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Reel Stories Memorial Day Weekend Derby Blog

lakebound88
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lakebound88

lakebound88

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Hey every one, Where do I begin? Well Let's start with Friday. The beginning of a nasty, typical spring cold Front! The plan was to fish out of Sampson State Park for the majority of the weekend. A friend, Ben, and I left Watkins GLen first light on Friday morning in hopes to beat the nasty north west winds that were ahead of us. Well, They were there before we even left the dock. We were greeted with 3-4' waves off the break wall in Watkins Glen. We pushed north to Severne on the west shore. Set up a standard 5 rod spread. Found the fish here. With ten miles left to go to get to sampson park, we did not stay long. We Pushed forth again into the brutal winds, now seeeing 4-5' waves with what felt like snow, sleet, and even rain. We made it to the southern end of Glass Factory Bay. We then set up our spread again, hitting a fish instantly, this one fit for the big fish friday, so we Boxed him. We battled the winds a bit longer and made our way east to Sampson and got settled in and warmed up a bit in the heat. Weigh-in for BFF, was at 5:30pm. Very few boats made it out to fish in the nasty weather. When every one gathered, only 4 boats had fish. We took the pot with a 6.8 lb Laker for the win.

Friday Evening- The lake settled down, to a dead calm sea.. A few of us went out and fished, with the fishing on fire in front of the park. We hit fish after fish and even had four on at once. We played out there for about 45 minutes, landing around 14 fish. Made for a great restful evening and gave us a gameplan for The opening day of the Derby.

Saturday:
6 am- The Jayne family was ready to battle the winds, gusts of 33 MPH! We set up shop right where I left off the night before, We hit fish shortly after setting up. Radio chatter was busy with all of the boats around. We stood our grounds, on top of the fish. We fished a 6 rod spread with 5 rods fishing DREAMWEAVER spin doctors followed by ATOMMIK flies, the other pulliing spoons. We parked our Scotty Downriggers above bottom, following a contour, and dipsy parked at 240'. Every single rod today took fish, we Averaged one fish for Every half hour and at times would hit them back to back. The 3,4 and occaasional 5 foot waves gave our spread the lure action it needed! We fished only north and south trolls today and it showed to be very productive. We ended the day with 9 fish kept for the box. The guys hit the weigh station as we had some contenders for day one of the derby, plus to put the tickets in the box for the chance of $50. With the fish they got, two of them made the board!

Saturday Evening:
Well, this is an interesting story here. The lake was starting to lay down like it did the night before, and I was alone, so I wandered my way up to the camp grounds looking for a crew to fish with me. Couldn't find a single person. I tried the boat neighbors at the dock. Everyone was up for relaxing after the brutal day on the lake. I go by the motto, as always, "You'll never know if you don't try." So, I hit the water solo. I left the dock at 6:50PM, I point the boat north to where I fished the prior evening, when I hit my mark I spun the boat around and fished with the laying down lake and set up my three rods spread, all fishing Spin Doctors, two riggers and one dipsy. I then stop to take a picture of the beautiful sunset. I Had just set down the MOOR sub-troll speed-n-temp unit to pin point my speed. As I lock the speed, I see a mark on the screen, drop the rigger to the marked fish on my Raymarine unit. about ten seconds later, FISH ON! As soon as I set the hook, the dipsy diver fires, leaving me alone, and battling two fish. As any fisherman would ask themselves, "What one is bigger?", I stood there gambling, the drag was screaming on the Dipsy diver, such a sweet sound from a Shimano Tekota 600. The fish on the rod in my hand, (rigger rod), I got this on to the boat, with a quick net job, a 8 plus lb lake trout hits the deck, no time to waste I grab the next rod, and it feels as if I have a brick dragging the bottom of the lake. I quickly back off the throttle, and can feel the dead weight of a fish just keeping his ground and staying deep, at the time of grabbing this rod, I am over three hundred feet of line out, and was straight down below the boat. I gain line, and to me felt like forever, I had to be into this for at least ten minutes now, I have yet to see the fish. I was nervous to pump the rod as I did not want to work the hook out of his mouth, I performed what we call the copper shuffle(walking slowly back wards towards the bow, and then winding my way to the back of the boat. It was working, then the gear came to the surface about 50 feet behind the boat. Now I have my eyes on my dipsy and padle and yet to see the fish. It wasnt till the back of the boat that I got my first glimps of him, consistantly pounding, and shaking his head, diggin sideways, I had to maneuver the rod in one hand to get the net ready. I had the line in one hand and the net in the other, This fish still showing me he is not ready, but I was! First attempt, I miss, Second attempt, MISS, three, four, five, five, six, seven he's in the net, falls out, eighth attempt he's in and mine, I swing him into the boat and I bagan yelling, "WAHOO, IT ONLY TAKES ONE!!!!" I think I may have yelled for about fifteen solid minutes as I stare at this fish. I get the fish in the cooler along with the other I first landed. I fill the cooler with water and pulled my gear, It is now 7:20 or so and I am heading back to dock. At this point, my voice is gone from celebrating a beautiful, single handedly, landed fish. The current weight was 13.6lbs on a digital scale. I get the fish on ice with help from friends at the dock. Everyone came down to the boat to see what all of the yelling was about! I was afraid to leave the coolers side! Scales were closed and had to wait til the next morning.

