Chautauqua Musky Tournament

[THE TRADESMEN]

Hey Guys here it is.

We arrived at Pendergast at 4:30am and tried to sleep a couple of hours in the truck, no luck with that.

The damn Roosters next door started their howling at 5:30 so up and cooking bacon n eggs in the parking lot. MMMMMMMM Good. Then on the water for some pre Tourney Fishin. We found a lot of bait in the dewittville bay. But no luck all day. Then off to the seminar. I found some very interesting points. Like the recommendation to use mostly filler on your large bait casters followed by only 80yrds (not ft) of braid. Then at the end the the season, strip it off and turn it around so u get 2x life!!! Very cool. I've been using a whole spool of braid and a small amount of filler, the 60lb suffix ain't cheap!! Another huge tip I got was running a spoon 4-6ft behind a deep diver on a leader off the rear split ring. I was very excited to try it. and as soon as we got back to camp I started working on the rig for the next morning. Now Im not much on trolling but my Partner Solgrande is and we had been aruguing what percentage of time we would troll vs cast. So this was really helping my state of mind for the long day of trolling.

And then around 1 hr in boom my rod is bent in half and line is ripping out, as I pick up the rod I tell Bob I got a pile of weeds (thats what always happens when I'm trolling). But as I was reeling I feel a tug.

FISH ON!!!!

Wow my first fish trolling for Musky in at least 100 hrs of trolling. Now the fish was swiming at me and I was just tring to keep up. Then it stopped and came straight out the water. What a sight. and without futher adu here it is.

This is my best so far 43" and in the 20-25lb class. It came on a Black n Silver Mr. Toothy wich is made by a local guy and sold at the Happy Hooker although not in Black n Sliver (yet). I had the spoon running 4ft off the back but the fish did not hit the spoon. We think a may have served as an attractor to the bait.

I have to give huge props to my buddy Solgrande who got me into Musky fishing and fittingly put me on the biggest yet. Thanks Bob you are the Man. Unfortunatley the winning fish was 48" and nothing to the 2nd or third place wich I believe was us and NitroMusky. Still a very good show for us and good to finally meet Nitro another first class Musky guy.

[NitroMusky]

Hey Chad, you asked for it and I think you got it: Very Good showing for the LOU boys!

28 muskies caught & released by 38 fishermen......

only 9 of the 28 muskies were 40+. most of the rest were mid-30 inch...

2 of the top 4/5 fish were from the 2 LOU boats!!!

Larry Jones confirmed for me that Zach (another Rochester guy) got his 44 in the nick of time, so that makes the Gus/Solley 43 3rd, and mine + another 42 inch Tied 4th.

I'm just happy to have caught a fish let alone something of some substance. ran around a couple hours friday tring to mark bait but never found the big bait clouds. It was a tough day draggin' lures around on Saturday. Sustained 15 mph winds out of the SOUTH- hell, Gus looks like he's ready for winter, and rightfully so! Areas of that lake were really rockin and rollin, which made it all the more difficult clearing weeds and steering at the same time. Tried Bemus early to stay out of the wind, marked a nice one adjacent to shore while trolling and tried casting back to it for a while but no dice. I finally gave in and worked my way back to where most of the guys were...sure looked like no mans land on the graph but glad I did!

It sure was a real adventure out there solo; I was glad Sol and Gus had my back when I needed the witness and pics...Both absolutely super guys and all around class acts!!! Next round is on me, you too (Sorry, no rum and coke emoticon. Chad- ya gotta get one made especially for them )

[NitroMusky]

UPDATE: Per Larry, Next cash tourney will be Sept 19th $25, 20 towards the winner and 5 for a chicken BBQ after...same place: Happy Hooker. Chad- can't wait to see your handywork on their website! (Brian's son tipped me off )

[BlueEye]

WOWOW GUYS - AWESOME! Way to represent LOU out there! Those are some gorgeous fish!

Sorry I couldn't join you as I was down in Rhode Island fishing Blue Fish and Stripers. I had a chance to talk with both Lisa and Brian (owners of Happy Hooker) this weekend and they said the Musky seminar they held was a huge success with a turn out of over 75 people!

Shhhhhh..... don't tell anyone that I am working on their new website though. Its going to be my secret spot that I can go look at updated fishing reports from them anytime. Also a good spot to check for all the local fishing tournaments that will be going on. Give me a few weeks and it should be up.

Thanks for the info on the next tournament up there. I will have to see if I can't make this one and add a little more firepower to the already stellar LOU fleet we got going on down there.

Thanks for the report guys and CONGRATS!

Chad

[BlueEye]

One more question guys.... having never fished in that tournament before, can you explain how it was run? How do they get measurements (i.e., all on the honor system, via digital pictures, judges on the water, etc.).

Thanks!

Chad

[Nalod]

Chad...stop twisting my arm. I will fish the tournament with you!

