I escaped for my second fishing trip of the year this past weekend and again got a first-time salmon fisherman out on the water with me. He didn’t do so well the first day, struck by sea sickness, but days 2 and 3 showed improvement and though the fishing was slow, there was no shortage of excitement on the water! We saw numerous bears scooping up mussles on the shoreline, including a sow with two of the smallest cubs I’ve ever seen. There were more bald eagles than I’ve ever seen there before and I am continually amazed by their size and keen eyesight. The orcas (killer whales) also put on a show for us on Sunday as they seemed to dance all over the water and somehow miraculously not touch a single fishing line. I don’t know how they do it, but somehow in all my years of fishing I have never seen a pod of whales disrupt any fishing gear. I’m sure anglers in Alaska feel differently though with recent reports of whales there that have taken to stealing salmon right off anglers’ lines! So best be on the watch if you are in that area or your salmon may end up like the one in this video.

I see all of this wildlife fairly regularly and continue to be awed, inspired and rejuvenated by it. So if you’re thinking of getting out fishing this summer, stop thinking about it and just do it! You’ll rarely regret getting OutThere! and enjoying all that nature has to offer. Don’t forget to take a friend to help grow the sport, and to check out the RBFF’s Take Me Fishing page.

Well this was it: the 2008 Rio Tinto Alcan Dragon Boat Festival was finally here. As we gathered at the race site on Saturday morning, there was a nervous anticipation in the air. More than 150 teams from across North America had gathered in Vancouver for the biggest dragon boat event in North America. Some of the teams were fun recreational teams full of team spirit, positive attitudes and crazy costumes that included wigs and super-hero capes; others were more serious competitive teams that had trained hard all year for this weekend with an intense mix of dry-land training and on-water practices. It was a fantastic weekend of festival fun and on-the-edge-of-your-seat racing that was capped off by the Guts & Glory race. The top 16 placing teams of the event (including that of yours truly - yay team!) competed in this 2000 metre race - the equivalent of 4 races in 1 - that required sheer determination and grit. Crazy passes, sharp turns and near-collisions excited the crowd as the 16 boats progressed the course. In the end the FCRCC team proved the victors of both the overall event championship and the Guts & Glory competition. Kudos to them and congratulations to my own team for such a great showing this weekend! Go team go! Thanks also to all the crew of 450 volunteers coordinating teams in the racers village, at the marshalling area, down on the docks and OutThere! on the water.

This past weekend marked the 16th annual Painter’s Lodge Women’s Salmon Fishing Derby. Hosted by the great folks at Oak Bay Marine Group, my fishing buddy and I took to the water with almost 100 other women in search of the derby winner. We were skunked on Friday and had a bit of a wild ride back to the dock as we took “Greenies” (waves) over the front and side of the boat…but it was more fun than any roller coaster we’d ever been on! Our guide got a good chuckle out of it as we shrieked and laughed with every wave. Thankfully we were bundled up in our flotation suits that kept us warm and dry throughout the day and protected us from the gallons of water pouring into the boat!

Saturday and Sunday were absolutely gorgeous with calm water, a light wind and beautiful blue skies. Jill caught her first-ever salmon on Sunday and was pretty ecstatic about it as you can see in the photo! We caught another one just a few moments later and then spent the rest of the day taking in the scenery as our fishing weekend came to a close. Chalking up my first weekend of fishing this season as a successful one with nice fish and LOTS of fun, I can’t wait for my next fishing trip in a couple week’s time. Until next time, stay safe on the water and have fun OutThere!

Click here to see more photos from our trip.

