Guided Fishing!
Make a reservation

Well, we headed out this morning around 7:30 in hopes of battling some of those disappearing landlocked salmon. What we didn’t anticipate though was the weather that we were to be faced with later in the day. After several hours of washing flies in my best niche spot again, I decided that this was the last time I would be fishing the area until next year. The fish just seemed to vacate and I couldn’t locate them anymore. Sunshine, no wind and air temps of almost 50 degrees, along with water temps of 47.5, soon were about to change as the clouds blew in. The winds increased from the S/W at 15 to 20 knots with heavier gusts at times. Prior to this, I had been getting into only bass on the flies over 20 to 30 feet of water and marking plenty of bait & hooks all over the place. Once the weather changed, so did every water column I tried. Somewhere around 2:00 in the afternoon, the skies let loose and we were being pounded by the rains that weren’t in the forecast. Lucky us! We trolled all over the lake and eventually came to an area with gravel, sand & deep water adjacent. I was marking some of the largest marks that I had seen anywhere on the lake when the long line let out a scream. Unfortunately, it also went silent immediately afterwards. If it was one of the hooks I had seen, it was a big fish! I trolled all over this area marking bait and more fish without another touch. I think the boat was spooking some of the fish as I would mark them descending to the depths as I went over the hooks. I might have to go back with planer boards and try once again. We both decided with all this misery that we would call it a day and headed off the lake hoping for better weather tomorrow. Day two wasn’t much better as we had listened to the high winds all night long with heavy rains pounding on the roof. I knew that we would have to fish another smaller lake nearby if we wanted to get on the water at all. Even this lake wasn’t very nice as the waves were 1 to 2 footers in most areas making the launch ramp quite tricky. Although the sunshine was a welcomed treat, the cold air of 37 degrees wasn’t. It actually felt colder today than any other day this spring! Water temps were between 47 & 51 degrees depending where we were. The first rod fired almost immediatey as I ran along a deep to shallow sand bar but I knew by the sound of the reel that it wasn’t what we were after. A smallie of just about 2 pounds was soon being released and I had to de mangle the fly he had eaten. The next time the reel fired the lines were over 37 feet of water and by the feel of this fish, it was big. Eventually after dogging down deep for the entire battle, we were both surprised to see that it was another bass. It didn’t seem to matter if we went deep or shallow, bass were everywhere! Last year around this time I was able to get into at least brown trout fishing the same general areas with the flies. After covering miles of water and only coming up with smallmouth, we cut our losses and headed home. I hate when the bass are coming out of the deep and begin to suspend over deep water and eat the flies. They take too long to make to be destroyed by the bass that quickly. The third and final day of our anniversary weekend would be cut short today as we would be heading home early in the afternoon. The cold winds from the north continued to blow this morning and left a real chill in the air as well as on our bodies. Water temps were 47 degrees and the air was barely 40 when we started our troll. I figured I would go back to the area that I had found a couple of days earlier in the rain and give it a few of passes before I moved on. The bait was still there and so were the big fish hooks, but nobody wanted to eat. I spent almost an hour trolling shallow and deep offerings at these fish only to watch them on the screen do another disappearing act. I knew the next location probably wouldn’t give up anything once again, but still had to give it a try. Here the water temps had really fallen as they too were 47 degrees, down from as much as 55 a week earlier. No bait on the break line, only deep hooks and schools of smelt every once in a while. I knew that this area wasn’t going to work out either and only made one pass to keep it honest. I blew out of there and hit the main lake once more looking for the niche. Reels were firing every once in a while but once more the smallies were coming aboard instead of the trout. Some of these fish however were in the 4 & 5 pound range and fought great on the fly rods. I really need the weather to warm up pushing these bass into the shallows where they should be at this time of the year and vacate the deep. I don’t want to go to the riggers quite yet and might have to make some necessary changes next time out in order to get the salmon once more. Looks like a deeper trolling pattern might be in order!!

Guided Fishing!
Make a reservation