Gator

Tommy is going to be tire-wrangling at Sandy!?! Count me excited. This sounds like a show... Seriously, though, I'm happy to help out. Although like Billy I'm probably less useful than a young buck. And Tommy B. is hobbling around like he didn't pay Uncle Vinnie his protection. With a bum knee, I guess he can row lol.

I think you may have missed the part where he's looking for a cellular camera. Although, with the exception of the Stealth Cam, I'm also a Browning/Bushnell guy. They are bulletproof - not one has gone down after six years of service (out of ~12 total).

Dollars to donuts this isn't something that we will have to worry about next year. I know that the regulars all pitch in to get the major obstructions out of the way on a rolling basis - winter deposits various logs and whatnot - but it's good to know that there's another pair of hands to help. If you're going to try to get the hot tub out, though, let me know. I want to be there filming lol.

I've run both Spypoint and Moultrie. The Spypoint battery life is good, detection circuit is okay, and thumbnail picture quality isn't great unless you have lots of light. Their free plan (100 images a month) help when trying to decide which of their plans works for you. I did have a battery case rot out on me, too, and their customer service may as well not exist. The Moultrie 6000 series are garbage, but the 7000, which I have are great, except for there being more false triggers than I'd like. Interestingly though, many of those do have something in the image that you can't see until you get the HD pics off the card. One set of alkaline batteries last me from September through December, taking maybe 30-40 pictures a day. The newer Delta look good, but I have yet to deploy them in the woods. Plan price is comparable with Spypoint, except for the lack of a free plan. It would be nice to see these manufacturers allow you to share data across cameras, but given the ability to switch plans instantly, and pro-rating, it's not such a big deal. Like ink jet printers, I think the money is in the post-device sales, with the camera just being a way to get you hooked. Luckily, they will also work as non-cell cams without a plan on board.

Thanks for the comments! East Fork is truly a special place. A little bit more water would be nice lol. But that's true everywhere this year.

It’s the power of East Fork Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United mobile app

Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United mobile app

The crew that met at Nothing But Net at early dark thirty consisted of me, Tom Barbera, his daughter Mallory, and Jeff Ignaszak. Our game plan was simple. We decided to forego the reports of copious but smaller fish to the West and return to the outer edge of the Genesee plume that was dispersing off Wautoma Shoals, where Tommy and I had done a few quality silvers the day before at BFF. We started in 110 fow, trolled North, and only turned when we hit 400+. In fact, that was our mode operandai the whole day. I think we made four turns in total, and we staying off Wautoma trolling North-South right up until the final whistle. For most of the morning, we didn't have another soul fishing near us. We picked away at majors, with the crew doing a phenomenal job of landing what we were lucky enough to pick up. With the exception of a near triple later in the day (that didn't help our box), I don't think any one fish came within 100 feet of another. We'd hit one at 170, then 290, then 400, just picking away at them. I think that the plume was dispersing, and we did note that the edges were where we were getting bit. We started out with an eight rod set: riggers, double divers, and two deep coppers, but quickly pulled the outer divers when we weren't getting any hits up top. Our best rig was a Pro Troll Fish-n-Chips flasher in straight green with a John King meat head at 85 feet on the rigger. That one setup accounted for our three biggest fish. We also had good luck on a 42nd Spin Doctor later in the day, at 85+ down, and the 400 copper with a 10" Black Green Dot Spin Doctor (thank you, Scotty) carrying meat went a few times as well. Spoons were quiet, with a steelhead and a few skippies. In total, we boated eight decent kings and lost two, along with a handful of smaller fish. Our box consisted of a pair each of 24 and 20 lbers. I'd heard from friends that most of the crowd wasn't doing so well, but it wasn't until we got to the weigh in that I realized how poor the fishing must have been. This was the fewest folks I've seen there, given the normal size field of ~45 boats. Our traditional place at the SCS is ~13, usually a place or two out of the money, and we've only hit the top ten once. Last year, every team that weighed in had four salmon, and we figured that this would be true this year as well. So, we felt decent about our box being competitive, but never suspected that it would end up eight lbs heavier than the second place finisher. I guess it's better to be lucky than good somedays. We also didn't get into the Calcutta - I figured why give Brian more money lol - and I'm sure that the other teams appreciated that...but at the end of the day, at least we avoided weighing in a limit of lakers. But who would do that? (Smart play, by the way) Seriously though, this is the best (and only lol) tournament we fish, and you couldn't ask for a better group of guys running things. Shout out to Rob, Brian, and Tim for all their hard work. It's just a smooth operations all around, with the classiest and best looking fishermen on the lake competing in what we originally envisioned to be a working man / small boat tournament. Given the variation in rigs and the breadth of the field, from captains to weekend warriors, I'd say Mission Accomplished.

