Seneca derby

[lil' troller]

What a weekend. It was tough fishing, but we got to meet a few of you guys and had a great time. Congats to Stouter who placed his dad 5th in lakers . Big fish friday was a good warm up event, and a good time for some pre derby B.S. (thats just like regular B.S. without speed, depth, or color being mentioned lol). Also Congrats to lil jake for taking home the trophy and Jennings who won it . We never seemed to get a pattern out of it. We had a hot spoon on Sunday, but that was the only day it worked. Good job to all those who placed.

I'm so glad I'll be back on Cayuga again

Ben

[stoutner]

It was good meeting more of you guys. We had a pretty big fish on Friday that we threw back but in hind site we should have brought it in. It was 6-7 lbs on my scale but I didnt think it was big enough. It did look about as big as the fish that won.

It was actually me, my girlfriend, and her Father that caught the 5th place Lake trout. It was only like 32" long but was exactly 11.50 lbs. It was 3rd place until late Saturday but slid down to 5th. I was hoping to catch another 7+lb fish to get my girlfriend on the board but it was not to be. We did catch a 7 lb 10 oz laker on Saturday morning but she was not fishing with us so that didnt count for her. Everything else was in the 4- 6 lb range. We went about 10/12 Saturday, 4/6 Sunday, and about 5/7 on Monday.

That friggin lake is tough fishing and in my mind has wayyyyy less fish than Cayuga. My fish finder marked about 1 fish per hour and very little bait the whole weekend. I did not fish in close where I am told most of the bait was located but still...

Wayne

[Sk8man]

Good going to anyone who caught any decent fish during the derby (trolling at least :>) I have fished Seneca for over 50 years and this was the toughest fishing other than during the 1970's when the lampreys were very active and it was usually 3 or 4 hours between fish. My son and I tried about every technique other than pulling copper and still fishing and only came up with 3 fish during the derby. We changed out over 200 lures all sizes, small and large dipseys, lead core, downriggers, top lines on outriggers, dodgers, spin doctors, etc. I ran three rigs (one with jug way behind the boat) in every depth possible and only marked a very ocassional fish (all between 24 and 48 feet down over a variety of depths)and a few small pods of bait during the two days of fishing (we opted to stay home the third day because of a broken toe on my son the second day). We fished 12 hours each day too. In short to sum things up for us "the derby sucked ". On a more positive note it was great to be "hard at work" fishing with my best fishing partner....my kid. Best of luck to all you guys in the upcoming weeks :>)

[Lil Jake]

Lil troller, when I got that trophy in the mail last week I somehow knew I'd be taking it home with me. Just a classic deal there bud. Good seeing you and your dad again and hopefully next year I can pass the "second sucks" cup onto someone else. See you back on Cayuga.

[Zebedee]

Had a great time as well. It was good to meet everyone briefly on Friday...it sucks the rain kicked us out because I would have enjoyed chatting with more of you. Thanks to Mark for organizing the friendly contest and to Nick for the idea.

I had a crew member back out so I was running 4 rods all weekend fishing with my Dad.

Friday:

8/9

We marked a ton of fish and bait along the east side in 20-30 FOW from the very north end all the way to Sampson. The fish in front of Sampson were the most active for us. The fish seemed to like white patterns the best.

Saturday:

14/15

Started at Reeder creek and trolled south to Sampson on the east side working the bait and fish we worked on Friday. Glow patterns early until the sun came up and switched to the standard green stuff.

Sunday:

5/7

Sunday I worked high banks north trying to get those bait and fish to go I marked on friday in 20-30 FOW and they still wouldn't go (for us). I threw everything under the sun at them. Tried out deep without any success and worked a pocket of fish in front of Sampson with Double D to save the day pulling 5 fish at the end of the day. (He felt bad for me after hearing me cry on the radio! ) Fish seemed to like black and green patterns.

Monday:

5/11

Had the dropsies. Tried those inside fish early but couldn't get them to go so I slid out working the really deep water and pulled some bigger fish. They still liked the darker patterns for us.

Congrats to Balls Deep on the 11.5# Laker

Anyone else on the board place?

[blueghost1]

Here is my 'Pitty Party"

Friday: spend 1/2hr on lake. Copper gets hooked up on bottom, gets caught up in my fingers, drags boat to a stop feeling like they are going to get ripped off, wire eventually breaks. Head in to a cranky 2yr old sick, found to be with Bronchitis

Sat: head north from Sampson for 1yr in dense fog to pumphouse,go 7/10 all lakers(8-11 if you count a northern) biggerst 7lbs, all but 2 pulling copper

Sun: 6/8 all lakers on north end, biggest 6lbs, lose BIG laker about 30ft behind boat. Get to chat with Zeb for a moment before having to head back to Sampson for med. emergency

Mon. Wake up to right rear tire on trailer FLAT packed up and went home!

