2012 Sodus Bay Healing Waters Salmon Slam - August 4th

[fast and silver]

Just thought i would say a few things also, we didnt get a vet on are boat, or did we? when i first heard about this, i was overjoyed to volunteer my boat and experience to catch these vets some fish, my friend also jumped at the chance to help also in the rigging and all that goes along with running all those rods, my 10 year old son begged to come along, at first i thought it to be a bad idea, after all how do you tell a kid he cant catch any fish that the vets would catch them all, but he said to me he just wanted to go and help out the vets, see in are family we have a long line of men who served in wars and peace time, grandfathers who served under Patton, uncles who saw the worst of what Vietnam could show them and personally being a combat marine from the gulf war, so i think my son just wanted to be apart of this to meet the heroes he has heard about through family talks and he assured me he wouldnt want to catch any fish, how could i say no, now my buddy also a former marine waited for our vet but there just wasnt enough to go around, so instead we went to fish with just us three, my son fishes with us alot and he also does all east end challenges with us so he does know what he is doing out there, but today my buddy and i decided that my son was gonna catch all the fish with little or no help to better prepare him for the fair haven challenge, i have to admit he stepped up to the challenge put infront of him, and he has one heck of a way to bring in those larger salmon, see he puts the butt of the rod between his legs and uses a sit down and pull up way to bring them in, its funnier that heck to see but he gets the job done and really only at the netting we may need to help him, he managed to bring 4 kings to the net, with one being 23.13 lbs, tieing for second place, funny thing is it was one of the best days my son and me had on the water, it was all about him and i loved every bit of it, and our father son bond got that much stronger that day, so to answer the first question. yes we had two vets on our boat (my friend and i) and we even had one little hero that just wanted to help but got a day of him battling the king salmon, thank you Nick and Theresa this vet had a great time with son and made a very special memory that we will never forget, its funny how we all went to help but in my case i got the help, till next year

[TOP SECRET]

Sorry for joining so late, needed to get some rest and a few things in order before posting today

This weekend was nothing short of amazing. I have never felt so much pride in my fellow fisherman. You all pulled together and made this event happen. Trust me when I say, without each one of you, this event could never have happened! And let's not forget the wives, girlfriends, relatives, friends, and other volunteers who pitched in while many of us were on the lake, without them this event could not have happened either. To story line the morning...

At 4:30am, I finally was able to get out of bed... I hadn't slept much that night, the anticipation had me amped like a sugar high 5 year old on Christmas morning. I crawled out of my boat to find that I wasn't the only one. Several fisherman were pacing the marina, I guess I wasn't the only one who was a bit excited! I went over and got the big fancy high tech user manual not included coffee makers ready. Then between Ray tripping the GFCI, me not knowing which end went up, and two or three others we were able to get the coffee brewing At least I was able to get the donuts ready easily enough!

Captains began to sign in and the first 15 received awesome Stan's digital scales. I didn't take a scale, but after using one at weigh in, I think I need to buy one, because they were crazy good... didn't bounce around at all and had a "lb oz" mode.

At 6am, we held the Captain's meeting with 19 boats in attendance. Mike from Bout Time provided a flag for each boat, which was awesome! We reviewed the plan for the day, answered any questions, and prepared for the arrival of our Veterans.

It wasn't long and the veterans began to show up.

The veterans from Erie, PA showed up first. Brian, a Project Healing Waters volunteer was their driver and had left at midnight to get them here I would see Brian throughout the day and for a guy that drove 4+hrs after midnight he looked like he was having a blast!

The van from Batavia was running late, and a few teams agreed to wait half an hour longer for them. I really appreciated it guys and I'm sorry that the Batavia van didn't show up. These three teams still fished and were eligible for all prizes, except the veteran prizes.

At 7am, the boats pulled away from the dock and lined up behind the United States Coast Guard. The US Coast Guard gave us an honorary escort around the point and out through the channel into Lake Ontario.

At one point, I looked back and the sight took my breath away...

All of those boats, all flying flags, all bonded together to volunteer their time for the event, what an amazing moment, it really choked me up.

We reached the end of the channel and the Coast Guard came over the radio... they thanked the Veterans for their service and wished us luck and the boats took off while Finders Keepers and we stayed behind to film the boats going by.

Once all the boats were out, we zoomed out and setup in 220fow pointed North. We talked to a couple of other boats before we left and we were going to try deep while they stayed shallow to try and figure out where the fish were. We put our port side diver into the water and started to let it out with a white board green dot spinny and green fly. As that was going out, I started to help Theresa with the starboard side diver. She got that sorted and started to put it out. While I put the probe on the end of the rigger, our Veteran Dave told us a story about a nice 21 inch rainbow he caught a couple of weeks ago... I leaned over to see the port side dipsey at about 200ft and still going out... at about 250 and still being set out ... zing zing ZING it started screaming and Dave was on the rod A few minutes later a 10lb steelie hit the deck! We were stoked!

