Fishtails

Panfisher, The tournament officials were not around when it happened on Thursday, and they probably couldn't see it coming any better that the rest of us. This strong arm enforcement kinda came out of nowhere. I know many, many tournament boats do the same as we did. We were just the unlucky crew to pull into the marina when they decided to show up and victimize one of us. Rumor had it that Port Whitby Marina called Customs in and informed them there was a tournament that was bringing in Americans, so they were actually looking for a US boat to pull in. There were only a half dozen of us there, so the odds were not in our favor Could the tournament control have done more, or taken a more proactive stance....probably. It certainly wasn't their battle to fight though and I don't think they should have been expected to do anything for us. That being said, any assistance would have gone a long way to polish their reputation and keep us coming back. It's a great tournament, and we shouldn't get down on them because of one or two random incidents. I just hope this gets resolved so that nobody has to go through it again. It's not fun, not fun at all!

Looks like Oh Baby won't be getting that grand back anytime soon This whole thing is being handled incorrectly. If they all of a sudden choose to enforce this law, a grace period and warnings issued would be the diplomatic solution. Unless this changes, spring fishing at the bar has been changed in a big way ! Tim, having gone through a boarder incident that cost us a grand, I really don't think you want to be the "example" at the bar next spring. If they want to make your life suck, they will do so and you will have no recourse. I can assure you I will follow whatever policy they have in place. I suggest everyone else does the same. Let's just hope this gets ironed out. If we can call in by cell phone, it won't be as big a deal.

I forgot to mention to add a few beads between the fly body and hook before putting the fly on the line. Enough beads so that the hook is at the bottom of the fly. Good luck fishing ! Tim, I know, right? I figured that is what people would expect when I posted the name in reports. The guy it's named after (Luke, from lLiving The Dream) has the nickname "spook".....thus the name.

On a Flashabou fly, either way works. I have never seen one look a mess "in" the water. I take it by the head with one hand and flip it over, turning it inside out, so to speak (like a mylar fly). With the other hand, I just grip the top of the fly and twist, molding the fly into shape. Then insert the line from the bottom, up through the top and tie your leader. Flashabou comes to life in the water. Out of the water it gets limp and looks like a stick. Don't let that fool you....it will realy puff out and has great action in the water. I see you are in Whitby. The spook was good there, so was the proctologist

I've had a few pm's asking about this fly, because it has bee such a stud while we were testing it this spring. I think it's now available from Big Weenie Brand on their website. It's a flashabou fly It's not as blue as it appears in the picture. It's been our best fly this year so far The Spook, from Big Weenie Brand

Thanks for all the kind words and support guys.....it's good to be back in the USA ! Whoever crosses the boarder from here on out, be on your heels because they are looking for your money. Our infraction has been repeated thousands of times by guys just like us, but it seems they changed the law without proper notice and no signage at the docks. You would have expected a warning, so it seems pretty clear that this was just about extorting money from Americans who would be rendered helpless without their boat. Hopefully no one else will have to go through this....just be very careful and on guard when you enter Canadian waters.

Great catch guys.....congrats!!

Funny you say that Jeff. I was just saying last week I had to get a new picture to put on LOU cause Justin is 12 now. I got one of us holding our big kings from Friday so I will need to get that on my profile

