OPEN WATER REPORTS--SUMMER 2007

[BigJohnnyIce]

Let's start a SUMMER 2007 thread for open water fishing other than walleyes!!

Took off Thursday for some fishing at a nearby lake here in WNY....the Wizard and I hooked up with a great old-school panfisherman who showed us a few tricks . The wizard and him were strictly on a mission to put some fresh fillets in the freezer, and we took care of business on the BULLgills. Nothing wrong with keeping them once and awhile, as this lake is well known for consistently producing quality gills year after year. CNY Tim: you know where it is...remember that long three hour ride a couple of winters ago only to get some dinks?

We kept only the ones over 9"....and let me tell you both live wells were full.....here is the Wizard with one of the nice ones:

Maki's Rocki's worked for me, and I think I need to order some more

[Thunderman]

NOW THAT IS A PLATE WOW I would like to see some of the males johnny do they get that big? Nice GILL that isnt no dink .

[CNY Tim]

Johnny now that's a slab and a live well full to boot, Wow! Great job buddy... Johnny maybe the prob;em is we should have hit it in open water,eh, too many places for them to hide under the hard stuff.. That's a whale of a gill. Way to go..

[BigJohnnyIce]

Quote:

---

I would like to see some of the males johnny do they get that big?

---

Todd,

We found some of the gills were still packed with eggs, so they might be on a second spawn.....most of the ones we kept (9"+) seemed to be females, but who knows?

I am going out again on Thursday, and I hope to take more pics. If you ever want to make a road trip out this way, let me know, and maybe we can HOOK up

[Thunderman]

Johnny,I would like to take tommorow off from work but I can't I work monday thru thursday 10 hrs a day and have fridays off.My 15yr old nephew is coming up saturday and sunday.I would like to hook up some time soon . The males are not too far from those females probably in a little deeper water.My guess is 6 to 8 feet or maybe a little deeper Good luck tommorow hope to see some plate pics .

[CNY Tim]

Big Johnny Ice - Have a great day today!

Todd - Sorry I missed your call., left a message on your cell back this a.m.. Todd these were deep piggies. Good you got your maki order now you have the green light to order some sparcs plastics;) I wonder if it's the scent that makes a difference?? Well have to ask the Vassils on that one...

Gotta ump 3 men's games tonight and the he woman on Friday for 3, Saturday going home to Massachusetts, Sunday Fast Pitch 12U at 5 p.m. Monday 2 games 6 p.m., my team playing in Floyd Tuesday, Wed 2 games 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. in Utica and Thursday back in Rome again where it starts tonight for 3 games.. Pretty busy

Watched an umpire get grilled for an inning and a half last night before my game. Arc limit is 6-14' this guy is consistantly throwing 18' to 20' and the umpire has been hearing it from the hitting teams bench for the last couple of innings. I show up there and the team that's hitting are looking to me for justice.

Like I am going to go straighten the umpire out for not making the calls. Anyway I hung around the backstop area awaiting our game to start and listening to the rightful lambasting the home plate umpire is taking. Every questionable pitch these guys are looking at me and I'm not even in the game... But there saying within earshot of the umpire but to me, "C'mon ump you know that pitch was illegal" and I didn't say anything but winked back at em acknowledging that the player had made the correct call. This team was 15 run ruled in the first game and the second game was a bit closer, they were clearly struggling to hit these illegal pitches. Anyways the umpire waits till get this the complaining teams FINAL AT BAT to start calling illegal pitches. The place went NUTS!!! I mean to wait 12 innings including the first game and not give the guys there moneys worth especially on making these arc calls a 6 yr. old could have done it....and then to start there last at bat.... No wonder they were [PoorWordUsage]ed...To make a long story short this infuriated the offensive teams bench as each illegal pitch the blue was uttering the cat calling and volume were escalating across the park by the hitting team. Finally! was the last word that guy uttered before he got tossed,the umpire ejected the loudest heckler on the bench but the rest of the team was still giving blue the business until the umpire was out of sight after the final out.

Moral of the story...

This could have been clearly avoided in the first game since they play double headers, enforce the strike zone from the beginning of the game and give the teams there moneys worth on every play!

[CNY Lee]

I totally agree on setting the law down right away, I play and ump US V-Ball and nothing worst then an ump who doesn't make the right consistent call. He should have just done nothing and let the team file a protest at the end of the games.

[BigJohnnyIce]

My father-in-law and I got out yesterday for some hog gill action....once we found them and found what they wanted, it was nonstop action!!! Tim, can you say 'road trip'??

[Thunderman]

Nice job guys nothing beats the PANFISH POUNDING and it looks like you did some pounding .Those fish have good length and girth I bet the circle fight feels nice on a light rod .Johnny the last pic is the powerlift of the panheads you dont look too happy .

[BigJohnnyIce]

Thanks Todd...yeah, that last pic with the basket was half way through the day. We fished from about 9 to 3:30, and that was full by then at the end of our day. That thing weighed a lot . My father-in-law doesn't fish too much, so he wanted to keep them because he loves fresh fish fillets. We ended up with 71, and guess who had to clean them? Me

[CNY Lee]

Nice catch BigJohnny. How deep did you find them and what presentation did they like?

