Adm Byrd

Thanks Les for posting this. Now lets see if we can get some more people to commit to this, come on you lurkers! As you said the DEC is way under budgeted and the biologists are doing a lot of guessing, they can use all the info they can get. We all enjoy taking someone out to catch fish or catching them ourselves - it really doesn't take that much time to fill in the book, probably less time than putting a post on here, and we all will benefit from it. Bob

I think the problem is you're too close to the hole - SCARING THE FISH It must of been slow if you took time to pose for photos. Does look awful pretty out there.New sled looks good, you should post a picture of your old sled "rigged up"!

My second trip, I apologize for bringing Les with me but felt he needs to get out once in a while. Rolling back the partition this year made the LOTSA room a great experience, you could stop and chat without feeling like you where in everyone else's way. Very nice assortment & layout, hats off to the members that worked hard setting it up. I hope to make it to the salmon class next year! The other show seemed larger and more complete as well. Bob

PM sent

Your a lucky man. Keep him interested!

It definetly was SLOW. one 10# adult male salmon, one small rainbow, one small brown (down 120'), another nice rainbow that jumped 4X and broke the leader without tripping (barely wiggled the rod) the release. Had 3 or 4 other grabs on the flasher / fly. That was a strange blip on the Furuno - never had that before. All fish came deep, previous week end we caught more out of temp than in. Bob

I knew you would try it somewhere. Good job considering the weeds!

Hello, What was done for stringer / bulkhead repair? Is bulkhead same as transom? How long have you owned? What kind of maintenance has it had and where has it been stored? Thanks, Bob

Still a little room on my boat for a few more spoons! What a photo op I missed.

Ed, We haven't met yet but I can see a great ball bursting fishing trip in our future with Les. I hate to admit this but he started teaching me how to get addicted to fishing around 1980. He didn't know much then but fortunately for him I new even less. This was our best fishing weekend on Seneca ever and I will be happy just remembering it for the rest of my life - god I hope I don't get alzheimer's!! Les, did I spell it right? Bob

Sorry I missed you as well Kevin, I came down to Sampson to talk with you, Mitch (Line Stretcher) and John (Anxious Angler from Massachusetts) and I missed all of you, that stunk. Trying to get my son to come home for Canandaigua, he has a knack for catching fish there. We caught fish on silver streaks, northport nailers, finger lakes spoons and evil eyes. We had 2 evil eyes crushed by trout (literally) and was very impressed with the finger lakes spoons. We worked in 150 - 220 fow most of the time, active fish where very deep. Bob

I've fished the derby for 30 years, like many others it's a ritual. This year I got the boat out 2 weeks before Easter to get it ready for the season. First on the list was repair a stripped screw for my removable floor panel over the fuel tank (Penn Yan Fisherman). I brought home a small container of resin and a large drill bit to get the stripped wood out and the hole filled up. When I drilled I found out there was no wood left in that area of the stringer which led to finding rotted wood in front engine mount which led to a VERY spongy transom. By last monday I had the transom redone, 1 major & 2 minor stringer repairs done and the outdrive housing in with new boots and a new steering cable. Tuesday night the engine went in, by friday I was finishing up and trying to find out what wiring I missed for the GPS to work. 5:00AM saturday Scott comes over and we load all my unrepaired gear & tackle from last season into the boat and hit the chamer launch about 6:15. We needed to recalibrate auto pilot and then we cruised out to Bellhurst drop off. We set up 2 leadcores and one thermalcline rod and sat down to see what wasn't going to work on the boat. We gave Les (Sk8man) a call and imediately got a hit on the rig, Scottbrings in a really good fish that we run back in to the chamber (11.66 lbs). Back out and fish the rest of the day picking up my other buddy at 1:30 and we ended up with 15 fish that averaged 7 1/2 - 8 lbs. Sunday we went back to the same area and didn't do anything till 8:30 then we got a 10 3/4 lb laker. Liney and I where trying to decide wether to run it or not but we procrastinated, about 9:30 talking to Les on the phone again we get another hit on a rig - good fish, a few minutes later we got the net under a 13+ lber. We start to clear lines and the other rig gets a hit, we leave it till other rods are in and I start horsing it up with the rod still in the holder, when I lift the rod out I realize this is a BIG fish as well. Liney unhooks the leaders and next to the bottom is another nice fish. 3 times it swam out of the net but we got it in, threw it in the cooler take another lakes off the bottom leader and headed for the weigh station, Neither of us gave a thought as to how big this fish was because the first one was huge for us. We carried the cooler in, put first fish on the scales, 13.09 and Liney and I both realized that the other fish in the cooler was bigger - 13.44 with the third one being 10.78. We sort of floated on air back to the boat and ONLY caught a couple more 7 - 8 lbers for the rest of the day. Monday was more to our normal speed with 8 hits, 3 fish and one of them maybe 6 - 7 lbs. Don't even talk about derbies this was our best ever fishing in Seneca by a long long stretch. What did we do different this year? Nothing other than not being prepared at all. I don't know if I'm more amazed by the fish or the fact everything in the boat worked right. Bob