Fishtails

Your spot on Howie Indy, 99.9% of us are friendly and courteous here....thanks for the nice pics. BTW....you never cleared up the reason for the soap in the pics?

Hey Tom, I'm mailing our check for both events....we'll be in the Am bracket tourney & Fat Nancy's shootout Normally we have paperwork for the Friday event that we have to show at weigh in...how will that be handled if we mail a check?

Jimmy, Yes, as Mick said, you can fish the open division. It's new this year and was created for fisherman who want to get involved in the Pro Am, but have a smaller boat, don't want to get an observer, or can't commit to both days. So yes....you can fish out of a 16 ft boat...sign up for the open division The reason there is an 18 ft minimum, is that the Pro Am committee is concerned about safety. Each day, they must evaluate the conditions and safety factors based on the smallest boat entered. If they feel it's to rough for the smaller boats in the field to safely go out, they may opt to postpone the start or cancel that day of the event.

The species you say your tired of catching rule that area, with walleye & musky if yer lucky...even out on the lake. It's not a terribly far run to the shipping channel off Galloo island though. Late July should find some kings there in the channel and off the wall. If not, troll the 120-150 fow line off Galloo on the bottom for some of the best lake trout action on the east end. Salmon will be in the same area up higher...watch your ff and fish the marks. There will be BT around also, but I'm not familiar with where they will be in that area?

Thanks...I knew I was missing something cause those guys are a class act It just reads a little different in the article.

Congrats to Screamer & way to go Brian.....2nd place & big fish for team Tall Tails!!! I see several LOU members placed...wtg !! BTW... I thought the boundaries were Cayuga & Oswego Counties? In the article I just read, didn't they say they were almost to Sodus bay? Maybe I read something wrong? I couldn't make the challenge as I had hoped...wifey surprised me with concert tickets on fathers day to a concert she wanted to go to. I'm no big Kenny Chesney fan, but I'm taking 10 days to fish the Pro Ams so how could I say no?

Like RR said...you need to be responsible. Everything else they will tell you at the captains meeting, but there is nothing to it. The team you sign up with will depend on you being there, so all should keep that in mind. I have never been an observer, but I've had many on my boat and on our boat they always feel like part of our team by the end of the tournament (even though they are part of another team). I personally enjoy the added dynamic of having an observer on board and we go out of our way to see they enjoy themselves. We've even had our observers join us on stage at the award ceremonies. It can be a great experience and I highly recommend it!

Team Lucky Enuff ( Fishtails, Jeff J & Janz) will be there (and Sodus) fishing the am division. Plan is to fish Oswego off Janz boat More-on, and we will use Lucky Enuff for Sodus. We're gearing up for Browns....but I'm praying those silvers show up!!!! It's been awhile since we've had a King tournament!

I have no information on that Howie. That is a separate event. Tom Allen would be the man to answer that question. See you in Oswego

Oswego Pro Am Mail in and walk in deadline for Pro & Am division is June 26th @ 5pm Open division deadline is July 3rd Wayne Pro Am Mail in and walk in deadline for Pro & Am division is July 3rd @ 5pm Open division deadline is July 10th

No boat size restrictions in the open division Those dates are for the Pro and Armature divisions. The dates I posted are the accurate deadline dates for the "open division" Deadline for entry in the open division is July 3rd for Oswego and July 10th for Wayne.

Yup...9 in Niagara each day. I think the winners have done pretty well to date with cash and prizes! Only 3 day one in Orleans...but ALL the divisions numbers were down. There were only like 16 or so Am teams as well. I don't know the number for day two in Orleans, but it was up from day one. I suspect/hope the east end entries (Wayne & Oswego) will be way up. I believe the committee was hoping for more participants, but I suspected it would take some time. If you want the open to be here to stay....don't wait for "the other guys" to enter first. It's a great time! If your at weigh-in....say hi to the guys in the Lucky Enuff shirts. We fish the Am division and we are all LOU members!

Hi Chris, The open division Is a go at Wayne and Oswego...always has been. Deadline for entry is July 3rd for Oswego and July 10th for Wayne. There are not many set rules. You must be in Weight in by 12 noon. My understanding is that since there is no way to enforce rules, You can fish anywhere within lake Ontario in which allows you the means to make the weigh in time. It's your big 3 fish, one of which can be a lake trout. The other two could be any combination of legal size Coho, King or Atlantic Salmon, brown trout or Steelhead. Minimum size for steelhead is 21 ½ inches. Minimum size for Atlantic salmon is 25 ½ inches. Minimum size for all other trout and salmon is 18 inches. You can catch as many as allowed by nys law, determined by the number of licensed fisherman on your boat. You can only have 3 to be weighed in. Fish must be caught the day of the event....I'd expect the weigh master would question white gills, etc Hope this helps. If you would like for me to get better clarification, Or a more "official" clarification, I can contact Dave Turner for you....just pm me. This is my assumption of the rules and I'm pretty certain about them. That being said, I'm not associated with the committee in any way other than being "a voice and a set of ears" for both the committee and the Am/open division participants.

