Oh Baby's Whitby Experience...The Good, the Bad and The Ugly

[Fishtails]

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.

[rshubuck]

Thats is one h#ll of an adventure!

[skipper19]

Rod, great report, and some beautiful fish indeed! amazingly, you were able to make light of a lousy situation with Canadian custom agents, being such nit pickers your crew and you exercised great restraint to enjoy some sweetness from the bitterly stupid treatment from the representatives of Canada. You are absolutely right about feeling like "Bubba" Good thing Ray wasn't part of the crew the soap mighta flew

In all it seems like the male agent was only trying to impress the subordinate female officer and make an ass of himself for her benefit somehow. Gotta love the cheesy cat that ate the canary grin on those agents pusses while they know you can't defend yourself without furthering the incrimination.....been there done that. I hope they are enjoying their sense of false security, being so indignant, and refusing to do the real job of security. Heck with them and feel safer fishing in our own territory I say.

Mark

[ Post made via Android ]

[choo-choo]

Rod..........Uneffinbelievable!!!!!! Outrageous!!!!!!!I can't believe they can do that legally!!!!Havn't they heard about giving someone a warning first...and then explain the proper procedure for future visit's. I have never met you, but i am looking forward to, so i can shake your hand for not going ballistic !!! Thank you to OH Baby team for giving us all a "wake up call" for what could happen when going to Canada...sorry it had to be so expensive . I hope there is a way that you guy's could appeal that hefty fine, and get it reversed, and get re-imbursed the thousand dollars. Canadian officials should be embarrassed and ashamed about this incident.

Great job on those big kings thursday and friday.....and sorry ya's didn't do better on the week end, but you had to return to your "big fish water" for another shot . I'm pulling for you guy's for the rest of the tournaments you enter this year!!!!! Good Luck and Good fishin'.............choo-choo steve

[Missdemeanor]

Congrats on the fishing guys......I have been kicking around the idea of fishing one of the Canadian tournaments, but after your experience I can say for sure that I'm all set....as far as I'm concerned, I'll spend my money at home in the USA.....

[JakeyBaby]

That is def. the good , bad and very ugly!!!Good job picking those fish up to make some $$ back.Thanks for sharing that story!!

Matt

-Jakey Babey-

[Jeff J]

Couldn't have said it any better myself. It was a great experience both good and bad. Had a blast as usual and the size and numbers of the big fish is awesome. Hope anyone going to Canada on a boat checks and makes sure they are doing everything correctly!!!

Thanks for the post and the pics. The only thing you left out was the coastguard hitting the boat at the gas dock on Friday.

Talk to you soon.

Jeff

[larry]

Good work all around, nothing to be embarrassed about with your results for the first trip up to strange territory, sounds like you got quite an education from everything that happened. My dad had been boarded just after he returned from WWII while fishing the St. Lawrence back in the late 40's, they claimed in was in Canadian waters (before GPS, Loran etc.) so it was their word against his. He decided they could swim back to Canada and knocked them both overboard. He said he was sorry but still spent a night in custody and had to pay to get the boat back. Glad it turned out well overall a great adventure. I made it up Sunday to fish with Rebel and slammed a lot of em West but don't think you have to follow the crowd, 39 of 40 boats went west in Orleans county Pro-Am guess who went east and finished 2nd. Believe in your skills and find your own water, experience will guide you more as you start putting the pieces together from all these events. Good luck the rest way.

Larry

[motoman]

great detailed report ! thank god ya hit em back for that grand ! WELCOME HOME

[REELJERKS]

Hey Rod or anyone else. Do you know where I can read the rules for entering Canada by boat?

Mark

[1fish2fish]

Mark,

Here's one link.

http://www.boating.ncf.ca/canadaborder.html

Here's another

http://www.boativated.com/border%20crossing.htm

Jim

[Yankee Troller]

Dude....you have me scared sh*tless to go to Bluffers for the Tightlines Shootout next month. If our entry fee wasn't already paid I'd be passing on crossing over until this whole thing is figured out. One interesting fact I was unaware of is that you had to call in from a certain phone. When we fish the St. Catherine's tourney we have always called customs from our cell phone on the boat the minute we hit the dock. We have never had an agent come down to our boat or tell us we had to call from a special land line. Anyway, great job in pre-fish guys.

