Finders Keepers

Hey Woody - Glad to hear you got the boat wet! Two fish is better than what we did last Saturday in front of Sodus when we got an O'fer. Saw lots of boats out there and only one hook-up the entire morning (they dropped it behind the boat). It was barren out there for sure! I'm booked the next couple weekends, but will be getting out after that for sure to see if I can get a silver on the Summer LOC boards. Let me know if you want some company heading out!

Got a bit of a late start today and got set-up NE of the Port Bay chute at 7:15am over 150 fow. Trolled all the way out to 280 fow without a mark on the screen or rod moved. It slowly got colder as we headed out and was 45 degrees over 280, so we decided to work back in. On our way back to the shorter water we finally hooked up on the 300' wire set on a #2 pulling a white glow echip/white fly over 170 fow. Landed a nice 14 lb king: Still had nothing on the screen but looped back through the waypoint without another taker. Soon thereafter the other wire fired over 150 fow. That one was out 325' on a #2 pulling a white glow echip/UV fly. I let my dad bring that one to the net and we boated a nice 12 lb king: We continued to work the 130 to 180 fow range and boated a real nice 6 lb Atlantic on a Majenta Shad free sliding on the 82' rigger over 160 fow, but the NE winds were really beginning to pick up around 11 and we called it a day. Not a bad day, but it sure is tough when you have a blank screen all morning and no probe to work with!

Hey Nick - Not sure if it's the same one or not. I know they mentioned there would be a "Sodus Challenge" this year at the Fair Haven Challenge last year, but I haven't heard any info or dates yet. I believe the Fair Haven Challenge is scheduled for August 22nd this year.

Last year there was mentioning of a Sodus Challenge, similar to the Fair Haven Challenge Tournament. Does anyone have any info on the Sodus Challenge? Thanks!

Made a night of it last night as it was BEAUTIFUL out there! I love the warm nights with the peepers chirping to a deafening level! Anyway, I was up the swamp from 8pm until around 3am and managed a slow pick at 'em. Ended up with 16 lbs of bullhead. Not too shabby, but by no means a stellar night. I also hooked into a beaver , but luckily for me the hook came free before I got it to the boat! Now it's time to rest up and hope we get a decent rain this week - if we do, it'll be GAME ON!!

Catchin' bully's is pretty easy and a blast when they're running heavy! All you have to do is tie a heavy sinker on the end of the line, then attach two single hooks each about a foot above the other. Bait up some worms, cast it out, tighten your line so that the rod tip just bends, and then wait for a nibble. Best time is at night using a lantern, but if you can get up in the swamps when they're running heavy, you can catch them any time of the day. My best night was several years ago when I boated 200+ of them in a night by myself!! There were so many of them the water looked like it was boiling! I only had 3 empty buckets with me that night, and when they got full the rest were flopping around the bottom of the boat! I ended up with like 8 buckets full!! There should be a few out tonight with the warm weather and bright sun, but the main show will be later this week after the rain comes in. Get the gear ready because the run is about to happen I think!! I'll be out tonight to see what's brewing in the swamp...

Where did ya go and how did you make out Pat?

There have been some spurts of activity in Sodus and Port Bay, but no "big" run yet. If you go, you'll catch some, but probably not a ton. Perhaps with the rain forecast for early next week they'll come out in numbers.

20# Big Game until the fleas show up, then 30# FleaFlicker with 50# Fluoro leaders.

I'm not a member, but my dad is. If the wind stays down we may make a venture out tomorrow morning. Thanks for the info!!

Hey Hank - My dad and I were going to venture out on Friday, but the 1-2' chop had waves breaking all across the lake side of the channel making it look like it was very shallow, so we were weary to take the boat through. We then headed up to the pier to take a look-see and saw at least two spots through the murky waters where we could see rocks on the west side (pier side) that extended a good 6' out from the pier - one near the end and the other at the slight bend. The way the waves were breaking also made it appear as though the whole opening to the lake was very shallow, although the water was too murky to see how deep it was. Has anyone been through there the verify how deep it is and how wide of a channel are we talking? I'm affraid to get out there and have the wind kick up, which would make coming back in very difficult and dangerous if the channel is very narrow!! My dad says that someone is contracted by the Port Bay Association to keep the channel open from April 1st until sometime in the fall. Has that changed for some reason this year? I would like to get out and get the deck slimed up with some browns, but I'm not willing to take out a prop to do it! Do you have any thoughts or info on this?

