Inspirational Joe, Catches Lake Trout, June 22, 2012

The Grimsby Lincoln News ran an article on fishing Lake Ontario, having fishing as a form of a great Father’s Day gift, not unlike a “spa day” for a mother’s day gift. The writer took a picture and then interviewed me to fill the article with first hand info with a great plug for FINtastic Sportfishing. Here’s the article…

http://www.niagarathisweek.com/community/article/1375145--family-fishing-means-no-license-needed

From the article there were a number of calls for trips and Friday June 22nd was without exception.

Joe was given the father’s day gift from his wife Tracy and the plan was to take Joe out for a day of fishing on Lake Ontario. Joe is already an angler, but since a work related accident that had left him without full usage of his legs, Joe was limited to fishing opportunities with proper accessibility to quality fishing locations or provided the insight from a local guide to put him on productive fish catching waters. This father’s day gift was about to change that scenario for Joe.

Joe arrive dockside at 6:00 am ready to depart from Foran’s Marine in Grimsby and would be greeted with a flat calm lake and blue bird skies. In recent days leading up to this Friday trip the humidity and temperature was estimated to feel like around 40’C! But a cold front pushed through the night before and with it, was a clearing of the air and a relief from the unbearable temperatures.

On our way out I mentioned to Joe that weather changes like this may not bode well for our successes, since a drastic pressure change usually puts the fish off the feed for some time.

When we set-up it was in 120 FOW and there was no concern that we may need to find the fish. Marks on the SONAR graph were regular and it told us that we should work the area even if the bite started slow. In the first hour and half 5 strikes on the rigger sets resulted in missed fish and lost fish. One strike on the wire Diver set on 3 and out 120 ft with a Pink/Chart NK 28 took a good strike and the drag started pulling rapidly, but moments after getting the rod out of the rod holder, the fish was off. By 8:00 we were without a fish in the boat and we missed 7 shots!

I continued to troll west to in front of Fifty Point in 120 – 140 FOW. Bait fish blanketed the top portion of the water column. No signs of predatory fish balling up the bait or disturbing the bait to tell us the bite would start improving. But all of a sudden, like a light switch we crossed over a pack of Rainbow Trout and the rods started firing. We boated four in a row and released a smaller trout at the back of the boat.

The action with jumping silver rainbow trout, Joe says he would most like to catch a Lake Trout. Now that I think we might be able to accomplish I told him. I went into my tackle storage and searched for my peanut and cowbell rigs and put them on the riggers and slowed the kicker motor to a mere idle.

I dropped both downrigger weights to the bottom and it was only a minute or two when the first rod started thumping. I said to Joe here- yah go- there’s your Lake trout. And sure enough it was 12 lbs and it went back in the lake. Then the other rod goes off and this time the fish didn’t move. Minutes in the fight the fish still hadn’t moved off the bottom. Joe worked the fish on a long fight. We anticipated a monster Lake Trout. Then with the motor slowed to a crawl, the fish finally turned to the surface only to find the hook was in its side and not in the mouth. That meant a quick unhook and down it went. That fish was a little bigger then the first, but I thought there might be a bigger one for Joe to catch.

Working on two rods on the bottom from Lake Trout is a busy effort for two guys to handle. Not minutes later, Joe was handed the rod again and he fought what would be the biggest Lake Trout of the morning. 15.4 lbs.

From Photo_Gallery7

A few more Lake Trout resulted in after but they were less than 10 lbs and Joe was breaking a sweat from winching in these heavy Greys from 120 feet down. At 10:30 Joe said let’s call it a morning and head back to the dock.

He was greeted with his grandson and a picture to show the four rainbows he had kept for dinner.

From Photo_Gallery6

It was great fishing with someone who has overcome so much physical adversity and an example of an inspirational person to many. I learnt first hand that fishing is for all people of all physical capabilities.

Shane Thombs www.FINtasticSportfishing.com