Next thing you'll be telling me is that Biden actually won the election. Or that you won the Shootout. Hot tub,, heh, heh, heh (yank, yank).

Upstream of you. Immediately downstream of the split where the stick is pointing out of the water. Reportedly lol.

Even though smarter men and saltier dogs than me insist it's real, I still suspect that the hot tub is a Sandy Creek urban legend lol

The first thing I said to her in the parking lot was, “it’s up to you now. If you love Brian, you will buy him a new boat” Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United mobile app

Great story. Thank you for sharing.

From what I recall of Plan 2014, subtitled "Protecting against extreme water levels, restoring wetlands and preparing for climate change", the idea was to have "natural" fluctuations in the water levels, with at least one year out of ten being really high and one year really low. The decisions were to be based upon the metrics laid out in the Plan (which is publicly available), but there are provisions for "Adaptive Management Strategies" that could lead to on-the-fly decision making. You have to be good at math to get the details, or to calculate "rule curve parameters", but the gist of it is that Plan 2014 was supposed to lay out the ground rules. So, either the IJC isn't playing by the rules, or we've had multiple 100 year events occurring in the space of five years. Which wouldn't completely shock me, since hundred year storms seem to come around every few years too. Even so, I doubt that there's any aspect of retaliation in the decision making process. But it would sure be nice to count on more stable water levels. I get that natural fluctuations are better for the environment. But trying to restore what we've already screwed up is akin to implementing natural fluctuations in the level of your pool (this doesn't mean by peeing in it lol). It makes little sense to implement a costly strategy once irreversible damage has been done. IMH and only marginally informed O.

The customer service is good, but having to update firmware on a camera that was just released this month (after having been held up for six months in production) is a bit concerning. I also bought two, and will check to see that the firmware is up to date prior to deploying them. A few of my test pictures were overexposed. Maybe that's the issue. The best upgrade IMHO from the bulletproof 7000i series is that the Delta cameras can transmit video on demand. If you set it to photo/video, it will send a thumbnail to your phone first, and if you like what you see, you can choose to have HD video (of pre-specified length) forwarded the next time the camera connects to the network. If not, the video will still be on your SD card. Most packages include some "free" video downloads, but it's also available a-la-carte at $1 per 50 videos.

Everybody and their brother was up there this past weekend!! Paul, Scotty, Tommy, you...sounds like a party! Glad to see you were able to show the girls a good time.

Buddy of mine a couple years ago while we were up in the Alburgh Islands on L. Champlain kept seeing the dogs rolling just inside of where we were doing bass, in the frog waters. He threw spinnerbaits at them, and they'd chase right to the boat, slashing at the lure, attacking, sometimes even running into the boat, but he had trouble sealing the deal with a single large hook and those iron mouths of theirs. I thought he was going to fall our of the boat setting the hook so hard. I think he turned some of them inside out. Finally, he managed to score and check that species off his bucket list. It is just crazy how aggressive they can be under the right conditions. Topwater in the back coves at Braddock's is likely on fire right now...

And what doesn't lol?

He's just off the first successful landing of the SpaceX rocket lol. I bet it has a glow ladderback!