We announced what the fish was caught on and our depth and then we heard the radio come alive! "Green Dolphin hooked up on the salmon slam spoon over 130ft", "Tacklebuster hooked up on green penguin over 130ft", on and on all morning, teams helping eachother out with information and sharing in their joy. I've never had so much fun just listening to the radio.

We took two shots on the 100ft rigger with no one home, and then took a shot on the 80ft rigger with the salmon slam spoon. The rod popped and we all just kinda looked at eachother thinking someone else was going to get it... once we realized no one was getting it, Dave jumped up to the rod, but the fish was gone. It slowed down for us over 400fow and the South wind was blowing hard with solid 3 footers hitting us hard. We heard boats hitting fish in shallower with smaller waves so we headed back in.

Over 250fow, the SI Org flag our company gave us went flying off the back of the boat! Yikes it was windy, the flag sunk immediately and was gone. A few minutes later the 100ft rigger pops and Dave jumps on it! The rod didn't bend hard, but there was definitely something on it... a small laker or brown I was thinking... as it gets closer to the boat, we realize what it is... holy cow it's OUR FLAG!!!! The flag had somehow sunk and got caught not on the hook, but on the spin doctor!! It was just wrapped on it and came right off when we got it into the boat... AWESOME!

With about 15 minutes left, we started joking about how maybe we'd finish the way we started, when the 275 dipsey with a bloody death board and fly started screaming... Dave was on it! As the fish started screaming out line he looked at us with that look everyone gets with their first big lake king... big smile, wide eyed, giddy. We got the fighting belt out, wrapped it around Dave, and said go get em! That fish didn't give up until it was in the net, an absolutely awesome fight!

A few minutes later, 11:30 came around and we announced it was time to pull lines. A few boats that hadn't landed any fish yet asked if it was ok to stay out a bit later, absolutely! (I warned them we might not have any burgers left by the time they get in though We ended up having about 80 left over though haha)

On the way in, a lot of boats were going in through the channel at the same time. The DEC was there doing creel surveys, but we had arranged ahead of time to have them let the Salmon Slam boats pass and have someone at the weigh in to do the creel surveys and head scans (sorry I'm not sure I let every boat know that).

We docked and began the weigh in. It was definitely a tough day of fishing, but quite a few teams had some luck.

A couple of the teams lost fish due to nets, a certain team almost lost a fish due to their prop. I need to buy them shirts that say "You might be a redneck if you've ever had to tape a fish back together..."

After weigh in, Cold Water Affair took first place with a 25lb 5oz salmon, Half Wired and Fast and Silver tied for second place with 23lb 13oz. The rules stated that the first team to weigh in would be placed ahead, but since I got in a bit late I wasn't sure which team was first... so we drew for it and Fast and Silver was drawn. We were able to give Half Wired a nice Big Weenie prize pack, but I apologize for the lack of coordination. Next year, the rule will be changed to a drawing, which I think is the fair way to do it. My Ruff Rider team took first place for Steelhead with our 9lb 15oz. Team Drag'n Balls took 1st place brown with 10lb 15oz and were also the only team to hit a Salmon Slam grand slam, a king, a steelie, a brown, and a fish caught on the Salmon Slam spoon. They also won the Salmon Slam Spoon prize with their 10lb 15oz brown being the biggest fish caught on the Salmon Slam spoon.

We then gave out raffle tickets, one to each veteran, and to the captains based upon their largest fish, 1 ticket for 0-9lbs, 2 tickets for 10-19lbs, 3 tickets for 20-29lbs. We had some great prizes that we raffled off to both veterans and captains. I was extremely jealous of Wayne (Stoutner) who walked away with an awesome Frabil net and Ray K who got the range finder. Guys would love to see some pics of those puppys out of their packaging!

We then enjoyed some burgers, hot dogs, pasta, potato and pasta salad, salt potatoes, cookies, cake, and of course lamprey pies! Thanks to everyone who brought food! A special thanks to Katherine for the Wegman's donation and bringing it, sorry I never got to meet you or say hi!

A special thanks to Brian from PHW for cleaning a ton of fish!

All of the other photos I took can be found at:

http://www.photobucket.com/salmonslam

Please upload a copy of any pictures you took to that same folder as I'd like to put together a compilation of all of them!

I have a lot of video as well, that I'll try to compile over the next few weeks. I need to get some video from Finders Keepers as well!

