Billy V Cayuga LOU-ALL report July 8, 2012

[Billy V]

What a fun day we had in the 6th Annual LOU-ALL! Jay and I were joined by my two sons William & Benjamin for the tournament - their first taste of tournament fishing. We left the dock at daybreak and headed north to our hot spot and got set up for part 1 of our mission - find some big lakers. We started in 50 FOW and picked away at small lakers for the first half hour of the day, but the water was warmer than we had hoped in there so we slowly slid out to deeper water. Once we got out to 120FOW things got crazy for us. There was a solid 90 minute stretch when we just couldn't keep all of our rods in the water. We had a good class size of lake trout under the boat and they were hungry. At one point we had all three Cannons fire within seconds of each other and the boys and I were treated to a triple. William and Benjamin both landed their fish quickly and then I brought our biggest fish of the day - a 10lb laker - over the transom.

Jay and I quickly re-set the rods and the fish kept biting on a frenetic pace for the next hour and a half. The boys worked their tails off in the back of the boat fighting fish and helping us re-set rods. William is getting especially good at re-setting our wire diver rods.

I'm pretty sure the fish wore the boys out because once things slowed down a little bit they both disappeared downstairs and crashed! When it was all said and done we had boated a mess of lake trout and felt pretty good that we had the weight that we were looking for with the 3 biggest. Now it was time for part 2 of the mission - find some silvers to round out our box. We left our laker hot spot and headed for deeper water and eventually ended up on the west side of the lake in a spot where we have been taking Atlantics for most of the season. We continued to take lake trout over there and hoped that we would just have to weed through them to get our silvers. The first silver came just minutes after William woke up from his nap at about 9am. He saw the rod fire, pulled it from the holder and while the fish was airborne looked at me and said "I got this Dad". Jay and I both held our breath as the fate of our tournament sat squarely on the shoulders of a 9 year old boy and his 7 year old brother who was at the wheel. William did a great job of keeping tension on the fish and within a couple of minutes he had boated a healthy 5lb Atlantic all by himself and Benjamin kept the boat going straight while only running one engine. Talk about a proud Dad! We continued to pick through lake trout and Atlantics that were just too small to keep while the clock ticked. At about 11:00am I pulled the center rigger and threw a GFR Rapala down 35' in some 60 degree water. That sat there for about 30 minutes without a touch and I decided to start bumping it down 5' at a time. No sooner did I put it down 40' than it fired and we landed a 20" Atlantic to round out our box. High fives were exchanged all around the boat and we all breathed a sigh of relief. We pointed the boat towards Myers and trolled back to the barn. We figured we were probably in the running but that last Atlantic had us worried. We were pleasantly surprised when we got to the weigh and and we heard the crowd's reaction as William put each fish on the scale. It turns out that we had the biggest box of the day and William and Benjamin had won the very first tournament that they had ever entered! Most of you know that Jay and I have chased tournaments all over Lake Ontario for the last 10 years or so and we've had our share of success in them at times. But nothing I've ever accomplished on Lake Ontario can even come close to the sense of pride and satisfaction that I felt when my boys ran up to the scales and accepted the LOU-ALL Cayuga Cup for 2012. It truly was a team win and we competed against some very, very good fishermen. The boys did more than their fair share of the dirty work on the boat too. They cleaned fleas off of lines, washed fish blood and slime off the deck, fought fish, weighed fish, picked out lures, ran the autopilot, re-set rods, and so on. When I was tucking them into bed last night I asked each of them what their favorite part of the day was - winning the trophy or the hard work that went into winning the trophy. And each of them answered "the hard work Dad". Today's experience is exactly why we moved our boat closer to home!

I'd like to thank Scott Bennett and Barney for their hard work in pulling this tournament together. We had a ball and will definitely be back to defend the cup again next year! It was great to be able to put some faces with the names that we see here on LOU. If you fish the Finger Lakes and haven't entered the LOU-ALL you're really missing a great time and a chance to meet a bunch of great people.

[genEus]

What an awesome awesome story and one proud father! Thanks for sharing and congratulations!

[W.W.IV.]

Well Billy V, I think It's safe to say you would not have won with that great box of fish if it wasen't for those boys working working there tails off. . Next year I'm going to barrow a young boy or to to win for me. . You did good. .

Mike.

[Iron Duke]

Probably one of the best posts I have ever read on this site.... Its not about having the finer things in life handed to you its about all the hard work and determination to earn the finer things in life.. Great lesson dad and way to put those kids on the fish... Congratulations!!

Mike

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[Skippers Trophy 01]

Congrats on the win, nice work on getting that last silver to round out the box.

The kids looked excited and were having a great time at the weigh in, thats what its all about.

[gonefishing71]

Capt. Bill

that is a great report, and congrats on a great day on the water

[Billy V]

Thanks guys - I wish we could get into the Seneca Shootout this weekend too!

[lakebound88]

Me TOOOO!!!!

[Reel Doc]

Bill

Congratulations to you and that fine looking crew! Nothing better than doing it with your kids. My May through August this year is packed with baseball & softball with my crew so we are getting very little water activity but plenty of memories on the diamonds. I wouldn't trade it for a second.......but I am building some capital by coaching so my kids will hit the water with me on some upcoming off days!!!

Also glad to hear they let you boat the big one.......for the hours of water time you put in I think you've earned it.

Congrats

Greg

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[treerat]

great post .the smiles on the kids faces are priceless

[panfisher]

One word for this post....Excellent!!!