I was out paddling last night when a fellow paddler got caught by a bad combination of wind and waves that capsized her boat. Thankfully she was wearing a properly fitted PFD and popped up to the surface right away. She’s not a strong swimmer, but with the assistance of the PFD and another paddler she was able to get her boat flipped back over and haul herself out of the water within a few minutes. Crisis diverted, right? Wrong. It didn’t take long for the effects of shock and hypothermia to set in. With intense shivering and difficulty breathing, she was helped out of the boat, re-dressed in dry clothes and wrapped in blankets. A call to the ambulance and a trip to the hospital later, she is now at home recovering from the incident. She was lucky, though her experience should serve as a reminder to us all to always be prepared for the unexpected and to never underestimate the effects of cold water. It’s worth noting the paddler had just purchased her new MV5801 Deluxe Paddling PFD on Thursday of last week; it sure didn’t take long for it to pay off. Paddle safe and have fun OutThere!

A new dragon boat season is upon us and teams are out practising on Vancouver’s False Creek in preparation for the region’s biggest festival of the year - the Rio Tinto Dragon Boat Festival. Since my team’s practices commenced in February we have endured rain, wind and even snow, all in the effort of having fun and becoming as strong a team as we can be for the festival. Training however is just part of peak performance; the other part is equipment. I figure my part in ensuring my team is well-equipped is to make sure they all have the best new paddling PFD on the market: Mustang’s MV5801 Deluxe Paddling Vest! I wore prototypes of this vest last season as it progressed through its design stages and have to admit that I have completely fallen in love with it. It is without a doubt the most comfortable paddling PFD I have ever worn. The tapered sides allow me to bend and twist, the comfort features on the shoulder straps, waist and armholes keep me chafe-free and the Dri-Lex (R) lining keeps me dry and comfortable all day. I haven’t even gotten to the pockets big enough to fit my camera, keys and pretty much anything else I could ever want to throw in there, the good-looking style lines or the contoured fit yet, but I think I’ve probably boasted about it enough for one day (Plus if I go on anymore I’ll ruin the surprise you’ll have when you try it on for yourself, realize just how comfortable it is and wonder how you’ve ever paddled in anything else.)

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect as I boarded the flight to Orlando a couple weeks ago on my way to the B.A.S.S. Federation Nation Championship. This was my first-ever Federation Nation event and as we presented gift bags to the anglers and presidents on Day 1, the first thing that struck me was the excitement and passion exuding from every individual. These guys love to fish! I love to fish too, but the reason I was there was to make sure everyone knew how to stay safe while doing it.

I have to commend the B.A.S.S. community on their commitment to safety. It was great to speak with so many people that were genuinely interested in how to care for and maintain their inflatable PFDs. In a session with the Federation president’s on Tuesday, Ray Scott delivered a short speech and then my colleagues - Brian Henley and Shane DeWitt – coordinated a re-arming race within the group. The teams had to inflate the PFD, deflate it, re-arm it by replacing the bobbin and cylinder, repack it all up, don it and then inflate it to make sure they had done it all properly. There was some frantic activity and tense moments, but after the dust had settled Chris Lappert of Ohio came out the winner of a competition version Deluxe Inflatable PFD (MD3087 BC) for his efforts on the fastest team.

Later in the day we did a pool demo and dared people to touch the bottom of the pool while wearing a hydrostatic inflatable PFD (MD3183). Not a single person was able to reach the bottom before the PFD inflated and pulled them up to the surface. We had quite a few volunteers (aided by the nice sunny weather) and Gene Gilliland of Oklahoma took it to the next level by jumping into the pool with not only a PFD on, but also all of his clothes! I passed him in the lobby later on in the day as he was making change for the dryer – he had managed to get himself dried off, but his clothes still needed some help!

I highly recommend re-arming races and pool demos to anyone looking to run events promoting lifejacket safety. The interactive nature of the demos helped many people understand (1) how these things actually work and (2) how easy they are to care and maintain for. Many people do not wear a PFD simply because they do not understand them; live demos such as these can help unravel some of the mystery.

Congratulations to Jeff Freeman of Max Meadows, VA on his Federation Nation victory and his berth into the 2008 Bassmasters Classic! The full story of the week’s events and final standings can be found by clicking here.

