Saturday morning and time for an update.
Last night was a blow-out for me as I didn't go out what with the wind, a bit of a sciatica flare-up, local people who have been out and will get out again with me, the factors were all in favour of me taking the night off.
So I did.
And we witnessed the range of emotions from abject heart-break to excited elation all in a very short time right at the scale at the Clubhouse.
First, Bob Main went out to try for the Daily Double with his trusty rower who had helped him to a 31 1/2 pounder that morning. This meant that if Bob could register another Tyee the same day he would be the leader in that category, one not earned very often these days either.
Imagine their joy when Bob got bit, set the hook and began a battle culminating in a netted and boated fish that looked every inch to be the much desired second Tyee of the day.
Historically, a Chinook of 39-40 inches will make the 30 pound mark and that's the length many of us use to guesstimate the weight of boated fish, so when they eyeballed this one at over 40 they were elated.
And then they brought it to the scale, where Bob noosed it and hung it for all to see.
It was a needle width short of 30, which brought out gasps of disbelief from Bob and the gathered crowd watching.
Even a discrete jiggle of the scale didn't change the cold hard fact. It wasn't a Tyee.
Now I've known Bob for over 25 years and he's one of those easy to like guys with a great sense of humour, an asset I admire in people, so when he turned from the scale in total dismay and opened his arms in the universal sign that usually means: "Why me?" or "I need sympathy," I patted my shoulder and beckoned him over. He came over and laid his head on my shoulder and let loose a few loud pretend sobs while I patted him on the back in sympathy ......................................................................all in a good humoured way whilst trying to not laugh too bad as I really really would have loved to have seen that fish weigh more than 30 pounds.
But it didn't, yet it looked long enough for sure.
A tape was procured and I held one end at the fork while Bob held the other to the nose.
"41 inches." he said. "That one this morning was shorter than that and a pound and a half heavier."
Heartbreak.
Less than 10 minutes later it seemed, Mike Mackie arrived at the beach with his son Landon in the boat. Landon got out followed by Mike who had his hands full with a fish in one that was obviously under-size and a fish in the other that looked big enough to be a Tyee.
Bob grabbed the larger one, noosed it and hung it on the scale. The needle passed 30, wavered a bit then settled down.
"It's a Tyee." Bob announced.
Elation!
In the meantime, Mike revealed that Landon had caught both of them, the smaller first to warm up on then the 34 1/2 pounder hanging right there.
Being his first ever Tyee, Landon is a new member of the Tyee Club, plus, being under the age of 16 he's the leading Junior Angler to date and it's hard to imagine a more proud Dad than Mike last night as he'd been trying to get a Tyee for Landon for some time now. (Can't recall Landon's age right now.) NOTE: He's 11 I'm told.
Here they are after Landon rang the bell announcing his success.
When Landon's fish was announced as good there was a great and spontaneous round of applause from the assembled gang and Landon got his hand shaken by quite a few of us envious old farts too.
Damn whipper-snappers hogging all the fish. LOL
This morning, optimism was pretty high given the four Tyee registered yesterday morning but the only successful angler was Al Frumento who rowed himself to a 33 pounder, which is the latest one and brings us to 14 so far, not bad when you consider we had but two at this time last year.
Well done Al!
Hoping the wind goes away and I'll have another shot tonight with a new rod-holder.
I really need to boat something this year.
I'm due.
Take care.