Fishtails

Nice job

Looking forward to it Chris. Never fished Jon's derby before but I'll be up with my son Justin. I think he's ready to get this tournament season underway!

Just thought I'd give a quick thumbs up to Sterndrive Engineering. I have two of their outdrives on my boat and last summer one started to make noise. It got us through the season, but did get a bit louder. I pulled it off and found it was still under their 3 year warranty by few months so I sent it in and within a week I had my outdrive back...all brand new except the outer shell (probably for seriel # reasons). My other drive is actually a season older and has been problem free to date. The problem appeared to be in the upper gear case, but they replaced the upper AND lower, and turnaround was only one week

Now that's using some imagination Rollie

Was just thinking the same thing Vince, I need to make sleeping reservations. Is this tourney a go? I sure hope so, and will gladly give a hand if needed.

Exactly ! You are comparing a new product and company with no viable track record to Fish Hawk.....who has the best warrenty service and customer service of anyone I have ever dealt with! Trevor, from Fish Hawk, has replaced both my x-4 probe AND my display at no cost based on nothing but a phone call explaining what my problem was. It turned out I got a faulty probe, but he replaced both...no charge and no hassle and it was over a year after purchase. Most people never have to use their customer service, but it's awesome when needed. I think it's great to see new companies push the boundries of new design and innovation. It keeps everyone on their heels and us consumers win in the end. I have not looked at this product yet, but if the price is anywhere close to Fish Hawk why buy it before a trusted Pro Staff is developed and the product has been tested be people we know and trust? Just my opinion and I hope it all works out for them....from the little I read here it sounds like it has a possible market if they can get the price down OR get the right people talking about it.

Guys, My opinion for this event....boat size should not be a factor in you fishing this tournament or not. That goes for Pro or Am, and my guess is anyone who has ever fished this great event will back me up. The reason boat size plays a lessor role is the time of year, water temps, and where the fish tend to be concentrated. Every year is different, and last year was an exception but this spring should fall somewhere in between. Some years we are fishing very shallow...10 to 60 fow. Fishing 50 fow is not uncommon at all. In those situations where you find yourself 50 ft or less, I firmly believe a smaller boat has the advantage over boats with larger footprints (maybe the early spring and late fall are the only times I feel this way). Sure, last year most of us fished 100 to 200, but I think that was a first and it was a record warm winter & spring. This year isn't shaping up to be as drastic and the fishing could be awesome. I am fishing the Pro division out of my 24, and I have no worries what size boats I will compete against cause it makes very little difference in this tourney. Now Wilson....that is a different story and it's become more of a big boat tourney, but the spring KOTL is the perfect event for smaller boats to succeed and sometimes even have the upper hand over the bigger rigs. Think about it & hope to see some of you guys there....can't wait!!!

The extra keel sounds great Tom, maybe I found a use for my $100 gift certificate....so add that into your equation Guess I am in the minority, but I have really drifted away from my otter boats in favor of the Church TX-44. I use my otters from time to time, esp. on my 600 copper, but I would never even consider fishing without my Inline boards. Everything has an upside and a downside, and the tx-44 is no exception, but In the end my landing percentage on my copper is higher with the inline boards than on the otter so that's what we run more and more. Many days I will run my otter on one side and Church inlines on the other side. I never run two Otters anymore.

Nice!!! Thanks for stepping up again Oswego Born....every town should be so lucky to have someone such as yourself to give back to the community. The Oswego Quality Inn rocks! We are in Tom. If I can get the kids together for that week, we will enter a kids team in the am division as we did in Sodus last year. If not, we'll enter the Pro division. I like 12 fish, but it's to hard on a kids team...they like to play around some and I like to let them....keeps it fun for them. Even though they showed they can compete with the big guys, I don't want to put them in a position to"need" every fish they hook so 6 to 9 fish is my limit for them. We'll use it to polish up for your Invitational.....looking forward to 2013!

Thanks guys....Lily really enjoys her day at LOTSA and Big Weenie Brand really goes out of the way for her to produce a special fly for her each year at LOTSA. You'll hear that fly mentioned a lot this season I think. Thanks for all the cookies you all picked up from her. She sold out of her 72 fly's, but you still kept the cookies moving and she ended up selling 102 boxes ! That is 30 more than last year with a good 200 less people, so thank you and please keep us posted on your success stories with her fly....knowing it catches fish will really make her happy!