Again, thank you all for putting together this event with us, there is no way we could have done it without you. I spoke with the regional Project Healing Waters coordinator today and he said he received multiple phone calls from the veterans letting him know what an amazing time they had. I can tell you I had several of the veterans come up to me and let me know how much fun they had out on the boats today. A couple of them said they didn't catch any fish, but they didn't care as it was one of the best days they have had in a long long time. Please know that the work everyone did today more than likely changed people's lives today.

Now for the question on everyones' minds... who's ready for next year?

Nick

[ray koziatek]

Nick ,I think (hope) your "spark" may have started a flame on "our lake",, It will be very hard to TOP the quality of "Sodus Bay Healing Waters"..

but im shure it will be deemed contagious....

P.S. Lets not forget ARNIES MARINA who gave up so much precious space in thieir short and busy season, Im in for pitching in a few bucks for a nice wall plaque..for their service..Im headin to the Bath VA on the 9th and it seems their was something i saw at the store their that might work ,with your approval of course..

[TOP SECRET]

Nick ,I think (hope) your "spark" may have started a flame on "our lake",, It will be very hard to TOP the quality of "Sodus Bay Healing Waters"..

but im shure it will be deemed contagious....

P.S. Lets not forget ARNIES MARINA who gave up so much precious space in thieir short and busy season, Im in for pitching in a few bucks for a nice wall plaque..for their service..Im headin to the Bath VA on the 9th and it seems their was something i saw at the store their that might work ,with your approval of course..

Ray sounds like a good idea, let me know how much and I can chip in some $ as well.

[TOP SECRET]

Also, for any of you who were in contact with new stations and newspapers... if you could send this press release to them, I'd appreciate it:

Healing Veterans One Bite at a Time

Sodus Point, NY – August 4th, 2012: At 7am, over 50 disabled/wounded veterans and volunteers departed Arney’s Marina in their tournament boats. They received an honorary escort by the U.S. Coast Guard through the bay and out into Lake Ontario, where they sped off to begin their fishing for the first annual Sodus Bay Healing Waters Salmon Slam Tournament.

Boats began catching salmon and trout and unlike most tournaments, quickly shared their lure types and fishing areas across the VHF radio for all of the other teams to hear. The teams realized this tournament was not about prizes and glory, but about sharing a hobby they love with the veterans who have sacrificed so much for our nation.

By the end of the morning, fish were caught, memories were made, and everyone had found their smiles. Teams gathered up back at the dock and enjoyed a barbecue while recounting their stories of the big ones that were lost and the ones that were landed. Prizes were given to the biggest fish in each category, and raffle tickets were given to each team based upon the weight of their largest fish. Prizes were then raffled off to both Veterans and Captains.

At weigh in, team Cold Water Affair’s veteran took big fish with a 25lb 5oz chinook salmon. Teams Half Wired’s and Fast and Silver’s veterans tied for second place both with 23lb 13oz chinook salmon. Team Drag’n Ball’s veteran took home the trophy for the largest brown trout with a 10lb 15oz bruiser. Team Ruff Rider’s veteran took the 1st place rainbow trout at 9lb 15oz.

The Salmon Slam was coordinated by Nicholas and Theresa Allers along with Project Healing Waters (http://www.projecthealingwaters.org). Project Healing Waters is a non-profit organization dedicated to the physical and emotional rehabilitation of disabled active military service personnel and veterans through fishing education and outings.

[Tackle Buster]

Hey Nick or anyone that may have, I thought I gave someone my camera to take pics at weigh in but I guess I didn't. If anyone has any pics of our team at weigh in could you send them to me. We would like to get some 8.5 x 11 and have them framed in a salmon slam frame and send one to each vet.

Thanks

[mrs ruff rider]

Hey Nick or anyone that may have, I thought I gave someone my camera to take pics at weigh in but I guess I didn't. If anyone has any pics of our team at weigh in could you send them to me. We would like to get some 8.5 x 11 and have them framed in a salmon slam frame and send one to each vet.

Thanks

Troy we have it on video i think. We might be able to grab photos off of it.

Theresa

[ Post made via Android ]

[stoutner]

Troy we have it on video i think. We might be able to grab photos off of it.

Theresa

[ Post made via Android ]

Mrs Ruff Rider... I love it!

Nick: Tim and Jeff have pics of me with that Sweeeeet net in front of the Salmon Slam sign.

Thanks to everyone for putting this together. We had a great time. I must admit, I couldn't sleep the night before either. Can't wait for next year.

[Tackle Buster]

Thank you MRS Ruff Rider, Let me know. Are you going to be posting as much as the Mr.

[ray koziatek]

You know I was just thinkin again (ut oh) ......... Yes something we have taken for granted ,some everyday,now its even in our blood,,,,That is OUR GOOD OlE LAKE ONTARIO UNITED!!... Thank YOU to everyone who is in the background to keep OUR site up and running ..