Worst derby for us in 10 yrs! Still made the best of it, better than working

[Lil Jake]

BlueGhost, Sounds like you got all of your bad luck out of the way in one weekend. Things almost have to start looking up, wish you could have made the big fish deal but there's always next year. Hope your little girl is feeling better. Mark

[blueghost1]

Thanks Mark! She was doing better Sat. Medication kicked in fast

[woody 184]

Damn Kevin you did'nt tell me about all that..... You guys deserve a medal for just hanging in there all weekend........ I have to work friday at the Firehouse, let me know if you want to get out on my boat for a few hours...... Dale

[lakebound88]

Good Job Fellas!!

[Double D]

Yes Congrats to all! Hey Zebedee, my wife got a great picture of you and your father on your boat when we were working that pocket of fish. When I figure out how to get it from the camera to the computer I will send it to you! On Saturday, I fished the pods of bait in front of Sampson in 80-85fow. When the sun came out the dream weaver Bloodydeath spoon fired on the riggers 78 and 80 feet down. On Sunday I continuously worked a pocket of fish in 30-40 foot of water north of sampson. Green and black also worked well. was great meeting all of you at the friday event and cant wait til next year.

[rshubuck]

Great job to all!

[sgtstalker]

Was also a tough weekend but agree better than work.

Looked forward to fishing Friday with Blue ghost but weather and other issues came into play. Had to go pick up my 3rd crew member, stopped at store for his supplies and he reaches for his wallet that is still at home on his counter.

Sat. morning started out from Samson with a plan to go north but way to much fog so we set up on the east side and headed north. Found fish in 20-30 feet of water with many pods of bait fish with bigger fish in the pods feeding. We did not get a fish on the leaders board but did land over a dozen lakers and lost a few also. All on copper pulling on the bottom. Back at camp ground l checked my engine oil and found it to be milky. Also have a small knocking sound from it that I can not determin where it is coming from. Changed the oil and hoped for the best.

Sunday morning I had a un motivated crew that wanted to sleep in more than fish. Once I got them moving to the launch had a dead battery. Though I must have left something on from working on it the night before. Jumped it and it started right up. Fished the same area Sunday as the day before and nothing. Not sure where the fish all went. Then the fishfinder goes out and smoke starts pouring out from the battery compartment. Mad a fast pull in of lines and thought we would make it in but when we went to raise the plate the motor died. Thanks to Blue Ghost who made a trip back out to the water for me with a spare battery from the camper. Looked at gauges and looked like volt output was 17 not good. Limped back in and took off alternator, another trip to Geneva and voltage regulator shot. Well no fixing it, so bought more oil and filter thought I would change oil 1 more time to get last bit of water out. To my dismise it seems like I do not have water in the oil but somehow gas in the oil. This may be related to the knocking I hear. If any ideas I am very much open to hearing them. It is a 1983 Mercurser 140 So drank beer and thought of what might have been. Watched a great light show from mother nature

Also had a water line break in the camper and shades break. All in all not a weekend I want to have again but one that will be talked about often. Got a new alternator now just need to find out what is wrong with the engin. Already looking forward to next year. If you don't have nothing you'll never have to fix nothing.

The good lord challenges us for reasons we may never understand, suppose to make us stronger. Watch out for me cause I am becomming a strong SOB LOL

Thanks everyone for letting me vent and look forward to next time.

[cdgn troller]

I thought we had a decent derby, after placing in the past 3 derbies my crew just expects it now, so their hard to keep happy when were not catching bigger fish, so they thought it was a bad derby. after finding fish friday night, I decided to go to the spot I was at the previous weekend and found the fish weren't there. We managed 2 small landlocks and then headed back north of sampson in 25 fow and found the fish and bait. it was a steady pick of 4-5 pound lakers with a 5 lb rainbow. we ended up with 8 lakers, 1 rainbow and 4 salmon for the day. went to the same spot on sunday am with ended up with 4 lakers and 5 salmon. ran over to dresden and found a few more lakers. back to dresden monday morning and with 6 small salmon and lost at least that many. all fish were caught between 20-30 fow. tried deeper water but just couldn't get anything going. Monday a buddy was fishing the same water right in front of us,just a little shallower, and caught the 2nd place brown, I knew it was big from all the yelling going on! It was good meet a few of the guys friday night to put a face with the name, hopefully see some of you at the Red Cross on Seneca.

[quality time]

We didn't have good luck with the fish but we had good luck with the boat. We were trolling along when we heard a BUMP! looked at each other and said what the heck was that. Then a plastic 55 gallon drum came up behind the boat. It didn't even trip any of the rigger lines. The thing was full of water so was floating at or just below the surface. Then later in the day we had a rigger up that has our Sub troll probe on it . This probe was just replaced and had only been used 2 days when the rigger cable breaks. I'm setting in the front of the boat all bummed out wonder how to tell the wife I need to buy another probe , ball and releases. We trolled for 1/2 an hour when Ben notices the probe readout is still working. He goes to the back of the boat and pulls in the cable retriever in to find that the rope tangled with the roemer release and the ball and probe were still hooked to the cable. As soon as he pulled it in the boat it fell off. Hope to see you guys soon. My new canvas job got pushed back a week but we should be sporting a Navy blue canvas by the next derby Wes P.S. That blue should look much better than the duct tape grey we had last weekend.