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Hello everyone,
Yes it finally happened, I reached the ½ century
mark, one of those events in life where youthful flexibility
gives way to joint pain and that extra bit of waist
line. For my birthday Jessica and Joey bought me a Chartered
fishing trip on Lake Ontario with Jim Dexter of Chasen
Fish Charters.
The boat was located on the shores of Lake Ontario,
at Port Hope, so we headed southwest for 3+hours. Slept
over night at the King Gorge Hotel in Cobourg Ontario,
headed to Tim’s at 4:20 AM and met Jim Dexter at
the boat at 4:45 AM June 29th. Got ourselves in the
boat and he pulled out of the Channel into Lake Ontario.
The lake was a bit rough tossing us around in the swells.
Jessica immediately turned green and my Tim Horton’s
Coffee and Bagel got “all shook up”. Old iron
guts Joey just kept smiling waiting for the sun rise
and Jim to bait the rods and get fishing. We did not
get too far out into the Lake when Jim got everything
rigged up. The kids decided to let me have the first
fish which hit about 15 minutes into the troll. With
rod in hand I enjoyed the thrill of the excitement waiting
to see the monster on the end of my line. I brought
in an 8 lbs. rainbow (picture 1). You will notice in
the picture they are not the colourful rainbows you
normally think of when imagining a rainbow, but they,
for some reason are more silver out in the lake. Next
up was Joey and he reeled in a nice 11 lbs. rainbow
(picture 2).
Now the sun was cresting the horizon and Jessica’s
white green complexion was glowing as we called her
to take the next rod with a “FISH ON!”. I
got up beside Jess as she was having significant difficulty
holding onto the rod and the line was being stripped
out of the spool. We were fishing in 70 feet of water,
down 32 feet and of course I thought she had a snag...silly
me! The line kept being stripped off the spool, and
Jim slowed the boat down to a slow drift and then proceeded
to bring in all the other rods. I could hear the music
from the movie Jaws playing in my head but kept it to
myself! Jessica looked at me and said “he is taking
all the line daddy, what should I do?”, at which
point I said something to Jim. He said, no worries,
there is lots of line on that spool. Jess and I looked
at each other in disbelief as the spool continued to
empty. By now Jessica’s stomach was sore so Jim
got her one of those Big Blue Marlin deep sea fishing
belts to put around her 20 inch waist. I was holding
onto Jess just to make sure her 105 lbs frame did not
get jerked out of the boat. Jim tried to bring the boat
around and Jess spent the next 30 minutes reeling in
a 25 lbs Salmon (Picture 3). What a fish! Shortly after
all that excitement Jessica decided to feed the fish
as the motion finally got to her. Poor girl was bent
over the edge of the boat for 15 minutes. We thought
we might have to leave her in a dingy so we could continue
our fishing and pick her up later provided the dingy
stayed on the GPS coordinates!
Then of course comes my turn. After a fish like that,
I cannot think SMALL! Impossible, mine is going to be
BIGGER RIGHT, MUCH BIGGGGERRRR!!!!! Joey yells “FISH
ON!” I leap out of my seat expecting the battle
of my life and for Jim to get me one of those waist
belts! Rod in hand, I am able to reel this one in....WHAT!?...another
rainbow (picture 4)... well I at least got to hold Jessica’s
big fish! After that brief excitement, Joey gets another
chance on a rod as I called FISH ON. Joey with the rod
in hand, the line stripping out of it and me hearing
the Jaws theme in my mind again, watch Jim quickly reel
in all the lines. Joey looks at me and asked, “should
we cool the reel with water?”, I told him to “reel
in his minnow”. It took Joey about 25 minutes to
get his “minnow” to the boat (pictures 5).
What a fish, a 27 lbs Salmon! Both the kids are now
grinning from shore to shore....yes even Jessica. Next
up was Jessica, and the reel started giving up line
AGAIN!!!! Now, you can image that I am thinking, I am
going to land the biggest fish of my life today since
both the kids got big Salmon, my turns a comin! Of course
with it now being Jessica’s turn, Jess has gotten
Jim trained by now, so Jim, stops the boat and gets
in all the lines. Jessica lands another beautiful Salmon
(picture 6). We caught a few more fish, I landed the
last fish, a rainbow.
Of course we had to have a photo with the fish on
the Chasen Fish Board (picture 7) which was so heavy
we could not lift it high enough off the ground to show
the fish tails in the air. We even made the Chasen Fish
“Fish Report Update Page”... http://www.chasenfish.com/pages/reports.htm
take a look!!
This was one of those “Days of a lifetime with
your children”. I have been blessed with many such
days doing other things with my children over the past
24... almost 25 years aye...Jess! We had so much fun
and the memories, many memories which will rest in our
hearts forever!! You just have to look at the expression
on the faces in the pictures to see the depth of joy
and love! Take someone you love fishing!
Dave
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