Sandy Creek Shootout and BFF

[fisherman21]

I’ve been trolling the last three years on the lake with friends, and finally got a boat to call my own last fall. This was my first time fishing a tournament with myself behind the wheel. Great first experience. Friday we dropped down in 70fow and head north. We were greeted with warm water and found the temp was deep. We picked up a brown down 90 over 160 and kept heading north. At 190 we pointed NW and took a nice rip on the wire diver and ff. I handed the rod off to my cousin as the fish took off to about 500ft on the reel. After a nice battle we landed a nice 22.76 pound chinook which landed us in 3rd place for big fish Friday. Shortly after landing that fish the wire diver pulling a meat rig started ripping and a rigger fired too. Doubled up on nice kings. Circled back through and grabbed a couple more smaller kings, but couldn’t help but notice about a dozen boats out in about 450fow. I figured people had to be out there on them, so we headed north. It wasn’t a great decision. I shouldn’t have left fish to find fish. After a couple hours of trolling out deep with nothing but a few skippys, I headed back in on a south troll picking up a couple steelhead and a smaller teens king. In the mean time, one of my down riggers stopped working and wouldn’t come back up, so I just left it until the rod fired. We took a nice steelhead and manually brought the rigger up and just hung that one up for the day(ended up the plug went bad). Continued the south troll and hit a nice mature king in the rigger with a ff as soon as we got to our way points from the morning. Landed that fish and ran in for weigh ins. Pleased with how the outing went, I was pumped for Saturday.

Saturday we Launched at 4:50 and were in line with all the other boats heading out. Once we broke the creek mouth I figured I would fly out to the productive water from the day before. As we were going, we hit a few wakes from the other boats which bounced us alittle. I didn’t realize it, but one of my divers came free from under my diver reel and caught the water and started diving. I heard a big crack and turned around to see what happened. The diver dove and spooled off all my wire. That’s how the days started, down a diver and had a bum rigger. I took a 30 pound braid reel and a size 4 chinook to try and salvage what I could. We get 4 rods set and let the 400 copper out the back. Clip it to the board and send it. It ended up getting caught in the diver, so I had the pleasure of fixing that mess for a half hour. Went to clip the line on the rigger, and my 175 dollar pair of sunglasses fell off my head into the lake lol. Just one of those mornings lol.  Grabbed a couple small fish early, and then was in search mode. I couldn’t buy a good bite all day. Grabbed a few small kings, a decent steelhead, a brown that was between 6 and 8 pounds that I let go, and then headed in for the last hour to grind out some lake trout just to get a box. I don’t feel like I effectively fished all day, which was a bummer, but it was a nice day. The 3rd place finish on BFF will help replace all my mishaps lol. Big thanks to everyone involved and to Brian Gamble for helping me diagnose my rigger issue. I had a great time and it was a fun first tourney to be in. Already looking forward to next year.

[HB2]

Manny , we have all had those days . 

Me more than I like to admit . 

I feel your pain . 

[dickey]

Manny if you want to replace your sunglasses with Oakley’s send me a PM. I get a discount being a 1st responder. At least I can help with something. 
 

Rick 

[GAMBLER]

You’re welcome Manny!  Congrats on your finish!   Tournaments are great learning experiences.  Take what went wrong and and right and improve your game for next time!  

[Gator]

I feel your pain. If you're having a bad day, box the brown. $250 helps. And there's a pair of Costas in the mud down at Bruce's old marina - I don't put on glasses without a pair of Cable Zipz anymore.

[ShawnJ]

Manny, the fact that you ended up with some decent fish after a day like that is a huge win. Your bad days are better than my good days on the lake. I appreciate all the help and advice with fishing this year. Looking forward to going out on the water with you again. My boat is always ready bro. Thanks for turning me onto gambler rigs as well. I confidently can catch Lakers everytime I go out now. Salmon, that a whole other story...lol

Sent from my motorola edge 5G UW (2021) using Lake Ontario United mobile app

[ShawnJ]

Manny, the fact that you ended up with some decent fish after a day like that is a huge win. Your bad days are better than my good days on the lake. I appreciate all the help and advice with fishing this year. Looking forward to going out on the water with you again. My boat is always ready bro. Thanks for turning me onto gambler rigs as well. I confidently can catch Lakers everytime I go out now. Salmon, that a whole other story...lol

Sent from my motorola edge 5G UW (2021) using Lake Ontario United mobile app