Fishing Report 6/26

[Scott McKee]

As I seemingly get worse at our little game with each unsuccessful trip, I have been altering my tactics in hopes of catching lightning in a bottle.  I tend to press hard on early morning trips this time of year.  I try to fish too much water too quickly and I second guess myself with increasing regularity as the ball of fire in the sky gets higher and my confidence wanes.  I decided I needed a little peace and quiet on the water.

There are few things more peaceful than a little night fishing on the Niagara River.  Before I get to my report, let's backtrack a little.

Carrie and I had a nice little day for ourselves.  We had a great lunch at La Tolteca, a chain Mexican restaurant that doesn't come off like one.  The food comes out quickly and is never disappointing.  Give the place a try sometime.  Try the carnitas.  With the exception of ribs and bacon, carnitas may be pork in its finest form.  Don't fill up on the free chips and salsa either.  The portions are huge; Scott Kitchen after the Wittek huge.

We then shot over to Home Depot, which is the best place to purchase cheap, name-brand, disposable batteries by the way.  I was looking for a Japanese peace lily (Hot Fuzz reference).  Then it was off to the movies.

Have you seen the trailer for Man of Steel?  Amazing, right?  As is so often the case, the trailer was better than the movie.  It wasn’t a bad movie by any stretch, but it was not the greatest super hero movie ever made, which was my hope.  The interaction with Superman’s fathers was the highlight of the movie.  Jor-El, Kol-El’s birth father (played by Russell Crowe) and Kevin Costner’s portrayal of Jonathon Kent, Superman’s adopted Earth father were inspiring.  There are several scenes that were breathtaking, but on the whole it just couldn’t live up with my expectations.  It sort of reminded me of my first fishing trip to Canada many years ago.  We all had the idea we were going to catch huge pike after huge pike.  Guess again.

This is supposed to be a fishing report right?  I get sidetracked all of the time, but this is ridiculous!

After the flick, iced cream was in order.  Carrie, who never ceases to amaze me, altered our order in the drive-thru lane just prior to the, “Welcome to Dairy Queen.  My I take your order?”  At the last minute she changed her mind from a peanut butter blizzard to a dipped waffle cone Oreo Blizzard, which I thought was two items.  Not the best decision, not the worst.  The initial bite of the chocolate dipped waffle cone is exquisite, until you realize there is far less iced cream in the waffle cone than you might have expected.  After the initial deliciousness of the coated cone dissipates, you wish you had the bounty of ice cream a traditional Blizzard boasts.

I hadn’t played with the greatest dog this world, or any other for that matter, has ever witnessed in a quite a while, so we shot over to my brother’s house to play with Tasha.  Tasha is getting up in the years, but she still runs around like a puppy and is always more than willing to choke herself on her runner to great her favorites.  We had a nice time together and she coated me with enough hair to make my own Siberian husky.  Tash sheds and sheds this time of year.  Really, there’s only a 15 minute span in late January when she doesn’t.  Who cares?  She is the best.  Here’s a question for you, why don’t dogs chew their food more thoroughly?  I gave her a hot dog and she just swallowed each piece without mastication.

After dispensing with the treat, Carrie and I decided to go to my brother’s softball game, but we only made it for the last few outs.  Sorrentino’s lost 5-1.  No joy at the Joint tonight.  Bruce, who is hitting just over .900, was paid the highest compliment softball has to offer by the opposition; receiving an intentional walk with runners on first and second.  Bruce has always been a gifted hitter.  When I was 18, I was two years removed from blowing up my arm pitching, but I could still bring it.  Bruce, who was only 8, could hit anything I threw at him, including my once wicked slider.

It was after all this we decided it was finally time to hit the water.

Pulling into Rich Marine, I noticed Scott Kitchen’s car parked, so I decided to give him a call.  My attempt went to voicemail.  I hung up.  Scott called me back a few minutes later and stated he was on his first drift.  He hadn’t caught anything yet.

After calling CAN PASS, we hit the Triangle.  We stayed there most of the night.

After a hundred yards or so of drifting, we determined the moss was at the worst it’s been this season.  We decided to cast.  As I stated earlier, I have been trying different approaches as I continually fail this season in my musky fishing endeavors.  This time I decided to stick with a top water lure; a Mania Tackle Doc that Mike Fortunate was nice enough to give me, and which was once owned by Mark Maghran.

Twenty or so yards downstream from Frenchmen’s Creek, a mid-thirty inch musky exploded on my bait.  The little fella actually jumped over it.  I never felt a tug.  It was the first musky I’ve had strike a top water since Sturgeon Lake in 2000.  It left me all warm and fuzzy and I kept throwing top water baits for the majority of the rest of our trip.

Carrie, who was fighting the call of nature most of our time on the water, suggested we fish until after moon rise and then quit.  We ended the evening throwing crankbaits at the tail end of Lunge Lane.

Since we hadn’t eaten dinner yet, I suggested we go really old school and hit the Olympic.  From what I understand, this Delaware landmark was once the home to many post musky fishing pow-wows.  I had the turkey sausage breakfast.  I think that was a good selection.  Carrie had the Swiss and mushroom burger to which she added bacon.  She could have had anything she wanted (Taxi Driver reference).

