Disappearing Niche

Alain & Cindy joined me this morning in hopes of fighting a few salmon on the fly. I too was looking foreword to hearing the reels go again as they had been pretty silent lately! We hit the water after 9:00 and immediately began to troll. The weather was almost perfect with light winds from the W at 5 knots, under sunny skies. The air temps were in the 60’s and expected to climb even higher throughout the day. The only thing that worried me was the storm that we experienced yesterday and the cooler water temps that I was reading this morning. Where I had 51 degrees now read 47 and a drop in temperature usually isn’t a good thing. For almost 2 hours we trolled without a touch, although fish & bait were present all over the place. When I had just about enough, I called it quits on this area and decided to try somewhere else, hoping for better results. My wife Christiane was to join us around noon, seeing as how she was up for our anniversary weekend. I picked her up at the docks on our way by and off we went to the next location. Instead of trolling, I thought we would try casting jigs and minnow baits along the sandy drops in hopes of a hook up. The water was really cold on the main lake points and this definitely played a role in the outcome for today. Well, it finally happened on the next spot! Cindy locked up and the emotions were high until we saw what she had hooked into. Instead of a trout or salmon, she had a smallie attached to the lure and I was not pleased. The 40 plus feet of water should have put out a laker, but not a bass! Apparently, that was all there was in the area as both Alain & Cindy hooked several more on the stick baits. I couldn’t buy a hit from anything other than a perch in these depths and opted for another location change almost immediately. The next area wasn’t any better as the bass just kept coming. Eventually, I switched to the fly rods and trolling once again in hopes of a cruising salmon. Oh we were in the right area as a couple of fish were busting smelt on the surface all around us and I could see by their backs that they weren’t bass. We tried this for quite a while before we ended the day and all we had for our efforts were a few more bass when I swung in too tight and landed over water less than 10 feet deep. Although there weren’t any trout or salmon once again, it was still a better day that yesterday with beautiful weather, and great company. I’ll be back tomorrow with my wife and plan on getting even if « Mother Nature » allows me!!