This past Sunday, my cousin (Bicephalic) and I, along with a friend of his (Deeks), got a chance to head down to the Bay of Quinte to fish with Lloyd Daume, who runs UandMe Fishing Charters. We actually had a chance to go a few weeks back, but, my baby girl was busy working her way into the world, so I couldn’t make it happen. However, when Lloyd announced that he had another opening, my lovely and oh so considerate wife (the lovely Laker Jessy) didn’t even hesitate in telling me to book it! She even tried to make sure I was well rested for the trip by taking care of the baby all night Friday night…never waking me once to get a bottle, or do a feeding…wow! What a woman!
Unfortunately, the trip wasn’t until Sunday, and there I sat on Saturday night with a baby that REFUSED to sleep, and an exhausted wife who needed her sleep. But, according to the 3-way blackberry conversation I had going with my 2 fishing partners for the day, it didn’t sound like they were sleeping either. One poker game, plus one family G2G at the Legion meant that we were pulling an all nighter before emarking on a journey to world-famous walleye waters! My gassy little bundle of joy was gracious enough to fall asleep shortly before the guys showed up. Not wanting to be late, we left ourselves some extra time and departed Mississauga at 2:45am. By 5:00 I think we were getting coffee at the Tim’s in Belleville…huh. This Bay of Quinte place isn’t as far away as I thought! We didn’t need to arrive until 6:00.
We roll into Picton and send Lloyd a text that we’ve arrived…after driving past him…a couple times…we meet up in the parking lot. Still early, so we go get more coffee, pretty much floating to the Tim’s and back…at this point the anticipation was almost unbearable.
As soon as we got on Lloyd’s Boat (a.k.a. the Party Palace), we knew it was going to be a good day…I mean…this guy knows what he’s doing! Everything is set up beautifully…lots of covered seating down the side, wide open floor space (a.k.a. the Dance Floor) a pile of gorgeous rods and reels in their holders all ready to go, a blinding array of crankbaits being used as wallpaper, and a generous cabin at the front to store gear. In fact, I’m told that some people even sleep up there while waiting for the fish to bite *cough*Dano*cough. Motor was already warm, so we got our gear stored away, oohed and aahhed at Lloyd’s remote control lighting, and headed out of the harbor. I’m sure the 3 of us sitting there looked like schoolkids when they’re on the bus to a really cool field trip...that’s how I felt, anyway.
Once we were out of the harbor, Lloyd cranked the tunes and hit the throttle…reception was a little shakey on the radio, and I kept hearing funny lyrics…first song that came on was by Theory of a Deadman, but seemed very fitting though..
We got our backs against the ocean,
It’s just us against the world;
Looking at all or nothing;
Gonna catch walleye
I’m pretty sure that’s what I heard anyway. After marveling at how gorgeous the sunrise was, and hoping that the day would stay as nice as it was starting, Lloyd’s screens start beeping away and he throttles down. We’re just a pack of glassy eyed newbies looking around, and Lloyd is down to business with the planer boards and rods. We snapped out of our dream state when he asked us for a clip…then watched as he expertly got four lines out in the amount of time I might decide on what lure to use.
Lines were out, sun was up, and we was fishin!!!! Lloyd explained what to watch for on the planer lines, and how to release the line when a fish hit. Not much time went by and we started seeing hooks on the graph…a few minutes later one of the rods is bucking in the holder…I try to relay this with words, but all that comes out is “Oh! Oh! That! That!” Bicephalic’s feet are stuck to the floor, and before he can move, Lloyd grabs the rod and puts it into his flailing hands. Too late…the fish is gone. Strike one.
This scene started to repeat itself with frightening consistency…and before we knew it, we were 0-4. I could see the doubt in Lloyd’s eyes…he was thinking he had a dud crew. I fixed my eyes on the clips, determined not to let him down….and when I saw line dip and the rod start bouncing, I didn’t wait…just gripped and ripped!! FISH ON!!! Lloyd is a great traffic director and coach – he had my heart rate down to an acceptable level and got me standing in the corner so he could control the boat and net the fish. The rod had the perfect action, the reel’s drag was set perfectly, and in a couple minutes, I was staring at the biggest friggin walleye I’d ever reeled in!!! WOOHOO!!!
