Robert and grandson Daniel from West Virginia, go fishing on the Canadian Civic Holiday, Aug 1st, 2011

The world wide web has extended my business once more. Robert found me through a website designed to provide a search for charter fishing businesses and I registered with the site in the late spring. Come late July I had a phone call from Robert looking to book two days on Lake Ontario while they are here to enjoy a vacation with family in Hamilton.

The Sunday charter had to be cancelled due to Thunderstorms that rolled through only 1 hour before departure. The weather had been rocky to say the least over the last few days and Tstorms seemed to blow through once a day.

Our Monday departure conditions were much more favourable. Light winds from the west and the threat of Tstorms in the afternoon.

We motored out to 100 FOW in front of the Microwave tower that stands at the top of the escarpment beside Woverton Road in Grimsby. It was merely minutes after the first rod was set and only having two others engaged in the troll that the first rod went off on the Port side downrigger. Daniel reeled in the first fish of the trip a small salmon; But as soon as the fish was in the net the middle rigger fired and this fish was a much bigger salmon. It started to pull line of the reel when the starboard downrigger popped up and followed suit. At that moment Daniel’s line broke. But with a fish on the other rod, it was a quick swap out and he was back into fighting another muscular fish.

The fight lasted for minutes and we managed to bring the fish into the net only to our amazement. Firstly, Daniel had just caught the biggest fish of his life, a fish that was big enough to eat his previous personal best. But I was amazed of this fish not for his size, but that we managed to get the fish in the boat. The rod that had hooked up moments before and broke the line was a Green Dolphin SpinDoctor and Atommik Tournament Hammer Fly. That fly was in his mouth, and the larger sized snap swivel a the front of the Spin doctor was caught on the hook of the spoon that was on the downrigger rod that fired a sort time after this fish hit and broke the line. A miracle we caught this fish and Daniel lifted his 22 lbs Salmon for this picture.

From Photo_Gallery5

For the rest of the trip we caught numerous other salmon, had great conversations over the differences in politics from Canada and the US and other matters of the economy and employment. We had the world’s problems solved between the gunnels of my boat in 6 hours.

The Sky was turning dark to the North and moving fast across the lake towards us. It was already the end of our trip and the rods were in with little time to spare. We got to the dock and the thunder was cracking. Daniel and Robert managed to get to there car before the rain came pouring down and I managed to take the boat back to the slip and get the gear off before the rain came down in buckets. Talk about timing.

Days after out trip Daniel, Robert, and his sister and grandmother stopped at the house to pick up there fish. During the rush I offered to clean them instead of pulling them out in the rain.

Daniel was excited to boat such a great fish and Robert was happy to treat his grandson to the experience and find quality time together.

Shane Thombs
www.fintasticsportfishing.com