Silver Lake TA!

[CNY-Kyle]

John, great recap man. You guys made the right call at noon. We had to decide to run back to the perch or try to make a move to bigger gills, i tried to find bigger gills and it was the nail in the coffin. Had fun hanging out with you and Rich at the B-alley Friday night....see ya on the big O, hopefully sooner than later.

[Otis1]

Glad I could help out.

DC if you’re out there I didn’t forget about ya. I’ve been hitting a decent school of perch on Oneida and haven’t been molding yet. I’ve found a local source for supplies that’s cheaper than most other places. I’m getting the size 8 and 10 hooks tonight. I’m trying to score some ice jig molds, but he’s still busy with them now so I don’t know if I’ll get them for a while. I’ll get some done and give you a heads up. At least it’ll be the ultra minnows and darts. I’m looking to pick up some new molds, let me know if there’s any others that I can make up for ya.

[CNY Lee]

Great job guys and great stories.

[CNY Tim]

Johnny B... - That's one heck of a story. Congratulations on your finish and good luck this weekend on Oneida...

[CNY Tim]

Copied from the fishy spot... Doug and Sammy

[salmonseeker2]

Nice pics guy's were those from tourny day timmy?? here is a pic of the biggest sunny i could manage during pre-fishing at silver... taken with the phone cam, and caught with the st.croix!! and a little "dipper Drippings " on the ice for contrast!!

[CNY Tim]

Now - That's how you mark your holes Jimmy! Wow to get 7 more of those on tourney day, aaarrrrggghhh!

[salmonseeker2]

Oh yes it works!! I found several of my holes that way!!! no joke!

I would have taken one of those tourny day!!

[Icejig]

Hello Everyone,

Sorry this reply is so late but I have been non stop with work and college and ICE FISHING!!!

I would like to thank USMC Steve for the use of his machine, that was a gesture that was above and beyond....It was great meeting everyone, I cannot name all of you but Jimmy, Donny, Kyle, Steve, Bud and Tyler, you guys seem like great spirits and I hope to get to fish with you again if not on the ice then in open water.

And first and foremost thanks Hardwater, you were the best partner a friend could ask for, I needed a jig, you gave me one, I needed a rod, you gave me two, you gave me grubs, red bull, starburst!!!! On top of all that you are a great fisherman who deserved a top 15 finish and I wish that I could have helped you achieve that, we will have to get there next year....

Lets keep the dream alive, it was a blast and I hope it continues well into the future.

Thanks,

Icejig...

[Thunderman]

Sammy, first time out of the gate you all did very well .My first time at the T/A out of 130 teams my buddy Donnie and I placed 47th and I felt pretty good about that.I have never fished a tourney before so where you guys placed is outstanding to me Good job .Silver is a hard lake to fish with no idea where to start, a basin lake you would think it would be easy to fish but it isn't.One thing nice is you had some direction of where to go and that always helps, in my case we fished it blind and didn't know where to go.Its a good thing we have the friends that we do because results might have been different.Todd

[CNY Tim]

Big Johnny Ice and I finished in 89th in the first Silver TA. Never forget that, tranny problems, no machine, and the slushy/sloppy conditions. Back braking trap drags and I believe Johnny had the old style trap that year which has the high back and acts like a bulldozer. The work out through that and only getting 3/4's of the way to our perch spot zapped us good tourney day. By the time we went to fish bluegills the eventual 2nd place finishers said that the gills shutdown about 10 min. before we got there, talk about another chunk of coal in your stocking. We did our best. Waiting for that reunion on Silver with my old partner, it will happen someday.

What I can tell you is not one fishers from this group can tell me that they didn't leave it all on the ice... That's the key! Eventually determination will pay off. Even though NY showing was lacking this season compared to previous there's no doubt that our guys can compete with anyone. I think the most important thing about the circuit is the friends and acquantances and the family type situation that is prevelant in the ice fishing tournament community. Competing with some of the best fishers in a sport we all enjoy is better than anything and the future is strong. More young people full of enthusiasm and determination and the never give up attitude will sustain this sport for years to come.

Look at ICE_ADDICT's story... Amazing read John and was that situation the same that presented itself when you guys won the event? Thanks for sharing that story that was incredible...

[ICE_ADDICT]

I'm glad you enjoyed it Tim!