[yukiginger]

This border and port issue must get worked out. There was a fine paid recently by a boater in Canadian waters in the St. Lawrence (not anchored) where he also was given the choice of boat seizure or the fine. Some legislators have sought clarification of the rules by CA authorities. Here's one thread on this site discussing this: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=25179&hilit=canada

Here's the official statement of the rules by the CA government. It comes from this page: http://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/publications ... .html#s2x1

*************************

Private boats

If you arrive in Canada aboard a private boat, you must proceed directly to the nearest designated telephone reporting marine site. Upon arrival in Canada, the master of the boat must report to the CBSA by calling 1-888-226-7277. The master of the boat will provide details of the voyage, the passengers and their declaration. No one except the master may leave the boat until authorized to do so by the CBSA. As proof of presentation, masters will be provided with a report number for their records. Masters must provide this number to a border services officer upon request. You do not have to report to the CBSA when you leave by private boat unless you are exporting goods that need to be documented. To get a list of the designated telephone reporting marine sites, call 1-888-226-7277 before you arrive in Canada.

**************************

I think they need to define "arrive in Canada," in order to be clear at all on this rule, especially if they are going to argue that an unanchored, non-docked vessel in open water is subject to this rule.

[fishingjeff]

this is a great report to forward to the office of the minister of tourism and the canadian visitors bureau.it will be interesting to see what kind of response it generates.you landed with every good intention and a warning and good explanation were in order.were the tournament organizers as surprised as you were?

[Pike Hunter]

Ahoy Rod! What an amazing journey for you and the crew.

Somewhere in the lake, there is a guardian angel watching over you. Im very glad to hear you got your money back in the most unpredictible way.

Tight lines!

[woody 184]

Rod its really to bad that some of the Border Patrol dinks have to mess with quality USA Fishermen.. They do not like seeing that US Citizen in there Country, not really sure why... But nice job on that Monster King and PEDD....... Way to make the $$$ back.... We seen you guys the other night in Williamson towing the Oh-Baby back from the weekend, my daughter and I just came off the lake and my kid loves that Cherokee........ Woody

[Fishtails]

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.

[dmontesano]

Wow ! that's one of the more intense things i've read on this south shore report.

[Richard Bullen]

Endeavor to Perservere

Congrats on some Beautiful fish

[panfisher]

Say, Fishtails.... Whats your response to Fishingjeff's question about the tournament's organizers input or thoughts about the policing incident? You'ld think this kind of stuff would have been worked out before the "games" began. All particpents should be aware of all the rules and regs and jump through hoops before even registering for said events. It doesn't have to be a "in a perfect world" thing... By the way, so that's where all of the big kings are this season! Great job on the rebound from potentially devastating events!!!!

[Sharpie1]

CANADA SUCKS!!! To many fish to catch in USA...No wonder no-one likes them!!!

[GAMBLER]

Say, Fishtails.... Whats your response to Fishingjeff's question about the tournament's organizers input or thoughts about the policing incident? You'ld think this kind of stuff would have been worked out before the "games" began. All particpents should be aware of all the rules and regs and jump through hoops before even registering for said events. It doesn't have to be a "in a perfect world" thing... By the way, so that's where all of the big kings are this season! Great job on the rebound from potentially devastating events!!!!

Not to defend anyone but the tourney organizer more than likely did not kow this was taking place. This has come up all the sudden.

[ray koziatek]

Rod when ya need a little smile ,just remember "the shower (and plug)"

the Friggin "pink towel"

And the NJ capt meeting night..

Maybe the east end will have a few more "Good" memories.....see ya next week..

[Fishtails]

Say, Fishtails.... Whats your response to Fishingjeff's question about the tournament's organizers input or thoughts about the policing incident? You'ld think this kind of stuff would have been worked out before the "games" began. All particpents should be aware of all the rules and regs and jump through hoops before even registering for said events. It doesn't have to be a "in a perfect world" thing...

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!

[BAZOOKAJOE]

Un-freaking believable!! Congrats to you guys!! I will never...ever consider fishing canadian waters with all this bs going on.