Orleans County Lake Ontario Trout & Salmon Pro-Am Tournament
Orleans County Lake Ontario Trout & Salmon Pro-Am Tournament
June in the western basin of Lake Ontario has always been considered a transitional month for trout and salmon fishing. The lake has not yet warmed up enough to allow these fish to collect in their preferred temperature zones and yet it is not cold enough to keep these fish in their springtime haunts. So why would you want to hold a Pro-Am tournament during this time of year? First it is a slower time of the year for the fishery and businesses in the area so having a large influx of people during this time of year benefits the area financially.
But even more importantly by having the Pro-Am Tournament at this time of the year it brings into play all of the skill and knowledge of the participating teams, which allows only the best of the best to finish at the top.
On June 13 and 14 of this year the 4th annual Orleans County Lake Ontario Trout and Salmon Pro-Am Tournament took place out of the port of Point Breeze, New York. 57 teams, 41 professional and 16 amateur teams competed in the 2-day event for over $40,000.00 in cash and prizes. Teams came from all over New York State as well as 5 other states and 2 others countries to compete in this fantastic event. The scoring for the event is based on 10 points for each legal fish brought to the weigh-in and 1 point per pound of the total weight of the catch. Amateur teams can weight in a maximum of 9 fish per team and the professional teams can weigh in 12 fish maximum. This is based on the minimum number of team’s members of the teams.
Day one brought clear cool weather and it also brought a fishery that was scattered from Olcott to Rochester and from 50 feet to 600 feet of water with no concentration in any one area. At the end of the day only one professional and one amateur team brought in a limit catch which earned both teams the bragging rights for being in first place at the finish of day one. On the professional side it was team Screamer Atommik lead by Dave Antenori that grabbed the lead and Paul Powers team Fish Nutz came out on top on the amateur side of the Pro-Am. It’s interesting to note that this is Dave Antenori’s first year fishing in the professional division although he has fished the competition many times as an amateur.
The top five standings at the end of day 1 were:
Professional Amateur
Screamer Atommik 179.99 Fish Nutz 173.22
Top Gun 158.24 Liquid Plummer 130.25
Reel Excitement/Condor 127.97 Oh-Baby 103.70
Team Maverick 124.65 5 More Minutes-Siggs 97.71
Vision Quest 119.87 Flat Top 90.31
At the dawn of day two it was obvious that the conditions had not changed that much from day 1, yet when all was said and done the results really told the story. Some teams really redeemed themselves from day 1 and yet other teams found day 2 much more challenging.
The top Five final result standings were:
Professional Amateur
Top Gun 375.42 Fish Nutz 271.91
Screamer Atommik 370.13 5 More Minutes-Siggs 227.14
Cold Steel/Atommik/Fat Nancy’s 294.78 Liquid Plummer 203.89
Sunrise II 279.87 Wizard 165.58
Reel Excitement/Condor 275.22 Still No Sponsor 137.39
The 4th annual Orleans County Lake Ontario Trout and Salmon Pro-Am was also the last leg of the West End Challenge Cup Race. The Challenge Cup is based on a formula much like that of NASCAR in that teams are awarded points not only on their catch but also on their finish in each of the Western Pro-Am competitions. The final results for the top 3 in each division were:
Professional Amateur
Top Gun 569 Liquid Plummer 570
Cold Steel/Atommik/Fat Nancy’s 561 Fish Nutz 566
Screamer tommik 536 Spoonfed/NK 563
We would like to thank all of the sponsors that made this event another great success and those who put in untold hours to insure that all ran smoothly, but we would especially like to thank all of the participants in these events. Your continued support lets sponsors and event committees know that they are bringing you competitions that you are interested in.
For those of you who have never entered one of the Pro-Am Tournaments, they offer an excellent opportunity to ply your skills against some of the very best trout and salmon fishermen. It also offers you an excellent opportunity to learn new tactics while having fun doing what we all enjoy---------FISHING!!!!!!