I haven’t been as religious this year with my fishing reports as I was last year.  With this report I wanted to make up for that by providing great detail to what amounts to be a missed strike on a seldom used lure style on the River.  My other intention was to compensate for the lack of fishing reports filed by our members.  If you’ve made it this far through this Forum Discussion and you haven’t posted a report yet this year, please do so in the future.  Thanks.  Tomorrow, I’ll describe my day in even more detail.  I may go bass fishing or golfing with Bruce, or I may just watch DVD’s all day.  Would you like me to recap the first four seasons of the Venture Brothers for you?  Stop laughing Mike Schomber!  Hope I don’t go golfing.  I’m really bad and a shot-by-shot description would take tens of thousands of words.

Oh, and by the way, the Doc was black perch in color.

[Carrie Keane]

For the record, I was only "fighting the call of nature" the last 20 minutes of the trip.  And it was at my insistance (because I was the one who looked up the time of moonrise on the GPS) that we remain out until at least 10 minutes after.  I mean why not, it worked once where I insisted we stay out until moonrise and Scott landed a 38", no such luck this time!  I was also very lure-change-y tonight, which is usually Scott's department.  I honestly feel that the fish are just not biting as much as usual shallow.  However, I have tried my 3 "hotties" my obvious black Mepps Maribou black bucktail, a sick Schmo black bucktail with double blades, and a 5" perchbait in niagara walleye that I won off a raffle table, all season to no avail.  I unwisely doubted my "faves" and tried an array of no less than 6 other lures before determining that the fish are simply not biting shallow.  Next trip I go back to my "hotties" I now have no doubt that when the fish are biting they will work. 

[Scott McKee]

When the muskies are biting, it seems like anything will work.  I think those tube things work, but I just can't bring myself to drag them over and over again.  Why do I insist on trying to catch muskies how I want to catch them?  Is it hubris or blatant stupidity?  Why is Darcy Reiger still the Sabres General Manager?  Why are bananas so inexpensive, but a honey crisp apple costs an arm and a leg?  Why did some of my lures that ran like arrows last year track like hell this year?  Why Can't I Be You? is a decent Cure song, but what the hell were they thinking with Friday I'm in Love?  It's like their Shiny Happy People. Really REM?  Why do so many restaurants outside of the Western New York area screw up chicken wings?  Why am I not sleeping right now?  Why did M. Night Shyamalan make The Villiage?  Sixth Sense, Signs and Unbreakable were fantastic.  Have you ever played the "Why?" game with someone?  Whatever they say continually ask them, "why?"  Eventually their answer will be something related to God.  Give it a try.

I have become Jerry Miller. ;)  (And I like it!)

[John Jarosz]

...and one more "why" to add to your list of unexplainable events of the universe:

why, when you go up to a bank's drive-thru ATM in your car, the ATM buttons are also in braille?

[Mike "the facilities" Fortunate]

john thats great!! sooo true lol never thought.of that

[Scott McKee]

Hit the links today.  Normally that means I grilled sausages, but today it means  golf at the site of the 1912 US Open.  After a four or five year hiatus from the game, I managed a 101.  I seem to like to three putt now. I did birdie 18 thanks to a brilliant sixty yard-gap that stuck a foot-and-a-half from the pin.  The maintenance crew seemed impressed and they asked for a few autographs for their kids which I of course signed.  Do you think the little sports fans will know who Chi Chi Rodriquez is?  I'm working on the tome version of my round now with comparisons drawn between musky fishing, giant burritos and the Hundred Year's War.  I'll bet you didn't know Edward III was a big hitter and Phillip IV was a wizard with a cane poll.  The full shot-by-shot description of my round will appear in the next newsletter.  We may need to take out a loan to cover the printing.  Cast them straight gang and don't forget the guacamole.

[3c7ntrp3pmn31]

Go Team Venture!

[3c7ntrp3pmn31]

I think Love Cats better fits your analogy.

[Scott McKee]

Good call Schombee.  I loathe Love Cats even more, but I've been repressing my hatred; burying it deep in my psyche adjacent to the incident from my youth when my dad threw me to the ground in the elephant house at the zoo.  While I was people watching, a pesky pachyderm hurled its excrement in my direction and my dad saved the day rescuing me from certain embarrassment, possible injury and a horribly stained shirt.  The dung missile struck a cigarette machine directly behind where my head would have been.  The decisive action of my father reminds me of local Republican politics in the late 1970's and early 80's when he was a habitual campaign manager.    The elephant's actions brings recent Republican presidential candidates to mind. This is coming from a registered member of the Grand Old Party by the way.  So back to Love Cats, that song is monstrously bad.  Robert Smith is a fellow English football fan, but the song makes me want to cheer for England's opponents in International football when I think of it, and the Lions are my favorite team just edging the good old Federal Republic of Germany.  I don't dislike the United States team, but I really like European soccer.  Speaking of which, who's your favorite German and English soccer players?  I'd have to go with Jürgen Klinsmann followed by Lothar Matthäus for Germany.  And for England, you have to love Alan Shearer and Tony Adams.  Let's get back to the Why's or how about How's?  How did David Seaman not choke on his teeth during matches?  He gave most beavers a serious case of tooth envy.  He looked like a walrus with a mustache between the woodwork.  I think he may have tripped on his tusks when Ronaldinho lofted his free kick for the win way back when.  Speaking of old soccer games, I will never forgive Diego Maradona for the "hand of God" in '86. Sonsofbitchen cheater!  What was this post supposed to be about again?

[Jay Nannen]

I feel like I am watching The Matrix:

1. Trinity: No one has ever done anything like this.
2. Neo: That's why it is going to work.

Keep throwing topwaters Scott.

[Scott McKee]

They are maddeningly mesmerizing!