Back In 05' when we won,it was a totally different scenario.For starters Rich and I had NO experience whatsoever with the lake,we just went there a few days in advance and pre fished our brains out! The funny thing was, I guess we just randomly picked a couple smokin' spots and stored them on our GPS,Figuring HHMMM,that was easy,everyone else must be having the same luck. As it turned out that was NOT the case,we just happened to stumble on a spot that was holding ravenously feeding 10" to 10 and a half inch perch that never shut down all day for four days straight.Three years ago those fish were the BIG ones in the lake,now they're 11" to 12".So with that all we had to do was find a good gill spot and that was pretty easy a few years ago, before 10,000 adult bull gills were removed from the lake by LOCAL conservationists with their stellar catch and release practices, but we wont go there right now.

So yep! That was pretty awesome,because we knew we could get our perch any time we wanted, we got our beautiful batch of gills first and then our perch.When we went to weigh in we jumped right in line figuring everyone else did similar to us and all these pro's whom we knew nothing about were going to bury us!I think we weighed in the first 20 or so teams,so watching the next 125 teams weigh in was unreal as our dreams turned into reality!!

What I learned from that adventure was, just because you don't have a huge knowledge of a certain lake don't mean anything, and there are many teams in the same boat as you.Just gotta go out there and do what you do best,and don't pay ANY attention to what anyone else is doing! Since then we've been to two championships, the first was kind of disasterous even know we were on good fish ,a laundry list of problems prevented us from fishing them.Then the 07' championship we finished a respectable 10th. Point is TWO new lakes, and with a little hard work the locals had nothing on us! Just ask Kevin and Rich!!!

[CNY Tim]

Another great post John! The experience and knowledge you have shared will help others, appreciate it..

Here's the winners, Team Salmo Jack and Zig...

[Otis1]

At least there MarCum guy's!

[CNY Tim]

Talked to Kevin "ReelEmIn" Riley from Michigan today.. Him and his brother just got off the ice on Superior and the bite was off. Checked in to see how he was doing and all with his Mom. Wanted me to pass along that they will be on there way back to NY on Sunday. Have a safe trip back Kev and I 'll talk to you next week.

Kevin mentioned to me that there would have been another team that had a decent bucket of fish but got tagged for having too many... Did anyone hear about this?

[CNYFrank]

Boys, this be your brown brudder from the Dominicana Republic . . tuff to type wit de CoCo LoCo in my hand . . . but someone has to drink this stuff. Great try, lots of good experience and fun . . . next year, I´m in!

[Otis1]

Frank, I'll trade jigs for some of those fine hand rolled Cigars!

[ICE_ADDICT]

 Originally Posted By: CNY Tim

Talked to Kevin "ReelEmIn" Riley from Michigan today.. Him and his brother just got off the ice on Superior and the bite was off. Checked in to see how he was doing and all with his Mom. Wanted me to pass along that they will be on there way back to NY on Sunday. Have a safe trip back Kev and I 'll talk to you next week.

Kevin mentioned to me that there would have been another team that had a decent bucket of fish but got tagged for having too many... Did anyone hear about this?

I remember another team with one to many Tim but can't remember who it was.

Other than Dave Youngs team of course.

[ENYTYLER]

Hey guys sorry I have been busy I just wanted to thank everyone for four days of great fishing . The prefishing was great but sunday I had a hard time hooking any fish with size . If it wasnt for my partner bud we would have never gotten 16 fish he never gave up and I thank him for that . It was our first event and we will be back next year for sure I learned a lot and next year we hope to do much better . you guys are an awsome bunch and before the ice goes out I want to get us all together for an outing . I also want to say thanks for finding my marcum that would have sucked to lose . Till next time Thanks

[Dark Cloud]

I think Frankie ate the worm!

[salmonseeker2]

Frankie ate something he shouldn't have!!!! maybe I can keep his trap and lx-5...

Tyler and Bud, good fishing with you Guy's, and i just heard the story of the semi lost lx-5, one lucky hombre!!

[CNY Tim]

Frankie Fish - Get back home we need you to pave the way through all this snow so we can get out to our spots

Tyler - The smartest thing you did was put your name on the LX-5 good thinking on your part.

[CNY Lee]

What's the story behind the LX-5 lost but recovered?

[USMC130FE]

Lee I'll let Tyler tell the story, all I know is :

ENYTyler met an honest fisherman...LOL! Just glad you got it back, definately would have sucked fishing with my Back up Vex! I'm going to put my name and phone number on my LX-5 for sure.

And I thought it was a early Christmas for me, Dang!

I also hope to get out atleast one more time with everyone on the ice. What a way to cap off the season!

[CNY-Kyle]

Good point Steve! Im going to lable my LX-5 for sure...