According to my text message transcripts, this was 7:22am – had to text the wife and tell her the good news…but Lloyd came up with an even better idea. If you’re ever stuck for gift ideas, just ask him what the 50mg thank-you is
The 29 inch beast was bleeding a bit, so Lloyd let it recuperate in the livewell. After he was satisfied that the bleeding was stopped, it was carefully released. And it musta told it’s friends all about it, because they came and chased us down all day! By 8:55am, Deeks was in Walleye heaven: and Bicephalic and I cranked in a double-header to put us at 6-10 on the day. SO FAR!!!
I can’t really give a blow-by-blow account of the day…the fishing was simply a blur of fat, slobbering, golden footballs with eyes the size of loonies. Here’s what stands out in my mind though:
Lloyd Daume OWNS the Bay of Quinte! He went out there to put us on fish, which he did a marvelous job of, but he also made sure everyone else out there had a crack at it. Guys that he knows were out there, and he was on the phone telling them how much line was out, what colours were working, and giving them directions when they couldn’t find their way. At times, the water was pretty busy, and we had to pick our way through “the gauntlet”. Lloyd’s got one of the bigger boats out there, and runs planers out to the side…yet he picked his way through the crowds like a little johnboat through a quiet marina. If he had to lean out the window and give directions, he did. If he had to get on the horn, he did. But everyone got a friendly thank-you and didn’t have to stop fishing. Not even the guy that thought about running over our planer board for a minute. The ONE thing all those boats had in common though, was that they watched us pull fish in every time we went by!!!
Another double header….Bicephalic hoisting the gold with Deeks battling the other one
It was like a perfect summer day out there….the radio came back to life for Kid Rock to belt out a little “All Summer Long”…
Catchin’ walleye from the dock….watchin’ the waves roll off the rocks…..
It seemed like it couldn’t get any better….until the fish started getting bigger, and all of the PB’s we set in the morning got smashed with big fat humpbacked ‘eyes
My piggy:
Deeks’ beast:
And Bicephalic ended up with a real HAWG….that was the most memorable fish of the day. We had just completed the triple-header that put us at fish #13 on the day, and were looking to get past that ugly number. I jumped all over a beautiful fish that was somewhere between 25 and 29 inches, which meant Bicephalic was driving while Lloyd netted it and Deeks took pics. As soon as Lloyd takes the fish to release it, one of the rods goes haywire! I’ve got fish slime all over my hands and don’t want to take a double…Lloyd hands the rod to Deeks…who can’t reel because his other hand is full of cameras. Bicephalic is trying to get back there, but can’t let go of the wheel….everyone was dancin! So I grab the rod, slimey hands or not, and tell Bicephalic to come back and grab it. We’re sure that it was flirting with the low teens, but….when it came time to snap a pic, it wanted to dance too! If you look closely, you can see that it’s already coming straight for me – I managed to duck, while it cleared the back of the boat and gave us the ol’ Quinte good-bye!
And the reverse angle (sorry bud…had to post it!)
Did you see that?!?!?
And that was it….an amazing end to an amazing day on the water….we sat there grinning like fools in disbelief at what had just transpired. All the clips got used up….we actually had a hard time catching fish that were small enough to keep…the weather had been PERFECT….wow.
As we started to figure out what our final catch-loss count was, the radio was playing Meatloaf, and again the reception went funny…
I want you
I need you
But there aint no way I'm ever gonna love you
Now dont be sad
Cause 15 out of 22 aint bad
We got back to the docks…no waiting in the long ramp line for us, because Lloyd has a slip, so in we went, unloaded the boat, and were blown away to see Lloyd break out the machete and start cleaning the fish! Bonus!!!
Not before a few pics, of course….feast your eyes on this goodness!!
We thanked Lloyd some more….really can’t thank the guy enough…and headed home barely able to fit our grins in the car. Definitely a tough day to top, but we know that if we’re gonna have a shot at doing that, we will at least be on the right boat, with the right captain, when we go again!
Happy trails, Lloyd…can’t thank you enough….and can’t wait to do it again!
