Chautauqua Lake - Nov 7, 2010

[BlueEye]

First stop - picked up my tackle box at the Happy Hooker! Turns out an elderly couple picked up the box and turned it in as the had no interest in such large painted chuncks of wood and metal. Phew! Thank you to them as they really made my day before I even got on the water.

Took my younger brother and his good friend Zach out to try some musky fishing. Woke up early to be greeted with some good snow showers in Buffalo. It was a cold morning and made casting pretty difficult and we struggled to keep our fingers warm even with some gloves on. Zach ended up hooking into one fishing the flats tossing a bucktail made by another Zach we all know The fish dove quickly into the weeds and really got tangled up good down there and we ended loosing the fish. We later tried some trolling and saw some good activity over the open water, several surfacing fish in the morning. Couldn't get much to turn the rest of the day. Looks to be a better setup out there right now for trolling than casting (both in terms of fish and keeping your hands warm!). We tried tolling for about an hour and saw lots of marks but couldn't turn anything. Would have liked to have tried more trolling today but my brother and Zach really wanted to cast but I think the better option is trolling right now. Hope this helps and I wish I had a picture to show ya.... maybe next trip (next weekend?)

[zach]

Chad, I can't believe that fish spit those nasty 7/0 VMC's I put on that those tails. Anyways at least it was a yank on the line and got the blood flowing. What color bucktail did it eat?

[BlueEye]

Hey Zach -

I don't think that Zach ever really got a good hookset on the fish. The bucktail was the brown/yellow one you tied up for me. Unfortunately, an hour later Zach cast and got a birds next and snapped the line. I watched helplessly as the lure flew through the air and ended up at the bottom of the lake...... he felt pretty bad but that's just the way it goes sometimes.

C

[zach]

well I know a guy who may be able to reproduce that gold bladed, brown and yellow tail if you want me to talk to him? i know he has been busy lately but he may have time for you. lmao! bty that's like the 8th or 9th bait I have made that has been donated to the "musky gods" this year so no worries. You should see whats at the bottom of waneta that I have lost to snags and the 3 that lil colton through over board when we took him out. I know i have 2 perchbaits and a few other nice baits just off the boyscout point in 20 fow in the same d@mn snag if anyone wants to go swimming.