Finders Keepers Sodus Pro-Am Report

[Finders Keepers]

Sorry this is a little late getting posted, I have been trying to recoop from the vigorous fishing the last two weeks! Got out on Thursday to do some pre-fishing in the 6-8 footers. We set down over 100 fow and began working northward. We had a good screen in the 120-140 foot range so we worked those depths westward with the surf. By the time we had made it down to almost Highes, we had boated several decent kings in the upper teens and low 20's, but not the numbers we really wanted for the weekend. Fish came on white green dot spin docs with hypnotist flies and black green dots spin docs with meat rigs. So thinking that the lake had a good chance to flip and we may have to hit browns, we swung in shallower to dial in our brown program. It didn't take long and the rods started firing with browns. We had a good class of browns going - after our 6th hit the deck the average was 10 lbs.

For Jack's Big Fish Friday, we started out in the same waters we hit the kings in Thursday (still in the ocean swells) and again banged 3 good kings right away in the upper teens to around 20 lbs before the cold water surged in. Then the screen went blank, so we ventured out deeper to one of our honey holes from the weeks prior. That too was blank with ice water down only 40 feet. So since we already had 3 good fish in the box, we once again went in tight to make sure we still had a good brown bite inside. So we slid back into the 50-70 fow range and started banging browns again, and still with a good size average including this brute:

Orange/bronze stinger UV tuxedoes were the ticket and we felt confident for going into the weekend. We headed in to weigh-in and were the first to hit the scales. Our biggest king weighed in at 20.43 lbs and our box weighed in at 53.68. This ended up being good enough to take 3rd place! Here's the BFF board:

That evening we received word that the kings had moved back in to our honey hole area and that it seemed like the temps were starting to restabilize. We were joined by Kyle (Apple Boy) this weekend for his first Pro-Am experience. Sat morning we were one of the first out of the gate and shot out to our honey hole over 180 fow. We had 25 minutes to scout for fish and get the rigging ready, so we continued northward and marked very few fish. Temp was all over the place: 35 ft down in spot, then dropped to 80 ft, then back up to 50... Luckily over 240 fow we started marking good numbers of fish and that's where set lines at 5:30. It was a slow pick through the morning, but our fish were quality in the upper teens, and by 9am we had 6 in the box (5 kings and one steelhead about 7 lbs). We then made the decision to run in and run our brown program to try to get our 12 fish, since the bite our deeper was very slow. When we got in close where we had banged the browns the last two days, we were greeted with over 20 boats working the same water! So we gave it a shot for about an hour, but with the high bright sun and the boat traffic, we didn't move a rod and it seemed the browns had shut down. So we packed up and headed back off-shore to to run a high steely program coupled with our deep king program to see if we could up=size our Trophy box fish. It wasn't long and the UV black tuxedo on our 35 ft rigger fired with a nice steelhead flipping and jumping behind the boat! Soon thereafter a nice 9lb steely hit the deck. we continued to work that area with a few releases with nobody home and no more fish. With a decent Trophy Box we packed up at 1pm and headed in. At weigh-in our Trophy Box was good enough for a 6th place finish, and we were in 15th for the Classic Box going into Day 2.

On Sunday, our plan was to hit the same area and grind it out this time going for the Trophy Box win, and if we could swing higher numbers, that would also help our Classic box. So once again we were one of the first out the chute and ran to our honey hole. This time we started marking fish right away and we hd a feeling it was going to be a good day! After setting lines at 5:30 it wasn't long before our 220 wire got slammed! After a short fight a sweet 20 lb king hit the deck to start the day!! we then began working a small 1/4 mile stretch that would produce one or two fish every pass through for the next couple hours. We could see the Tom & his Atommik team just on the inside of us, then they took off heading for the inside waters leaving us all alone to work our area. Once we had 6 good fish in the box, our area dried up and we began to go into search mode out deeper. We knew Warren's were working deeper water and had done some good kings the past couple days, so we decided to pick up and run out to their area to once again try to up our Trophy Box. It was a short run and we set lines over 580 fow 15 minutes later. We had two quick shots on the riggers with nobody home and we had a blank screen. Time was running out and we still had one of our top fish only pushing 10 lbs. With 20 minutes left to fish, the port side wire gets hammered as the fish heads for Canada! We decided to make this our last fish and pulled all lines. Jeff was fighting the fish, I was ready with the net, and Kyle was on the outboard throttle in case the fish decided to charge the boat. As the fish came up behind the boat, sure enough it charged the boat too fast for Kyle to floor the motor! We had the port side rigger still 3 ft down in the water and that king wrapped right around that cable! Amazingly, Jeff threaded the wire rod around the cable without getting the dipsy wrapped up and we were able to land a hefty 21 lb'er! We then packed up and headed in.

At weigh-in our Trophy Box put us at the top of the Trophy board, 7th in the Classic Division, and we were stoked!! There were still quite a few teams yet to weigh-in, and while we knew we didn't have much chance staying on the Classic Board, we anxiously watched the Trophy Board. After the last team weighed-in, we sat in 4th Place in the Trophy Division, 4th Place in the Overall Trophy Division, and we had dropped to 12th (I think) in the Classic Division.

We would then learn at the awards ceremony that our Trophy Division placements had securred the 3rd Place Trophy Cup for the east end events!! Needless to say, we were very happy with the decisions we had made over the past two weeks and the resulting success. Once again, we were the smallest boat in the Pro field and came away with several titles.

Congrats to Running Rebel on finding numbers of large fish securring the first place finish (very impressive!), to Cold Steel for another strong finish, and the Thrillseeker Team for a strong finish and impressive slob to top their cooler on Sunday!!

While I am sure there will be some tweaks to the new Pro-Am format, it was a great time fishing the three events we were able to fish and we are already looking forward to next year's events!! Once again, I would like to encourage all those who frowned upon the new format and who were apprehensive about fishing against the larger boats, to get in the action and fish these events!! It's a blast!! From the thrill of the shotgun start, to the decisions your team has to make (where to go, what species to target, go for a better Trophy Box or go for a full Classic Box, grind out an area or go into search mode, etc etc etc), to rubbing elbows with the best teams on the lake, to having fun fishing with friends, and so much more - it's why we love this sport and the events we fish!!

Again, kudos to Dave Turner and the entire Pro-Am crew for doing such a great job again this year!! I would also like to thank our dad for taking the Observer position, and Kyle for doing a fantastic job all weekend!!

[Mortigan]

[Fishtails]

Very well done Tim & crew

[kylew]

It was awesome fishing with you guys this weekend!!!! Thanks!

[dubblec]

Great job and reports Tim. Congrats on your tournament successes. Impressive results from one of the smallest boats in a highly competitive field.

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[Zebedee]

Congrats guys! It was good to talk to you at the weigh in.

-Jason