BlueEye

Had a FANTASTIC time at the Mark Troy Waneta tournament this past weekend and it was great getting to see everyone there! This was our first time fishing this tournament and I really loved the format – a big credit to both Jim Renolds (Mr. Toothy/President of NY Musky Inc) and Ed Cragg (Reel Rippin Charters) for orchestrating such a fantastic event! You guys worked really hard running around on that judge boat all day and your efforts made this tournament just awesome!! Morning started of FREEZING!! Had ice building up in the eye-lids of my casting rods needing clearing after every 5-10 casts. Joe had his entire reel freeze up and break on him……. This is actually good news for Joe cause he has been looking for an excuse to buy a new reel and now he officially has one. Took about 10 minutes to hook into our first fish and it was a nice one judging by the amount of water it was moving thrashing on the surface. We lost that one and then proceeded to lose the next one and the one after that…… it was a good/bad first 30 minutes of the tournament. We finally got one in the boat after that – mid 30’s fish. The bite was pretty consistent for us the rest of the day. We ended up boating 4 fish and lost more than our fair share including two that I think were good fish. Our biggest for the day ended up being 39.5†- good enough for 3rd place…… actually good enough for 1st place until 12 minutes left in the tournament…….. CONGRATS MIKE!!! and good enough for 2nd place until 1 minute left in the tournament….. CONGRATS BRAD!!. Lunge Prowlers, Leos, Newmans and Hellhounds were all taking hits for us. Mike's winning 44.5" fish Brad's second place 41" fish Chad's third place 39.5" fish Joe's fish Make up your own caption for this picture On a side note, I LOVED the trophies that Mr. Toothy created for tournament placers. I loved it way more than my wife does and we are still debating on if it gets to take the top mantel spot or gets pushed out into the garage. In all, had a great time and looking forward to participating again next year!

Had a great time fishing Chautauqua this weekend at Larry's tournament with Mike, Jenelle and Joey. Nice job again Larry putting on the event - weather was tough but good to see some were still able to get bit. Seeing 10 fish caught was actually better than I had expected after that cold front moved through. Friday had set up much better IMHO as Joe and I were able to boat a couple that day including a new personal best Walleye for Joe (28"). Here are a couple pictures from the tournament before I had to leave early for a wedding that night - sorry I missed you guys at the weigh in! Congratulations to James and Ed for their 1st place fish Friday: Nice fish for Chautauqua caught on 9" perch prowler - looks like it might have had a run in or two with some muskies out there judging by the scars on its body??? All fish released safely after a quick picture (yes, even the walleye ) Saturday: Joe's 42" - he had one more really nice fish up to the boat and hot on the lure but couldn't get hooks into her. Water clarity starting to really look good down there and I'd suspect the fishing to really turn on starting as soon as this week given a little cooperation from the weather man. If I missed you at the Chautauqua tournament, I hope to see you next weekend at the Waneta tournament - should be a good time and I'm looking forward to participating in that one for my first time. See you guys down there!

Great reading - thanks for sharing!

Awesome report Mike - thanks for sharing! Can't wait to get out there again.... won't be long now and the fall musky hunt will be starting. Nights are feeling cooler already.

Wow Brian - amazin' fish! Congrats bud

How Hank finds time to help us out as a Moderator on the board is beyond me as well..... Hank did a lot of work on my boat and I've never had a single issue since he has touched it. Good wrench, honest, fair and a great guy sums it up nicely

Glad to have you Marc!! Make yourself at home

Pretty cool stuff TigerHunter! Thanks for sharing

Larry - sorry to hear this. Your rods are very distinguishable with that custom writing on them so hopefully they turn up. I'd be on the lookout as well for those rods with that writing scratched out, marked over or sanded off in any way.

Wishin' my old buddy, college room mate and fishing party and HAPPY BDAY - hope your out fishing today!!!!

Awesome report Rod and congrats again on taking 1st on Sunday. What a great experience for the kids. Our team (BlueEye) finished 2nd that day and had a great time as we always do fishing the Pro Ams. We fished from 70 - 250 feet on a due north troll with the waves/wind to help control boat speed and cut the currents that were in shallower. Once we hit 250, we would pick up the set and motor back in stead of trying to fight it back - it was a fun "run-n-gun" day. We fished out of an 18' Starcraft. We ended up boating 10 fish in the couple hours we had and were very happy with our box. Sorry I didn't get a chance to meet you at the weigh in. Best lures for us were NK Mags in Green/Black with silver back and green dot spin doctors with white/green flies. Congrats again on the win Rod! Cheers, Chad

