Finders Keepers/Hide & Seek Big Fish Friday/Pro-Am Report

[Finders Keepers]

Fishing Report

Your Name / Boat Name: Finders Keepers/Hide & Seek

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TRIP OVERVIEW

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Date(s): 7/16 - 7/18

Time on Water: 5-1, 6-1, 6-12

Weather/Temp: cloudy with T-storms, sunny & hot, sunny & windy

Wind Speed/Direction: SW 5-10, west 10-15, west 20+

Waves: Rougher each day

Surface Temp: 70's

Location: P-ville to Sodus

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FISHING RESULTS

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Total Boated/Hits: 6 for 8, 6 for 6, 5 for 6

Species Breakdown:(4 kings, 2 steelies), (5 browns, 1 steely), (4 browns, 1 steely)

Hot Lure: white/green echip with ultra green glow fly, raspberry NK mag, black/green glow nk, mt. dew echip/hammer fly

Trolling Speed: 1.8-3.0

Down Speed: 2.5-3.0

Boat Depth: 65-220

Lure Depth: 45-130

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SUMMARY & FURTHER DETAILS

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Big Fish Friday:

Coup couldn't make it out with Woody and I, but he was gracious enough to let us take his rig our for the day! Started the day heading west of Hughes to our honey hole for the past two weeks (where earlier last week we hammered them boating over 20 fish per trip). Right off the bat our 72 ft rigger pulling the white/green glow echip/ultra green glow fly got whacked and after a 10 second battle the line went limp. Brought in the echip with no fly! Soon thereafter as I was re-tieing a new rig, we hooked up with a small king that shook free when it hit the surface. 0 for 2, not a good start, but we weren't quite to our honey hole yet. As soon as we were in the right spot over 150 fow, the same rig that bit-off earlier got whacked again, but this time we got a good hook set and the drag started singin'! Soon thereafter we thumped a sweet 25 lb'er on the deck and it was GAME ON!! We worked that same area only to find no fish, no bait, and no hook-ups, so we went into search mode. A little while later the same rig fired again and started ripping line... another 25 lb'er hit the deck! High-5's and some "yeah baby's", then it was back to working that area, only to find nothing. Hmmm... New strategy: keep working the same depths but keep heading east - seemed like there was a big here and there, but no concentration of them. So we stuck to the plan and boated a nice 8 lb steely on a mt. dew echip/hammer fly on the 65 ft rigger (there was our third fish), and now we were looking for bigger fish. A little while later the 85' rigger got hit pulling a cheerleader and a good 22 lb king hit the deck soon after. Now we had a box!! As we continued east we managed another 12 lb king and small steelhead before we decided to call it a day a little early to ensure we made weigh-in and not take any chances like in Oswego! We were the 2nd boat to weigh in and were in 1st place with 121 points and also had the biggest fish at 25 and change. Our big fish got knocked out, but our total weight held and we took 1st place!

Pro-Am Day 1:

Our game plan was to hit the browns first thing in the morning then swing out deeper to our line from the previous day and knab a few big kings and steelies to finish our box. Well, we did manage a few browns, but the numbers we wanted, so we headed deeper for kings and steelies, only find a blank screen and no fish, so we swung back in to the brownie waters, which by that point had been worked over pretty well, so that was a very slow bite. So we decided to head to another decent area from earlier in the week for kings - nada. Then back in to try the brownies one last time... Hind sight we should have banged the browns until we had at least 8 or 9 in the box before thinking about kings, but having had boated 3 majors the day before, we had a false sense of security in the deeper waters. We did manage 4 browns and 2 steelies (one was just shy of 12 lbs), but didn't have the 200 pt box we needed on day one.

Pro-Am Day 2:

I had stayed on the boat the night before and was put to sleep by the sound of the waves crashing on the beach...I knew it was going to be a rough go of it the next day. And when I saw the big guys' boats bobbing as they passed the pierheads, I knew it was ROUGH. Wow, those were some serious waves. Especially out over 200 fow! Since we hadn't boxed out the day before, we knew we either had to box 9+ majors, or get one major in the mid 30's to get back into the money. So it was a "go big or go home" game plan. We set up a king program and started looking for kings. Soon after setting up our king program started getting whacked with browns (one over 10 lbs). So we kept working deeper and found the temps a bit deeper, as expected with the west winds. We worked west for half the day and covered 75 to 220 fow with no kings to speak of, only a couple steelies (one lost at the back of the boat). The waves also didn't help as we boated the one steely, the slider somehow got sucked down into the prop and wrapped it up good. Since the kings were non-existant, we decided just to do fish, and slid back into brownie waters, but the bite had died already. We ended with 4 browns and a steely.

As our first Pro-Am appearance, I think we did well and still a lot to learn (like boxing on browns when the kings are hit and miss). I had a blast with Coup and Woody, as well as our observer Sam - I hope you had fun with us too!! We're already talking about next year and look forward to many more good times. Well, now it's time to re-coop and get things doen around the house before the Fall LOC starts. This year should prove to be one for the books with all the big fish being caught!!

[woody 184]

Tim we did have a very fun 3 day deal... Coup thanks again for letting us use your baby on friday.. If we did not have the probe I guarantee we would not have done the quality fish we had in our winning box for the Captain Jacks Challenge... Our Team really jelled nicely over the last couple weeks of fishing hard together now its time to get a few things done around the house like you said....Hey at least we got to the weigh in on time in Sodus... Imagine if we had done that in Oswego, that would have been a really nice stretch of fishing for our Team.... Dale

[Jolly II]

Nice job on the Big Fish Friday win!!!!

[blueghost1]

awesome tourney! Glad to see good fish still being caught. Plan on getting back out on the water now that my Oregon trip is done.

[woody 184]

Thanks guys we put more time in fishing the last couple weeks than anything else.. It definately paid off..... Hopefully next year we can fish a few more of the Pro/Ams... We will see.....

Kevin I will be calling you today, I got your message.... Dale