muskiedreams

 
As you can also see from the chart, Sunday should be OK. The only thing is that with the winds on Sat., the water might be brown with very low visibility. This might make for very low catches, if any.

I was thinking that since Friday night will have more favorable winds and conditions, it might be worth considering holding it as a Nite Bite Tourney on Fri. night. Maybe midnight to 8AM. That will get us off the water just as the wind is starting to ramp up. See charts for Friday's conditions.

Please give me your input. With the likelihood of Saturday postponement, Friday night or Sunday may be our best chances to hold the tourney. Otherwise, we will have to hope for a better chance later in the month.

 

BSmaster,

tmag recently posted a comment to the Catch & Release topic pinned to the top of this forum. There is a lot of information that he has collected over a long period of time, including correspondence with fisheries management professionals in NY and PA. There is so much material there that it will take a long time to wade through it all. I did see some discussions there about the rivers in NY Southern Tier and also the PA rivers that you might be interested to read. From the little that read, I get the impression that there are many other factors that have affected multiple species in these rivers. Sometimes it is much more complicated than it appears to be.

Looks like red spots. Or is that just the picture?

There are many permanent docks on the upper Niagara River along Grand Island. You might want to ask Smith Boys or one of the other marinas on the river. They might be able to point you in the right direction.

Thats too bad about the buck on I-90.

The tournament has been postponed til next Saturday Nov 8TH.

Unfortunately we may have to postpone again. The forecast is calling for N winds sustained at 14 knots with gusts to 22 at 8AM and 20 from 9AM to 2PM with small craft advisory. I beleive the small craft advisory is issued for winds 20 knots or higher. Will check again this evening and talk to Jim around 5 or 6PM then give a final determination.

With winds bucking against the current the waves can get real choppy.

rougarou, Nice 45 incher you got with Larry on Wednesday!!

That's good.

There are still quite a few walleye and perch fisherman out there that beleive muskies are killing all the walleye and perch. I actually met one a few weeks ago at the Field & Stream grand opener. I tried to convince him that it isn't true. I am not sure if I got through to him. I wonder if the main reason they hate muskies and pike is that sometimes one will bite off their lure.

Club it on the head before release.

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ontherise, If you are serious about this statement, please read these two links with an open mind. I am sure I can find more items that support the findings here. I have read a lenghly report on the study that was done by the Minnesota DNR That study, I beleive involved about 20 lakes over a 10 year period.

http://www.thenextbite.tv/sites/default/files/WhatDoMuskiesReallyEat.pdf

http://www.lakevermilion.com/muskies/htmls/diets.html

You can't always do everything perfect. Every situation is different. It does help to understand, be prepared and strive for the best possible catch and release procedure. There will sometimes be situations where things won't go as smoothly as you would have liked. You have to learn from each C&R and think about what you can do the next time to make things go smoother. You just have to do the best you can for the safety of the fish, your fishing partner and yourself.

Ivan, Your post came up while I was writing this. Thank you. It is a perfect example of what I am trying to say. Part of what we have to do is to learn from every situation and our mistakes and help others with what we have learned in a respectful manor without belittling them for thier mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes and not every release goes as smoothly as we would like. Sometimes the fish causes dificulty or there is another unforseen circumstance.

The most important thing is to stress the importance of doing the best we can for the sake of our valuable fisheries and to educate those who are new to musky fishing, do not understand or have misconceived understanding (such as walleye anglers who still beleive that muskies kill many walleye).

It always seems to be difficult to hold a tournamet there this time of the year. There is always many days of high winds in the fall. On top of that, when there are heavy SW winds, Lake Erie and the river turn to mud that can take two or three days to clear up.

If this Saturday is too windy, we will probably have to postpone it another week. We are reluctant to hold it on Sunday, the 2nd, out of respect to the Niagara Musky Association which will be holding their annual Tim Witek Memorial Tournament that day.

New date will be this Sat. Nov. 1. Register at the Sheridan launch 6AM to 7:15AM.

We are postponing the tournament due to small craft advisory. Postponement date TBA.

Sory I forgot to give the date. I edited that into it.

The early season is for inland waters only. Muskies in those waters are primarilly maintained by stocking. Although there is some evidence of naturral reproduction in those waters, the spawning takes place earlier than in the great lakes since waters warm up earlier. This was the reasoning behind the season change.

Would you consider a rapala j-11 small, and j-13 medium?

In response to above, I had considered spoons but didnt think trolling at such a fast speed they would have the proper action.

Thanks to all. It's all very valuable to me.

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For Rapala, use the Jointed X Rapor the Super Shad Rap.

Spoons work casting or trolling slow. If you want to get them deeper use a trolling weight or snap weight.

Small to medium size baits. For casting try jerk baits, glide baits.

Looks like the nite bite has been productive there. The upper Niagara seems to have been more productive at night too. You have to be familliar with the waters for the nite bite. It is even more important on the Larry than the Niagara.

Upstate, Wow your wife was soooo lucky. Awesome catch

old man, Are you familiar with a product called Mendit? It might be two words. I have not used it but I know someone who does and says it works good to repair chewed up soft plastic baits.

As always, the tournament was a great time. The cold front was producing rain and chilly temps. as well as muskies in the morning. About 10 min into the tournament Mike was about 100 yds. away from me when he boated a nice 39.5" fish that set the bar for the rest of the day. The 2nd and third place fish both measured in at 38.5". I believe there were 6 fish total caught in the tournament of which all but maybe one were caught before noon and there were 37 anglers participating. Bob Saucke, one of the judges, caught a 31 incher also. I still haven't broken my record of zero fish for the tournament. As always, the post tourney gathering was a good time with a cookout, awards, group picture and raffles. Trophies and cash awards went to 1st, 2nd and 3rd place anglers and Captain Ed printed and framed pictures of their catches.

I went out with Mr Toothy on Sunday. We didn't have any action until evening. Toothy caught a 37" trolling a new lure he is producing, about 10' down over 20' and caught a 34" casting the same lure in 7 fow. The only action I had was a follow and miss about 15' from the boat walking a glide bait in 6 fow.

Thanks old man. Toothy and I will be staying over til Sunday. Keep an eye out for us if you make it down then.

Stinky Finger, I hope some of them read this discussion. Predation is a natural occurrence. I wouldn't be surprised if more walleyes are eaten by other walleyes or eagles or cormorants or bass. In that case, would they condone killing everything that kills walleye? Oh, they do kill walleye also, so does that make them hypocrites? They should accept the fact that there is natural predation and it can be beneficial by leaving the best survivors to strengthen the gene pool. They should be more concerned with preserving and enhancing their natural habitat, stocking programs and not overfishing them, especially in waters that support natural reproduction.

Very cool!! Glad to hear It is going to be ok. Well worth the effort.