CaptSpike

Respectable fish! Wow that guy is from Texas! Hope he doesn't get bumped on the last day.......Maybe he's up for the whole time too. The bigger fish are starting to show! Wish I was out there fishing them........ Spike

Falling like a rock, lol. Still doesn't change the situation that any entrant could end up in. Wish this was structured a bit better as far as prize structure and user friendlyness is concerned. I guess if you find you don't like just down sign up for it. Spike

LOL it will make HIM feel better but the rest of us who wouldn't mind going would like the more $$ as we are dividing between us, lol. Good luck out there. Just doesn't seem to be the same quality of fish as previous yrs. There are some decent ones though and I'm sure you guys still fishing will have an oportunity to whack one. Spike

Imagine if you didn't get bumped until after you arrived..........That is the point I'm trying to make. If the derby ended the day before at least all involved would know where they stand and can decide at that point if it is worth it or not.. Spike.

I agree in this particular situation it probably wont hold, but the situatuion exists for any angler in the top three positions on the last day. It likely wouldn't effect most with a decent cash flow but for someone who was living on a tight budget it would. Spike

I did email from the contact page on the LOC site. Spike

Ok my buddy sits in second place at the moment and I am his witness. So if his position holds till the last day of the derby we would need to plan on attending the ceremony. Problem is we live 8 hrs away and the scales close at 1pm. It is quite possible we would be driving out there and he could get bumped (so he wouldn't need to attend). That would suc. It would be better for people traveling a long distance if the derby ended the day before the ceremony or hold the ceremony the following weekend so someone wouldn't have travel a long way and potentially get bumped. My buddy is a young guy with limited cash flow so a trip back out isn't an easy trip when you have to book lodging and take a day off from work to attend. Just some thoughts from a long distance participant. Spike

If he's the guy with the American flag on his fly bridge I saw/heard him all week. So yes he's still around. Spike

Skunked. Lots of boats fog in the am and no bait anywhere. Heard the fish we were getting ran the river last night. Trolled all day marked minimal bait and only a couple fish. Amazing the change from when we got here till we left. Till next trip Spike

Got out later than planned and just finished setting line when the storm arrived. We pulled lines and started in when we got caught in it. Rode it out and set back up as it past us. All we could muster this morning was skippy kings. Stayed out all day and only manage two for the box with the largest around 18lbs. A bunch more skippys and a small brown. Called it at 6:30. Prime time I know but we were hungry and tired. One more day to add to our LOC entry. Back at it in the am. Spike

Tangle what tangle? Lol. Better but it still hurt a little. I think you guys are gonna hit it perfect. It's gonna break loose. Spike

Hit the lake early with plans to wrap it up early due to storms. Stayed in tighter as the wind was up a bit for us and we didn't want a big run if a storm hit. First fish didn't come till 7:45. Skippy king we had to keep cause he was a bleeder. Then a large laker hit. We hit a 21 lb king and a nice steelhead. We turned back to the east and marked lots of fish and bait but no takers. Fleas were real bad. Then it happened the major cluster f I was waiting for. One of the crew deploying two dipseys on one side managed to get them tangled. Lost both dipseys and ff combos and a lot of wire. I had all I could do to keep calm. Anyway after several missed fish (while I was rerigging wire rods) we finally got set back up. Storms started to head our way so we pointed the boat S and pulled lines slowly. After removing the two shallow dipseys and one of the deeper ones John asked if he should pull the last dipsey. I said he could wait until I finished reeling up the other dipsy. No sooner than that the dipsey fired. John couldn't move the fish. We pulled the the rods on the riggers and slowed the boat keeping the fish of the stern. Finally he came to net. A 30 lb 4 oz king. High fives and we were off to Larry's to weigh it in. Looks like we are in second place. Back at it tomorrow. Spike

Got a late start today. Didn't hit the water till 6 fishing by 7 and it felt like we were too late. Didn't move a rod from 400 out to 500. Had our course altered due to some "other" boats. Pulling a 600 copper really changes your driving and how you want other boats to pass by you. So we were shaking free of one of these boats and a dipsy fired. Only around 16 lbs. That was well after 8:30. Next fish came on a rigger down 112', green dot spinny w hammer fly. Third king was on a dipsy out 312 in a 1 setting. Pig pen with matching fly. Then a Lul. All that action was between 4 and 500 feet. We decided to sneak out deeper hearing good reports. From 500 to 600 + we had a flurry of steelhead and smaller kings. Those came on pig pen ff, green paddle with silver tape and on a jake 45 green with black dot free slider. They were hammering it. Finish was trash after just one fish! Wind kicked up after we switched to troll back up wind. We were only two fish from a box so we decided to head in early. Not a bad day but no big kings. Hopefully tomorrow. Spike

It works out to about a mile per 100' of depth off Oswego so not too bad. Then again I'm used to 30+ mile runs for ground fish. Spike

Arrived on Sunday around noon. Checked in and headed to the ramp. Went out and it was pretty bumpy. Snuck our way out to 300 or so. Landed one King and a small brown. Lost a few other fish. Had a lot of rust to knock off. This morning it was still rough. We snuck out and set up with a simple 3 rod program. Two riggers and a 600 copper down the chute. We never took a hit on a dipsey Sunday so we figured it would be the way to go. Then we heard on the radio a guys dipseys were firing but not his riggers. Go figure. We stuck with it an eventually land a nice king around 22 lbs on the copper. First copper fish for me, never ran it much. Lost a few more fish on the riggers before finally landing a small king (released). I forget the order for the rest of the day but we caught lakers steelhead and more kings. There was a big Lul between the morning and evening bite. We roughed it out though. Lake laid down nice around 11 am so that is when the full spread went out. All in all a decent day for us. Fish and temp were deep early but once it laid down the temp came up. We ended the day with four hits right after each other. Riggers out 120 and 130'. Dipsey out 325 and the 600 copper. Green dot spinny with hammer fly, 42nd combo and NBK stinger were best we ran today. Back at it in the AM. Spike

My lobster boat had a deep keel that was only wide enough for the hose to go down. The builder used a short piece of fiberglass and mounted the pump and switch to the piece of fiberglass. Then attached the hose and fed the whole thing down into the bilge. So it was the hose that held the pump and switch in place. Similar would probably work in your case. You just need to ensure the pump would remain at the lowest level, which from what you descibe it doesn't sound like it could come up very high if it wanted to. An option anyway. Spike