Tim Bromund

Thanks for all the kind words guys. It's nice to know all the work that went into the event was worth it. YT Frank Campbell is probably just about the best there is at fishing the Lower Niagara. There are lots of really good River Guides/Charters operating down there, but IMO Frank, is a cut above. Mark (Reel Jerks) I saw you up front during Ernie's seminar and was going to come up and say Hi, but I got to talking to someone and never got the chance. I think I met most of you at some point. I was the fat guy in the LOTSA shirt with "Tim" on the right front. Thank you all for coming down, if it wasn't for the people that CAME to the event, it wouldn't have been a success. We raised $1890.00 that will be distributed amongst the Niagara and Orleans County Pen Projects. Did anyone happen to see the video the DEC had playing on the laptop at their table, it was footage of the new fish marking trailer that they got with some of the Occidental Settlement money. It lookes really neat. Can't wait to see it in action (if I ever get the chance). Tim Tim

Nah, I think I'm gonna skip this one . . . . . . . . just kidding of course. Looks like the weather is going to cooperate for us. Should be a really good event, hope you all can come out and get a dose to mitigate the growing cabin fever. Tim ps thanks Mark for the reminder post.

Guy's, you also have to remember that there is not a 100% iron clad correlation between stocking numbers and returns. There was 1 year back in the mid 90's (shortly after the stocking number cuts) when there was a problem at the hatchery and they only had 1 million kings to stock that year. That year class had the best survival on record and the returns blew away the returns they were getting in the 80's when we were dumping 3+ million kings in the lake every year. I for one am going to keep a positive outlook on the situation. Tim

Ummmm... Sunday :roll:

Those are great holders, but with 3" of gunwale width that might be a little narrow. I don't own these myself but the holders from cisco look pretty nice and the mounting plates look like they should fit on your available space. http://www.ciscofishingsystemsltd.com/page3.html I have both the single and multy big jons rod holders on my boat (great units), but the mounting plate on those is 4" so that won't work for you. Tim

I usually put it the deepest, I look for 42 deg for the bottom of my spread and set the program from there on up. Tim

With the mild winter so far it looks like an early spring start on Lake Ontario. We have filled all of the tables and now have a waiting list. The hard work is completed and now all that is left to be successful is for people to attend. The admission is a $5 donation at the door with 100% given to the four pen rearing projects in Niagara and Orleans Counties. So come the Exp on Sunday 2/24 to get the new and used tackle you “needâ€

you also gotta have some smithwick rattlin rogue's on board. Those sticks absolutely ROCK in the dirty water there is a good mudline. Tim

The salmon river gets it's full stocking number because it is the primary brood stock river for the hatchery. From what I understand, not so much because we (LOTSA) helped with the egg take, but because of the significant numbers of eggs taken there, 18 mile creek and the black river were designated as backup brood stock streams and were supposed t obe 60% of their normal stocking and the remaining tribs were to get 47% of their normal stocks. Other than the SR, those percentages will be decreased accordingly accross the board. I believe we are planning on putting all of the 18 mile fish in the pens this year. We have 4 pens so we are going to skip the 3500 steelhead we normally pen rear (they'll get direct stocked) and get as close to the 4 pen capacity (100,000 kings) as we can in our 4 pens. The DEC took extra coho eggs to try and make up the king shortfall, but unfortunately their hatch was far worse than the kings this year, they only got like 15% eye up on the coho eggs and just barely scraped up enough coho to fill their normal stocking numbers. Tim

My above statement was not to imply that I didn't like the Cannons, they were fine downriggers as well. I just like the Scottys better is all. Tim

I usually run a 6 rod spread, even with 4 in the boat. 2 riggers, 2 divers and then usually a 200' copper on a board on 1 side and a 10 color core on a board on the other. it's a simple, tangle free setup in most cases and usually catches plenty of fish for us. Tim

Had Cannons, replaced em with Scottys, I would never go back, the Scotty's ROCK!! Tim

or maybe that's NOT a nile perch :shock:

I've seen that before. I believe that is a picture of a Nile Perch. Tim

The drawing is to scale, but it's a big room and there's more room between tables than there appears. Still, if we get the turnout we hope for, it should still get kind of tight. Tim

Oops, yes 10 feet BELOW the ball Tim

http://www.lotsa.org/2008%20EXPO.htm click on the EXPO PARTICIPANTS tab at the bottom of the page and you can see a couple different lists sorted by Charter Captain or by Manufacturer/Rep/Business etc and their assigned table number. you can also open an expo layout showing the table configuration and where each of the participants has been placed. Tim

I haven't heard for sure if there was any damage to the boom, but I'm guessing that 10 foot sieche just pushed a bunch of Erie ice up and over the boom, which is cabled to the bottom. Tim

Usually the last saturday in August. Tim

Dick, we use 2 colors of core. With the 60 feet of core, 30 or so feet of fluorocarbon leader and 10 feet of backing before putting it in the release, that puts you approx 100' back and 10' behind the ball. In my case, now that I dropped down to only having my 2 scotty riggers on the boat, I had a bunch of extra rigger rods in the cabin, so I dedicated one of those to the SWR with 2 colors of core. Tim

So guys, did you ever get this trip pulled together? Tim

BMB, is it a fixed choke now? Any good gunsmith should be able to drill and tap the barrel for any of the aftermarket tubes out there, such as Briley or Carlson. Tim

Cool, I stay there when we come down for the Fairhaven Challenge and Chris always manages to find a spot for me on the dock so I don't have to launch and retrieve for the tournament. We usually come up that friday AM and prefish the afternoon before the tourny. Tim

Billy, did you move over there permanently from Shawns? Just curious, Chris had me add a link to your site several months ago (Chris is a LOTSA member and I do his website for him). He and Linda have done wonderful things there since they bought the place, it was pretty rough and run down (from the pics he showed me) as the Old Frost Haven when they got it. Tim

Billy, I mentioned this on the downrigger weight thread on GLA. The cost of all metals is skyrocketing, primarily because with the way the Chinese Ecomony is skyrocketing, they are buying up every bit of metal they can. Lead in particular to accommodate shielding needs in all of the new nuclear power facilities they are building. Scrap copper is getting somewhere between $3 and $4 a pound now at the scrapyards. I heard the other day that Lead has gone up to a buck a pound, up from $.20 to $.30 a pound several years ago. Oil prices probably have something to do with it, but the global demand for metals is what is really driving it. Tim