Fishtails

I am definitely stuck! We need an observer bad, as this was a last minute decision to fish and help out our friends Oh Baby, who can't make it.

I so wish I could have been there to help out and be a part of such a good cause. Way to go Nick, Theresa and everyone else who helped out. I bet the vets had a blast!

OK, think we have our extra teammate covered....still in need of an observer!!

Nick...I checked the tracking info and The Big Weenie prize pack is out for delivery It should be there today when the mail man shows up...USPS delivery...

I agree with you Jeff...I don't like the 3 fish either. Needs to be more. I liked 9, but I realize that won't happen so 5 sounds like a good in between number. Make it the same as the Trophy box for the Pro's.

OK, spot back open

God darn it...I got sucked back into this conversation .... One thing I totally don't get Jeff. I would like some type of reform, but why would you say get rid of the open? Am I actually hearing this right? The first time In years we have seen dozens of new teams and you want to get rid of it ??? I am almost speechless...lol I missed the am this year, but just bringing it back with no solutions in place to cure it's yearly decline In participation won't work. We keep hearing the decline was due to rule changes, or whatever bs excuse you want to give it. Some of that is absolutely true, but there are plenty of other factors involved. Some we can't fix and some you don't want to. Times change. The observer is a big sticking point when trying to grow the am division. A few of us want it, but most don't. It deters families too. If I fish it with my kids and my observer doesn't show, what do I do.....I have to drop out because I have nobody to send. That creates a lot of stress and anxiety. Lots of small teams don't want 5 people on their little boat ( 4 man team plus observer) but if you go with a team of three and your observer doesn't show, you send a teammate and you are down to two.... If you want it to grow, you need to look at it from other perspectives...not just your own. I like the kotl format, where they provide observers for the top boats going into day two. There has to be an answer that works for the majority. Lots of big game billfish tournaments are now all catch and release with photographic proof and polygraph. Just sayin....all right, now I am done

Looks like Matt can't swing it, so we are still In need of an observer.

Teammate found

Was not really speaking about guys that were already fishing them Glen...my "opinion", which I might add I am entitled to, was pointed at growth and new blood. You will always have people dropping out over the years...but they need to be replaced by new teams. All the bad mouthing puts the series in a negative light....and it's been going on for years on this board. I don't know who you are referring to about "having guts" to fish it? I sure hope that wasn't pointed at me? I am getting out of this thread and letting you guys have at it....I got a tournament to prepare for

We need an observer for the Invitational on the 11th. You would need to be present for the captains meeting on Friday night also. Great opportunity and we pay $100 for the day. You are welcome to fish with us on Friday also. Pm me if interested

I have one opening for someone to join us for the Atommik Invitational, but will consider a father/son tandem as long as the child is between 10 and 16 yrs old. PM me to apply and for more details. Experience handling a rod and a net is needed. I would prefer someone who can pre fish with us at least one, preferably two days. The Invitational is Aug 11th. It will be a blast! You can stay with us if you need lodging.

One big problem The Pro Am has been faced with for years....ever since these message boards got popular, is constant and unrelenting public criticism. I guarantee you if the Pro Am would appoint a public spokesperson, or Cinelli and or Hilts would pop up once in awhile, a lot of the public slander would not take place. People speak openly and negatively without any hesitation on the Pro Am subject because there is no fear of rebuttal from the committee. If I ran my mouth about ANY other tournament on the lake I'd get my a$$ chewed out by someone associated with that event. Knowing nobody (except for Paul on occasion) will retaliate has made Pro Am discussion a free for all. Say what you want, but IMO that has hurt the numbers as much as the open communication or unpopular rule changes. The Pro Am needs a spokesperson! Then...we can engage in a useful and productive conversation.

Hey Big Water...that already exists and I have three of them along with the planer board that does the same thing. It's a g2 jigger and you can see them at http://www.cut2spec.com I would post pics but they are In my boat at the lake. They are crazy well engineered and really work well! Maybe one of these days they will get a more informative website put together....but I can tell you that the g2 may look goofy, but it's one well engineered piece of equipment. The prop turns gears and retrieves the line with the release attached to it...then drops it back and does it again...and again.

Choo-choo Thanks & I totally agree...Jon is as nice as they come and I am proud to call him a friend! I think all the boat stuff is minor...just bad timing. I hope to take it out with him in a couple weeks again. The bait we marked was out deeper....250 275....HUGE pods.

Nice report Brian...thanks for sharing!! I look forward to hearing more about your trip I had a charter captain from out there on my boat once....I remember we caught 11 salmon that day and he explained how they pull lines and stop for one out west. I got him on a salmon on the 600 copper and I'm like, I ain't even slowing down for you bro so you best suck it up and keep reeling Swear to god...soon as we got in he went down in the cuddy and took a nap