This is gonna be a novel guys....enjoy some of our highs and lows Thursday: My 12 year old son Justin and I met Matt and his dad Steve in the am and we launched from the Oak and headed across the lake in a fog. There was a sense of excitement and anticipation in the air as we started the almost 50 mile trip across the lake to Port Whitby to fish the Whitby Big Jon KOTL event. None of us had ever fished there before, nor had we ever crossed the lake by sea, so we were all looking forward to fishing new waters and seeing new sights. As we crossed into Canadian water, we slowed down and decided to troll into port. We set rods over 350 fow and trolled NE. Not much was happining and the screen was blank, but at 325 fow the corner rigger down 67 ft fires and I jumped to the rod and it was game on.....welcome to Canada boyz That rod had our only meat rig in our spread....a mag Hi Ho Silver MC Rocket in a Big Weenie Green Chrome meat rig. The king burned out 500 plus and then we were just in a stalemate for awhile. Eventually, he tired and we worked him to the boat and we scooped up our first king of the trip at around 10 am. It would take us 12 hours to get the fish to the weigh station (details to come) , but even so the king tipped the scales at almost 28 lbs. Justin got a turn whille we were over about 275fow, and pulled in what turned ot to be a 5lb brown on a spoon we had out hoping for a steelhead. Not another touch would happen until we hit 140 fow. We took a shot on the 300 copper and Steve got his turn on what appeared to be another great king, but it shook the hook. We had several more good fish on before heading into port and we were all stoked at what could be an awesome weekend. Here is Justin laying into another huge king that would eventually get free when his shirt got wrapped in the handle of the reel He was a great sport the whole weekend !! The Bad We pulled into port and headed to the marina to get our slip number and gas up. We filled the empty tank and went to put the boat into the slip we were assigned. We immediatly were greeted by some fellow tournament friends & teams we knew and said our hellos. We knew we had to go call in, so shortly after we got to the dock, the four of us headed to the office to call customs and check in. It was a long walk, and our 5th teammate Jeff had arrived with his truck, so we carried our cooler with the single king in it to take and weigh in for the Pay Everyday Derby. We dropped the cooler off at the truck, which was in route to the phone, and called customs. The Phone call took at least 10 minutes, maybe longer, as Matt was put on hold for a bit. We all had our passports ready, expecting we each needed to speak on the phone. It was a long walk from the boat to the office, and would probably take 5 + minutes to walk at a regular pace. There never seemed to be any choice but to have all 4 go at the same time. Well, the officer on the phone only spoke to Matt, and then instructed us to all go to the boat because some customs officers would be there to speak with us. As we walked down the dock, we saw a male and female customs agent at the boat. It became obvious from the very first moment that things were not going to go well. The male officer seemed to be the "senior" officer, and had a MAJOR attitude towards us and begun grilling us as to why we all 4 left the boat. He instructed us that only the captain could leave the vessel to call in, and that he had to do that immediatly upon arrival! He told us how he had seen our boat and that it was not occupied for at least 10 or 15 minutes, and what were we doing all that time? We told him we had to walk to the phone and then the call took awhile because we were put on hold. This guy wanted nothing to do with our reasons....only that we didn't follow procedure. He tried to tell me my 12 year old son had to have a passport (not true), and that only having a birth certificate was not enough and that my passport card was not a legal passport. Again....there was nothing that could be said, as you could tell we were being railroaded and if it wasn't one thing they would just find something else. After some very intese moments and a boat search, they took our identification and told us to stay put while they went back to their mini van. When they returned awhile later, the woman officer instructed me that myself and my son cleared customs and were free to go get some food or a drink. I said I would wait for my crew, in which the male officer said they would be awhile. He turned to Matt and Steve, and said I don't want to do this on the dock, follow us to our car. From that point, I was no longer involved and uncertain "exactly" what was said. Matt told me that the first thing the male officer said was "OK, here is what we are going to do. We are siezing your boat..........then the officer left a long pause for shock value......OR, you can pay a thousand dollar fine right now". Beyond that, Matt would have to tell you what was said, as I stayed back at the boat. I finally couldn't stand it and had to know what was going on, so I walked to the customs van and that is when Matt told me they were fined $1000. I think the "official" reason for the fine ended up being that we all left the boat and took the coolor with us. The male officer then told us to enjoy the tournament and that we should not let this keep us from having a good time. He said that twice, and it took all my strength to not punch that smug jackass right in the face. The only reason it didn't turn out worse is that we all knew we had to just keep our mouths shut and take the abuse. I felt like it was my first night in prison and bubba just dropped the soap in front of me and said "pick that up boy". You just know you're gonna get screwed one way or the other OK, so over 2 hours later we are all released and it's 7:30. Still enough time to run to tightlines to weigh in our Salmon for The Pay Everyday Derby. We get there and it tips the scale at 27.8 (10 hours after it was caught) and things start to look up, as we win the daily prize and get $200 bucks back. Friday....The Good We all awake in a somber mood, still stinging from the day before. Somehow, everything had changed and we no longer had that excitement we felt on the ride over. We knew we could make everything better by going out Friday and catching the big fish. We were on a mission that would not be denied......to get our $1000 bucks back . We headed 6 miles east and would troll east all day. Within our first hour we put a 27 lb king in the boat. That fish took a Big Weenie spook fly behind a blue angel spin doctor (that fly has been sooo hot this year!). Soon after, the rigger fires with the same MC Rocket/ Big Weenie meat rig that took yesterdays big fish. When it hit the deck, we all high fived, but we never weighed the fish. At weigh in, we were last in line. One by one we got to thinking just maybe we had big fish. Pressman was in the lead with a 28. We knew our smaller fish was over 26, so we figured high 29 or low 30 for the big one. When they opened the box, they knew we had 28 beat and we started to cheer. Then Ivan said Oh Baby....30.2 and we erupted with cheers, hugs and high fives you would only understand knowing what we had been through the day before. I am sure some guys thought geez....it's only big fish friday guys But you know what, we did it, and man did it feel great!! I will cherish that moment forever! Even our second biggest fish would have been third or fourth. Our reward....$1000. We also won our second pay everyday derby in a row for another $200. The smiles say it all, eh? Hey Canada.....kiss our A$$ The ugly Shotgun start Sat morning, we had no choice but to go east were we picked on the big fish the day before, even though 95% of the pack went west. We started out great, but our kings transformed into steelhead overnight and we never found our fish we had on Friday. We learned our lesson and next time we will listen to the majority. We only found 3 kings and found ourselves out of it with no hope of a sunday comeback. On Sunday, we head west with the rest looking to at least have some fun. We had little to fish for, so we ran a test program for the first couple hours with some new products and some untested rigs because we knew there were fish around and it was a great time to learn something new. We took about 10 shots with only about a 10% hook up ratio before we could make some adjustments. We then put a couple fish in the boat before doubling up on HUGE kings. Both were 30 lb class. One on a crazy fish MC Rocket and one on a Big Weenie Proctologist fly. But....as the weekend would go for us, one got into the copper that was out on an in-line board and set itself free, and the other would eventually chew through the 25 lb line and bite us off after a 20 minute battle. The air got sucked out from us and we just never recouperated. It was a tuff end for us, and a finish that left us embarrassed and shaking our heads in disbelief. We had such high hopes, but in the end too many things worked against us and we lost our focus. We did win $1400 though, so at least that helped out a little.