Looking forward to it Tom I like the random boat checks....hopefully more derbies will start to employ that practice.

I have kids bring in fish on the wire and copper all the time. The only things I find are too much are 1) getting the rod out of the holder 2) "sometimes" on a big king they can't get the dipsey to the rod tip and get the pole high enough to allow netting of the fish. I'd hope some assistance in these two areas only would be permitted. I have a great video I'm posting real soon from Memorial day weekend of 3 kids (6, 10 & 12) on my boat fighting a foul hooked (on top of the head) 20 lb king on the dipsey rod The fish peeled out 600 ft of wire and my 10 yr old son Justin did 95 % of the work getting that fish to the boat. The only help I gave was to hold the rod twice while he got a refreshment and back massage from the other two kids during the 45 min battle. Finally...when the fish came to the boat, my stubbornness to have them complete the catch without my assistance cost them the fish as Justin had no gas left to get it that last 5 feet so I could net. He just couldn't get the dipsey to the rod tip and lift. I finally just grabbed the line and tried to scoop and the fish came unbuttoned and swam off. We would have released it anyway, but to not land it and feel that sense of accomplishment resulted in many children's tears that afternoon when that fish swam off. We have done it so many times, I just thought he could do it. I'll tell you this much...I felt like an ass for not lending a hand at the end and cheating them out of their moment of glory. I'm hoping since it's a team effort, there will be some assistance allowed at the very beginning, and again at the very end if needed, or it's really not for me

I have some questions: Do we have dates for this yet? We don't normally fish these, but I may put some kid teams together for this year. Is the regular division separate from the youth, or do we just enter the fish as a "youth fish" at weigh in? I may have three kids aboard taking turns at bat, can there be more than one youth prize per team? I know the rules will be spelled out at the captains meeting. I'd just like the basics.

Hey....I know those dudes! Who's that guy in the back of my boat? He looks like a real More-on Thanks for snapping those pics Matt....that's the first pic I've seen of it on the water!

Hey...at least you caught a fish on Friday Matt....we didn't We ran in next to you on Saturday....like your new boat See you in Oswego!

So are we in agreement that as long as a steelhead measures 21" or over at weigh-in, and a salmon measures 18 or over at weigh-in, it is a legal fish? I'm confused so easily Jim, It was pretty tuff, but I feel like we could have done much better. You know how that hindsight stuff goes I'm still out on the Challenges, but they are not in the plans as of yet. I might do one with the kids though, just not sure yet? I'll definitely see ya in Oswego!

Let's keep in mind guys that the Pro Am's are "non profit" and run by volunteers, as Paul has already pointed out. They don't really "take our money" Nick. I think it would be better stated to say they accept our entry fees and organize the events. The volunteers do this for no personal or monetary gain, but rather to give us fisherman a fantastic event to participate in and help the community make some revenue off of us participants. The tireless hours these folks put forth every year is very commendable, yet they constantly get verbally bashed. Heaven forbid they make a mistake....or someone doesn't like a rule....omg The Scotty and LOC are "for-profit" tournaments. The loc payouts beyond grand prize are ridicules, IMHO. Why doesn't this get talked about? Why not spread the money out a little more? We have had a problem with our payment to the Wilson Scotty also....but we don't bring it up here in a public forum. I've heard other stories also, but that stuff happens on large scale events like these. I fish them all, but I personally think the Pro Am's are the best thing going. Are they perfect...no! Neither are the other big name events. Outcast, most of us want to know what the payout structure is, and yes, it's a little frustrating when we can't find out in a timely manner. However, we also know it's 100% payback PLUS sponsor money (making for over 100%), so whatever comes in is what's going out. Most of us that fish them know and trust that it will be a fair payout.

