July 4th: We fished the Barcelona area again but a little deeper this time. Fish were on fire for us but again no real size. We found the pattern though that I used the rest of our time there and that was Fire Tiger Ripshads on 5 colors of leadcore line. Our biggest was 6.5 pounds. July 5th was a bust due to high winds. 26 trips
July 6th: We fished the Barcelona area again because for some reason I had myself convinced that that was where the winning fish were going to come from. It was another fast action day but still no big fish. 27 trips
July 7th: We moved to Dunkirk for the final 2 days of prefishing, starting in close with small fish again. Talked to Christian who had caught a couple big fish out by the border so we moved out there and finally started picking at nice fish with most in the 8-9 pound range. The ripshad and hot n tots on 5 colors of lead were still working and stayed working the rest of the trip. 28 trips Prefishing pics here
July 8th: We worked an area just a mile or 2 south of Christian on A short day due to weather and pulled several 9 pound fish again. This was an area that I already had in my GPS from last year when me, Chris and Matt D fished up there. 29 trips
July 9th: I fished with Karl Ludek from Illinois on the first day of the tourney. Karl was a great guy to fish with and was a lot of help in the boat. I didn't really have to show him anything and we got off to a fast start with a final weight of 42+ pounds but with 1 dead fish that took us to just under 41#'s and 4th place. I was ecstatic! 30 trips
July 10th: I fished with Paul Van Dan Vouver (hope I got close on the spelling). Paul was a local and picked up on stuff really fast. He also brought the best submarine sandwich I've ever had with him!We also got off to a fast start with 35 pounds in the boat by 10:30 AM but then the fish shut down on us and we never really got them going again until about 3:30 when we finally got another to upgrade to 36 #'s plus. We had 4 dead fish and that dropped us to 35 pounds and 8th place. 31 trips
July 11th: I fished with Ken Johnston from Pennsylvania. The day started off with a storm delay and got worse after that. On the way out my rub rail started flapping in the waves and we had to stop and fix that. We did catch 2 fish pretty quick before the weather forced the tourney to be cancelled. While running in, in 4-6 footers my main motor started losing power and we were forced to use the kicker to return to another ramp about 7 miles east of there. The ride went well and Ken was a real trooper about the difficulties we had. We were both real glad to see the ramp at Sunset Bay and really appreciated all the help that the people there gave us. Word is still out on my 225, hopefully it doesn't suck up the whole 7 grand that I got in this tourney. At this point I am in 3rd place in the east and I think in 2nd place for Rookie of the year. 32 trips
PWT pics are here
July 18th: I prefished alone with a friends boat for the Fairport WWA championship Tourney. I couldn't make any long runs so I fished north of Eastlake and found some fish on some icons from last year. Did pretty well with 3 fish in the 6, 8 and 9 pound range and 3 more in the 3-4 pound range. 33 Trips
July 19th-20th: Fished both days with Chris. Saturday we weighed 19.6 pounds and Sunday we again weighed 19.6 pounds. Picture We ended up in 11th place. Our program was 5 colors of leadcore and deep Renosky's and Lil rippers with a full worm on the front hooks. We lost 2 nice fish each day that would have jumped us in the standings but probably not enough to get a pay day, although Chris lost a big one Sunday that may have been good for big fish. It was great to have someone trust me enough to let me borrow their boat but I sure will be glad to get mine back! Thanks Foots! The last word I got on my 225 is that it is repairable with a new piston, honing and rings. Estimated price is in the 2-3 thousand range. 35 trips (about 15 behind last year at this time).