BlueEye

Very cool broadcast guys - great job! Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United

Musky candy cash perch pattern-awesome! Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United

Good morning gentlemen, I've really enjoyed reading the ideas and feedback about the 3 biggest fish format. It's great we can have this civil conversation - LOU really does have the best group of muskies guys. Here is my two cents for what it is worth... I think Adam and EsoxOnly have asked the right question on would this new rule have actually changed any of the past results? To my knowledge the answer is No - those that won the past couple years tournaments would have still won under the three big fish rule. That said, I think a three big fish format does have some merit worth considering; specifically how it shifts the strategy of some anglers and levels the playing field (not a lot, but a little) for less experienced anglers. If the goal of the club is increased participation, that may not be a bad thing. For someone like me, a 3 big fish rule would dramatically change the strategy of the tournament. It's not always easy to catch three fish (so make no mistake, this is still a numbers tournament) and it brings a lot more teams back into contention. I also think then it spreads the whole lake out more (i.e., we won't be targeting all 30" fish then or maybe we will if it is a tough bite that day). A newbie angler that gets lucky and catches their personal best musky, now would stand a chance of cashing against even the seasoned angler that boated 5+ or more fish that day that were all in the low 30" range. I also agree with EsoxOnly that if I win a tournament, I want to know that it's because I out fished everyone else - in the same way the biggest salmon tournaments or bass tournaments or walleye tournaments would limit your catch numbers, it is to add an additional variable to the equation (i.e., can you catch BIG fish?). In my salmon tournament world, it would be easy for anglers to go out and run small spoons up high in the water column and target skipper kings and run huge numbers of them. This puts unnecessary pressure on smaller fish and doesn't tell you anything about the angler skill (i.e., you can run any color lure at virtually any speed and still catch them). In the current setup, someone that "out fishes" an angler with two (2) 45" fish by catching five (5) sub-35" fish is debatable. I know afterwards, I would be more interested in talking with the guy that boated two 45" fish that day. It's like the salmon guy that wins by catching 12 skipper kings over the guy that boated 3 thirty-pounders. Your biggest tournaments on Lake Ontario (King of the Lake, Lake Ontario Pro AMs, Sandy Creek Shootout, WI Invitational, etc. etc.) all impose a fish limit to truly measure angler skill. This holds true in the nations largest bass and walleye tournaments as well. I believe that a no fish limit is a better idea for situations like the PMTT where you know the entire field is going to be seasoned anglers, or on bodies of water that are not heavily stocked. There obviously would never be a need for a limit on a body of water like the St. Larry. Keeping in mind the goal of the club is increased participation, when you get a field of a couple seasoned anglers and the majority of people just out there trying to learn and have fun, they might get discouraged if they feel like they don't have any chance (which they don't cause your seasoned anglers know how to run numbers on Chautauqua). The 3 fish minimum would increase their chances and keep their interest peeked because as Ronix pointed out, you would always be just one or two fish away from possibly cashing. Seems like the magic formula for imposing a catch limit is 3-fold: (1) a points based tournament with (2) a wide range of angler experience (3) on a heavily stocked body of water. Now all this said, I will revert back to the original question from Adam & EsoxOnly, does this rule change affect past results, NO (to my knowledge) - but could it impact the tournament in a wide variety of other ways (including future results) - Absolutely. Happy Presidents Day - Chad

welcome aboard Kaptag - glad to have you. I am a member of Chapt. 69 myself - it's a fun time.

It was a Private Message (not a post) - check your pm's Zach. Thanks.

Awesome alewife pattern - very nice work

Mark - those are REALLY nice looking! Hope they work for you. Does it come in a 12" inch model with 5/0 hooks for my musky fishing?

Agreed In my own opinion, it's very hard to enforce individual tournament under a points structure. One way or another, it ends up being a boat tournament anyways so better approach is to make it boat tournament and limit rods. Nicely done Zach.

The Offshore Classic, the Sandy Creek Shootout and maybe even a bass pro shops all coming to the central basin? Things are looking up! Nice job getting this going guys. Be sure to post it on the LOU Calendar: https://www.lakeontariounited.com/fishing-hunting/calendar/ With the new forum software, all events posted on the LOU calendar are automatically pulled into our monthly email which goes out to 19,000+ members (free of course so long as you list LOU as a sponsor of the tournament - which you guys always do, so thanks!). The events posted on the calendar are now also displayed on the bottom of the sidebar on the site as well. You guys have our support

wow very nice!

If the end goal is to see a re-introduction of the stocking program back into Lamoka lake, then providing evidence to the DEC that they already exist in there is step 1. I believe it helps make their job easier to stock a lake that already has a population of fish species in there vs. trying to make the case for "introducing a new species" into a system. As it currently stands, the DEC does not officially recognize muskies as being in Lamoka. While the tournament could help with this, you really want to see the DEC capture some in the spring trap netting this year. I believe that there is also already a study done on stocking muskies in Lamoka. Mike might be able to shed more light on that study. To the best of my knowledge the biggest concern is the oxygen levels on Lamoka.

There was some interest in this at the last chapter 69 meeting as rougarou mentioned. Would certainly be interesting...

Thank you for supporting LOU Tom - we are glad to have you on-board

I own a 2007 Superfisherman - awesome boat. Tough enough to handle big water but sized right to make trailering easy anywhere you want to go. I've never had any problems with mine.