[BigJohnnyIce]

Lee,

We got into them in 15FOW+ and they liked small lead heads tipped with plastics. Had to search to find them....

[CNY Tim]

Road Trip? I have been on that road trip and I think it's wicked better open water pannies than ice when you find them

That's a nice basket you got there Johnny.

Lee - Dude ya been out at all?

Rolled back in to town last night from Tyler's grad picnic in Mass. it was nice to see the relatives and Mom's cooking was fantastic

[Dark Cloud]

Went on a little solo mission down to the west branch of the Delaware to try for some wild browns and rainbows on the flyrod yesterday afternoon. Had a good time, landed 3 browns - 2 at 11 inches and one pushing 15. Lost a big rainbow I guestaimate was pushing 20 inches. Had him on for a few minutes and he gave me some awesome jumps and runs before comming loose. Missed a half dozen others and a few others I had on for a few seconds that fealt solid. All fish came on various size 16 emerger patterns.

Had this visitor as I was sitting on the bank re-rigging...

Then she swam the river about 60 yards below me...

Heres the one nicer brown I landed...

[Thunderman]

Nice pics jay Im thinking about getting a flyrod again I would like to try for panfish, alot of places I fish they do alot of riseing.Im ready to snap some flys off again .

[Dark Cloud]

Went after some trout with the flyrod yesterday and found some action. Landed 4, missed a few and lost one solid fish. Two 12 inchers, a 14 and a 17 incher - all browns...

heres a 14...

This one was just a spunky 12 and the darn pict came out a tad blurred but he had gorgeous red spots...

This brownie was fat 17 in and fought like heck. I thought I had a 20+ on...

size 16 sulpher emerger patterns...

I took what I thought was a great sunset pict but I must have moved cuz it blurred...

I went solo, Tank was subbing in a golf league. He shot his best score of the year...

[CNY Tim]

Excellent photo's Jay So what did Pop's shoot?

[Dark Cloud]

I think he said 43 or 44. He's been striking the ball well and tidying up his short game, in the fairway off the tee.

[BigJohnnyIce]

Got back from fishing Honeoye today with my pops-in-law. What a blast is was again.

We started out in search of some eyes before the sun got too high, but all we managed we some smaller largemouths.

Then we headed over to our big gill area, and once we found the pattern for the day, it was game on!! My forearm is still sore!! A few crappies were in the mix, too.

All fish were released to be around for this ice fishing season (hint, Timmy)!! Here are a few pics from today's outing....

[Thunderman]

John,Nice pics those are some big PLATES have you ever tried a 2 jig set up for those.Im sure if you get a double you have a good fight on your hands My cousin has a camp on the SW end of the lake some where.You know the bulls are big when you can get your thumb in their yap. NICE FISH after timmy gets done with the soft ball thing I think its time for a ROOOOOAD TRRRRRRRIP good job GUYS

[CNY Lee]

Johnny, Do you drift for them or cast? I find it better to drift for and when I get a good school I through a marker out and anchor and try to cast to them, but for some reason I don't get as many casting. It makes me scratch my head sometimes.

[BigJohnnyIce]

Todd,

No, my buds and I have never used a double set.....we use two rods each usually, but a day like yesterday we used mostly one rod because two was too much for one guy to keep up with. If you and Timmy want to come up sometime, just let me know, and I can see if I can get out with you guys.

Lee,

Drifting is far better....the wind needs to just right for a good drift. When the wind dies or quits, we fire up the trolling motor

[CNY Tim]

Johnny - Thanks for sharing those "plate" pics.. Honeydoo at it's finest... Hey Todd... I am off the 4th of Sep it's a Tuesday after Labor Day, I have Amanda.. Whatta ya say???

Well boys the Poland tournament went well we finished in the money, 3rd place. We won our first 3 games Saturday and lost to the eventual 2nd place team in the 4th game Saturday 10-8. We climbed back in to tie it in the bottom of the 7th and then we served 6 runs right back to em and to the eventual 2nd place finishers in the top of the eighth and never recovered.

Sunday we had one game 4 p.m. against the eventual winners of the tournament and lost 10-8. I played well going 2 for 3 with a couple of bi's. What sucked was I tweaked my groin going from 1st to third Saturday on a base hit and I was favoring it a little, this weekend. Good thing we have a bye this week in Floyd.

I can imagine all the walleyes Pop and Junior our catching now

[Thunderman]

Timmy,sounds good I will put in a vacation day for that day I got a feeling we will have some good pictures that day. Hopefully the bite will be ON I cant wait to see the look on amandas face when she hooks one of those BIG HOOEY GRANDES .

[CNY Tim]

Todd she's psyched big time to go in your boat, 1st time and will be fishing with one rod. She will look awesome holding those big hooey's. Here some pics of my guide and his last deep water panfish run. Excellent pics Todd, you cant beat the scenery and the white stoni!