…in which Team Dog Day has their Afternoon
The Grand Haven Steelheaders host an annual "derby" fishing contest to coincide with the city's Salmon Festival. This pretty much wraps up the fishing and tourist seasons for this port. After a fun and successful first outing fishing together earlier in the month, Team "Dog Day" decided to use this as an easy entry into the world of fishing salmon tournaments. This is a particularly quick and easy tournament to participate in; six hours of fishing, and the biggest salmonid caught by a registered team during that time wins.
Scheduled for Saturday, September 19, even with a big blow including
the word “Gale” in the forecast, the tournament committee still wouldn’t
postpone the event on Friday evening. Team Dog Day
agreed that there was a 95% chance of delay, and a near-100% chance of not
wanting to fish in Saturday’s conditions; but M and his boat were in Grand Haven and SB and I would need to be there by 5:15 AM or so. The only thing we could do was
check available buoy data at 4 AM or so and make a travel decision then. We agreed that if the waves were recorded as greater than 3.5 feet, it was a clear no-go;
otherwise, we’d hit the road, ready to fish.
Thunderstorms and wind lashed the house through-out the night
and I was somewhat surprised to see the buoy reading less than 2 feet at
4 AM. Wind and seas were clearly trending up, but the data were what they were; SB and I were soon on the road. As we exited the truck in the parking lot at
Chinook Pier, it was obvious that the event would not take place. In the time it took to unload the truck, the
wind veered from SW to NNW, and at a sustained 20 knots or so, with gusts into the
30s, it seemed like a no-brainer*. And
yet, along with the charter boats on Grand Haven’s Chinook Pier, we continued to prepare the boat and
tackle.
The awaited postponement announcement finally came a little before 6 AM, and
there was nothing left to do other than enjoy breakfast with my new teammates
and friends. Giddy with relief, or
perhaps just by nature, we shared a meal as a team; and looked ahead to
Sunday. The forecast was favorable; it
was just a matter of the seas laying down.
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| Upper Great Lakes Observation System (UGLOS) buoy data from Port Sheldon to the south shows that the big wind on Saturday, 9-19 cooled surface temperatures and brought cooler water nearer to the surface, but did not totally "flip" the lake. |
Eminem’s Curtain Call
accompanied me on my way to pick up SB on Sunday morning; this, combined with
bright Venus hanging in the eastern sky of a developing beautiful morning were
all good omens. We were in position with
just a few moments to relax before the 6:30 AM start. Like most of the field, we took a quick pass
near the pier heads while heading generally south and west.** After a slow start, between 7:30 and 8 AM we hit
two fish. One was a nice teenager, and I
muffed the other (again, on wire!) But I thought we had the start of a program
now, and with a nice fish in the box for a one-fish tourney, we could only improve
our position for the rest of our fishing day.
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| Watch that wire diver! It's about to go! Meanwhile, enjoy this beautiful day. |
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| Our first fish was our last fish of the day. |
But that was it! Not
another rod budged for the rest of the day, but let it be known that
we fished hard and well together; it was fun; and our lone, 15.05-pound fish
placed 2nd out of 44 boats*** (of
which only 26 weighed fish.) Team Dog Day started its tournament
career with a $550 check, and we all agreed that, for us, it was a good end to
a good weekend.
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| Team Dog Day; 15.05 pounds; 2nd Place in 2015 |
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| M... |
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| ...and Dr. M were happy with this outcome. |
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| Hardware! |
*Five people would get swept off a local pier later in the day; one of these would perish.
**Actual fishing details are here!
***The winning fish ($1100) weighed just 15.55 pounds and was reportedly caught north of the piers, in waters less heavily pressured this day. Something to remember.
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