Who's gonna win the Muskie tournament???

[NitroMusky]

I think a LOU side-pot is in order...Time to start placing those bets! As the odds maker:

Nalod's coming off that 50 inch hawg from the end of last year...got some mo' going.

Blueye is Mr Wooly Bully extrordinaire, but it's not a casting bite this year, hmmm.

Solgrande...hasn't been fishing much this year, but he's a consistent producer on Chaut

Zach: a slow season opener, but he's got all the colors in his box (even firetiger now!)

Ronix, the newcomer. no pures yet, but his freshness and determination makes him a real wildcard

Old Man. Can't lose...but can win either if he doesn't play

Stinky Finger...you in? Hope not! You got too much experience

Nitro...got a good batting average going this year, but I've been known to go three strikes and out too

But the real winner will be ( drum roll, please): The Muskie baitfund. thanks again Larry for putting on what is sure to be another great tournament!

So what's everyone else's pre game day prediction??? And who's in on that side pot?

[Ronix 51]

haha I would compare me winning to the same odds as stanford beating USC is 2007...but either way we are pumped about it!

[Nalod]

I would absolutely love to see one of those names at the top of the leader board this year. I believe that last year Solgrande was close with a nice mid-40 incher, but was not able to cash. It seems that every year he is able to get one good sized fish for the tournament day, so this should give him the odds of the group!

My money would have to be on Nitro this year, though. He had a good trolling day for the opener, and I am sure he will find fish this weekend!

I am excited to see how the weather plays on the fishing. We had a pretty rough storm last night and the weather looks to be rainy for most of the weekend.

And for my favorite part of the tournaments...seeing everyone and meeting new faces.

See everyone on the lake!

-Joe

[zach]

Brad is hot this year! I better steal his drain plug at the ramp so his boat is full of water! Gotta do something to slow him down! Ronix- he'll score his first fish and make it into the $ on his first trip to the lake. Old Man- he is the darkhorse, so we will have to find out? Musky Lips- he may do well now that he is partnering with "The King", they are a match made in heaven . Solgrande- he will only catch one fish, it will be a slob and he will do it while in site of me just to make me pull all my hair out and probably win the thing fishing water I just went over. Nolad and Blueye are becoming Chautauqua veterans so my $ might be on them if its a bait chucking event. Nitro used up all his good luck on Saturday so........ Gonna be fun, I personally hope Lex kicks all you butts and nails a slob right in front of Solgrande to turn the musky world up side down. Once again, I am official net man for her so watch out for the woman, she is good! We are most likely going back down to the South End where her dad and I did a few on Sunday after doing nothing Saturday on Waneta. We did 3 and lost 3 more in a morning of trolling all on bright stuff. Lex and I are capable of doing decent #'s but we never get the big ones when it counts. Best luck to everyone and I hope someone here on LOU gets the winning fish! Remember to save a few bucks for the lure raffle after the tourney!

[BlueEye]

Great post Nitro – I loved it! I am heading down there tomorrow with the Wife to launch the boat and maybe fish the afternoon and have all day Friday for fishing and a…………… wine tour???? The wife was adamant on it. Hope the wineries don’t mind me picking up their glasses with a little musky slime on my hands

All the talk lately has been about the fishing being a trolling bite. Anyone even tried casting yet this year or will I have be the first one to post that report? Bought a nice new St. Croix from Mike (Ronix) this year and have been itching to try it out. Also got a nice compass (courtesy of Bob – thank you Bob! ) installed on the boat that should make telling the wife what direction to keep the boat headed easier. This will be our first go at Muskies this year so I am really excited! Been having great luck on Braddocks recently fishing pike but I’m ready for the big time now.

A special thank you goes out to Capt. Larry again for putting together this amazing event! Your dedication to the musky fishery is second to none.

Oh and my pick for this years 2011 Champion…… beginners luck and musky fishing seem to go hand-n-hand. Last year I witnessed an old friend of mine that grew up down the street from me (Kevin) who was fishing from Zach’s boat catch a musky on his very first cast ever! He then repeated the effort only a few casts later! With that said….. good luck getting your first PURE Mike (Ronix), my money is on you!

[zach]

Ronix- for $5 I can tell you where we were casting! Yeah- lucky Kevin, On his first cast ever banged a decent one, six casts later another one. He is the same guy who can shoot a 10pt buck when everyone else sees nothing all day out hunting. Some people are just lucky I guess. Maybe it was his guide? lol.

I had to put music over the video b/c I was swearing like a champ. That location has shown me fish consistently for over a dozen years and I have seen some hogs also. Its an sharp inside turn on a weed edge that I bet I have done over a dozen fish on. Almost forgot about that spot, thanks for helping me remember BlueEye! BlueEye, I say do the wine tasting and then go out fishing, lol.

[zach]

I don't know who else is excited but I am! I love fishing these things and looking back at the 4 tourney's I have done- the boat has landed 18 muskies in those 4 tourney's and that works out to 4.5 fish per tourney. I hope to keep this streak going but am not too sure about it. Wishing everyone the best luck and I hope that the LOU fishermen stand tall, do well and catch some slobs! See you guys soon!

