Fishtails

Funny Ray....you don't forget to easy do ya Hey, I don't set high goals for myself. I just hope a wheel doesn't fall off my trailer again this year crossing a bridge in the Keys. Don't know If I will catch up with you this time. We are in Flamingo in the Everglades from the 22nd to the 30th and then move to Boyds in Key West till the 4th. Good ideas Choo Choo. Funny you mention charts, cause I ordered a NOAA chart of the everglades and it's like half the size of my boat! You would think they would print both sides to cut down on the size. ...it's really kinda silly how huge this chart is. Without a doubt the biggest chart I have ever seen.

As I prepare my little boat to leave for a two week fish & fun trip to The Everglades National Park and then Key West, I decided to go through my Rapid Ditch Bag and restock as needed. I keep all my safty gear in one bag, and that makes it easy to take it from boat to boat, plus I always know where everything is at if/when I need it. I like the Ditch bag just incase the need ever arrises to abandon ship I have often wondered if it is considered rude to take a ditch bag on someone elses boat? I usually do when I think of it, and nobody has ever acted wierd about it. I just figure I would rather be double prepared than under prepared. Anyway, I thought I would share how I prepare mine. Feel free to share how you prepare yours, and anything I may be overlooking. Personally, I pack mine not only for emergency and/or abandoning the boat, but also for a possible overnight stay on the water if we were to have boat trouble late in the evening. This almost happened twice last year on friends boats, but we got in both times after dark on the kicker, but I had my Ditch Bag both times and felt better about the situation thanks to having it. Here is how I pack mine.... 4 Ready Meals, Bottled Water, Hard Candy, A Flask of Whiskey. Anyone who has fished with me knows I love to eat!! If I am going to be stuck on the water overnight....I want food!! The Whiskey, well if I get stuck having to spend a night on the water with someone I find annoying, I wanna be able to lesson the pain It isn't legal to have alc. on board everywhere, but if I happen to forget and have it on board when I am in Canada or something I figure I can claim it as antiseptic since it's in with my survival gear Waterproof VHF Radio, Hand Held GPS, Air Horn, whistle compass, Sun Screen, 100% deet bug spray, Flashlights, Glow Stick, Batteries, Motion Sickness Med. Handheld Flares, WaterProof Matches, Multi use knife, Scissors, First Aid Kit, Pencil, Pen & Paper Flare Gun & Flares It's pretty darn full and weighs a good bit so I need to check that it still floats when I get to Florida

Congrats on your upcoming purchase....I'm green with envy!! A Hewes Craft is my next, and probably final boat. It's still a couple years out for me so I'll just drool over your boats until then

That hurts man.....

5 seconds. Dude, that would seem like a lifetime to me ! It always seems like if we don't get to it "before" 5 seconds, it's gone. Maybe I have gotten into a bad habit of keeping my drags to tight on diver rods? Wait just a second here....you are just trying to trick me into standing there next year at the Wilson invite watching my diver rod throb In the holder while I stupidly count to five....and loose my fish Ahhh, well played Pauley I think I will continue with my 3 foot power sprints and take my chances

Awesome recap Pauley. All of us who have had the pleasure of attempting to land a big king solo can certainly appreciate the laughter and fun you guys enjoyed. I have a question for you guys. How come when fishing In a big money tourney, diver fish seem to be gone if you don't get to the rod In like 5 seconds, yet on a fun day you can't get them off the hook no matter how many things you do wrong? I am sure you have a good reason to hold it when you do, but that is like the day my kids go back to school.... Almost any other time I would be there, but that day is just impossible. I may need to work it out next year, just to see that you don't get that hat trick What are friends for , right Paul?

Yeah Paul, lets hear what happened bro ? I would do the one man tourney in a heartbeat, that just sounds like an absolute ball, but the timing was bad for me.

