There were times when we took up fishing that I really wondered if it wasn’t supposed to be more fun! Like the first time we tangled all our rods or spooled out $50 worth of superline on a “snag” that was likely a huge fish. Our initial inexperience salmon fishing in deep water provided some very tense and frustrating moments with short tempers threatening to spoil a “nice day on the water.”
But after 2 months and some modest success in landing good size fish, we were thoroughly enjoying our outings and decided it might be “fun” to try our first derby in August. We entered a small local “challenge” which seemed less intimidating than some of the bigger competitions on Lake Ontario.
I saw it as a way to meet some of the local fishers and get more involved in the fishing scene here. The social part of the event was more important than actually trying to win anything. My husband agreed, but he has a more competitive nature than I do and was more concerned about not embarassing himself with a really poor showing.
For the two weeks before the derby, our fishing became more serious as Alan read all he could about techniques, hot lures, local fishing reports and all the information he could glean from the online forums for our area. He made “plans” for timing and setups, bought new lures and line and tried to anticipate all the circumstances we could face on the “big day”. My job was to keep reminding him that we would be the very least experienced fishers there and to keep the expectations low! We agreed that placing anywhere but LAST would be a victory, although even that was a good probability.
I won’t go into all the details of our fishing on derby day but a few details are worth noting. We managed to convince another couple to join us so we would have some help since it can be very difficult to land any fish with only two people and no autopilot. Our friends were inexperienced at salmon fishing but loved fishing and were more than happy to be along with us. Their help was invaluable.
We decided not to fish in the same waters that the majority of other teams would be in and instead stick to the area of the lake we were more familiar with – about 13 miles away from the weigh-in site. That meant we had to stop fishing about 1 ½ hours before the other teams in order to get back to shore and drive our catch to the weigh-in about half an hour away.
We were on the water before the sunrise (the earliest we had ever ventured out) but didn’t land our first fish until a couple of hours later anyway. One very small Coho slipped off the line as Alan was bringing it in but it was so small he probably would have let it go anyway. Our first catch came with a double strike as two rods went off within minutes of each other and we soon had two good size King Salmon on board. Alan said he probably wouldn’t even go to the weigh-in unless we had at least two fish – so this was our first accomplishment of the day!
We picked up two more in the next hour or so and with time running out, we started to troll toward shore and managed to catch one last fish before we had to pull the rods. We were pretty excited to have five salmon in the boat – a personal “most catch” for us in one day.
As it turned out, we were the first team to get to the weigh-in – beginners eagerness! We were greeted with some appreciative words as our weights and count were totalled but we had no idea how any of the other teams had done at that point. We were also feeling a little embarassed at the size of our two small ice coolers which couldn’t accommodate the size of the fish – we had never had a fish too big before!
Over the next half hour or so, all the teams arrived and we kept a watch on the scoreboard. As we saw a few teams come back with only one or two fish (and a few with none), we began to realize we certainly wouldn’t be last. And for awhile, our 22.3 lb. fish was the biggest on the board. That created a bit of chagrin for us since we hadn’t entered the Big Fish Pool, never dreaming that we had a chance at that prize.
In the end, we were smiling ear to ear as we finally placed fourth out of 19 teams entered – just missing 3rd place by a few points (the one small Coho we didn’t land/keep would have given us 3rd place). And we had the 2nd and 3rd biggest fish of the day! We didn’t quite make the “money” places, but with our wildest expectations exceeded, we were laughing and taking pictures as if we had won the lottery!
The rest of the day was anti-climactic but with our “performance anxiety” gone, 
we were able to enjoy the picnic and wonderful chats with new “friends” we met. Sponsors of the derby gave out bags of lures and other fishing gear and we took home some new spoons to try out.
The morals and lessons I took home from this event were numerous. I realized that element of “luck” – good or bad – is always a part of fishing and not just for beginners. Fishing is exciting in good part because it is always unpredictable. Overcoming fear of failure, intimidation and self-conciousness pays off. With a full season of fishing under our belts and a respectable showing in our first derby, we gained the confidence to stop calling ourselves beginners.
As we headed home from the day’s event, we were already talking about next year and starting to get excited about the possibility of entering the larger tournaments. I could already feel the small stirrings of apprehension as we contemplated our chances of NOT finishing LAST again!
