Trolling Up Short Ones

After Saturday’s outing, I headed home to spend some time with my wife and I also took an appointment to have the trim looked as well as throttle control installed for the kicker, Monday morning. I must have taken too much sun or something, because I completely forgot that I had a booking for Monday and headed back early that morning, to the lake. I met up with Bobby & Chiko around 7:30 and headed on the water shortly afterwards. The weather was a little cool with the air temps hovering somewhere around 40 degrees under cloudy skies. There was also a brisk wind from the north at 10 knots making it feel even colder. Water temps were higher than the air at 51 degrees in most areas. We began by trolling lead core & planers as well as one downrigger to see if they could catch a few lakers to take home. It was a little slow at first but we eventually hooked into a laker on the planer. Unfortunately it was a little short at 19 inches and had to be released. They have to be a minimum of 19.75 inches in order to be kept and I had to throw their dinner back. At the same time the other planer was reeled in when it acted a little strange and to our surprise there was a short salmon on the spoon too. Both these fish were returned unharmed! We were really washing lures and almost ready to try something else when the downrigger rod started to bounce in the holder. I knew it was a fish on the slider and popped the line out of the release in order for Bobby to fight the fish. Unfortunately, his too was a little short at 19.25 inches and went back to the lake to grow some more. We did this up until about noon and then decided to try something different. They casted jigs and threw minnow baits on points, humps and sandy drop offs to see if they could entice either a trout or a salmon into eating. Bobby had a small salmon come up to the minnow bait and just swirl all around the thing before disappearing to the bottom, 40 feet deep. They did manage to catch some perch & bass, but were unable to contact the trout. We even tried trolling flies for a while but after having to clear too much debris from the lines all the time, went back to casting for a while. There were no more trout to be had today, just bass over 30 & 4o feet of water to show for our efforts. Although it was a crisp day on the water, it was still enjoyable and nobody got hurt!