... made fishing in the crowds, with not everyone following the lanes, a little more interesting. .
Start by sayin what a SH*TSHOW!! This was my first time fishing the cap, altho I had heard a lot of stories. Is it so hard to troll outside while heading east and then inside when heading west (right hand rule) Boats are cruising in every direction wherever they want. ?
Gotta agree with you guys about the "show". We were out on Saturday and there were some privately owned boats all over the map with lines out WAY behind their boat with no downriggers. Add to that the boatrent.ca and Sewell's rental boats that were running north south through the fleet again with NO riggers (even though they had them on the boat) that had me shaking my head. You would think the rental places would also give these people a quick "how to" of the way to fish that area.
I had to chuckle at a number of things out there on Saturday. First was the guy in the $19.00 Canadian Tire one man rubber dingy who was casting with the guys in the belly boats inside the channel marker. We named him "Canadian Tire" and despite the massive amount of money invested in boats that were out there fishing....he quietly rowed out in his orange/yellow dingy....started casting and we watched him bonk his 4 coho (I am hoping he was first nations as the limit is 2!) and went home.
The "boatrent" boat that was a guy and his girlfriend on the boat; it had rod holders and riggers but the "guy" who was driving wouldn't let his girlfriend put the rod in the rod holder. She sat there holding the rod for a few hours as they trolled around and we saw him telling her to keep holding it when she tried to put it in the holder at one point.
I can't believe the number of boats that are using weighted lines that are fishing tight in the pack by the mouth....a bit of a gongshow and I know of 3 other friends who were out fishing all who lost gear because of these guys. We did have one rod out at the surface but it was quite literally right in our prop wash (and hooked up!!) and would never get anyone else caught up.
The guys in the big 30-33ish foot boat (SeaRayish looking) who were originally anchored inside the channel marker and casting who for some reason moved out so they were about 30 yards off the marker right where people were having to troll by on their "inside" tack. I think they very quickly got an earful as they moved back inside the marker after only being out there for a few minutes.
The Sewell's boat trolling north/south through the pack right at the mouth was a thing of beauty....lines WAY out behind the boat despite having riggers on board. 4 people in the boat completely oblivious as to why people were yelling at them and trying to figure out how it couldn't have been somewhat obvious as to the etiquette of the VERY, VERY crowded space. We eventually kept our tacks off the to west and turning to head back out west near the Ambleside pier as the "show" to the west of the pier was comical at times.
I really hope people learn to steer clear of the shipping lanes as there were about 4-5 freighters that rolled through and some of the fishing boats were NOT clearing the lane despite getting 5 blasts from the freighter's horn. I was amazed how close some boats were to the freighters as they were headed in/out and it was absolutely NO surprise to me that the Harbour Patrol came out to control and "herd" people out of the way. Guaranteed the crowd of boats was reported to the patrol and that is why the came out after the first 4 freighters had gone through; with "shows" like this, don't be surprised if this fishery right in tight there gets closed down sometime in the future. There was one smaller sort of bowrider looking boat (brownish/tan) that kept wandering out into the shipping lane despite the patrol trying to herd him back....AND with a freighter bearing down on him pretty darn close WITH their horn blasting. We were shaking our heads wondering what this idiot was thinking.
The joys of the Cap September fishery out on the chuck...it's a beautiful and tranquil time.