Thanks Hank! We're looking to do our shake-down this Friday. Have you been out yet?

Name: Tim Thomas Boat Name: Finders Keepers Name origin: What my older brother always wanted to name our boat, he can't fish any more due to a back injury from an accident. Boat make: 21' Glastron Home port: Port Bay Years on L.O.: 27 (ever since I could hold a fishin' rod)

I use the same set-up/gear as Fishman08. Once I went Tourny Tie, I've never gone back!!! Hook-ups went way up and fish lost went to virtually zero once I switched. In the 4 years I have been running them, I have only had one bite-off too.

I never met either of them, but I always was checking out the latest reports on their site and looking up any new lures I wasn't familiar with. He will be greatly missed. My thoughts and prayers go out to Shirley and the rest of their family.

Kingfish - The unit came with Navionics Gold pre-installed, are you getting the Great Lakes version because the charts that came with the unit are not detailed enough? I haven't hooked the unit up yet to see what it looks like yet...

I received the new unit yesterday (quick shipping, only took 2 days to get here) and it looks sweeet! It came with pre-loaded maps (Gold version) and an external antenna with mount. I think I am going to be very happy with this unit.... I don't know if it has the latest software update yet (will have to see when the unit turns on), but here is the website for the update in case anyone else needs it: http://raymarine.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/r ... _topview=1

Anyone have any experience good or bad with the Raymarine RC435 GPS Chartplotter? Any feedback would be great! By the way, Boatersland Marine has them on clearance for only $253!!

Yeah, it's been cancelled. While it was labeled as a "Ice or No Ice" tourny, they didn't want to be responsible for anyone venturing out on very questionnable ice. Bummer! I was all set to go for the Grand Angler Award!!! Well, maybe next year... Now we can all look forward to the Spring LOC!!

FYI - There is a tournament being held on Sodus Bay this coming weekend. Info can be found at: http://www.asoduspointlodge.com/Promo.htm Pay out was $200 for first place in each category for the first round of the tournament. If you didn't fish the first round, you can still fish the second round this weekend. They are looking for another 20 - 30 fishermen for the tourny to ensure decent pay-outs for the winners (otherwise it will be cancelled). If interested, you can register up to this Wednesday afternoon (even though the website says you had to be registered last month) and the cost is only $20. By the looks of the weather, you'll probably need a boat as the ice is becoming very questionnable and there's no cold weather in the forecast.

Just curious if anyone fished Sodus this week and if you had any luck? Thanks!

Hey Hank - Yeah, ya can't knock 'em dead every time! At least I was able to ice a few fish! Hopefully I will get into them during the next round of the tourny in two weeks!

Well, I am definitely glad last weekend was the tourny! Got on the ice around 7:30 today and as I was drilling the 2nd hole out in the honey hole from last weekend the first flag went up. I wasn't expecting anything with a flag that quick, but did pull a 4 lb pike on the ice. Looked like I was in for a good day... Well, about two hours later (and no perch to be had) two flags went up almost at the same time and I iced two nice 8.5 and 6 lb pike. Ok, now it's going to pick up...nope. Sat and waitied until 11, when I decided to try in close for the perch. I found the perch and had a dozen or so keepers by 1 pm when I decided to call it a day - I was frozen!! Man was it cold out there today! So I would suggest for anyone going for perch, try in close (8 - 10 fow). For pike, I'm not sure. There were some out deep, but not like last week.... Perhaps they were north of Newark Island or SW of Eagle, where a TON of people were fishing.

Thanks Shawn!!

SinDale - I hammered the pike this past weekend in the same area as you mentioned, only on the east side of the deeper water. Iced 10 pike and had over 20 on. Check out my post in the "Ice Fishing and Panfish" forum for more details. They are there, all you have to do is get a shiner in their vicinity!!