Oswego Pro-am.

[rolmops]

Here is some food for thought for those who organize the Oswego Pro-Am.

It seems that Salmon are on a yearly migration pattern from west to east Lake Ontario. The Pro-Am  follows this migration up to a point. The Pro-am starts in Wilson/Olcott, It used to move east to Oak Orchard (now it stays in Olcott) and then farther east to first Oswego and then Sodus. The relatively early date for Oswego means that often the Salmon has reached Fairhaven and has gotten close to Oswego but they are not near the Salmon River.  Later in the season when the Sodus  Pro-Am  is held, the Salmon  usually has arrived and is in the Sodus area.

Towards the middle of August the Salmon is present from Fairhaven all the way to the Trench and the amount of boats and charters on the water has often doubled if not tripled.

How about moving the date of the Oswego Pro-Am towards the end of August . There will be a lot more potential participants on the water. It is my feeling that moving the date to mid-August will greatly increase participation. Instead of the same teams yet again competing,there is the potential of many more participants and obviously a much larger price pot to divide.

Think about it.

Edited August 31, 2014 by rolmops

[Landshark]

I always thought it was too early as well

[Tall Tails]

Where would the increase in participation happen?  AM side?  Pro numbers would be even worse then they already are.  Maybe you should start an AM only tourney during that time frame Rolmops.  Give it a shot and see what happens.

[Cannonball Runner]

You won't get any captains they are running 2 a days plus who said it should be easy

Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United

[Tall Tails]

Also the pro am is not just a salmon tourney.  CMON MAN give the mighty Brown Trout some respect!

[on the lam]

The best part about the current dates is the strategy involved. Most years you have to split your box between trout n salmon. Lots of tough decision making. Pro participation would definitely go down making it late August. Am's would probably go up so it's a wash. Keep it like it is.

[rolmops]

The mighty brown, deserves respect, but one king weighs roughly as much as three browns. Yes there is strategy involved, in August as much as in July. Very few of the captains in the Salmon river or the little Salmon participate, not because they do not want to compete, but because the odds favor those who fish west of Oswego. And mileage limits the fishing time for the east enders.

It is true that at the end of August most charters are too busy to play, but between August 1 and 15 that does not play a great role.

Even switching the Sodus and Oswego dates is an improvement. Something must be done to  make the Oswego Pro-Am with its unique multiple harbor participation a more level playing field and thereby increase participation.

Edited September 2, 2014 by rolmops

[Tim Bromund]

I was always under the understanding that to an extent, the timing of the various tournaments was also directed at least partially by the availability of slips available in the marinas to house the tournament boats.  I'm guessing between pleasure boats, charter boats and people booking transient slips for when the fishing is prime, there aren't a lot of unoccupied slips at the time you'd like to move it to.

Edited September 3, 2014 by Tim Bromund

[Silver Fox]

The mighty brown, deserves respect, but one king weighs roughly as much as three browns. Yes there is strategy involved, in August as much as in July. Very few of the captains in the Salmon river or the little Salmon participate, not because they do not want to compete, but because the odds favor those who fish west of Oswego. And mileage limits the fishing time for the east enders.

It is true that at the end of August most charters are too busy to play, but between August 1 and 15 that does not play a great role.

Even switching the Sodus and Oswego dates is an improvement. Something must be done to make the Oswego Pro-Am with its unique multiple harbor participation a more level playing field and thereby increase participation.

That's a crappy excuse. Do you know how many boats come from a long ways away to fish the WHI! They don't fish the pro am cause they either don't want to give up charters or they're chicken s$%t! I'm sure a lot of Oswego guys will agree with that.

[Chas0218]

Here is some food for thought for those who organize the Oswego Pro-Am.

It seems that Salmon are on a yearly migration pattern from west to east Lake Ontario. The Pro-Am  follows this migration up to a point. The Pro-am starts in Wilson/Olcott, It used to move east to Oak Orchard (now it stays in Olcott) and then farther east to first Oswego and then Sodus. The relatively early date for Oswego means that often the Salmon has reached Fairhaven and has gotten close to Oswego but they are not near the Salmon River.  Later in the season when the Sodus  Pro-Am  is held, the Salmon  usually has arrived and is in the Sodus area.

Towards the middle of August the Salmon is present from Fairhaven all the way to the Trench and the amount of boats and charters on the water has often doubled if not tripled.

How about moving the date of the Oswego Pro-Am towards the end of August . There will be a lot more potential participants on the water. It is my feeling that moving the date to mid-August will greatly increase participation. Instead of the same teams yet again competing,there is the potential of many more participants and obviously a much larger price pot to divide.

Think about it.

 

I like the suggestion but I am only 1 person and I would fish the Ams.  I keep my boat on the east end up by the St. Lawrence I can trailer my boat to the derbys but it is not easy. Salmon fishing has finally fired up the past couple weeks here on the east end showing some great numbers. IF they were to swap the dates I would imagine it would help the guys out that travel from Wilson or the Oak to the East end. They wouldn't need to double back and possibly save people some money. Also I would think the tournament would see bigger weigh-ins and probably more upsets (no advantage to the regular winners).