Nice Job

I wouldn't, but don't let that stop you from trying it. For the most part you might not have any problems as long as you remember to pull the top rod first. I think your tangles will come when you get a false release. Your fixed cheater will almost certainly catch the stacked line above it on it's way up. I am sure there are other scenario's where they will tangle as well. I figure If you can't get a bite on three spoons, how much is that 4th really going to help ? I have run three riggers, stacked all three and run free sliders off all three top rods with great success....but that's as far as I'd take it.

Hey...since some of you guys love em so much, I got two for sale cheap I really had no problems with ugly sticks till this season. I started setting my releases very tight this season when king fishing, and apparently the Ugly Sticks couldn't handle the stress. Both snapped at the same place, but the Heartlands and Talora's had no problems....kinda speaks for itself if ya ask me. They'd be fine brown rods though.

A LOT less skippies this year....kinda has me concerned. Let's pray for a good tropical storm to take it out of the dec's hands.

A very small percentage take the time to contribute here, and even fewer take the time to say thanks....you are a class act G-Daddy Enjoy the rest of your season.

Thanks Motoman, and Yes...Tom spread it out and paid down to top 18 Tom mentioned that two or three sponsors kicked In at the end so that money & product was used to pay 11th through 18th. I for one was very grateful The A-Tom-mik invitational was very well run and I think everyone enjoyed the event, though the fishing was really tuff and at this caliber zero's make fishermen pretty unhappy. A lot of teams bailed before dinner, probably somewhat soured about the day....but that is fishing. Same thing happened with the fishing In the first Wilson Invitational. With no communication, when the fish pick up and move fast like they did Friday evening and Saturday, nobody can make phone calls to find fish.....gotta love it it give us weekend warriors a glimmer of hope. Definitely give it consideration next season

I knew it had to be something good for you to post a report Lou Congtats to your son...awesome fish!!

I HAD two ugly stick rigger rods, both two years old....both snapped In half this season while popping off the release. The are junk....stay away from them.

Awesome

good report Abe. One of these days I need to get out to the Oak where I hear the fishing is actually somewhat consistent.

I like north Jersey...Sandy Hook region. That is where I fish when I can. Trolling for bass is fun, not as fun as Salmon, but fun I can't help with the Chesapeake area, but here is another place you may find info http://www.thebassbarn.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=5

Thanks!! I am not really sure who is the teacher and who's the student though He keeps me loose and reminds me we are out there to have fun and enjoy the moment. And as kids love to do, he's there to let me know when I screw up ! I was on the rod when we lost a fish we needed behind the boat. It just came unbuttoned, but he says I let the copper get slack and that cost us 6th place.....I just told him maybe he's right and I need to do better next time. I get no praise from him for the good, but he lets me know if I mess up

Did we Brad? a few years back in the scotty? That is where we caught our 1 fish that day ?? I have "passed through" the north dunes a few times before, but never spent any time there that I can recall anyway so that's kinda what I mean, I don't know the area at all. I have run that far north and set up to troll south in the fall, but never did an east/west troll there. I wish I had, maybe I would have had some waypoints there and a better idea where to start but it was 10:30 when we set down there so I just guessed. There was bait and fish out deep, but it really lit up at 175. Would have loved to spend a full day there.