Indeed I do Panfisher Looking forward to trying them this week sometime. As far the "cannon ball" lady - my only regret is that I didn't film the other 7 TIMES she crashed landed...... the camera doesn't capture the tree swaying crazily after she hits! She didn't get hurt at all and at the end bought a T-shirt that said "I survived zip-line Alaska" - I thought that was pretty funny. My sister told the lady to ask for her money back because clearly her brakes didn't work! Matt (jakeybabey) - We had our family (8 of us) on a cruise for this trip and it seemed to be a good choice as their was always some kind of entertainment on the ship for everyone, boys and girls alike. Each town we visited in Alaska (Juneau, Skagway and Ketchikan) were smaller in size/population and I felt like we could see our share in the one day we were there. I know many people that have done a cruise first just to see the different areas and then went back up on their own to the place they liked best. I can also tell you that the cruise was dead calm the entire time. You spend a lot of time on these inside passages where it really could never get rough enough to effect a 1,000 foot boat. This is exactly what my mother needed as she is prone to sea-sickness. She felt fine the entire trip The other cool thing about the cruise that I totally didn't expect was seeing TONS of salmon jumping all around the boat. You can see in this picture all the salmon jumping.... that was pretty cool to just watch off the balcony. If you can't catch salmon in Alaska....... you're in trouble!

Hahaha - glad you guys like the crash landing. The ONLY thing you have to know how to do in zip lining is break and it was as simple as applying pressure from your hand to the line - that's it!

Hey LOU, First I should thank the moderators for helping out with the site while I was away - thanks guys! Had a great time in Alaska with the family this past week. No pictures or videos could ever do that place justice - just incredible. It was awesome to see how many salmon were jumping around the cruise ship the entire time! We did have a chance to go do some Halibut fishing in Katchican and that was a lot of fun. Fishing 200 feet down with 10 oz weights bouncing bottom with using cutup salmon for bait. Here are some pictures from the trip. Being on the water and watching the ocean's alpha predator swim right under your little tiny raft was pretty cool too Orca Whales No picture or words could ever adequately capture the true enormity of Alaska - put it on your bucket list! Cheers, Chad

Happy 4th everyone Hope you all have a good one!

Had a chance to participate in the annual Chautauqua Bait Fish Fund tournament run by Capt. Larry Jones. Larry did a great job running the tournament and had a fantastic turnout to benefit the baitfish fund with 121 other anglers. I had the pleasure of fishing with Zach Baker (Baker Lures) and Joe. Fishing was tough under blue bird skies where we had a small window when the wind kicked up that helped us boat our 3rd place fish measuring 43". My co-worker Mark had a great day on the water with Randy boating three muskies including a 41" and 45". Nice job Mark and Randy! If I am not mistaken... the 41" and 45" were Randy's first two muskies ever? Nice going sir Our fish came 25 down over 37 feet of water trolling a Baker Lure at 4.5 mph just north of Pendergrast pretty much in the middle of the lake. We lost one other fish casting and had one more follow. I know we had Zach scratching his head when we picked him up at the dock that morning with with all of his casting gear ready rock n' roll that day only to find out our strategy for the day would be trolling deeper water after failing to move any fish the day before casting. The trolling strategy with the clear water clarity for the day was going to be downsize our lure sizes and run longer leads over deeper water. The casting strategy was going to be get up in the weeds and try to pull them out of the weeds with Jerkbaits worked at higher speeds. Either way it was tough musky fishing condition IMHO. A custom pearl Baker that Joe had Zach make up - Nice lure (don't mind the blood on it after I cut my finger that day). We call it "scent fishing".... Our 43" came on a smaller perch pattern Baker. Final Results: 1st Place Mike Matzo 46" 2nd Place Randy Jolles 45" 3rd Place Chad Lapa 43" 8:30am 4th Place Jim Kusa 43" 2:15pm 5th Place Dustin Thompson 42" Most Muskies Mike Marzo 46" & 40" Had a great time as always and it was good getting to see everyone at the awards there after. Next Tourney July 28th for those interested. On Sunday I drove from the launch at Chautauqua to the launch were I keep my boat in Braddocks to take my little nephew out to do some pike fishing. We got a couple before the storms moved in and he was pretty excited (as he always is). Mostly hammer handles with this one below being our biggest. A quick picture and back she went to thrill another youngster someday. Now time to let the sunburn heal up a bit before trying it all over again - I'm already itching to get back out there! Cheers Chad

Awesome reports!! Love this play by play deal!!! [ Post made via iPhone ]