2013 Wilson Harbor Invitational as an observer...

[tonyb]

Well the WHI came and went, and talk about terrible fishing!

I spent the day on Friday fishing with Karl on Capt Wayne's 'Five Kings' boat. It was very comfortable compared to my open 19' Lund ProV hehehe, but it turned out wouldn't be able to do much catching...

After spending the night at Vince Pierlioni's rental cottage, I was blown away by the cottage or should I say 'shrine' haha it was literally covered wall to wall of big wins, news articles, and more plaques than you could imagine. It was a testament to the quality of angling skills the man possesses, and proof of their reputation as one of the best fishing teams around. However, all those prior big wins and trophies wouldn't equip him or his team come tourney day as they managed only a single King in the boat (a common theme we would discover once we hit the scales)

Anyway, overall it was an enjoyable experience being an observer. Karl and Wayne of team Twofish made sure I always had a drink or something to eat, and put me up for the night as well, thanks for being such great hosts!

I did learn a few things being on Capt Wayne's 'Five Kings' and Vince P's 'Thrillseeker' boats, but more importantly, I learned that what I am already doing on my own is quite sufficient and that helped restore some lost confidence so far this year

They were pretty secretive leading up to the big day as was most of the fleet, so I wasn't able to get many pictures or even just the boats themselves as I would have felt like some kind of spy or something

But here are a few quick shots.





BBQ'ing while on the troll



Some fine fishing machines



The buffet dinner tent and awards ceremony, a slick setup for sure!



And the overall dismal results   

 

It was my first time as an observer and while it would have been great to see the guys get into a lot more fish to see how they operate on the catching/landing sequences, it was still a positive experience and a great way to meet some of the best salmon anglers around.

Good luck in your next event guys! 

Tony

 

[stoutner]

WOW!!!!

 

Where are all of the fish????

 

That is horrible. I hope the rest of the year is not going to be like this.

[Jammer]

There were tons of kings down 110-150 over 140-160 FOW, but you could NOT get them to bite. I think they were gorged on Emerald Shiners...