The Big Finish

Mike & Corey drove in from Montreal this morning, hoping for their very first lake trout catches. We began our day literally in the fog as the water was engulfed in a massive fog bank. It was so thick that I was afraid to run too far, even with quality GPS. Without radar I wouldn’t be able to see what might be in front of me and that was a little scary. We managed to get a few miles up the lake and I decided to set the lines and start trolling regardless of where I was. The water was deep enough and that was all that mattered for now! Eventually a rigger rod started to bounce and Corey was on it right away for the release. I could tell by the bend that it would be a smaller fish and once in the net knew it would be released. Before it was returned, the other rigger rod did the same and Mike was on it as quickly. Another laker of 19.5 inches was also returned shortly after and we had our first official double header for the day. I wasn’t seeing too much on the sonar and decided to cross over to the other side, to try & find better action. At over 250 feet, a rigger popped and Mike was all over the rod like cat on a mouse. I could tell by the excess weight that this was a much bigger fish and cleared the other rigger rod and cannon balls just in case. It felt like dead weight as he brought it up from the 60 foot depth I had it set at. Once we actually caught a glimpse of the fish I knew it was the largest one by far this season. I even opted for the bigger net just in case! It was massive by comparison to the ones I was use to seeing and estimated close to 10 pounds. Mike had not only caught his first laker before but now had a trophy for this lake as well. We were planning on releasing the fish due to its size but soon found out after removing the hook that she was bleeding profusely. I tossed her in the livewell and pumped water through hoping for better results, but it was not to be. We immediately went back to trolling and the lines were reset, looking for more. We picked at them pretty good for a while and had two more in the livewell that were both over 23 inches, but things had slowed. I figured I would need to cover different water and moved over to a new location. We trolled along a shallower breakline of 100 feet as a rigger popped. Immediately the other one fired and as luck would have it, the board went off as well. We had a triple header! Corey’s fish came to the boat first and I could see that it was an under, so I told him to take the board rod instead. Mike’s fish was acting strange and almost felt like the earlier monster that he had caught over 250 feet of water. It had some weight! We were soon to find out why when we saw that the hook was imbedded in the back causing it to feel much heavier. It too was an under and released. Corey’s fish on the leadcore & board was to be the only over and a 23 incher was released into the livewell. Wow, we had gone from 7 fish, right up to 10 in a few short minutes. Talk about pumped! After this fire drill, I definitely wanted to make another pass through the area. I reset all the lines and began a turn when a rigger rod fired and Mike brought another 19 inch fish to net, only to be thrown right back. The sun was really high and the lake was flat calm making conditions less than perfect but we were picking at them pretty good, nonetheless. It was a little while later before we were to put another fish in the box, after a few smaller ones were filtered through. They were to be taking home their limits for sure and had a blast fishing for them all day. Total count landed for today was 15 and a few others were lost as well. Based on what I actually was marking, it was only a small fraction of what we should have caught. The screen was lit up big time with both fish arches as well as plenty of bait fish balls. It was one of those picture perfect days as no wind and sunshine was what we had to endure all day long. Who could have asked for more!!!