Chautauqua Tourney Results - June 23rd

[BlueEye]

Had a chance to participate in the annual Chautauqua Bait Fish Fund tournament run by Capt. Larry Jones. Larry did a great job running the tournament and had a fantastic turnout to benefit the baitfish fund with 121 other anglers.

I had the pleasure of fishing with Zach Baker (Baker Lures) and Joe. Fishing was tough under blue bird skies where we had a small window when the wind kicked up that helped us boat our 3rd place fish measuring 43". My co-worker Mark had a great day on the water with Randy boating three muskies including a 41" and 45". Nice job Mark and Randy! If I am not mistaken... the 41" and 45" were Randy's first two muskies ever? Nice going sir Our fish came 25 down over 37 feet of water trolling a Baker Lure at 4.5 mph just north of Pendergrast pretty much in the middle of the lake. We lost one other fish casting and had one more follow. I know we had Zach scratching his head when we picked him up at the dock that morning with with all of his casting gear ready rock n' roll that day only to find out our strategy for the day would be trolling deeper water after failing to move any fish the day before casting. The trolling strategy with the clear water clarity for the day was going to be downsize our lure sizes and run longer leads over deeper water. The casting strategy was going to be get up in the weeds and try to pull them out of the weeds with Jerkbaits worked at higher speeds. Either way it was tough musky fishing condition IMHO.

A custom pearl Baker that Joe had Zach make up - Nice lure (don't mind the blood on it after I cut my finger that day). We call it "scent fishing".... Our 43" came on a smaller perch pattern Baker.

Final Results:

1st Place Mike Matzo 46"

2nd Place Randy Jolles 45"

3rd Place Chad Lapa 43" 8:30am

4th Place Jim Kusa 43" 2:15pm

5th Place Dustin Thompson 42"

Most Muskies Mike Marzo 46" & 40"

Had a great time as always and it was good getting to see everyone at the awards there after. Next Tourney July 28th for those interested.

On Sunday I drove from the launch at Chautauqua to the launch were I keep my boat in Braddocks to take my little nephew out to do some pike fishing. We got a couple before the storms moved in and he was pretty excited (as he always is). Mostly hammer handles with this one below being our biggest. A quick picture and back she went to thrill another youngster someday.

Now time to let the sunburn heal up a bit before trying it all over again - I'm already itching to get back out there!

Cheers

Chad

[gonefishing71]

great report

congrats to everyone who entered, sounds like a first class event,

[JOE ESOX]

Congrats on 3rd! Purdy fish