Sunday am:
The Jaynes were right on time. The winds were even worse today than the prior day. We toughed it out, They were game for coming in and weighin my fish in and one we had already caught that morning. My laker tipped the scales at 13.18 lbs, taking the lead of the derby! We then went right back out and set up shop with the same program as before. FIshing in this wind and bright skies made for a tough day. We managed to tough it out and set up a rainbow spread and only managed one bow, and a few lake trout today. We returned to the dock. I at this time had to run the boat back south to the home port in Watkins glen.

Monday am:
Today we had only 6 hours of fishing. We ran a few minutes north on the west side. We set up shop, with a program for silver fish. Using lead cores, coppers, dipsy divers and down riggers. It was not long after and fish on on the three color. The fish cam unglued before we could get to the rod. After a brief chat with a friend, the bite was on in the shallower waters. I adjust the spread to accomodate this, and we went in to 90 FOW. Not long after, we hit a rainbow trout on the five color core. Now, reset, we mark a mark at the rigger, then WHAM, fish on, jumping behind the boat. Mike was on this like a pro! Quickly we get a beautiful Atlantic Salmon to the boat, tipping our digital scaled at over 6lbs. This fish is a contender for sure. RIght now, another rod fires, pulling our inline church board under water and screaming line. Brandon was on the rod, there was no stopping this fish, It managed to wrap up with another rod and snapped the line. We would of loved to see this fish as it could have been a derby fish for sure. We manage another brown. We fished til shortly after 11 to ensure getting to the scales to get the Atlantic on the board. It does exactly that, putting Mike in 4th place with a 6.08 atlantic salmon.

Final standings for REEL STORIES was a 1st place finnish with a 13.18 lake trout for $2000.

Mike Jayne with a 4th Place finnish with a 6.08 Atlantic Salmon for $250.

This was a great weekend, I can't thank The Jayne family enough for their help and their skills on the rods this weekend. Thank you for being some of the toughest clients I have had battling the weather and still not getting enough of it! I look forward to fishing with you in the future and making your stories, REEL STORIES. Congratulations to all fisherman who placed in the 49th Annual National Lake Trout Derby.

Until next time, Stay safe and keep the line tight!

Captain Nick

 

quality time 2

quality time 2

Posted
Posted

Congrats on your weekend!  As usual we were on the board till the last minute.  Liz weighed in a fish that was third for female div. at 11:30 monday, so we went to geneva to see the final results.  Bumped off again.  Always so close lol.  Oh well, had a good time and some good filets to grill up. 

BrookTrout

BrookTrout

Posted
Posted

Nick,

 

Great post, love the details and emotion.  Your determination to fish despite the weather is impressive,  I wasn't up on the lake last weekend but couldn't imagine being out in the wind.  Congrats, you deserve it. 

 

Jon

Zebedee

Zebedee

Posted
Posted

Had a blast even though Seneca beat us up in that pontoon boat!

Congrats Nick! It was great spending time with you at the dock.

I have never met a Captain who has more passion for fishing than you.

Keep it up bud!

-Jason

Sent from my DROID3 using Lake Ontario United mobile app

Sk8man

Sk8man

Posted
Posted

Nick you capped off a tough derby with great results and a show of "flair for description" as well. Again, congrats.

Les

lakebound88

lakebound88

Posted
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Posted

Thank you guys, each year we all say one if us is due to win, never ever would I of thought me....

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