Good Friends, Big Water, Great Boat and Kings
I am not a morning person. It takes one heck of a good reason for me to get up early, and an invitation to spend the day on Lake Ontario fishing for kings seemed a great reason to wake up at 3 o’clock yesterday morning and hit the road.
A drive through intense fog and almost all green lights (what a treat!) led me to where I was meeting Gavin, our host for the day. By this point the fog had cleared and my attention was immediately drawn to the incredible machine that is much mentioned on Twitter.
Yay!!!! I finally got to meet the Ranger! (note - this is a picture Gavin had taken the day before and posted on Twitter - it was a heck of a lot darker than this when I first saw the boat!)
Gavin is the guy you mention to other anglers and they always respond ‘yeah, I know him.’ It seems that almost everyone into fishing in these parts has heard of him. His incredible generosity meant both myself and David, another fishing fanatic, would get to the chance to experience something neither of us had done before – fish for those magnificent kings on Lake Ontario.
It was 5:30 when we hit the water and the glimmer of sun burning it’s way through the fog over the lake made for a breathtaking view of the Toronto skyline. There was something almost mystical about seeing the CN Tower just peaking through the fog. It was a beautiful morning and I couldn’t wait to get some lines out and get a bite!
That's me behind the wheel of the Ranger! Hahaha. All I did was steer while we were trolling but it was awesome! Watching the two screens was rather engrossing, I forgot to look outside the boat sometimes!
While I had never done this sort of fishing before, living with the fishing encyclopedia (a.k.a. Darrell) meant I was fairly familiar with the terms and the concepts involved. It was great to see everything in action when I had heard so much about down-rigging and using dipsy rods.
Gavin was great about explaining what we were looking for (green water, warmer water temps, bait) and answered every question both David and I could throw at him. I learned a lot even before we caught the first fish.
Of course, the day was about catching fish and it wasn’t too long before David was reeling in a rainbow trout. It wasn’t what we were looking to catch but it was still awesome to get one in. I hadn’t realized how suicidal the rainbows can be – once they were in the boat they flopped everywhere, got the line caught all over them, banged themselves up, and made it difficult to get the hooks out. Two of them ended up being kept because they had damaged themselves so much.
Not much later I got a chance to reel in my first ever rainbow! It didn’t put up much of a fight but I was beyond thrilled to actually get something in, especially since any fish I caught out there was likely to be bigger than anything I had caught before.
Me with a bow.
After searching out more suitable water we hooked into some kings in quick succession. It was amazing how things could go from being quiet to almost chaotic so quickly. We even had a double-header! The second one I reeled in was not in the mood to come to the boat. He didn’t make any long runs but it took a while for me to make any ground on him. I’d reel, he’d peel line, I’d reel, he’d peel line. It was awesome! My arm tired out quite quickly but it was a great feeling.
AWESOME!!!!!
My other king. Woo-hoo!!! (I need to work on my fish-holding for pics skills)
After our run of three kings the bite shut down. We searched around a little but eventually called it a day. The trip back to the dock was awesome – it’s amazing how much fun 300 ponies behind a kick-ass boat can be! If there’s one thing I love almost as much as going fishing it’s going fast in a boat – that boat was awesome (and Darrell was right, after riding in that boat I desperately want one, too bad I can’t afford it!).
We finished our day with David treating us to lunch from the hot dog stand and ate at the launch while watching some not-so-experienced people unload their boats. Great entertainment.
I had an incredible day. Huge thanks to Gavin for making it happen! Gavin and David were awesome fishing buddies to spend the day with, the fish cooperated enough to make me quite happy, and the boat…well…it’s too cool! I now understand the appeal of hitting the big water in search of the big bite – there’s nothing quite like it. I’ll have to get out again soon because the addiction is growing and I want to land one of the big kings!
argosgirl
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Congrats on the Kings and the rainbow. If that is your first rainbow, that’s a heck of a ‘bow!!! I think mine was a whopping 4 inches…..
Hahaha…4 inches…that’s what I figured my first one would be too…but I got lucky 🙂