As the saying goes, some people would rather be lucky than good. For the Hotline fishing team out of Olcott, they used a combination of both to win their first tournament in 26 years. Capt. Bob Cinelli of Newfane has been fishing the Lake Ontario Pro-Am Salmon Team Tournament out of Niagara County since its inception. His Hotline team – now consisting of Cinelli, his wife, Karen, Doug Chaney of Philadelphia and Roy Letcher of Newfane – placed second a number of times, but they never earned the first place prize. Finally, this year was their year.
The 26th Annual Skip Hartman memorial event was held out of Wilson and Olcott June 5-6 and Cinelli’s squad faced some adverse conditions in the lake. On Saturday, they were the only team to bring the tournament Pro limit of 12 fish to the scales at Krull Park – and they did it by 10 a.m. The scoring system of 10 points per fish and a point per pound earned them a total of 208.64 points. Sunday conditions were absolutely horrible with 5 to 8 foot waves and a hard rain. The day was called after a three hour delay and the Hotline team won $10,000 check for first place.
“There was no way we were going to lose this one,” said Capt. Cinelli at the weigh-in located in Krull Park, Olcott. “My wife Karen had a convent of nuns in Wisconsin and a priest in Chicago praying for us and to top it off she found four 4-leaf clovers just prior to the tournament. We also came up with a program that we knew could catch us the fish we needed, targeting the mid-water. Everyone on the team contributed – they were great.” That was it for the fishing information, though. The Orleans County event was set for June 12-13, the second leg in the Lake Ontario Challenge Cup Series, and they didn’t want to give up any advantage they may have.
Second place went to the Mojo team and Dana Zimbardi of Brocton, NY with 203.67 points. They boated 11 fish but came up short – less than five points behind the winner. They earned a check for $4,500. Third place was Dream Chasers and Capt. Dave Begins of Pittsford, Vermont with 181.61 points, good for $3,500. Fourth place was Eric Bickel of Olcott with a score of 181.28 points and a check for $2,500. Fifth place was Capt. Jim Gordon of Appleton with his Hawg team was a score of 144.60 points.
Rounding out the Top 10, Tall Tails (Capt. Brian Garrett) with 133.94 points; Left Her At Home, (Joe Gondek) with 125.19 points; Twofish (Karl Chmilnitzky) with 120.73 points; Thrillseeker (Capt. Vince Pierleoni) with 118.30 points; and Yankee Pride (Fred Lockwood) with 108.20 points. They each earned a check for $2,000.
Top Amateur Team was Larry Goehring’s Wizzard team out of Spraggs, Pennsylvania. They had the only amateur limit of nine fish and scored 165.27 points. They were fishing in the same general area as the Hotline squad. For the Wizzard team, it was more of a family affair, fishing with his wife Mariann and their son Wyatt. Also on the team was Larry’s brother, Mike from New Brighton, PA and Rege Kuntz of Mars, PA. It was the third time in 25 years of fishing the amateur division that they earned the top prize. That prize was a check for $1,500 and another $1,700-plus in product from a long list of tournament sponsors.
Second place was won out of the boat Subject To Change, led by Brian Mickatavage of Ashland, Pennsylvania. They scored 144.83 points and earned a prize package valued at $3,100. Third place was Tom Wojslaw and his Fish Hawk squad from Central Square, NY with 113.37 points ($2,100 prize package). Fourth place was Fish Nutz led by Paul Powers of Oswego with 103.11 points ($1,600 prize pack). Fifth place was Mike Geiger of Wellsboro, Pennsylvania and This Is It with a score of 100.92 points ($1,200 prize pack).
Rounding out the Top 10 were: Spoonfed (Glen Gervais of West Springfield, Massachusetts and defending champion for Niagara), 91.27 points; Liquid Plumber (Del Casterline of Mountaintop, PA), 79.94 points; Ol’Jammer/Sandbagger (Darryl Knoerdel of Georgetown, PA), 77.83 points; Coldwater Affair (Jeff Zimmer of Marion, NY), 67.54 points; Reel Scream (Frank Schmidhamer of Beaver Falls, PA), 62.70 points.
This year, the tournaments are all being filmed by Angling the Great Lakes television show which airs on The Sportsmen’s Channel – adding to the excitement. The tournament now shifts to Orleans County for the second leg in the Series. Also at stake is the West End Challenge Cup, part of the Challenge Cup Series, combining both Niagara and Orleans events. Sponsors for this year’s four tournament Series are: LaRock’s Outdoors; Fat Nancy’s; Fish307.com; Lake Ontario United; Moor Electronics; Northern King; Dreamweaver; Stinger; Tri-State Taxidermy; Savant; U.S. Captains; Rapala; Lake Ontario Outdoors; Big Jon; Sigg’s Rigs; and Outdoor News. The remainder of the tournaments include Oswego (July 10-11) and Wayne (July 17-18) counties. For more information, check out www.lopacup.com.
