Outdoors Niagara Recap for 2008
What we did, where we have been
Big Bass Classic & Fall Walleye Classic planned again for 2009
By Mark Daul
I am proud to say the Outdoors Niagara website was created with the intention of being an informational WNY outdoors website and to be active in the WNY outdoors community and has gained the notoriety of being the place to go to for outdoor information in the WNY area. With the support of the sponsors this would not be possible. Increase in sponsor’s fees have not happened since our inception, and that was all due to the fact that new sponsors have continually shown an interest and have come aboard and that helps defray the increases in hosting and domain costs. And Thank You Keith @ Kipo Chevrolet for your generosity.
In 2008, Outdoors Niagara has been extremely busy. Almost like a one man show, we teamed with A-1 Bait to bring the first Lower Niagara River Big Bass Classic on August 2nd. and the Fall Walleye Classic on September 20th. These events are not to be confused with similar events that took place in previous years. There was a void there and there would not have been such events if it were not for A-1 and Outdoors Niagara promoting them.
Both the Big Bass Classic and the Fall Walleye Tournament will be held again in 2009 on the same weekends they were held in 2008. Look for a cool expansion of the Big Bass Classic in 2009. [Tentatively: Bass, August 8 and walleye September 19]
The Wagon Wheel Restaurant and the Deuces Bar bass contests were a couple of other successful fishing events that proved to be extremely popular. Wagon Wheel’s was held on opening day of Bass season [June 21] and Deuces Bar on Royal Avenue was held the following week on June 29th……… In 2009, both will be holding these events again, on the same weekends in June. All good stuff for our fishermen! Pictures and details of both of these events can all be found on this Outdoors Niagara website, nowhere else.
Backing up to February 16, 2008, the Niagara River Anglers held their annual Roger Toby Memorial steelhead tournament on the Lower Niagara headed up by Richard Fortier. This successful event has been held continuously for well over 20 years. If you want to see the results AND photos from 2007 and 2008, they are all on this Outdoors Niagara website exclusively HERE
Spring pen rearing of
steelhead in Wilson NY was spearheaded by Wilson Town Board member Brad Clark
and Charter Captain Mike Lis plus a handful of volunteers that all did a
stupendous job not only raising and releasing steelies but other salmon & trout
springtime releases. This crew assisted at the East branch stocking of 12 mile
creek while it received approximately 10,000 steelhead and the West
branch received approximately 14,000 steelies. Four Mile creek was
treated to 3,000. Outdoors Niagara was there to assist & get
the story & photos and they can be
seen on this website. And MORE here
In Olcott NY, the Lake Ontario Trout & Salmon Association [LOTSA] had a successful year with their pen rearing program, releasing 67,000 kings and 3,500 steelies. An increase of kings by 17,100 over 2007. There was no pen rearing project for the Niagara River in 2008.
Although not much was said
about walleye stocking this year, Outdoors Niagara was there as 11,600
DEC reared & raised walleye were stocked in the Lower Niagara near Stella
Niagara. There are EXCLUSIVE pictures and the
story about this on Outdoors Niagara too. Under the direction of DEC Region
9 head biologist Mike Wilkinson, Mike Fox, Mike George, Ron the DEC truck
driver, and myself assisted in this effort. This was the ONLY walleye stocking
done for the Niagara River in 2008.
Region 9 stocking operations are continually monitored by the extremely capable
DEC Region 9 Chief Biologist Mike Wilkinson. Thank You Mike.
The annual LOC Derby was well supported again this year and Outdoors Niagara was there again assisting at the Youngstown weigh station, and getting pictures and a story for this website. Outdoors Niagara is the only place you can get the photos. The complete derby standing and story are on this website along with a picture of Don Ruffell from Webster NY who fell in the river while trying to dock the boat at the new Petrob Marina in Youngstown. [what a sport]
The Fish Odyssey was held in September and for the past few years. Outdoors Niagara teamed up with the Odyssey and Karen Evarts at the “Boat Doctors” in Olcott to keep you up to date on daily standings and results. Everts handled the official Odyssey website.
Friday October 17th. was to be the final salmon derby of the year but due to unforeseen difficulties it had to be cancelled, but will be held next October. Details and winners of all previous Bunky Derbys are only on this website. This annual derby is in memory of Connie Adams Meesig’s late husband Captain Ron Meesig.
The Niagara County Federation of Conservation Clubs [NCFCC] supports Outdoors Niagara as we support them in all their efforts. Without a Federation as great and as active as the Niagara County Federation, we would all be going in different directions to attain our goals. We need them and if your club is not an active member, get busy, club support is needed and if you are not a member of an active fishing, hunting, shooting club, again, get busy. If it were not for our clubs our sport would have gone down the drain years ago.
Outdoors Niagara strives to keep you updated on fishing our local waters by bringing you WNY’s finest outdoor writers on a regular basis. All our visitors cannot get our local writers views and forecasts but they can read them all right here. You can also find interesting stories and articles by some of our local outdoor pros that are refreshed regularly.
Thank you to everyone that has become an Outdoors Niagara Booster by supporting the sponsors and spreading the word of this website. For many, many years I have enjoyed working with my fellow outdoors people and still enjoy doing what I do in my own way without micro-managers. As most people know I am a retired Niagara Falls fishing tackle dealer and have always been active with our local fishermen/outdoorsmen and I haven’t stopped, it was you people that helped my family and me make a living by doing what I loved. It’s all for you. Thank You.
2009 will be a bigger and
brighter year for all of us!
And the next time someone asks you “where’d ya ketch ‘em?” .......... Just
tell them “in the lip!”
See you on the water!
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