jedimaster

Yah, it was the first year for this derby so it was kind of a learning experience for us all. We looked around for info on how others run small musky derbies and it seemed the majority did it this way. I won 100 bucks, so it was good, actually its the first time I have ever profited from a fishing toderby of any kind, bass walleye, ice fishing etc... Although I can't say for sure about the other boats we were pretty fast and furious getting the fish in and out quickly. At the end we talked about having cradles manditory with a measuring tapd attatched to the handles and take the picture with the fish in the water, then pull it out for a quick acurate measure and a picture of the catcher holding the fish then back in the water. The Net man would submit the measure and the picture in the cradle with would be enough of a verification. If anyone has any other ideas I am all ears, and I'll definatly bring it up for next years derby.

Also I managed to take a really cool video of my partners musky catch and landing...Its really funny, the commentary is classic fishing....

http://www.onthebog.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&...25&p=85#p85

You might have to register as a user as its posted under a members forum.

Thanks, I definatly had him if we were going by weight, although neither of us measured but his was a rake. The coloring on the smaller ones was really impresive.

Well I came in Second place boating a solid healthy 43 incher.... The derby was amongst friends and all measurements were verified by picture and tape measure, then all fish were to be released. There were 14 fish boated. The winner was 44 inches. It was very sickly looking though and was all head and a skinny body... I had my cousin with me, and my other cousin was in his boat. Between the three of us we boated 6 of the 14 fish.

Actually the tourney was great, no reports of any dead or mishandled musky.

We just took a picture, with a measuring tape and pretty much went on the honor system as it was a small derby amongst friends.

Here are the pictures...

My big one...

The release....

My second one....

My Partner's Ski

My other Cousins first

His second Second...

He had a third but I don't have a picture of it.

I think 8 people out of the 20 or so entrants caught fish.

As for the money I won....... I will be fixing my rear brake that spun the Drum Backing off the hub while I helped a guy pull out his boat. The emerg got locked in 4 low. bango, oh well a great day none the less.

8 - 14k I would go to the states for sure, you can get twice the boat for the money. You could probably even find and allison or a stroker for 15k. Then you could run 70mph+ and drink your coffee at the same time.

Procrafts are wide stable. Actually Imy cousin is thinking about selling his 21 foot Procraft with a 200hp Merc, jack plate, trolling motor fish finder, trailer etc... all the fixins, its a great fishing rig, and super stable. We call it the Bass barge its so big.

You should have no trouble finding a good rig for that price range.

Just make sure the hull is sound, and all the gizmos work.

That triton is a nice boat too.

The things to look for difer greatly depending on how much your planing on spending. If your lookin for a budget basser Under 7500 then the things to look for are different than things to look for if our in the 15k range.

For 10,000 or more I would seriously consider driving to the States and buy a boat/trailer and get a motor up here. Down in the US they run Bass boats all year long even during spawning in many states. So a 3 year old motor in the states can be like buying a 12 year old motor here.

Also figure out how fast your happy with going BEFORE you buy a bass boat NOT after. If you have your heart set on making your '89 Ranger do 70mph well your gonna spend allot of money chasing a pipe dream. If your satisfied with 50 then that opens up a whole lot of really nice boats, what water are you gonna fish? Any need for a fish n ski? or is two seats good enough? Do you care enough for your partner to have a dual console(eg are you planning to have your wife go for a ride in it more than once...(been there done that...Sold the boat)

It sucks to be the passneger eating bugs and dodge seagulls while the driver is tucked nicely behind a little wind screen.

Check the corners of the Gunwales near the transom for spider cracks, this is where the preasure is exerted from the motors weight and tourque.

Try and get one that has a couple of props, comes with a Jack plate, a good trolling motor, fish finder, spare tire for the trailer, bearing buddies etc....

As for brand specific, I know the smaller Stratos boats bog in the back during acceleration but ride really nice once on plane.

Champions are also nice and solid boat, but your gonna need a 225 on it if you want to crack 60mph without allot of tweaking.

Most bass boats will run in the 55-65 mph range, if you have a guy advertising it does more than 65, he is very likely Lieying unless he is running something bigger than a 25 pitch prop. To be able to run more than 65 you need to be able to turn at 26 or higher.

