Just got back from a great couple of ½ days of fishing. Mike was putting together a bit of a fishing weekend for a couple of guys and it just kept escalating. I think it was at first going to be with Ryan, one of the buyers of a past Fish’n Canada Princecraft Deck-boat but it ended up being with a whole crew. Our immediate group was Mike and I along with Ryan, Marty, Darren and Grant.

We met after the radio show here at the office and headed out to Picton. This was the wrong weekend to pick though if we wanted low fishing pressure as quintefishing.com  was holding their annual get-together (those boys fish hard) but, we really didn’t care. It was more about the trip and fish would be a bonus. We actually stayed with the Quinte boys at Merland Park and ended up having a blast.

Although the weather was very nice while fishing, once the boat was in gear and on plane, man was it cold!
Saturdays fishing absolutely sucked. As soon as we pulled into the park our buddy Batsey called us and said he just caught one and saw a couple more being landed. Of course after dumping our gear into the cottage and launching the boat, the fishing shut down. Our quick afternoon fish ended up with nothing… oh well. At least I brought a ¾ jar of Peanut Butter, a loaf of bread minus 3 pieces and my Gerber multi tool. Believe me… that went a long way. Marty and Darren were the sandwich production kings (heavily improvising on the water).

We get in and Marty and Darren had to make an “Arkona-911” run to the Liquor Store (we only had about 75 beers and a 40 of rum; that is defined as panic in Marty & Darren’s world) and M&M’s for some grub.

They get back and Molly-Marty dons the oven mitt and proceeds to cook us what may be the best damn grub ever!!! Way to go Mart.

I never told the boys but I knew that we may have some visitors that evening. I was at the get-together a few years ago and met a bunch of great guys. No sooner did we get back and “the fish’n boys” started to come over. Our first guest was Scotty, basically a truck with legs. The dude’s got pipes like the Deseronto Bridge pilings. A bit of an arm wrestler we heard; no doubt. Between Marty the human wall and Scotty the Bridge, I felt pretty insignificant! Well Scott had us roaring from the time he stepped in. I actually remember talking to him 3 years ago and he was hilarious back then too. His story about a famous fishing guy still has the whole park in tears. He actually asked me to get his story to the star and I said the guy wouldn’t believe me so I asked him to write it down. He said sure, put it on the internet if you want… oh yeah…

Scotty, you’re a machine brother. By the way, did anyone there get a picture of Scotty’s booze mug? If so send it to me and I’ll post it here.

I got to talk with one of the boys from the military and man those soldiers are humble. He told me how we pro anglers are the cats ass etc and when I said to him we’re nothing compared to the Armed Forces. He of course said no way we just do our jobs etc etc. Well bud, you’ve been to Bosnia, I’ve been to Duck Lake… I think we know who the hero is!!! Keep up the great work.

We had a bunch of other great guys stop by all of whom I hope had as good a time as us. One special guest I have to mention of course is Pattycakes… a man I, nor anyone else that encounters him would forget. I remember him as well from 3 years ago. The thing about Pattywack is his story telling abilities; second to none, honestly… just ask him (but be prepared for a long one). As an example of hamburger-Patty’s stories longevity, he told me about his infamous “double header” 3 years ago and that story was still going this weekend. Patio Lanterns is one of those guys who garner (actually pretty much demand) a whole rooms attention.
Here’s an example:

Sunday’s fishing was much better (like it could be any worse). Marty and Darren had to leave back to Arkona (quite a haul from Picton), probably had to make it back before the liquor store closed. We got on the water about 8:30 and it didn’t take long to start popping fish. Ryan got the first one which went over 12; Grant got a little 6+; yours truly pulled the lucky straw and wrestled a 14+. We were weighing the big fish on Ryan’s scales and it didn’t seem right so we took Grants fish out of the livewell (yeah Grant kills 6 pluses plus) and Mike and I guessed at 6 or 7 as a ball park. The scale said 5 something. We said no way and grabbed my scale. It went high sixes; Ryans scale was a pound and a half out. All you guys that fished with Ryan in the past and used his scales… he was ripping you off boys! Mikey was next with the catch of the day, a 2 pound $#!-I- hawk (see his blog for the story) so we let him go again and he nailed another 11-12; Ryan was back up and got another way over 10 and Grant finished off with yet another hawg. We were done and off the water after 1pm. That by the way was all done with about 20 bucks of gas in a 200 Optimax as we were trolling Picton bay basically not at all far from Merland.

We loaded up the truck, grabbed roadie coffee’s and a load of “Drive Thru Death” from Mickey D’s.

Ryan, thanks for bringing the boat we all appreciated it & good job on the set-up of the rod holders, they worked great! Marty & Darren, thanks for making the long haul it was a hoot. Mikey, thanks brother, you showed me how to fly a live kite and held it back from picking my eyes out. Grant, thanks for killing yet another prime breeding Quinte Walleye and for not bringing your fly rod. Kev, thanks for the Cohiba… gave everybody in the room lung cancer but at least I enjoyed it! Quinte boys, thanks for the good times… yeah that’s you too Patio!

Bowrod out…