It's back and we have a wicked fly this year. Like last year, Lily will have her Girl Scout cookies at the Big Weenie / Jon's Little Salmon booth (center Isle as usual). She'll be giving one free fly with a box of Girl Scout cookies ($4.) Thanks again to Big Weenie for producing and donating these fly's to help out the Girl Scouts of America. Lily designed and named this years fly with just a tiny bit of help from her dad and Big Weenie tied it up so you know it's gonna kick butt this season. I'm predicting it will be one of the best flies of 2013...it's smokin! So, we only have 72 Big Weenie Brand Lily Pad fly's. Lily will have every flavor of Girl Scout Cookies and lots & lots of them. She sold out last year, so ya might wanna hit her up right off the bat cause this fly is gonna be gone before you know it and it's only available at LOTSA. A few pics.... Lily a few weeks ago in the "design stage" Lily hard at work bagging the Fly's The Lily Pad See ya all at LOTSA. We'll have lots of Big Weenie Brand products as usual. Get your Big Weenie fly's now....last year stock ran low during the season and last I heard Cabelas's was calling so this year could find limited supplies again. I had all kinds of people calling me looking for spooks last season.....get em at LOTSA while we have them

Very sorry to hear this Ray.

Ditto to what Dex said.....that would be very cool. I had pretty much given up hope.

I would have put money on you popping off some of your factless words of tournament wisdom Bluegill I personally have fished every tournament on the lake over the past 6 years except the Sandy Creek Shootout (because of the conflict of The Little Salmon River Challange on the same day) and I have not seen you even once....so where does all this tournament wisdom you seem to be so well endowed with come from ? Thanks for crashing this thread dude and reminding us once again that you have very little idea of what you are talking about. I guess what you are implying is that all the fish caught and culled during tournaments makes it less likely you will have a chance of catching a 40 lb fish ? First of all one has little to do with the other. Secondly, are you saying it's more important that you catch a 40 lb fish than it is for the tournaments to continue to pump hundreds of thousands into the local economy every year? I guess your selfish agenda is pretty clear. Oh...and for the record, nobody that fishes tournaments regularly does it for profit....very few (if any) make money over the long haul fishing tournaments and you would know that if you fished them. Expenses are unreal and along with the wear and tear it puts on the boat...it's not who makes the most fishing tournaments, but who losses the least. Most of us enjoy the competition and gathering....that is our agenda. Those who do it for money disappear from the scene real quick.

So very true!! I think that's as good a way to look at it as there ever will be, and how the Pro Am's defined a pro for many years until they eliminated the Am division. As Ivan mentioned though, there is no captians Lic. in Canada so it's not so cut and dry in his KOTL events. This subject comes up each year. I remember a few complaining here on LOU last year when a couple "captians" fished the west end open division in the Pro Ams. Imo, way to many fishermen underestimate themselves while at the same time putting far to much value on a captians license. I'm not a licensed Captian at this point in time, but as far as I know they don't teach you how to fish during your training classes Tournaments are great fun and I think Ivan has a good idea with adding an Am division to his series. For someone like myself, it wouldn't pay to fish the am after all my expenses of getting to Canada, but for the locals it will be an awesome way to get involved.

Thanks Vince, that is good to hear about the west end being a go. I am not going to say I like the format of last year, but I like it better than nothing at all so you won't hear any complaints from me.....I just like to fish Whatever format...I am ready to go

This thread has come as a shock to me, I was under the impression that the west end pro Ams were a go all along. I hope they pull it together....I was planning on fishing both west end events. Always has to be some sort of drama with the Pro Ams....

Sounds like a great idea Ivan! Looking forward to kicking off the 2013 tourney season at St. Catherines

Very sorry for your loss Richard.

Nice Mahi Mahi Al I usually go to the Keys in Florida for a week or two in the winter, and It's great fishing but a pricey trip. This year we are changing it up and going to Flamingo Campgrond in The Everglades National Park for the first 9 days of our trip....then to Key West for the last 4 days. Flamingo is cheap...$30 a night for an RV spot or you can tent it if that is what you prefer. It's right on the Florida bay at the very bottom of the state, directly across from the keys (45 minute boat ride over to The Keys). I hear the fishing is crazy good, I will let you know. We leave this Friday so I'll post a report on how the fishing & campground is.