Again it really depends on your budget and expectations... what exactly is your price range and what sort of performance are you hoping for?

Feel free to jump in here guys but this is just my experience...

I have both a Curado and an Abu C3 that I use for musky and although I do like the Abu, The Curado is a far superior reel. At least in my eyes anyway. But Heck I also use a spinning rod for musky so don't listen to me.

A 7 foot compre and a Curado would be a sweet rig.

As for the reliability of Curados, I know plenty of curados plenty older than 3 years and still working perfectly cast after cast. I know lots of guys with C3's that just put up with the noise and this and that, and have them serviced and what not. But as another guy said its not fair to compare an Abu C3 to a Curado.

Has anyone seen a store in the GTA that has pour your own grub kits?

I was never here.....

Would it have been less of a shame if he ate it? A dead fish is a dead fish, no matter how you slice it...or turn it into paste.

Nevermind...

ok thanks,

Cool thanks. Will post some pictures of some monster pigeon musky...hopefully. Is that launch on the Bass Lake Road side or the other side?

Just wonderin if anyone knows a decent launch on the north end of pigeon? Lookin for a free one that I can launch at on the north side or near the buckhorn narrows on Saturday morning at about 5:30am ish....

Yah I remember those days, but I don't ever remember having such a hard time getting clear shots with my old SLR Minolta as I do with my new digital automatic camera. takes me a dozen clicks before I get on prefectly in focus. Sometimes I get lucky but other times, I figure bah I got 4 gigs of space I'll just take 50 pictures of this 2 pound bass.

That silvery looking mud sucker sure is fat.

Nice Skii's btw.

Another trick I use for installing new races, is I take the old one(After I have bought the correct new one, and use my bench grinder to make it a bit smaller then just use that ground down bearing to hammer in the new one. Alot cheaper than buyng a socket I likely won't use(err I already have a 36mm but I don't wanna whack on it.

As for getting it out yah use a screw driver and bang it out just try not to wreck the hub while your doing it.

I just threw a bearing the other day myself. Took me 4 hours to get the the old inner bearing off that for all intesive purposes welded itself ont he axle.

I feel your pain.

Lots of folks like to play the eleitist role when it comes to Musky fishing. Boo hoo No skin off of my teeth. Actually I wrote a big long thing back but I decided I would rather not get into it with them. The question as I recall does anyone know of any other Musky SPinning rods other than the Clarus MUSKY spinning rod. I did get some great info on musky SPINNING rods. so thanks folks.

I was thinkin of lookin for a bigflippin stick.

Yah, I would think I would use it mostly to Troll, then when I am doing casting with the curado I would toss on a plastic as a follow 'uper, likely a big slugo or something like that.

Why would there be a larges amount of play required with a Spinning reel with a 6:1 gear ratio with an equal line capacity? If your concern is over the drag you have obviously never played a fish with a Rear Drag Symetre. They can be synch up tighter than a nun on sunday.

I don't see much validity in your statement, seeing as an abu C2 has a gear ratio of 6.3:1 and is seen as perfectly acceptable for musky.

Rod availablilty is the biggest draw back, so using spinning rods. Also Casting over and over with a spinning rod is a bit of a pita, but since its for trolling I don't see that as an issue.

My symetre hold about 200 yards of 50 pound briad, so I am not sorried about being spooled.

Never had a line capacity issue with my 4000 series, will be used primarily for trolling, I have a nice curado rig setup for casting for musky.

OK guys, I have a nive Shimano 4000 Symetre rear drag that I like to use for musky, but I have been using it on a shimano 6'6" Convergence. I woul dlike to upgrade it to a longer and heavier rod. I was looking at the Shimano 7' Compre Musky Spinning rod. Is this the only option out there for a musky spinning rod? I have some baitcaster setups as well but just looking for something to match up with this big honker of a reel.

If your not a member of the forum it makes it a bit difficult to post your results on the forum don't you think? Not like your paying to join anythig, just a few people have mentioned it before to do something like this on the bog for the locals or others hat fish the bog. Not a big deal really just for fun.

Have a good one.