Captain Bill Barnaby

Captain Bill Barnaby made his debut as a sports fisherman when he was only 3 years old and living in the Niagara Region. He fished the mighty Niagara River, Lake Ontario, Lake Erie, and the Kawartha lakes with his father Captain Ed Barnaby, famous auto mechanics teacher.

In Captains Bill’s early teen years, he started his career in downrigger fishing with mentor and close family friend Noel Griffith. He is well known and a proven tournament angler who has won both American and Canadian large prize derbies. Captain Bill still keeps in close contact with Noel even today, to discuss fishing strategies and techniques.

Captain Bill and his father Ed Barnaby made it a tradition to fish the vast Atlantic Ocean every summer and March break down in the Florida Keys preferably in the Gulf Stream . During these fishing adventures, both inshore and offshore, Captain Bill honed his deep water fishing skills for Wahoo, King Mackerel, and all species of Bill fish including the world famous Sailfish. Captain Bill also learned about all aspects of fishing in all types of conditions from many charter boat captains and mates in the Florida Keys.

While serving the United States Armed Forces (U.S.A.F.), Captain Bill fished in many states including Texas , Mississippi , Colorado , and Florida’s west coast. The species ranged from fresh water Large Mouth Bass, to salt water Tarpon, Redfish, Snook, Grouper, Amberjack, and large Bull sharks

After the U.S. Air Force Captain Bill moved to Huntington Beach California to pursue his dream of being a charter boat captain on the Pacific Ocean . Captain Bill started off working as a mate on 3/4 day party boats and worked his way up to illusive and luxurious 10-15 multi day long range sportfish boats going deep along the Baja Peninsula of Mexico. Once there, Captain Bill honed his skills by experimenting with all different deep sea sportfishing techniques, that included catching monster Wahoo, Yellow and Bluefin Tuna, Striped Marlin, Sailfish, Yellowtail, Short Bill Spearfish, Black and White Sea Bass, and many more species that inhabit the coastal and offshore waters of Southern California , Channel Islands , and Baja Mexico .

In the off seasons, Captain Bill worked on commercial long liners and seiners with destinations as far as the international dateline west of Hawaii, catching enormous size Swordfish, Tuna and Sharks. The cargo area of these boats would hold up to 100 tonne of fish. Once again Captain Bill fine tuned his fishing skills to a level that yielded him large numbers of pelagic fish so that the boat and crew earned healthy paychecks at the end of each trip. Captain Bill has logged well over 10,000 hours in the high seas and has seen many outstanding sea phenomena that very few in the world ever see.

From these experiences, Captain Bill earned his U.S. Coast Guard 100 tonne masters license. But in the mid 1990’s, Captain Bill returned to Toronto, Canada and started a charter service Reel Release here in Lake Ontario. With all the skills and knowledge that he gained in the USA, he has had huge success in Lake Ontario. He has caught record size and quantities of Salmon and Rainbow trout that resulted in tournament winnings both in the U.S. and Canada.