Only Lakers

I headed back on the water this morning with Hugues & Steven hoping for a better fishing day than the previous two. We launched in the cloud & fog, but at least it wasn’t raining and that was a plus. I figured that with the cover of darkness, the bait would be up high and the salmon would be readily feeding on them. Air temps were low 50’s but the dampness made it feel a whole lot colder. Water temps were barely 41 degrees when we set the lines and began the quest for the “Holy Grail.” I realized that if we were going to get bit, I would have to run a little deeper and set two lines down 10 to 15 feet. The third one would be the usual high line as it had been the most productive each year running. Well, the first couple of hours had us marking plenty of bait and numerous hooks, but no takers were had. I decided to switch locations and the move was on! For the next few hours we jumped around plenty covering lots of water and fishing many areas with similar results. It wasn’t until afternoon and a completely different presentation that we actually hooked something. In desperation, I decided to run one downrigger and a couple of boards with lead core and slow down completely. I knew when the rigger popped that it wasn’t a salmon but most likely a lake trout. Steven had wanted to eat fish for dinner and this was going to be just what he ordered. As with all lakers, the battle was over quickly and I slipped the net under a 23 inch meal. The skunk was officially out of the boat and everyone was glad! We continued fishing and shortly after, one of the boards fell back and another laker was on. This one fought even less than the previous one and Hugues reeled the fish in. Once measured, it fell short and had to be released. It was almost 20 inches but fell under the legal size and was returned to, sort of fight, another day! After all this action, we decided to return to the quest at hand and pulled the plug on this area. We were back to faster trolling and hoping for a reel to fire with the show of silver attached to the flies. As with the first part of the day, we covered a lot of water and different areas without a touch. At one point we actually found 50 degree water and I was confident a reel would go off. This was quickly lost as results were the same. In desperation, we even tried fishing the deep drop offs adjacent to shoals in 20 to 30 feet of water. Drop shots & jigs were used, but they only came up with a few bass in the process. Nothing was moving today so we decided to end this painful outing and call it quits. I know that we would have caught loads of lakers had we fished longer where we were, but the plan was for salmon today. I may need to rethink this entire picture until the fish rise up and become active. Lakers aren’t so bad, I guess! Overall a tough and unsatisfying day of fishing but at least some fish were caught in the process and all is good!! I’ll be back and will get even!!!