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Posted

I headed to Oswego with my 13 yr old son Justin, his buddy Jordan and our dog. The Plan was to stay In our RV parked at Jon's little salmon shop and put the boat at Wrights In Oswego. Except for one trip this spring before the boat was really ready, this was the first trip for Lucky Enuff Since fall of 2011. The boat ran great the whole trip...the new top worked out great and I was really super happy with it considering she's now 35 years old !

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Once we got settled In, our first order of business was to get out on the lake and do some swimming to beat the heat. I ran out to 200 fow and while I got things ready the kids got wet.

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I noticed as we were sitting over 200 swimming, I marked a lot of fish. Once we were

cooled off, I set up right there and started trolling a 5 rod spread and within 5 minutes Jordan had his first ever fish....a small Steelhead.

Since this was Jordan's first time fishing, Justin agreed to let him reel In all the fish on

day one and Justin would do the netting. A few minutes after the steelhead was released, Jordan was Back on the rod fighting his first salmon

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Friday was a little more serious.....just a little. We were fishing the A-Tom-mic challenge and the boys were going to do everything, so I taught Justin how to set the down riggers. He did a great job once he got the hang of it.

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We searched for a good class of fish. We started out from the college and fished east. We found the big fish we were looking for I'n front of the nuke plant In 200 to 230 fow. It was mostly a flasher fly bite, with the Big Weenie spook, Big Weenie Dominator and Big Weenie Rolling Rock all doing well.....along with a few others. Wires were good

parked between 250 and 275 and our best riggers were 80 to 110. The kids ended the afternoon with a respectable box with their 6 biggest close to 100 lbs. I knew if we could continue to improve they had a chance to be In the $$ on Sat....

The boys best 3 on Friday.. 22, 21 and 17 lb kings. They dropped a good one too, so they were excited to see what Sat. would bring.

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Sat. Morning was a 3:30 wake up and we would be joined by Jon...owner of Jon's little Salmon Bait and Tackle In Mexico. My plan was to fish the same 200 fow zone as the day before In front of the plant. I wanted to set up In 100 and troll out, but that would have been hard setting up with a brisk NW wind, so we set up over 230 fow. We were

into fish fast, and I threw back several fish early. We put a 17 lb king In the box when Jon and Justin were doubled. Both came to the boat at the same time, so we netted one, but the other popped off the hook. That was a sign of things to come, as fish after fish were dropped. I would say by the end of the day we lost as many as 15....a few of them being In the 20lb class. Our lack of team experience kinda got us on Sat, as we also lost a 500 copper, snapped a down rigger rod In half, tangled the 400 copper with the wire and broke the tip off the 300 copper rod....lol. My decision to throw back those fish In the morning came back to bite me, and the kids went In a fish short and only one decent king, but nothing like the day before. I think Jon had a good time watching the boys, even though they were pretty whooped and a little down because they got spoiled the day before.

As we pulled rods for the day to head In, one of the boys noticed this cloud and mentioned that the fish god was looking down on us....check out the fish head coming up out of the clouds!!

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In the end it was a ton of exhausting work and we didn't have a good tourney day as far as our box of fish was concerned, but having the experience with the two boys and my buddy Jon was something I will forever cherish and it really put tournament fishing back into perspective for me. For me, if I can do something like this with kids, that is really

where it's at. These boys want another shot, and I'll gladly give up my time to give it to them. Hopefully next time you'll see Lucky Enuff on the leader board and behind that name will be a couple smiling kids !

All In all it was great and the new lucky Enuff team took one on the chin but the boys will be back out training In a couple weeks and they want to give it another go In the Pro Am open division.

Posted

:yes::yes::yes: Great report. Sure wish we had a fishery like Lake O closer to home. Could you imagine taking Kings and Steelies out of the Nock? Ha Ha. :lol:

TJ

Posted

Thanks guys....it really was great fun.....the most fun I have had fishing in a few years. I'm still smiling !! It's crazy cause we had such a rough tourney day, yet it didn't seem to matter and it was so great to see smiles on the boat coming into port even after having lost soooo many fish.

Sounds like you guys had an awesome weekend! When do you land in Sodus?

Not sure yet Nick. Was gonna put the boat there yesterday, but left it at Jon's Little Salmon shop instead till I get back up. Probably two weeks...I'll let you know & I can't wait :clap:

Great report. Sure wish we had a fishery like Lake O closer to home. Could you imagine taking Kings and Steelies out of the Nock? Ha Ha.

I know, right? I'm Just glad we have it at all! We are so lucky and to think so many have never experienced it. Quakertown, eh? PM me sometime....would be nice to meat a local here in PA who has the same addiction I seem to have :yes:

Posted

Wow...a Red Hill'er too ! We need to start a local fishing club :D I live 10 min. from the Nock and never fish it cause of my big pond addiction ;)

Posted

Unfortunatley I only make it up to the Big O once a year for the annual family vacation. It is surprising how many guys from SE PA are on this site.

Posted

A bunch from Western Mass as well. I didn't realize how far people were driving to fish Lake Ontario until I joined the site.

Posted

Not to Hijack but I travel 6 hrs from the East side of NH. Worth every minute of it.

Nice Job on the fish Rod.

Do you miss the flybridge? I know you searched hard to find that boat with that feature.

Read about the upcoming move. I wish you luck with that. If your out to the east end in the middle of August let me know.

I'd like to say hello.

Spike

Posted
Do you miss the flybridge? I know you searched hard to find that boat with that feature.

Read about the upcoming move. I wish you luck with that. If your out to the east end in the middle of August let me know.

I'd like to say hello.

Hey Spike, How are you bud? Actually, it was the twin I/O's on a 24 ft'er that I was searching for, not the bridge. The kids liked it, but I never really did and I love it being gone !!

Still not sure what we are doing....crazy, right? Now it looks like the wife may be done out in Cali by the end of the year so I may not be going except to visit? That would be fine by me ;) I should be in Cali mid Aug, but who knows and if not we need to get out fishing one day :yes:

Posted
I really wouldn't care about the tourney if my son and I had a 100lb box the day before. From what I heard it wasn't easy sat with the wind.

Right on brother :yes: It's hard because as a dad I really wanted to send them in with a good tournament box, something for them to be proud of and we had the right fish on the line....we just couldn't put them in the net on Saturday and I was so busy trying to run the boat I couldn't really mentally process what was going on. When I overheard my Son's buddy Jordan say "I can't stop smiling"....I knew it was worth all the effort :)

I am very thankful to Lester Zimmermen, who made sure every kid in the tournament got a trophy just for fishing it. How awesome is that? Lester does so much for youth fishing in these events...you can't help but to get a little choked up seeing the smiles on there faces and it puts it all right into perspective.....Thanks Lester :yes::yes:

Posted

My son and I were going to head up for Sun-Tues but the weather forecast just wasn't there for us two on my Trophy 18'. I guess I should have tried to go up earlier in the week. Trying to figure out another time slot but the kid is busier than I am.

Posted

I went to the ELOSTA meeting a couple months ago (and joined) and they gave Lester the floor for a few minutes. He obviously cares passionately about the kids, was humble to a fault and spoke a little about the Shane Zimmerman Memorial Big Fish Award.

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