Early Morning, A City On Water, And A Roller Coaster Ride – The 2012 Owen Sound Salmon Spectacular
I am not an early morning person. Many anglers enjoy waking up well before the crack of dawn, grabbing a coffee, and hitting the water before the sun rises. I don’t. I like sleep. I love to fish, but I need it to work around everything else in my life, especially sleep. Not enough sleep makes me a very cranky person.
Definitely an early start to the day.
However, there are times when I must make the ultimate sacrifice and fall out of bed hours before the sun will rise, all so I may maximize my time on the water and increase the chances of catching some fish. Sunday was one of these days. Since it was the final day of the Owen Sound Salmon Spectacular and the derby ended at noon, Darrell and I were eager to get as many hours of the water as possible. That meant leaving home shortly after 3AM and getting on the water at 5:30AM. To say I was a grumbling, unpleasant and cranky passenger on the drive to Owen Sound would be an understatement.
The sun! Why was I awake long before that? Oh yeah, there’s water in this picture, I was fishing.
As usual though, getting on the water made a world of difference. Feeling the wind in my hair and listening to the waves rush in at the launch was guaranteed to improve my mood. Leaving the Bayshore launch in the dark was slightly nerve racking as the water level is extremely low, but soon enough we were in deeper water and headed out to the city of lights. I can never get over the the sight of all those those red, green and white lights trolling around on the water – it almost looks like an amusement park at night. The number of boats in such a small area is quite impressive.
My iPhone camera does not take the best pics, especially at this time of the day, but those lights are only a sampling of how many boats were out there.
It took me by surprise just how much our little boat was bobbing around. At first I thought it was just the chop coming from the other boats making a run, but as my eyes adjusted to the darkness I realized that we had some pretty decent swells rolling in. As the morning progressed, the swells got bigger and our boat was doing its best impression of a roller coaster car. Up…and down. Up…and…down. It was really quite a lot of fun. For someone that was enthralled by roller coasters as a child, this was a pretty great adult equivalent. I became quite good at finding a steady position on the boat while setting the downriggers and changing our lines.
It was hard to get level pictures.
Since I had finally managed to land a fish earlier in the derby, Darrell and I were both hopeful that we could find another one on the final day. We tried various setups, various speeds and various locations, but in the end, the fish gave us the proverbial finger (or should that be fin?). We did have a riot watching a few fish give chase on the fish finder, but it was never followed by a bouncing or straightened rod tip.
Despite the lack of fish on the final day, I had a blast and learned a lot from this year’s edition of the Salmon Spectacular.
I learned how to setup our lines and use the downriggers. In the past I had always let Darrell do it, but in this boat he needed to drive so I took on the task – and loved it! I got pretty good at setting everything up by the end of the derby.
I learned, yet again, that talking to other anglers is important. Not only is it nice to feel some camaraderie, but after talking with other anglers we started to learn where some of the other keys areas are to target, and what structure makes them productive. We also got tips on what lures seem to work for some anglers.
I learned that I have made leaps and bounds in my ability to handle rougher water. The first time I hit Lake Ontario in a 15-foot boat, I could not handle being out in 1ft waves. The waves we experienced in our 12-foot boat this past weekend were a heck of a lot bigger. And it didn’t bother me. I know an awful lot more about safe boating and safe conditions and that gives me a lot more confidence. It doesn’t hurt that I have a great boat driver.
My excellent boat driver 🙂
And finally, I didn’t so much as learn but have it reinforced, that the Sydenham Sportsmen’s Association and the city of Owen Sound know how to put on an absolutely fantastic event! Whether you’re there for the fishing and the chance to win incredible prizes, or you go for the entertainment and the massive party, everyone is guaranteed to have a great time.
This year’s winning salmon was caught by Tyler Goodings and weighed in at 20.62 lbs. The winning trout was rainbow that was caught by Stu Paterson and weighed in 15.21 lbs. Congratulations!
Check out the full list of results.
argosgirl
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Great article really gives us the feeling of being out there waiting for the big one..cheers! Stu Paterson
Thanks Stu!