Take me to your Leader

Good day to all.

For quite some time, this article is over 10 years old, there has been some talk about which leader material works best? Some feel that heavy mono or fluorocarbon leader can be used for pursuing fish with big sharp teeth? The fact is they do work, but they also fail. I do not think plastics should be used in pursuit of trophy Musky or Pike. When I started fishing for Esox, I did not use steel all that often. Sometimes I would use heavier…

Big thanks to Tony Scime, Scott Kitchen, Jim Kinner, Hope & Gary Melnyk, Mark Wozniak, Carl Schenk, Mike Fortunate, Mike Jones, Chris & TJ “L’il Hercules” Clark for helping out with the tent set-up tonight.  We erected the tent in a new location at the Rose Garden this year so we wouldn’t upset the newly manicured grove, complete with bocce ball court level grounds and beautiful hanging gardens that are paled only by Babylon’s.  Wait until you see the place!  You won’t believe your…

I've noticed that the appearance of our site is altered and certain functions don't work correctly when I use Internet Explorer to view it.  I contacted Ning about this and they suggested I use Mozilla Firefox Internet Browser to access our site.  I gave it a try and it seems to load our new toy a lot faster and things are where I've placed them.  Another nice feature of Firefox is its spell cheqer, I mean checker.  Click here to…

MONTHLY TOURNAMENTS 2012

Jojo , M.T.D.

"Just"  Catch a musky in or near the Niagara River in 12 hours,

 take a careful measurement & post your report online.

No Fees

No Prizes

No Witness

No Picture

No Ruler

No Killing

No Kidding

No Fish = No Points

No Fishing in Terrible Weather

No more then 12 hours fishing during the week foollowing the meeting Thursday through…

NMA is looking for Volunteers

The line starts here ...2010

The NMA has 161 members. Last year we received 9 diary studies.

For the NMA to provide the NY DEC with a good sample we would like to get a minium of 12 diary studies from members that fish at least 50 hours. The club has been doing the study since 1995 ( 14 seasons). Thanks to the help of about two hands of boys. I have participated since joined in 1996 and tried to…

It’s not strange for me to receive what you may call “weird” text messages.  For example my brother sends me pictures of wrestling action figures (read: dolls) posing around town, his house and climbing on Tasha, his Siberian husky.  I’ve always said that text messaging excels in distributing absurd non-sequiturs.  Today Mike Fortunate sent me a rather bizarre series of messages.  Have you ever dieted with a group of friends?  It can be easier when you know there are others monitoring your…

I would like to thank everyone who attended our 18th Annual Awards Banquet tonight.  Our new digs at the Pearl at the Webb were fantastic.  It is a really nice place.  Thanks to Josh and Julie Ketry, and the staff at Pearl for running such a wonderful event. The food was great, the drinks were just as good or better, or so I've been told.

We had about eighty or so in attendance and everyone seemed to enjoy the…

Is anyone still using fluorocarbon leaders?  Do you think muskies are leader shy?  They don’t seem to mind the three 7/0 hooks on my Perchbaits and Believers or the 9/0's on my Plows.  You are only kidding yourself if you think a musky can’t bite through fluorocarbon.  Don’t leave a lure imbedded in a musky.  Please use single strand stainless steel leaders.    Do you think they won’t hit a lure with a steel leader?  I’ve had them follow my propeller while the boat moved forward with the…

A friend and I headed to a Lake Ontario trib. after work. We had heard that there were a decent amount of steelies in.

We arrived and found the creek high and Lightly stained. We hit some known hot spots, and found we could indeed see fish. I worked a gravel section, and Joe was working just above me to some rather sizable dark shadows. We were going through our fly boxes, trying to find the answer. After about an hour, I caught a 3lb male on a #10 hare's ear. 

Joe's drift was…

The last newsletter bled into the banquet brochure and the brochure bled into the meeting and the meeting bled into the show and the show bled into welcoming new members and I still haven’t started April’s newsletter and the Web site always needs work.  Today I didn’t care.  Today is the first day in weeks I haven’t spent the majority my day working on “musky stuff.”  I’m feeling a little guilty because of this, so I thought I’d post a blog.  I have a ton of things that need to get done; I…

I had the pleasure of spending the day with Mark Wozniak, and Pooner this evening, at the Erie County Sport & Travel Expo. Frank Stachowiak, Dayton Kane, Larry Jones and Bob Hey all hung out around the booth as well. The problem with that is that we stop talking to the masses and spend our time telling stories. Oh well. It’s a problem I would rather have.

We signed up three new members, two of whom were members in the past. The brand spanking new member already has a pair of…

I think it was a vodka / tonic?  In fact I’d bet on it.  It was probably my eleventh or twelfth that day.  Sometime just before midnight, just as the joint was getting ready to close, I had my last alcoholic beverage.  That was two years and a day ago.  The months leading up to that day were pretty scary for me.  I knew something was wrong with my heart, but I didn’t want to really admit it to myself and I sure as hell didn’t want to go to a doctor and find out I was…

Prior to the start of every musky season I like to organize the lures that will make the final grade and get to go for a long boat ride on opening day.  If you have as many lures I do, this can be a bit of a problem.  One trick I've learned over the years is to use my kitchen cupboards and drawers to aid in the process.  I open them all up and hang the lures.  I can hang just about every musky lure I own and see them all at once.  Once they’re hanging, I organize them by lure type.  One…

After yesterday’s heavy blog, I thought I’d lighten today’s.  Some of the boys and I were shooting the s**t at the bar tonight and our topic of conversation turned, as it often does, to fishing trips from years back.  Tonight we were talking about species of animals we’ve caught that weren’t fish.

We’ve caught all sorts of creatures over the years.  We didn’t really catch them since we never used hooks.  We’ve had plenty of seagulls fly off with pieces of bread or crackers only to rip…

I was in his neighborhood the other day, so I thought I’d stop by and say, “Hi”.  I haven’t visited my friend in a long time and I missed him.  When I arrived at his earthly residence he was resting, but I don’t think my presence disturbed him.  He didn’t talk much, which was okay.  I never know when to shut up after all.  I told him how much I’ve missed him and how the guys in the club still talk about him.  I let him know Joe and I took his son fishing and how we got skunked, again.  How…

This blog section is a white space killer.  Post your Blogs please!  I'll include the best Blog of the month, as determined by me and an elite squad of flying ninja wombats, in the newsletter.  Clean out your brain and archive your thoughts in cyber-space!  Thanks.