21 was a legal fish...captian has a 1/2 inch discretion. The one we released was 21 3/8...maybe 21 1/2 and we should have kept it I guess. We were confused also. In the end it didn't really matter for us anyway, one more fish would not have put us in the $$, but now we know. This is what we were told....if anyone knows different....please let us know

Thursday, I headed out with Jeff J to find fish. We decided to go west 10 miles and start searching. Landed a nice 19lb king and a couple small fish....maybe took 8 bites the whole day. King came on a hammertime spinny & hammer fly 80ft down. Friday we headed back west with a crew of 4 this time, feeling like we'd really lock in on the fish....NOT! We searched 15 miles west with only one dropped king to show for it. We then headed 10 miles offshore hoping to find something willing to play....notta bite!! We headed in smelling like a skunk for the first time in a couple years Not the way I wanted to go into Day one. Sat morning, we leave the dock @ 5:15 and decide to search right in front of port. We finally hook up a mile west, but It turns out to be my first 22" Atlantic. Back it goes....box still empty. We pick up and run 12 miles west to our waypoints and troll for a couple hours without a touch. Around 10am we decide to go real shallow (50 fow) and run a rigger/spoon only program. It pays off, with 5 fish quickly coming to the boat. Unfortunately, two more were Atlantic's and one was a 21" steelie. We went to weigh in with only two Coho on day one, but I'm feeling good we can box on day two and get back in it. Hot spoon was a Dreamweaver ss Bloody death, taking 4 of our 6 fish. Sunday, I'm out voted two to one on where we're going to fish. The team wanted to run to Olcott and go for the homerun box. I wanted to pick away where we ended the day Saturday and try for a box of Coho. So Olcott it was, and we headed out of port for a 24 mile run. We get there and are greeted with a decent screen, but not what we expected. We took a Coho off a silver/black spoon and decide to pick up and Head a few miles to the plant. We mark fish and bait galore, and it's not long before we get bit. We land a small (but legal) Steeie off the rigger and then the center rigger fires and we drop a king off the hammertime spinney. Before we can get set up another rigger fires and we land a 7.5 lb steelie off an orange backed free slider spoon. We are now fighting the clock, so I make a bonehead decision to pull our center rigger up in steelhead water with the other riggers and our bite shuts off Sleep deprivation makes you do stupid things sometimes, and we didn't realize why the bite died until it was to late So we pull lines at 12 to start the 20+ mile trip back with only 3 in the box and a crappy finish. We weighted in early, so I don't know where we ended, but It wasn't good Still had a great time as always with my team and the boat ran awesome over the two weeks of Pro Ams and 200 miles we put on her. See you all In Oswego and Sodus!!

Matt, I kept my boat at Cowboy 37 last year next to Salmon Bound and Fishful thinking. Bob hooked me up and I hope to stay there this year....right next to Abe's.

For those of you wanting to know if there will be an open division for Wayne and Oswego....the answer is YES. I have the paper sitting right here stating the open division deadline for Wayne County is July 10th 2009. Oswego County is July 3rd 2009. I am glad this division has been well received. I remember when I first pitched the idea to you guys and the committee, not many of you really responded to the idea, but the committee thought enough of it to give it a shot. My original post was as follows. They just changed it up a tad IMO...It's definitely not the same as fishing the "pro" or "am" division. Those wanting to experience the true "Pro Am experience" should still consider fishing the Am division. The open is a great division if you don't want to deal with the observer (which is not the big deal some of you make it out to be...btw) or you just want to get your feet wet and see what the Pro Ams are like. Fish whatever division suits you best

Nick, Tim , Scott & Guy nailed it on the head, and it makes for a very interesting event. The strategy involved is what makes the Pro Am so much fun. One day tournaments barely get my interest anymore, as anyone can go out and wonder into a few big fish. Having a nine fish limit is challenging, in that you have to look at the current fishery at each port during the time of the event and decide what your best options are to box out. So far this year It's been Coho....followed by Steelies as the targeted species for most teams. If the kings are around in Oswego or Sodus in any numbers, that will change the whole dynamic and make the decision making even harder. What do you target? What's your best chance to box? Kings first, then browns to finish your box if need be? Browns first, and then go for a couple kings as kicker fish? Just go for the Browns and hope for the full box and be happy if you get it? Or...go for kings and hope the added weight over the smaller fish will make up the difference if you don't get your full box. Anyone who can hit a home run and box out on big kings is gonna be in the drivers seat, but it can be a risky decision if they are not around in numbers. Day two strategy can be really interesting also, depending on where you rank after day one. For us, slight indecision has come into play with our team during both events this year and has hurt us a little, but we're learning from our mistakes. We have yet to all be in agreement 100% on what species we should target, except on day two of Niagara. Like you mentioned Nick....many teams don't/won't get a limit. In Niagara, we got an $1100 finish and only boxed 4 fish day one. We boxed nine on day two and shot into the money. With a nine fish limit, your usually not out of the money picture after day one, because you can bang a home run box of kings day two and potentially launch yourself into the the $$. That was hard to do with the 6 fish limit. It's a total blast though and I really look forward to Oswego to do it all again!!!!