BLACK BEAR OPEN ON MANSFIELD CANCELLED THIS SATURDAY!!

Due to a small number of pre-registered teams, the Black Bear Open is cancelled.  We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause you.  If you have paid your refund will be returned to you shortly.  Thank you for your continued support of CT Outdoors.  Diane

Congratulations goes to Dennis Sikorski and Ken Roderick for taking first place in the 2008 CT East Team Trail.  This is the second year in a row that this Skeeter Team has placed first in the point standings.  Sikorski & Roderick won two tournaments this year in the East Division, Pachaug and the CT River, came in third at Mansfield and fourth at Gardiner.  As Skeeter Real Money participants Sikorski has won an additional $3000 for each of the two tournaments he won.  Congratulations for a great performance this season and best of luck in the Championship!

Second in the point standings are Bill Decoteau and Chris  Blais.  Third place goes to Brian Burrell and Dave Mathieu.  For complete standings check page under CT East Trail.

Congratulations to all of the top ten teams who qualified to go on to the Championship!! 

  Daniel at his 8th grade graduation with friend Mariah

As many of you know, my sweet and wonderful son, Daniel, my "Bubba," died in an accident July 19.  The support that all of you in our fishing family have given us has been overwhelming and much appreciated.  Your thoughts and prayers have helped us get through this very miserable time and we cannot thank you enough.

My Daniel is the happiest person I have ever known.  He has a kind spirit and a generous heart.  He loved everyone he came across in life and makes each and every person he knows smile with his contagious laugh and personality.  Daniel has always been my inspiration..... to be kind and generous to everyone, no matter what they do, to enjoy life to its fullest, to appreciate the beauty in nature, to hug and kiss every baby, dog and cat because they are cute, to think of others and make it your duty to bring them happiness and brighten their day, to find the positive in each person, to laugh, laugh, laugh and just have fun, to do everything the very best you can and learn how to do it even better, to enjoy your friends and revel in their weirdness, to tell everyone you know how much you love them, to make people understand they don't have to sweat the small stuff, to be proud of who you are.  I am a better person because of these gifts my son gave me.  I miss him terribly as many of you do.  And to remember Daniel's kind and loving spirit, I will live my life as honorably as he did.  I am very proud of my son and his contributions to all our lives.  I hope he will continue to be an inspiration to you as he is to me.  I will forever love you Bubba.

Thanks again for all your support and prayers, Diane, Chris and family.

THERE ARE STILL OPENINGS FOR BOTH LAKE CHAMPLAIN TOURNAMENTS THIS WEEKEND. 

YOU MAY REGISTER AT THE RAMP.  PAYMENT MUST BE CASH OR MONEY ORDER.  SATURDAY IS AN OPEN AND COSTS $100 PLUS OPTIONAL $10 LUNKER.  SUNDAY IS THE PRO TEAM TRAIL AND COSTS $300 PLUS $10 OPTIONAL LUNKER, MEMBERSHIP IS $30 PER PERSON.  BOTH LAUNCH OUT OF TICONDEROGA AT 6:00 AM.  SEE YOU THEN!!

The following NY tournaments will be held as opens:

Lake Champlain, Ticonderoga, Saturday, July 19, 6 am - 2 pm

Lake George, Ticonderoga, Saturday, September 6, 6 am - 2 pm

Saratoga Lake, Sunday, September 7, 6 am - 2 pm

These tournaments will be open tournaments.  You do not need to be a CT Outdoors member to participate.  The tournaments will run from 6:00 am until 2:00 pm.  Please register in advance by sending a minimum deposit of $25 per team.  Boat numbers will be determined by postmark date on registration.  The cost of each of  the tournaments is $100 per team and an optional $10 lunker.  We are running these events because there has been a great deal of interest in them.  Please register as early as possible.

Chris and I have been running tournaments for over seven years now.  We have always had a very basic and simple set of rules for our tournaments, relying on good sportsmanship and good fishing etiquette to control behavior of our anglers.  And to date, we have never had to disqualify any participants of our events. 

Up until last season the only complaint we ever had was that we failed to provide "diet" soda for our diabetics at our weigh-in cookouts.  Since then, we have always had both diet soda and water available.  The tournaments and the trails are designed based on Chris's extensive tournament experience and are meant to be competitive but fun.  The kind of trail you can't wait to fish every year. 