Not only did I catch some fish this weekend, but I looked pretty while doing it. I thought the FisherGirl Team looked so good in their hot-pink inflatable PFDs that I decided I just had to have one of my own! I would even venture to say I was the best looking girl out there on Sunday (okay, maybe I was the only girl out there, but I still looked good).

This past weekend was possibly my last fishing trip of the season so I took Friday off work and tried to make the most of it. Friday was foggy, cold and rough - a perfect day to be bundled up in my Integrity bomber jacket - and my dad and I dragged the lines around for four hours before calling it a day and heading back home with no fish in the box. The up-side of that is that we had no work to do when we got back to the dock as no fish caught means no fish to clean! Saturday and Sunday presented huge improvements in weather as the fog disappeared, the water calmed down and we were bathed in sunshine both days. The fishing was still a bit slow, but we got lucky and managed to add some serious poundage to our total catch this season as I brought in a 27 lb. spring salmon and my dad caught another weighing in at 20 lb. Now I’ll let you in on a little secret: I almost lost my dad’s fish on him. His was a fighter and as it threw its head back and forth and skimmed across the top of the water, I dove for it with the net and…missed. Bad things can happen when you miss netting the fish. I could see the trailing hook dangling dangerously close to the net; if that hook caught on the net and the fish threw it’s head, it would have popped the leader and left two disappointed anglers watching it swim away free. Lucky for me, the hook didn’t catch, I made another dive at it and, even luckier for me, the fish turned and swam right into the net. Together we hoisted it into the boat and I breathed a huge sigh of relief that I hadn’t cost my dad his catch!

So as I wrap-up another fishing season, I have to thank my dad for being such a good guide and steering me onto so many big fish this summer. Even if we hadn’t caught anything, it’s just great to be OutThere, but it really is so much more fun when you have big fish to brag about afterwards! I hope all you other anglers are having successful seasons too, and that you’re staying safe on the water with your Mustang PFDs.

A day on the water beats a day in the office, especially when the fishing is as hot as it is right now. My dad and I set off in search of chinook salmon earlier this week, off the west coast of Vancouver Island. We didn’t have to wait long for the action to start and within an hour had hooked our first big fish of the day. Unfortunately I lost it at the boat when it threw its head around and popped the hook before we could net it. “It was a small one anyway,” we told ourselves as we rebaited and put the lines back in the water.

We didn’t have to wait long before we hooked our next one and we only had to wait five minutes before I lost that one at the boat too. I will admit, I was getting a bit frustrated at this point. My dad however was very supportive and assured me that it had been a smaller one too. So back into the water went the lines again as we continued our pursuit for that trophy salmon.

Then all of a sudden one of the rods started hammering and the line started screaming off the reel. This had to be a big one! It almost emptied the reel of line before we were able to get our other lines up and start chasing after him. Sheer panic set in when my fingers somehow got caught in the line coming off the reel. The first thought was about losing my fingers as the loop around them tightened and the fish continued to peel the line out, and the second thought was about losing the fish if the line broke around my fingers. I quickly managed to free my fingers only to see the line catch on the knobs on the reel. “No!” I screamed as I worked furiously to free the line. Then I felt slack line and got a sickening feeling in my stomach. I started reeling so fast that my arm and wrist started to cramp up. Finally I felt some good tension in the line again and breathed a sigh of relief that I hadn’t yet lost this one too. As the minutes ticked by and both fisherman and fish started to tire out, my dad got the net ready and I started easing the fish towards the boat. I did a little jump for joy when we finally netted the fish and pulled it into the boat - this really was a big Chinook, tipping the scales at 29lbs!

Re-energized, we threw the lines back out and hooked another one near my favorite spot that weighed in at 18lbs. It was an amazing day with clear skies, calm water, no wind and lots of fish, and I returned back to work the next day with plans for my next fishing trip already in place.