My new checklist for when I travel to Canada.... Passport.....check 5000 page booklet explaining all the laws of Canada...check Credit card with AT LEAST $1000 on it....check The book, an idiots guide to dealing with Canadian Customs....check My lawyers cell phone number....check Bolt cutters to free the boat once customs chains it to the dock....check Vaseline so the screwing Canadian customs gives me hurts a little less....check What ever happened to the good old days when my list only contained worms, a fishing pole, beer money, clean underwear and a tooth brush Extortion is probably the best word to decribe what happened to us, but mainly to Matt and Steve, as it was their boat and they got the worse of it and had to pay the fine. The ordeal took almost three hours, and I will explain what happened in the reports section under Oh Baby's Whitby Experience. viewtopic.php?f=14&t=25392

Thanks guys!! Maybe the only bright moments that came out of our weekend trip to Whitby were some big fish on Thursday and Friday. I will put pics & a report in the reports section viewtopic.php?f=14&t=25392

I am on my way home and will post a report tomorrow. I am still at a loss for words as to how we were treated.a grand or the boat....all cause the 4 of us walked to the phone to call in,instead of just the captain...little did we know? [ Post made via Android ]

AWESOME !!!!!! Still time to sign up for this event guys.....that's some hefty cash

Yikes....that really sux. Like Jeff said, a lot of people run to Wellsely Island state park and you have to cross into canadian water to get there unless you go the loooooong way down the American straits and up through eel bay. Lord, I've done that run 50 times and we would fish Canadian waters all the time....never thought twice cause I would have a CA. lic. That's just not right, I feel for the guy. Hope this gets ironed out.

Sure you do Nick....you only fish one Pro Am and it's out of your home port....what's not to like about it in your situation.... you know a lot of people in your port and would be very well "informed" with a few phone calls. Open communication does not promote growth. I respect your opinion though bud, and can't say I wouldn't feel the same if I were in your situation.