It has been a pleasure working with 98% of you.  However, recently we have experienced a great deal of ridiculous complaints and unnecessary whining (my words, not Chris's).  The result:  more rules.  And many of you are asking why.  So, I will tell.

You are forbidden to talk to me during weigh-in.  Why?  Because some idiot made a complaint that I was being bribed to enter a different weight so they could win.  And another person yelled at me, and then to Chris, that I recorded the wrong weight because I was too busy chatting with another angler.  Enough of that.

Both partners need to go to the tub with their fish.  Why?  One practical reason is that it speeds up the process when you can help hold bags open, thus, getting the fish back into water faster.  But the real reason is that another idiot complained that Chris made up the weight and their weight was much more.  You must both go to the scale and verify the weight.  Yet, a team of idiots could not agree among themselves what their own weight was, and the weight I recorded was different than either of theirs.  And Chris has been accused of holding his hand on the basket to increase the weight of some teams.  Both of you must go up to the tub, verify that all your fish have been put in the weigh bag, and verify what the scale says your catch weighs.  If you have any doubts, then would be the time to question why your fish didn't all weigh five pounds each.

An angler who argues with Chris during the wegh-in will get disqualified.  Why?  If I have to tell you why, then you are related to the idiots described above.  But, just in case there are any doubts... Chris is the Tournament Director.  His decisions are final.  Chris is the most fair and honest person I know.  He does not take off 26 days a year from work, give up overtime opportunities, and not fish in other tournaments himself, to put on tournaments for all of you and get "mouth" worst than all four of our teenage children combined.  This sport MUST be a respectable gentleman's sport or it won't survive.  This was my rule.  I won't tolerate disrespect from anyone.  If you feel it necessary to yell and make a fool of yourself in public at one of our tournaments, go away.  The other 98% of people fishing don't want to deal with you.  Neither do I.

There are a couple of other rules that have always existed AT EVERY TOURNAMENT EVERYWHERE but for the sake of my sanity, I want to review them.

Don't come to the scales with food in your mouth or a cigarette hanging out of your mouth.  When was the last time you saw Kevin VanDam doing that?

For morning take off you must line up in numerical order.  This is for efficiency (you all want as much time to fish as possible) and, more importantly, for safety.  We are getting a lot of comments lately about teams having to wait for boat #3 who is staging all the way in the back of 87 other boats.  Boat #3 should be lining up behind boat #2 in the front of the pack.

You cannot get out of your boat during the tournament without notifying the Tournament Director.  A quick potty trip to the woods is acceptable, picking your boat up out of the water and carrying it over a road, dead trees, or whatever, is not acceptable.

Do not fish where there are signs prohibiting you from entering or fishing.  And do not deface any public property (by digging, for example) so that you can gain access to otherwise inaccessible waters.

Again, it has been a pleasure working with 98% of you.  I totally enjoy seeing you all and talking about your families and poking fun when I can.  Thank you all for your support of the trails and for representing us in a positive and professional manner.  Chris, the kids and I look forward to many more years at CT Outdoors and many more new friends.  Please enjoy our tournaments and smack the idiots upside their heads for me.  Congratulations to all of you who have new additions to your families.....the only thing better than fishing!    Diane

NEW YORK TRAILS CANCELLED

Chris and I have been working diligently over the past month, along with some very supportive friends from New York, to promote the New York trails and fill our fields.  However, because there are so many other trails in the state that announced their schedules after ours and dates conflict, we are unable to meet the minimum field of 20 boats.  It is with much disappointment, both professionally and personally, that we will be cancelling the New York team trails.  With rising costs of gasoline and lodging, we need to have a minimum number in order to cover the costs of the tournaments.  It cost us over $200 just to drive back and forth from Candlewood Lake, not to mention the distance to Oneida Lake. 

There are several locations that people registered for that are very clost to the minimum field.  We will consider keeping some of these dates and locations and running them as opens.  As soon as we figure that out we will post them.

If you signed up for either New York trail you have the option of transferring your registration to another tournament or getting a refund.  Please email me at diane@ct-outdoors.com with your preference.  Again, we are sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused any of you and we look forward to your support next year.  We will try again next season to make this work.   

With regard, Diane