[Tall Tails]

The pro am has never been about kings it is about getting 12 fish each day and besting the field.

 

The mighty brown, deserves respect, but one king weighs roughly as much as three browns. Yes there is strategy involved, in August as much as in July. Very few of the captains in the Salmon river or the little Salmon participate, not because they do not want to compete, but because the odds favor those who fish west of Oswego. And mileage limits the fishing time for the east enders.

It is true that at the end of August most charters are too busy to play, but between August 1 and 15 that does not play a great role.

Even switching the Sodus and Oswego dates is an improvement. Something must be done to  make the Oswego Pro-Am with its unique multiple harbor participation a more level playing field and thereby increase participation.

 

If i get 12 browns and you have 6 kings I beat you.  Lets not forget each fish is worth 10 points.  Pro Am strategy it is critical that you start with a base score of 120 if you are a pro or 90 if you are an am.  The Oswego Pro AM is timed perfectly to allow good fishing.  Kings have been in play almost every year.  Even if it capturing just one to put you over the top or capturing 12 to put you back in the game.  August is not the time for a pro am.  The playing field is level.  How many times has Trout One won the tourney out of the little salmon when they participated? It is not about that at all.  It is about what can be done to make it atractive to Capts to want to get in.  My suggestion is a cash prize to the capt who has a full charter for the tourney that finishes the highest.  And I am not talking about $500.00....

[Finders Keepers]

As noted, there are many factors at play when it comes to tournaments. The "draw" as we have found putting together the Ice Pro-Am's, is a guaranteed payout. The bigger that draw is, the more participation. The problem is getting that initial "carrot". Can the directors and those responsiible for putting on the tournaments put the time and effort into securring large cash sponsors? As a tournament director I can attest that it isn't easy to pull cash out from sponsors, let alone a large sum!! In the end it comes down to exposure and getting the sponsoring companies their bang for their buck. The trick is piecing it all together into an amazing event - no small task and very time consuming!! I'm sure we all want the mega tournaments that we see in the saltwater realm and BASS circuit with $100,000 payouts, but who's willing to put the time and effort in to get us there?? The WHI and Atommik Inv. are getting there - the others have a ways to go. Those of you who fished the Fair Haven Challenge saw what we can bring to the tournaments (and we are relatively new to the scene). It would be great if more "players" stepped up to the challenge, offered their help in securring larger sponsors, and making our events bigger and better then they ever have been...But it's gonna take work and unity amungst everyone...

[rolmops]

That's a crappy excuse. Do you know how many boats come from a long ways away to fish the WHI! They don't fish the pro am cause they either don't want to give up charters or they're chicken s$%t! I'm sure a lot of Oswego guys will agree with that.

I am not looking for excuses,be they good or crappy. I am trying to look for ways to increase participation in the Oswego Pro-Am.

As for the Wilson Invitational, more power to them !. I just hope that next year they catch more fish, because this year a lot of good spirits and camaradery had to make up for a dismal amount of fish caught.

As for attracting sponsors, that is a lot of hard choices.  The amount of support that the stores offer should reflect the exposure they get in return, be it in the sports or living section of our local papers or even by contacting a local television station and have them do a special program. Trying to get big names like Berkly or Cabelas involved has its own pitfalls as we found out a few years ago in the Wilson Pro-Am where because of big commercial exposure many teams were not allowed to wear their own local sponsor shirts.This, by the way caused the Pro-Ams to drastically loose popularity.

Let's try to brain storm  the revival of the Oswego Pro-Am and come up with a lot of good ideas and suggestions.

We have a lot of potential to help our sport and our local economy by attracting visitors to our towns. Places like Pulaski and Mexico need it a lot.

Changing the dates is only one out of many other options. A huge salmon fish fry at the end of the tournament might be another.

If we use this thread to voice ideas we can later on present these ideas to the organizers and offer them our ideas and thoughts.

Edited September 6, 2014 by rolmops

[Finders Keepers]

I agree. Put ideas "out on the table" as we say, to ponder, think about, discuss, massage, and put to action the ideas that the most sense. Having a dinner option (salmon fish fry) is always a great incentive - one less thing to worry about after a long day of tournament fishing. As for the larger sponsors, whoever does the negotiating with the companies needs to do several things to keep everything on the up and up: lay down what the tournament expects (like allowing the teams to wear their tournamernt jerseys sporting the team's supporting companies' logos), put together a great pitch that includes the maximum exposure (which requires a lot of legwork to get the advertising campaign set and a solid sponsor packet created (ours is 14 pages long) before going to the sponsors), and follow up with the sponsors with great pictures/videos taken during the event that they can then use for their advertising. (just to name a few). We work with both big box stores as well as some of the largest fishing companies in the ice fishing industry and we don't have any restrictions because we set it up that way.  

[finsntins]

if you are looking for t.v. coverage,here on time warner cable you have rush outdoors hunting and fishing show.i have seen them cover salmon fishing on lake ontario.