A week or so before The A-Tom-Mik Invitational, I get notice from one of my buddies/ fishing partners Matt. He can't do the invitational due to work. I fish on team Oh Baby with Matt in some tournaments over the season, so we worked it out that I would fish it for him. I had to scramble to put a crew together, so I posted on LOU here and Tangled decided to join myself, my 13 yr old son Justin and Jon (aka Jon's little Salmon) and we would fish for Matt as Team Oh Baby. Friday: I was having trouble deciding where I wanted to fish. I don't fish Oswego much at all, and the weather report was driving me nuts with constant changes in wind direction. One day it said NE 10 to 20...then they change it to SW 10 to 20. I decide to fish out of Mexico Friday, and we set up off the Plant in 80 fow and troll deeper. We were one for three, and really grinding the first couple hours even though the screen looked OK. I wasn't pleased with our productivity, so I pointed nw and headed for deeper water. We picked up a couple hits along the way, and as we got out over 500, we started to have a steady bite. By the time it dried up, we were maybe 9 for 14 or so. Only problem I saw was our biggest was only 17lbs. We did drop a couple good ones though, so we at least had a starting point for Saturday. Saturday...tourney day is here, and I felt good about our chances to squeeze out a top ten if we could just limit our mistakes. After the shotgun start, we head out to our waypoints NE of port. By the time we shut down, we were pretty much all alone....just the way I like it We quickly set up our spread, two riggers (60 & 80), two divers (180 & 250) and two coppers (300 & 450). I notice temp came up from the day before. That made me happy, figuring it would screw up the inside water for some teams. As we start our troll, I found we were actually too alone...no boats, and no fish I decide to leave the deeper water and head in. Once we hit 430 fow, the 300 copper pulling a Big Weenie splatter head meat rig behind a glow/green paddle gets crushed and we land our first fish...20+lbs. Soon as that is in the boat, the 180 wire starts ripping and Justin handles that fish like a pro, just as he always does, killing fish #2. That would be our only fish on a fly the entire day, and for the life of me I can't remember which ff combo it was? Next the 450 copper goes...and like the fish on the 300 copper did, it runs strait for the boat and we had to reel fast as we could to try and catch up. We get lucky, and fish # 3 is put to sleep in our cooler. That fish also hit a Big Weenie ludington destroyer Meat Rig behind a white paddle. I feel good about now, so we work the area for a couple hours....nothing. I have to make a decision...back out deep, continue grinding, or run east ? Based on the fact that our fish were running hard at the boat while we were trolling west, I take a shot that the fish were all on the move....and fast! I guess they are moving east, so I make the call to pick up and run to the North Dunes at 10am. It was a risky call, because I have never really fished the north dunes. I just figured the SW wind would blow the scent line of the salmon river out and north....so the north dunes seamed like a logical choice and I had nobody to talk me out of it I was not sure where to set up, so we shut down in 300 FOW and troll in. That was my only big mistake....I started out to far, to late in the morning. It turns out the fish were there. We marked bait right away...a lot of bait. We take two hits, one on a ff and one on meat, but drop both (one right behind the boat). Then we hit 175 fow and the screen lights up like a video game. We are now running Three coppers (450,500 &600), two wires and one rigger. The 600 copper smokes and Dan (tangled on LOU) battles a nice 22lb king to the net and we got #4 in the box. No sooner than that, the bait balls fall apart...kings drop out of sight and the catching is done. We had a great time. Thanks to Tangled for joining us , and thanks to Jon for joining us Saturday and letting us use his boat for two days. At weigh in, we find it was tough for everyone. Our 4 fish box it turns out wasn't bad, and we ended 12th. Good enough to collect a check. Great tourney....great fun! The one fish we loose at the back of the boat would have put us in 6th....but that's tourney fishing. Coulda, woulda, shoulda. A few teams put it together in tough conditions....my hat is off to them

If you are afraid of loosing it....don't throw it in the water. I figure every time I toss something in the lake, it may be the last time I ever see it. This past trip alone during the A-Tom-Mik Invitational we lost one brand new torpedo weight (first day of usage), full 600 copper, full 450 copper, a dipsey, 2 flasher/flys and 1 flasher/meat rig...that I remember. I agree with Jekyll, even though it's a lot of expense, at the end of the season it is a small fraction of what it costs me to go fishing. If I tangle a copper up bad....if it takes more than 15 minutes to untangle...it gets cut. I have seen guys spend an hour or more trying to fix a mess Try to calculate the gas you burn during that hour...the gas you use during the day, the gas you burn pulling the boat to the lake...the value of that hour during prime fishing time when you get so few hours on the lake......snip! I fish risky and I loose stuff from time to time.....When it starts to bother me, I'll quit and take up bass fishing.

Happy Birthday Buffy....have a great one

Great report Rick congrats on your 5th place. 144 gets 5th....what a year!