Who's fish'in the Winni Derby?

[Smelt1]

This fri. starts the winni derby on lake winnipesaukee. How many off you people plan on fishing it? I'll be out all 3 days fishing out of a 19' starcraft superfisherman so if you see me drop by and say hellow. I'll be the big guy with the big grin on his face because I'll have a 6 lb. salmon (hopefully) in the livewell.

[FLAG]

I'll see you there I will be fishing all 3 days as well I will be in a 18' pro tournament tracker... we modified it to troll with, it will be the only bass boat on the lake with downriggers. We are staying at Piping Rock hotel in Winter Harbor.  Hope to see you out there.

[Cider]

I'll be there too.  My friend has a 20' Lund.  Probably won't make it for Friday though.  Have to work! 

[Smelt1]

Cider, son hav'nt you heard of sick days ? Oh I feel the freshwater blues comming on. I'll just have to call in sick on Fri. I hope the boss does'nt here my motor in the background or my buddy yelling "Fish On". Flag I'll proberly tuck in to Winter harbor at some point maybe I'll see you.If you all have frs radio's tune to channel 7.

[FLAG]

Smelt1,  I will only be in Winter Harbor if the wind is bad..... I will keep an eye for you... my boss already knows that I'm sick

[Smelt1]

Well gentleman I'm off to fish the derby. I have both thur. and fri. off due to an aflection that seems to baffle the doctors  . I should be better by mon so fear not. Hope to scope out the lake today to find out where the fish are holding. I hope you all have a safe and enjoyable time I know I will. I also hope to see you at the awards ceramony on sun.(behind me of course  ).

[FLAG]

Good Luck this weekend,  But you will be behind me   Hope to see you up there.


 

[Smelt1]

Well gentleman the derby once again proved to be a bummer. No new boat for the smeltster. On fri. I landed 3 salmon.One of the fish was a nice football sized male that weighed 4.04 lbs. but was only 19.1/2" long and the people at the weigh station in Wolfeboro would'nt allow it entered as all fish had a min lenght limit of 20".Sat. saw our boat get only one strike all day.Sun in the pooring rain we landed 6 fish but none over the 20" min. So goes another derby with some guy from Manchester taking home my boat . Well as a dedicated red sox fan said "Wait till next year". 

[FLAG]

This was the slowest Derby yet . I couldn't believe the black flies , did they s#$% or what?? we only boated 1 salmon that was 23" 3.5 #'S. Like you said "Better Luck Next Year".

[Cider]

This was a bass tourny right?!?!?     

That was the only fish I boated all weekend.  Caught it on a top gun.  Just couldn't get the skunk off my hands this trip!!  The chevy chase lure has failed to impress me this year!!

A buddy in our boat got this one on Friday night's troll.  Three months too late and the WRONG derby!!

We boated three or four salmon Friday morning, the tagged bow that night.  My bass came saturday morning along with another small rainbow.  Sunday morning produced a juvenile salmon (12-15") and a nice 21" male.  We also caught a few Thursday night while scouting.  We rode out the thunderstorm on Saturday night.  Most boats cleared right out and we had the lake to ourselves.  I ended up loosing a huge fish on a downrigger just after the storm.  The drag was smoking but the line got caught in the release and we lost everything from the bead chain down.  It was a big fish to be able to snap off the main line.  Guessing an 8-10 lb laker.

Oh well, we'll get that boat next year.

[Smelt1]

Cider, Are you crazy ? Riding out a thunderstorm with graphite lightning rods pointing up! In melvin bay where we were fishing the water took 4 lightning hits.We were sitting in the living room looking out over the water saying our graces that we did'nt stay out. An aluminum boat with 40 gals. of gas makes a pretty load bang when hit by lightning.I also don't know if my bilge pump would of kept up with the rain that came down.Man what a show that was. Does'nt it figure that you guy's would catch a nice tagged bow in the wrong derby. I caught all my salmon this past weekend on the silver & blue chevy chase. The fish we were spotting were at 25-35 foot range.Next year I'm trolling C4 ,I'll get them buggers one way or another!

[Cider]

Cider, Are you crazy ? Riding out a thunderstorm with graphite lightning rods pointing up! In melvin bay where we were fishing the water took 4 lightning hits.

You sound like my wife!  I took a good hassle from her too!  At the time it seemed like a good idea.      We were watching the storm pretty closely on the back side of Governor's where we fished.  The lightning was striking in the hills behind the sands.  Believe me, we were ready to put in on an island in a hurry if we had to.  The worse that happened to us is that we were drenched!

[FLAG]

C4, I was looking for that this weekend. Man was i discuraged with the fishing.... I trolled the silver and blue chev chase and a db smelt of the same color and nothing. the one fish my buddy caught was on a barns-special right on top we tried every depth that we could see fish and nothing.

[Cider]

I threw DB smelts, chevy chases, top guns, pins minnows, krocodiles, arkansas shiners, little cleos, weeping willows, laker takers, thomas eels, streamers, rapalas, mooselook wobblers, and speedy shiners at them all weekend long.  Used a huge variety of colors and just couldn't find what they wanted.  Fished off planer boards, long lines, and downriggers at various depths.  Even thought about tying on to my plano over and under tackle box at one point just to let them pick out what they wanted themselves!! 

I hooked up on a top gun and an eel (bass and mystery fish).  I donated a top gun, laker taker, and an eel to the lake this weekend.  Gave the lake a bunch of stuff the last time out too.  Just thought I'd try to start my own tackle shop over there.  Pretty soon I won't have to bring a tackle box with me anymore!

Did I tell you I smelled like a skunk all weekend?!?!     

C4 wouldn't work, it's too noisy!  Besides, you need pressure AND heat to detonate it!  Too much hassle and too attention getting!! 

We thought a weighted minnow seine stretched between the downrigger balls would work wonders.  Just drag it from one end of the lake to the other and then empty the net into your live well!   

[FLAG]

I tried everything under the sun also I was tired of tying knots all weekend. We tried everywhere and nothing seemed to entice them at all.... We were marking a lot of fish in different areas and we would mark them on the GPS troll away from them turn around and throw something different at them and nothing. We did this to a few places several occasions and nothing. The only reason we caught the one Salmon was a guy cut us off with his Planner boards and i ended up turning to try and avoid this person. Was he ever so Bu!!$#!* at us when we hooked up. Oh well to bad for him..... Now I guess it is time for the Bass fishing to start on the Lake. I am headed for Lake Francis on Memorial weekend. Can't wait for that as I never fished there before.


Tight Lines