Sitting around early Friday morning and I get a call, it's 7:10 AM, figure it's my parents, they're the only ones usually that call me that early. But to my surprise it's Trannyman, hey Gene it's Al what's you doing? working, why? Well we've lost a one of the team to illness think you could come to St. Catherines and fish with us in the King Of The Lake Tourney? Uhm, have a meeting with my boss, I'll call you back, OK! Call my boss give him the low down and I'm packing and heading to Port Dalhousie. Although I'm heading into long weekend traffic on a long weekend the trip was relatively good and I make the harbour in time to catch the big fish weigh in, the day's fishing is slow according to most I talk to and the big fish for Friday comes in around 25lbs and change.
I find Al meet his brother Don, get introduced to the 3rd member of the team Ian and settle in for a exciting weekend of fishing. I really looking forward to this my first big tourney as a participant. Hope I don't screw up!
Saturday morning comes early and we're off and running with the opening horn at 6:00 AM. This pic shows us out early and staged waiting for the rest of the pack, we want a clear path to our starting point.
Al has a plan and we're ready, the morning bite is hot we've got our box (5 fish) within 1 1/2 hour of the start, then in the next hour we get a couple of upgrades, this is looking good, we've got a shot, just need some bigger fish, well the bite then is gone we fish the rest of the day and get shut out. It was one of the hottest days with no wind and lots of humidity, I was looking forward to getting a shower.
We've done well and wait for the weigh-in. The big box of the day comes in at 120 and we've got 89, we finish the day in 22nd place out of 38 boats. Big fish of the day 29lbs.
Sunday morning same thing at it early and a different plan, this is Al getting us ready for Sunday morning.
Sunday's start is delayed due to storm fronts, lots of lighting and some wind. The start is delayed 1/2 hour and so is the weigh-in. We get off to another good start, again we have our 5 fish within a few hours of the morning start, we're now culling again from this point on. We upgrade one fish and could use one more. We have one big fish, it's a contender, 29 and change, Hoping it makes big fish for the day. The bite then goes to hell in a hand bag again and we're heading for port with a good box. Certainly going to put us in contention.
Link and film courtesy of Iceguy from Spoonpullers board. You can see our team at the weigh-in and our big fish for the day.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPydI4u4cvwWe end the day with 108 pounds and finish in 12th place, out of the money, but improved our placing by 10 spots. A good day for us.
I'll finish by saying Al, Don and Ian it was a pleasure fishing with you guys. I had a lotta fun, tons of laughs, can't even come close to telling you how much I learned. A great boat to fish from and a good port to fish out of.
It was mentioned earlier it was my first tourney fishing Salmon as a participating team member, but I'm hooked so it won't be my last.
Al, thanks again for thinking of me and inviting me down, hope you forget about the fish I dropped and think of me again the next time you need a guy.
Grizz, I know, how did he make it into this story, well, Grizz had to work so Gene got the call, Chuck can't tell you how happy I am that you had to work. LOL!
Login
Register
FAQ
Search
