Friday, July 8, 2005

Door County Anglers Shootout - Day One If  you're looking for some fast fishing action, come on up to Door County this weekend for the First Annual Door County Anglers Shootout. It's a three-day event headquartered at Leathem Smith Lodge in Sturgeon Bay. Look for the big blue tent in front of the lodge. A not-for-profit tournament, the Shootout will pay out $45,000 cash to winners in four divisions: salmon, lake trout, brown trout and rainbow trout. Look for details on the Leathem Smith website. I came up last night and got up early enough to join Capt. Bill Luer on his boat, Nooo Problem. Bill and mate Scott Platta had a boatful of guests, all of them registered in the contest. We motored through fog in the Shipping Channel and then powered up and ran out about 4.5 miles to The Bank Reef, off Whitefish Point on the Lake Michigan side of the county. We started hitting fish before first mate Eric had all the lines set. I grabbed the first rod because someone had to, but a small shaker got off before I could get it in the boat. Shawn Fairchild grabbed the next rod and brought in an 8-lb. 3-year-old salmon. The rest of us then drew cards for fishing order. Roger Monson was next, followed by me, Tony Pupp and Ross Smilko. Action was pretty fast for the first hour, but most of the fish were small. By 7:00 a.m., the hits slowed down, but the fish got bigger. We boated several fish in the 15 to 18-lb. class. Ross caught the biggest one, which topped out at 16 lb. 4 oz. on my Berkley digital scale. In all, we caught about 14 chinook salmon and lost several more. No other species graced our cooler. Several other boats caught lakers and rainbows, but I haven't heard of any browns. Back at the Leathem Smith weigh-in tent, Ross's fish weighed 14.96 pounds, not 16-something. Ross is currently No. 8 or 9 on the leader board and in the money, although no one expects the top fish (currentoly 18-something) to hold. Gotta check the accuracy of that scale, as Leathem Smith owner Chuck Buccola says his scale is certified. As long as all the fish are weighed on the same scale, it doesn't matter which one we use. Still, A 1.25-lb. discrepancy is significant if you're estimating the weight of a moderate-sized fish. Representatives from Mid State Marine, Cal Marine and Lakeshore Marine have brought along some boats for show and tell. I'm looking forward to a ride in a G3 1750 bass boat or 1850 deep-V, and plan to take a look at the Pursuit equipped with twin Yamaha outboards. I'll let you know how they test-drive. Gotta run. Tonight's the barbeque chicken & ribs dinner, and I've worked up a pretty good appetite. Later... 6:12:56 PM    comment []

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