--Joe

[solgrande]

Hello chad.....how was the stripper fishing?

About the tourney....it is basically on the honor system.They use muskie inc.rules.Measurment must be verified by either your partner or you have to call someone to come where you are,Witness has to sign the entry form and give their phone number.This was the case with nitro,he was solo and gave gus and i a call on the cell,lee jumped in and helped out while i took photos from my boat.While waiting the fish must be kept in the water.It would be a good idea to QUICKLY photogragh your catch.We also took one with the fish in the net(measurement is visable-used a craddle).We log all catches on the back of the form and submit the biggest.There is no wieght involved just length.Stay with your fish until it can swim away on its own!IF you are by yourself MAKE SURE you get some cell numbers from someone willing to come to your location before venturing out.The winner did not and had to call larry jones(tourney director) who inturn had to call around just to get someone up there.The winner did however reward that boat(driver and his partner) with a generous gift$$$$$$ which was very cool and goes a long way with other fisherman-he also contributed to the hatchery bait fund as well as dropped some in the happyhooker i was impressed

Hope you guys can make the next one,it`s alot of fun and a chance to meet new people who love to fish muskies.I`m booking our cabin this week!

Bob

[THE TRADESMEN]

Hey Solgrande nice signature I wonder how you came up with that one.

[BlueEye]

Thank you Bob for the explanation! Striper fishing was good, we caught way more then we could eat. I'll be posting some pictures soon enough of that trip. I am looking forward to hopefully fishing the next musky tournament they have. Maybe I can talk my friends over at the Happy Hooker into starting an annual tournament...

Here is a little "sneak peak" at the new header images for the coming Happy Hooker Website:

Cheers

[solgrande]

Great job blueEye...looking good.

gus(lee), does this mean you WON`T be selling your stuff?

umm uhh it just came to me.yeah that`s it!

[BP Swing]

Hey Nitro and others Congrats on your fish. way to go. BP

[NitroMusky]

thanks BP! it was a lot of fun. you in for the 19th of sept??

[ Post made via Mobile Device ]

[solgrande]

get your entries in early,may fill up fast!I`ll be out there thurs-sunday that week.

[Nalod]

Hey guys,

Who is running the next tournament? Will it be the Happy Hooker, or Capt. Larry Jones? I am going to work on getting Blue Eye to take a trip with me for it

--Joe

[NitroMusky]

Joe

Larry is running the Tx (with the HH as 'home base') so if you want to sign up go to Larry's site (Mostly Muskies) and all the details and signup info is pinned at the top in his fishing reports forum.

[ Post made via Mobile Device ]

[Nalod]

Perfect. thanks Nitro

--Joe

[BlueEye]

Nitro -

What is the exact link you are referring to? I couldn't seem to find any tournament information anywhere on his www.mostlymuskies.com website.

Thanks -

Chad

[NitroMusky]

No Chad, its not as easy as your site, is it

http://www.mostlymuskies.com/reports.htm

[BlueEye]

Haha - thanks Nitro! Thats what I was looking for.

[solgrande]

Well...Im entered and cabin is booked!!!!!!!!!!

[solgrande]

Hey nitro....surely you have a better fish to display in your avatar!!!???That thing looks like BAIT!!

[NitroMusky]

ya know Solgrande,

if I wasn't so busy packin' to spend a week among the skee's I'd make some witty comment about how mines not just a boat or yet another yahoo standing in front of his net holding one of his many decent (ok pretty good) sized fish! yeah..just be glad I'm too busy to say such things HAHA

[ Post made via Mobile Device ]

[solgrande]

have fun and good luck

[zach]

really neat when u can fish and there is a chance of winning something. i thought it was fun. when i found out that a 48" was in the lead, it just couldn't stop fishing. lost 2 others that day. btw- 3 hits on a black perch perchbait- 0 hits on a perch colored one 10 feet away from it all day. color preferrence??? one of the missed fish opened up the front treble hook- that has never happened to me before. next time there i will ripped dawgs through those deep baitfish forty feet down. all my hits came in water deeper than 30ft. when u put a spoon behind a crank its called the Berger King setup. in the 1000 islands dave berger has been doing this for a decade. he runs 10" believers w/ the back hook removed and 24-36" to the spoon. i guess they never hit the flutter spoon , believe there isn't even a hook on his spoons. never tried it. they also put the lure on the shallow setting behind a downrigger for better action. they say it has to be a really light spoon also. the 44" was off pt. chaut in 36 fow 5.1mph. crappy fight- came right in, took a run, netted it. next time in sept i will have my tuff shads in the water also since i will have a partner. gotta love em! legends, wileys and shads, its all i run. got tons of baits, but these always seem to work.

[zach]

if you want to do something else to the cranks- u can put a smaller colorado blade on the back split ring like the wishmasters do. i've done it, looks cool to me, i do it on perchbaits. doesn't spin, just flops back and forth shining and slapping the back hook.