The smiles say they had a great day

Chad, Maybe you should start a different thread if you would like a weather related discussion? Thought this thread was about boundaries? This topic is important and serious, as it could easily be adopted by the Pro Am and then what? Personally, I don't like the idea anymore than I did the first time I heard it. If the majority felt it would level the field, then I guess I'd learn to accept it but I can't see any way it doesn't stack the odds in favor of the local charter boats, who by the way, are for the most part the voices behind this proposed idea. And my major problem with cutting out "run time" is the only way for that to be fair to all teams is to switch over to a shotgun start. Otherwise, many boats will be penalized and get a later start if they have further distances to travel out of the harbor. You wiould see a lot more boats speeding to get out to the lake and creating a lot more chaos and danger. To be fair to everyone, you would need to give all boats enough time to get out on the lake, so what are you saving over the current structure...15 min ? Let's get the no communication reinstated as a Pro Am rule and then we will be on the fast track to having a more level playing field.

Hope I wasn't shooting the messanger ....Paul is my big buddy. Besides, I know better than to get into an intellectual battle with Paul A possible rule change like this should to be viewed from ALL perspectives. If we stay quiet, next thing ya know we are looking at our gps trying to figure out when we gotta turn Vince....how do we get you on the Pro Am committee? You'd be the best thing that could ever happen to the Pro Am series.

Ok Paul, then answer me this....why should a team fishing out of a larger 13 ft beam trojan have an advantage over a team fishing out of an 8 ft beam boat in 6-8 footers (which happened at least twice last year) ? You yourself just said we should be on a level playing field in ALL areas. You can't honestly tell me there is no advantage to fishing out of a larger boat....the advantages are many. I'm sure if we were standing on the dock drinking a beer and having this conversation, you'd say "Rod....if you feel that way then buy a bigger boat". So my rebuttal to the above quote is that those who don't have the ability or means to run greater distances should buy a faster, or more economical boat. To say limiting our fishing boundries would make for a level playing field is a stretch. What is being discussed would simply stack the deck in favor of local charter boats that just want to work their home waters by taking away the little guys, the fast boats and out of towners ability to run a little further when the weather allows for it. Our ability to run IS how we level the playing field. I have been beaten many times by teams willing to run further than I was.....never once ****ed about it because the choice not to run was a team decision.

Can't say as I agree with this proposed change Paul. It wouldn't "level" the playing field at all. Honestly, there are more important rules that should be addressed by the committee if the true objective is to level the playing field. Why not finish the current project before starting a new one? The fact that the No Comm is not going to become a pro am rule after having a better than 50% sign up with the gentlemens agreement 2 events in a row is pretty much BS...IMHO. This is what I saw (please correct me if I am wrong)....The head of the committee signs the no comm in Niagara and fails to make the money. THEN....doesn't sign in Orleans and wins it.....Gee, ya think there could be a personal agenda there? I wonder why he is against no comm....lmao! All the excuses about enforcement are nothing but smoke and mirrors, but that's just my opinion. As far as running, I have always personally struggled with the idea of running, as it has burned me more times than not. That being said, it's part of the decision making process that every team goes through....and should continue to go through It's part of the process that makes tournament fishing so great!! If you want to restrict the smaller faster boats from running to other counties to find fish, than I propose the bigger boats that have an advantage in rougher conditions downsize to a smaller boat....rediculous, right? My point is simply that you will NEVER level the playing field. Someone will always have an advantage. One tourney it may be the faster boats that run, next tourney it may be the bigger boats that are more stable in 6 footers. If someone can't deal with that, they shouldn't fish tournaments. Other than that, I really don't have an opinion on the subject

Great video as always Mike You got us doing what we did the most of....running I think you were not feeling so good when we did the catching part

Nice report Rob and Jason I will have to get up with you guys sometime this summer and you guys can show me how it's done on the finger lakes

No apologies needed Mike, we didn't give you much to film anyway

Nice fishing report Bill, and job well done I agree with the not knowing aspect the no communication brings. Four tournaments for me this year and no comm. in all 4....loving it !!! It's tough going up against teams that won't give up their phones, but ya gotta love the dynamics of no communication.

Not much can be added to what has already been said, but I can confirm what Mike said on the sliding snell. It's tricky to learn, but once ya get it figured out it works real nice. If you don't want to screw with the sliding snell, then you may want to try to tie up your meat rigs with the hooks further apart than a stock meat rig so that the single is up tight to the head and the treble is back just beyond the tail. I think the tandem rig is the only way to go. I will be trying the dancing stinger too, as I have heard it works well. MC Rockets catch fish....can't say enough about them!