[Ronix 51]

werent able to catch a damn thing during the tournament it was tough fishing for all but me adn my buddy managed to get our firsts ever that night and the next day so all in all it was a real good time looking forward to getting back now that we got to learn a thing or 5 from all you guys there. thanks a ton for all the info guys

[NitroMusky]

Can't say any of us lit it up out there...if I'm correct our collective fish count can be measured on no hands. Yikes! I guess there is some consolation in knowing that even previous tough bite tournaments turn out more registered fish than this one...by a longshot- and I think this one had the most entrants thus far as well. Tough bite indeed! ...and miserably cold and wet conditions. THE FISH WON!

Blueye, you were on the right track with the theory of beginners luck...at least ronix hooked into one during the tournament. All I did was wash lures all day.

The dinner was fun though...good to see all of you. Here's to a better showing on sept 10th

[Nalod]

BlueEye and I decided to take another stab at casting Sunday morning. It was extremely slow fishing, but we we were able to manage 2 fish raised. I kept noticing a bunch of perch following our baits in all morning, so I decided to switch over to my spinning rod and start trying to catch them for a little break. I was casting a spinner that was about 1" long on 12lb. test when I saw a flash in the water going right after my lure. I set the hook and started a great fight.

At first I thought it was a walleye coming up from the weedline, but soon realized this aggressive fighting could only be a musky! I ended up getting the net on it and could not be more excited! This is the first musky I have ever caught on non-musky gear. We took a picture and then released it. Even though it was a low 30s, I am still excited about the fight!

Oh, does this tell us that they were looking for the small meal this weekend? Was it a fluke? I have no clue, but I really had a lot of fun the entire time I was there. I have to give big thanks to Capt. Larry for all that he does with the tournament and the lake. It is greatly appreciated!

--Joe

[Ronix 51]

Nice fish joe!

my buddy ended up getting his that morning as well up in the flats about the same size maybe a tad smaller. he got his on a perch swim bait. i got mine on a 10 inch thunder dawg in shad color fished pretty slow

[Nalod]

Hey Mike,

I am really glad to hear that you got your first pure musky. The entire weekend was really tough and caused a lot of people to blank for there time on the lake. With you and your buddy (I think his name was Jeremy) catching one, I know that the rush is still going through you and thoughts of the next trip to Chautauqua is in your mind!

Again, congrats on your first pures!

--Joe

[Ronix 51]

thanks joe we owe it to you guys for giving us pointers on where to go bc thats where we got them and better yet we got them casting which is what we prefer to do anyways. im already thinking about the next time down there

[BlueEye]

If I had to sum up the tournament I would say it was “excitingly frustratingâ€. Joe and I (and the wife) did some scouting on Friday and found a good number of fish just south of Pendergrast, back in that bay (what is the name of that bay again?). There was a nice drop off on the south edge of that bay that seemed like it was holding a lot of fish. On Friday I had several follows and Joe lost one and only a few casts later hooked up and landed another. Trolling wasn’t producing anything for us so we decided it was going to be a casting tournament for us. Knowing that most of Larry’s fish this year have come right at first light trolling, our strategy was to try the trolling bite for the first 2 hours of the morning and then switch to casting.

Tournament morning we were unable to move a rod trolling. Worked from Pendergrast point to Bell Tower but nothing – saw fish on the screen but couldn’t move a rod. So we went over to casting back in our bay (we were the only boat back there) and immediately started with a couple follows. So here is frustrating part…… I ended the day with 8 follows and 2 largemouth bass! I’m trying to wrap my head around why exactly I couldn’t get any of these fish to bite. Excitingly frustrating as I put it. I feel like I am missing some sort of trigger move to put the finishing hooks into some of these follows. It might of have just been a “lock-jaw†day but I can’t remember the last time I have SEEN that many fish and was unable to get them hit.

I will share one thing that I learned…. Water was VERY clear in north end of the lake as most of you know. So clear in fact that I didn’t get ANY follows on my normally trusted bucktails. Everything was on jerkbaits and only jerkbaits that were of really natural patterns (browns, blacks, perch). My assumption is that with the water being that clear, these fish weren’t being fooled by bucktails. The other thing that I noticed is that all of my follows ended 5 feet from the boat, when the fish would spot the boat (cause of the ultra clear water). Not once was I able to get a fish to chase the lure into a figure-8. Just some thoughts I thought I would share…….

Anyways, I’m itching to get back out there and get my revenge! But in the mean time I’m going to try and put some salmon in the boat. Bite was good last night in 75 foot of water of Braddocks. I’ll have to get some of my musky buddies out there sometime to try the big pond

[Nalod]

I believe the bay just south of pendergrast point is Whitney Bay.

--Joe

[NitroMusky]

I believe the bay just south of pendergrast point is Whitney Bay.

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