing the Captain and Veteran welcome bags. We also found some time to begin setting up Arney's event area with some of the tents, banners, tables, etc. It was a beautiful evening.

Big Fish Friday

The forecast was for rough seas, but at 430am it was pretty calm. We received the last of our BFF entries in the morning, making it 25 boats and $625 raised for the event and $625 for the pot (thank you everyone!). We left the dock at 530 and headed out to start fishing. Theresa hadn't woken up yet, so I figured I would take it slow through the chute and onto the lake and let her sleep.

The lake wasn't too bad, maybe 2fters, but I gave it a bit too much gas and heard from below "I.... GUESS.... IT.... IS.... TIME... TO... WAKE... UP?" Oops, sorry hun! We setup in 100fow and started trolling with the screen lit up with hooks. I don't think we were setup for more than 5 minutes when my phone started to ring and ding from sponsors, volunteers, and participants of the tourney and I don't think it stopped until this morning. So to say we weren't too concentrated on fishing is an understatement. Luckily.... the fish understood our plight and left us alone the entire morning to take care of tourney business[emoji38] Throughout the early morning, the wind continued to build pretty rapidly, until it was gusting at a steady 20mph from the North. Theresa hadn't put her patch on the night before per Captain's orders and was paying the price. I think it was around 10am when I looked out the back and saw a monster wave coming for us... it was one of those that you see a few sets back and you're looking more UP at it than straight at it... all I could think was "well this is gonna suck". Sure enough it slammed into us tripling our speed and popping each rod I had set. I took that as the lake telling me, get back to shore and take care of this tourney! I listened and we headed back in to a nice breakfast at Nick's Diner.

At 12pm we started weighing fish in for BFF and there were a lot of big fish coming to the scales. Team Finders Keepers took the pot with a 27.32lb bruiser! Congrats guys!

Friday night....

We headed to Dockers restaurant at Oak Park Marina for our Salmon Slam dinner with the Captains, Volunteers, and Veterans. The turnout was great with 77 people in attendance. We mingled, joked, and talked a bit of pre tournament trash talk (which would come back to bite me). The Veterans were assigned boats and introduced to their teams for the next day, which I thought worked well this year. The food was great and the company was better. Those that stayed to the end got to partake in a bit of ad hoc karaoke was well.

Congratulations everyone! Now bring on the big money and let's get some fish on that Fall Derby leaderboard in a couple of weeks!

The 2xl was mine

Sent from my XT1254 using Lake Ontario United mobile app

Ok will send you a message with info...

Nick when can we expect our shirts we paid for??

Sent from my XT1254 using Lake Ontario United mobile app

Jerry brought all of the shirts over to Highes on Friday. There was one 2XL that didn't get made or billed, I am not sure who's that was.

Sorry folks, had a lot going on today! We ended up 3 for 4 today in the last hour of fishing. I'll have a full write up on the Salmon Slam tournament thread early next week.

Hughes results...

I'll have more after I recoup a bit, but here are the Sodus results...

300 dipsey and 95 rigger SCREAMIN! DOUBLED!!!

Way to go! Keep em coming!

Channel was nasty, lake isnt too bad.

Let's go fishing ... with Vets!

Cold water moved in. 48F down 70 over 170fow.

Let's go fishing... with Vets!

Awesome dinner tonight at Dockers. 77 Veterans and fishermen!

BFF results! Congratulations team Finders Keepers!

BFF results! Congratulations to team Finders Keepers!

Bite has shut down for the other boats. We are still marking hooks in 100fow, but still no action. Getting too rough out here for us, gonna pick up soon.

Hey Nick I can see white caps crashing over pier. You should rename the Friday event to "big-wave Friday". How big is the surf?

I know, I can't catch a break with the weather.

2-4s with 5-7s tossed in for fun.

Lots of hooks at 90ft in 140fow, just cant get them to go. REALLY rough out here.

Salmon Slam facebook is livestreaming!

Bumpy out here. Temp is down ~100 over 140fow. Boats are catching, just not us haha

Oops, let's go fishing!