Yes from the many moderators who keep the spam off here but letting the BS fly. to the head nerd who overlooks all the teco geek stuff that most wouldnt understand if we wanted too.....

Without this site Derbys ,Events,ad a ocasional bashing would not be possable with the peck of a key or two....

THANK YOU L.O.U.!!!

If you havent already you should consider joining "The Proffesionals" its the best 20.00 you will ever spend to expand yer fishing sources..

[mrs ruff rider]

Thank you MRS Ruff Rider, Let me know. Are you going to be posting as much as the Mr.

No way, he's an addict!

[ Post made via Android ]

[choo-choo]

Great job Team Ruff Rider..... and all the volunteers too. Nick , Theresa , and all the rest should be proud for giving those Vet's a fun day out

on the big Lake. They all really seemed to be thankful, for the opportunity to have a peaceful fishing trip , out on a boat , on Lake Ontario, with fishermen/women that really care about their well being. I was thinking that many of the wounded vet's, would like to be boat owning fishermen, but their injuries and old wounds would make that tough for them.

If any Military men/women and veterens are reading this.....THANK YOU for serving, and protecting this great country for the last hundred years....and making it so safe now for us , our children, and grandchildren,.... to do the things we love.... every day.

[TOP SECRET]

Here's a video one of our volunteers (Jack) took from shore... he was using one of my old video cameras, so please excuse the quality, but it gives a great view of the honorary escort we received on our way out...

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[TOP SECRET]

Finders Keepers also posted a video of their vet catching a beauty of a steelie! You can hear how excited he was!

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[TOP SECRET]

A video of our Veteran Dave catching a 10lb steelie. Not sure why the quality is so bad, I might need to remake the video...

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[crumcake1223]

ok guys i tried to make a facebook page for us ...

http://www.facebook.com/?ref=tn_tnmn#!/ ... lingWaters

please pass this around and please add your photos

if theres any problems with the site plz let me know. we have started this page to help get the word out to posibal donaters and to help promot next year. the better we get the salmon slam word out the bigger the party can be next year.

i will admit im no computer geek and will take any help i can get

thanks guys and tight lines to you all

[TOP SECRET]

Troy, here are the best screenshots I could grab from the video...

[crumcake1223]

what does anyone think of doing a fundraiser. nothing big! im talking to a company now where it might be able to be done right on the computer. the idea is to send out an email to everyone that you know with the link and they could order right from there house and have it delivered to there door. payment and everything is done by them.

my girl friend has worked stevco for many years now with the youth football in ontario ny and has had nothing but a great dealing with them. there link is http://www.enjoyfundraising.com/

granted their is lots of talk about school sports teams when there name comes up, but i think we could make enough money to put vets in rooms for the night down at the point and rent the ball park for parking/ picnic. this would free up any donated money so it may be used for smaller things like tents, tables, chairs, food, and so on

just an idea. i would love to hear what people think, heck there is probly a better way to go about this but who knows

tight lines to you

john

[reelintense]

what does anyone think of doing a fundraiser. nothing big! im talking to a company now where it might be able to be done right on the computer. the idea is to send out an email to everyone that you know with the link and they could order right from there house and have it delivered to there door. payment and everything is done by them.

my girl friend has worked stevco for many years now with the youth football in ontario ny and has had nothing but a great dealing with them. there link is http://www.enjoyfundraising.com/

granted their is lots of talk about school sports teams when there name comes up, but i think we could make enough money to put vets in rooms for the night down at the point and rent the ball park for parking/ picnic. this would free up any donated money so it may be used for smaller things like tents, tables, chairs, food, and so on

just an idea. i would love to hear what people think, heck there is probly a better way to go about this but who knows

tight lines to you

john

[TOP SECRET]

Sounds like a good idea John, let me know what I can do to help. You may want to contact the site admins though, I'm not sure what level of fundraising we're allowed to do if any on LOU. Just to make sure we're playing by the LOU rules, I love this website and wouldn't want to do anything we're not supposed to do!

Nick

[crumcake1223]

very true i was more thinking that if we could get an email list together and i would just send it to the guys direct but again not sure about the rules here... how would i get ahold of someone here, just pm one of the admins????

[TOP SECRET]

Yea and if they dont know, they should be able to point you to the right person.

[ Post made via Android ]

[ray koziatek]

Nick went to the V.A. yesterday and didnt see anything

[TOP SECRET]

Nick went to the V.A. yesterday and didnt see anything

No problem, ill see if I can find something...

[ Post made via Android ]

[TOP SECRET]

The Times of Wayne County wrote a nice article up about the Salmon Slam... anyone have a copy of the paper from that day by chance? I'd love to get a copy...

http://www.thetimesofwaynecounty.com/news/healing-veterans-one-catch-at-a-time/

Nick