Planer Bording 101

After a couple of days of R & R I was back on the water again today looking for more trout & salmon. The weather was predicted to rise as high as 83 degrees with heavy winds. Water temps started out at 49 but climbed to 51 by the afternoon under sunshine and W winds gusting at over 30 knots. There was quite a howl on the water to say the least! I began trolling with a fly rod but this time I used the deep line as I was marking fish down in the 20 foot range and wanted to at least be in the zone. After a few unsuccessful passes, I switched up to a spoon on lead core and added a planer board in case they were a little spooky. As luck would have it, I hooked up shortly after and was soon reeling in a 15 inch smallie. Go figure! Power trim problems had me cutting out of this area sooner than expected to meet my wife’s uncle on the other side of the lake. He was looking foreword to possibly getting into a salmon or laker on the fly and met me by 10:00 for a few hours. We ran a couple of deeper lines as the fish were marking down over deep water and hoped it would work. In 2 hours, he managed to land about 10 or more fish, but all smallies coming in from the deep. Oh well, it was still fun! After I dropped him off at the dock, I thought I would get back into trolling spoons on lead core to see if I might locate an area that held fish. It didn’t take long to get a rip on the board, but as with the flies, it quickly went silent. About five minutes later, the reel went off again and this time whatever it was, got hooked up. After removing the in line planer, I realized that the fish, although lethargic seemed heavy. Shortly after, I was slipping the net under a 6 pound laker and thought I was actually onto something. As luck would have it, that was all she wrote! Several more hours of this and I was ready to vacate the lake, but not skunked! This time I had at least managed to land a lake trout that broke the long dry spell. Tomorrow, I will be back on the water again and hopefully a little more successful. I have a feeling the lead core line will produce once again! Tough bite today with the big howl!!