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| Gone fishin’ with the Bobby Knight of Buffington Harbor |
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It was the magic of “first bite” as the gray dawn brought slamming hits faster than our captain could set rods.
Back-to-back, instantaneous hits brought only slack lines and mumbled excuses as the first two fish continued their uninterrupted feeding binge. Now, pandemonium was in full swing as the second set of two rods arched in their holders.
“FISH ON!” “FISH ON!”
I jumped for one of the rods as one of my fishing companions yanked the second rod from the holder. Pulling mine free of the socket, I tightened the line against a heavy fish, and lowered the rod against a hard run, ripping yards of line from the reel.
I glanced over to see my buddy’s line go slack at precisely the same moment the arch dropped from my rod, as fish #4 gained its freedom from the stern of the Just 4 Fun.
Little did my fishing buddies know we were about to get a personal lesson from the “General.”
In a voice loud enough to be well heard by all, Captain Tim Morris’ words echoed across the stern: “Damn it! You guys need to get with the program! We are out here to put fish in the box, not exercise them. I don’t know if you guys have noticed, but so far, you really suck at salmon fishing. The next time a rod goes off, don’t stand there and look at it. Jump on it. Don’t bother saying, ‘Excuse me’ and ‘Pardon me’ – grab the danged rod and start reeling!”
In the dim gray light, five somewhat sheepish grown men avoided eye contact, nodded their heads and promised to do better.
Being the slightly more experienced of the group, I heard our salmon coach say, “Spaulding! Next time, let the drag do its work, and get that rod positioned at 11 o’clock and just crank it.”
I peered up at the flying bridge only to see our first mate, Donny, grinning in the dim light. Softly, he said, “You see what I’ve had to put up with for the past 15 years.”
“Donny! Head her out a little further. How deep are we?”
“We are at 58 feet.”
“We’re too shallow.”
“We’re hooking fish.”
“Okay … take her west for a while.”
We were in store for what was to be one of the most memorable salmon fishing trips I’ve been on in years.
We had back-to-back full-day charters with Captain Tim, and he was showing us the ropes. By both trips’ ends, we would be suffering from “blue bellies” and feeling the burn in our left arms. Along with our injured badges of courage, we would have a box of fish worthy of bragging rights anywhere.
On the end of the second day on Lake Michigan, Steve Clear of Ohio summed it up well when he said, “I’d rather fish with a guy who gets excited about what he is doing. I know for a fact Captain Tim will do everything he can to see we catch fish. I’d rather fish with him than any guy I have ever met.”
I have had hunting guides physically push me to performance levels I thought I could not reach. One time while hunting wild turkey, my good friend Bill Barker ran me down the side of a Switzerland County hillside (code for “southern Indiana mountain”), across a deep valley and had us belly-crawl to the top of the next ridge. Once there, we checked to see if the coast was clear, then sprinted 300 yards to a blind hidden in a fence line.
Tim is the only charter captain I know who will personally escort his angling guests to a higher plane and help them land any of the Great Lakes Grand Slam of Lake Trout, Coho, King Salmon, Skamania and Brown Trout.
He paces, he frets, he hollers at Donny, he throws his loose change to the “salmon gods” and, when the fishing goes slack, changes up lures like a shopaholic lady tries on shoes. He checks depth, water temperature, speed of troll and location and pushes his expertise, Donny and his boat to find fish.
Our proven performer for the day was a swim-head bait loaded with cut herring, alewife body or entire alewife. The swimming action of the bait was tempered with a double set of razor-sharp hooks designed to snag Lake Michigan’s best. The bait takes three times as long to rig as anything out of the tackle box. I asked Tim why he uses it, and he replied, “It stinks, it is hard to rig, but it works. This rig will take some of the biggest fish in the lake.”
True to Tim’s review, the cut bait swim-head rig was consistently banging King Salmon. Blue and green spoons came in second and accounted for most of the remaining fish, while dodgers and flies picked up some Coho as well.
The back of the boat looked like a tackle shop nightmare. Doubles on plainer boards, doubles on yellowbirds, doubles on dimpsey divers, quads on down riggers and two flat lines brought the total on the stern to 12 rods.
One of the top fish of the day was a beer-bellied Coho salmon caught by Steve Clear. Steve’s fish weighted out at an even 10 pounds. For Coho in late summer, a 10-pounder is a trophy by anyone’s standards.
My personal best for the two days was an eight-pound Coho, a 16-pound King and a 12-pound Skamania.
One memorable moment was when a nice Coho was coming to the net. Captain Tim was ready with the net and made a perfect scoop to bring the thrashing Coho to the box.
As the net came to its highest point off the stern, the bottom of the rubber netting gave way and the fish fell through the net to its freedom back in Lake Michigan.
We lost the fish.
As I stood there looking in the dead silence, I saw Captain Tim still holding the net aloft, arms trembling, teeth clenched with a solid stare at the gaping hole in the bottom of the net. I knew in my heart the net, handle and all was going to make a quick trip to Davy Jones’ Locker. The General was about to throw the folding chair – er, the net – into the depths.
Never have I seen more composure. Clenching his teeth, with trembling arms, Captain Tim lowered the net and calmly said, “I’ve got to get that fixed. We will use the other net.”
I would have bet my last dollar that net was going to take a one-way trip off the stern of the Just 4 Fun. As I looked up to the flying bridge, I could see the gleam from Donny’s teeth.
Throughout both days, the fishing was great. Day one saw a catch of 15 fish while day two saw a total of 22 on the bragging board.
After tangling with Lake Michigan’s finest, our crews went home with bruised bellies from the rod butts, and everyone got a taste of the burn from when the left arm goes numb and starts to tingle from the prolonged tight grip and stress of holding a bucking rod.
The best was yet to come with the cleaning of the fish. When you come back to the dock with a catch measured as hundred-plus pounds, it is a lot of fish.
Mounds of the highest quality salmon fillets began to pile up as Captain Tim did his magic with the 12-inch blade of a fillet knife.
Plastic bag after plastic bag of the finest fillets were dropped into iced coolers for the trip home, sure to make an afternoon’s grilling bring back the memories of the catch.
Fishing for Lake Michigan’s trout and salmon will continue to be excellent in the coming months. As the water cools with the approach of fall, the bait fish and foraging salmon will move closer to shore. |
| 8/20/2007 |
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