Still not sure I wanna touch this subject.....but I will give it 15 min. of my life and then my comments can be swept under the carpet and ignored as will most others It's a shame I feel that way, but I am not alone. Anyhow, I fished only two Pro Am's this year, half of what I normally do. I fished once in the Pro, and once in the open. As always, I walked away pleased with the over all event in the way it was run. No tournament is perfect, but the Pro Ams are well run and organized and I enjoyed my experience. I think the new format for the Pro went as it should have been expected. There was no way the majority of Am teams were going to be strong armed into joining the Pro division by disintegrating the Am division. A few tried the Pro out, but with very mixed results and opinions. I can tell you that whoever planned on having a 70 team field never spoke with the Am teams about how they felt with the way the changes went down and were handled. I like the new Pro format in theory, but the payouts in relationship to entry fee and expenses are out of balance and under an open communication high entry two day format with observer, the participant numbers are not going to grow unless you can offer a mega payout. Even then, you still have a very limited pool in which to draw from. This will never be like a bass circuit, where you can offer up a big payout and draw boats from all over the country. We have a limited draw, and the more people that get soured and turn away from the Pro Am, the smaller the pool gets for the Pro Field. As for the open, I actually liked it and with some needed changes I see it as the future of the Pro Am and deserving of some very serious talks within the committee. What I saw in the open is something I have not seen in years....new faces and teams!! In Sodus, there were about 20 teams each day in the open. Most were people I had never seen or met before. That may be the biggest positive to come out of this season. If you want new teams in the Pro, you need to bring them up through the farm system. Make them feel like they are part of the tourney....not a side show. Extend the fishing time a little later so it is worthwhile to pull the boat here from a good distance and have the weigh in flow over, or combine with the Pro's so the open participants get a taste of the Pro weigh in. Enough BS about how the open can start whenever they want....dawn is, when dawn is, and that is when most teams are going to start fishing in unfamiliar ports. Also...make the open the Am....call it what it is. No charter captains, restrict the boat size to like 28 and under and keep it limited to the same port as the pros. Being able to fish from other ports will kill it in a couple years once guys start to realize the winners are coming from other ports where the fishing is much better. I guess I will leave it at that for now....just some off the cuff thoughts. All in All, I am a big fan of the Pro Am series and I hope they can learn from last year and make it bigger and better for 2013

Dukdog, Looking at the forecast this week, about all I can say is I wish I was going to be there! I really expect the bay will break loose this week with the kings. Good luck getting your buddy on a big one

I fished on Saturday with my buddy Jon and my son Justin in the LSRC. Jon just bought a new to him boat, and had yet to take her out fishing so this would be the maiden voyage. We had no pre fish time, and really no info to speak of so my plan was to head out to 120 @ 5am and sniff around, then work out deeper. We set lines in 120, and within 15 minutes the 150 dipsey takes a hit and Justin lands our first king @7 lbs. It hat a Big weenie Broke Back Jack fly behind a white paddle. Not what I an looking for so we keep trolling deeper. We pick up a 14 lb king on the 50 rigger pulling an NK spook and a laker on a Big Weenie meat rig on the 450 copper, then the same rig takes a crushing hit that we miss plus a good shot on the 150 dipsey that we miss also, so I decide to circle around and hit that area again....waste of 20 minutes and it produces nothing on the 2nd pass, so I continue towards deeper water. The fish we dropped was on a new Big weenie fly that I really liked called Terrible Terry...a Jon's little salmon exclusive....pretty sweat looking fly. As we head out beyond 200, we would miss two good kings on the dipsey. we had a decent bite, so by 9am I decide we are going to stick in the bay and not head out deeper in front of Oswego as I had initially planned. Our next fish would hit our 600 copper, and we land a nice 21 lb king over 270 fow. That fish came on a gator paddle pulling a Big Weenie dominator fly. We continue to work that same area over 275 and take one more king, a 23 lb fish on a chrome paddle pulling a Big Weenie Spook fly. We have 5 kings in the cooler and it's 10:30....not a great box but not bad with plenty of time to improve it. Then the auto pilot shuts off and we do a hard turn, which tangles my 450 & 600 coppers together along with one of the dipseys. Holy f*#k I had a mess to deal with. That takes an hour until I have things set again, but now the sub troll stopped working. Next the fish finder acts up and the auto pilot keeps shutting off. Here, we find the kicker wasn't charging the battery and our battery is dead....no main motor so we pick up early and head in on the kicker. We ended up 28th out of 92 in the Little Salmon River Challenge...not what we wanted but it was more of a shakedown cruise than a serious fishing day. Good fun, and while the reports continue to be slow in Mexico Bay on Salmon, we seemed to have a fair bite on kings....not good by any means...but fair. IMO, temp was decent and they are coming back in the bay and it could bust loose any day now. I marked plenty of bait....so the kings will be there as long as nothing screwy happens like another hard east blow.

Caught two dark ones yesterday in Mexico bay....one was really dark....couldn't believe it's coloring for late July.

It's not great, but they are coming back. I fished Mexico Bay in the Little Salmon River Challenge yesterday and we were 5 for 8 on salmon in the bay. A lot did worse in the bay, a few better, so there are salmon to be caught and it will likely improve by the day. It's crazy how some of the kings are getting so dark, and it's still July!

Very well done Tim & crew

Thanks guys!! I showed Justin all the kind words ...it made him very happy We just got lucky that the bite slowed to a grind bite over the weekend and not a blood bath like it had been previously. We could have never hung with you guys had it been a king fest. We'll probably take it on the chin next time but that's OK too....long as we are fishing

Now that is funny!!

A gps tracker ? Would that explain the noise coming from my starboard outdrive?