Salmon Dance Tournament, July 25, 2009

The weather man would suggest staying away from the lake, but with offshore winds and the heavy clouds holding off until the end of the day. The south east wind made for a 1 foot chop and comfortable enough to fish in close where we have found fish. John Poirier, his niece Stephanie and I were teamed up and were eager to make the best of a day on the water.

John was out on Friday night, the evening before the tournament, and found the fish to be in front of Beamsville/Vineland and that was where we started. We set up in 75 FOW and it was a slow start with about one hour of fishing gone by and trolling further west towards our marks from fishing on Wednesday the 21st.finally the five colour off the boards with Holo Miami Dolphin Warrior. This was a quality fish but the hooks pulled out at the end of a long run. The same rod went off again but with a small shaker.

Then the rigger down fifty feet with a green dolphin Spin-doctor and hammer fly takes a release. At first the fish just stayed there with a few small head shakes. I call out Lake Trou... Then before I got the word out the reel interrupts me with a drag burner. A few more runs and get gets into another line and the fish bam un-pinned. Two matures lost and it's now 8:30. Not good.

It was another hour before hitting a bunch of smaller salmon and a few rainbows, one of which went9 lbs and was a long clean looking steelhead.

At 11 am we finally started to move rods at a regular pace including one double. At this time we were in front of Beamsville found a pod of kings and steelhead. Rigger down 71 feet over 77FOW with Green Dolphin Spin-doctor and Fish-on Tournament Atommik Fly takes a hit and the drag sounds good. Moments later the wire diver rod with a Metallic Purple 107 Walker Deeper Diver set at 1 and out 105feet with a Black and Glow Spin-doctor and No-See-Um Strong Fly goes hay-wire. With John fighting his fish thought to be a bigger one, I proceeded to do the one-handed net job on what I suspected to be a 15 lbs king. The fish came free while the fish was half in and half out of the net. Still no fish in the livewell. Net Johns fish and it is smaller then it's attitude at 15lbs. But finally gota fish in the box.

Moments later the Slide diver set -up finally wakes up. The best set-up all week long and it takes 5 hours before it produces a king. But it was our best of the day at 20 and change. The slide diver had a 100 ft lead behind the diver and was out 60 feet on a 3 setting. It had a Warrior Miami Dolphin without the green glow tape. That rod started to catch a few more salmon but smaller then what we had in the box. Here's Stephanie's fish that fell to the same.

We managed another 15 lbs salmon that required the balance beam to measure it's size to the smallest in the box, but it was only slightly smaller and swam away to grow to be a 30 lber in the tournament next year.

Our weight was a dismal 35 lbs and we were disappointed thatwe dropped so many quality fish. But we caught alot of fish not sure how many).

The following are links to the tournament results and standings.
http://www.straitlineanglers.com/Salmon_Dance/2009salmon_dance_tournament_pictures.htm
http://www.straitlineanglers.com/Salmon_Dance/2009salmon_dance_tournament_results.htm

Shane Thombs
www.FINtasticSportfishing.com