Although I have been on the water over the last week, there hasn’t been anything significant to report until today. The water temps had been fluctuating along with the weather patterns messing up the fishing completely. This morning, Jean & I hit the lake early and were hooked up in under a minute! We didn’t even have the second line in the water when the reel started screaming. Oh yeah! The air temps were barely above the freezing mark and with the 10 to 20 knot winds from the north, it felt oh so much colder. This was the first time this year that I actually trolled while wearing gloves. The water temps were barely 43 degrees and clouds surrounded us throughout the morning, but the bite was on. We managed to miss the first fish but had another shot moments later as the other reel fired and Jean was officially locked up. This was his first salmon and also the first time he trolled with fly rods too. It fell slightly short of the legal size and we had to release it back into the lake but were rewarded with another rip only moments later. I knew that this had the makings of an incredible numbers day and only hoped that we would be able to get into a few legal ones for him to take home. As luck would have it, the next one was a half inch over and the skunk was officially out of the boat! This was the way the rest of the morning was going to play out as reels were going off almost every 15 minutes or so. It didn’t seem to matter what depth we were trolling as hits were coming from as shallow as 10 feet to as deep as 120 feet. They were hungry and feeding everywhere! There were another couple of fish around the same size added to the livewell and plenty of short ones released before we opted for a move. By now it was mid afternoon and the bite had slowed with the sun coming out. Strangely enough I would have thought it would have had the opposite effect and triggered them even more but I was wrong. It had sent the bait down as well as the salmon and our bite was over. We relocated to the other side of the lake and hoped the wind blown shoreline might have active fish. This wasn’t the case as we trolled a lot of water and only came up with a few bass over 20 to 60 feet of water. It seemed that they too were all screwed up and apparently suspended over the depths we were in. By 5:00 we had seen enough and were still freezing with the north winds and 2 to 3 foot waves we were in, so we called it a day. Nothing to be ashamed of today as we had finally managed to break the bad luck barrier I had been having lately with the salmon and finished with an incredible day. Jean too had seen what the fishing should be like while salmon fishing for active fish by playing with over 20 of these silver bullets. I might just have to search for more first timers as they seem to have better luck than the ones that have already experienced this spectacular fishing! I can’t wait to get back out!!

It definitely showed signs of the weekend as boat traffic was once again at an all time high! Along with the boats were the non courteous fishermen and trolling in certain areas, was next to impossible. On the first pass through, I had to give way to someone who was almost running my lines over from behind. We’ll call him bubble boy as he was practically in the prop wash. I actually had to make a wide outside turn allowing him to pass through the area first and to make matters worse, they landed a tiny salmon. We were close enough to realize that the fish wasn’t legal but that didn’t seem to matter to them as into the cooler it went. I guess some people have different rules! We too hooked up almost immediately when I went full circle and finally came around to where we needed to be. Unfortunately, ours was also too short at just over 15 inches and back it went. With the cloud cover surrounding us I knew the fishing would be difficult and after a few passes without any results, we decided to relocate. Water temps were pretty low at the start but eventually warmed to just over 47 degrees by the afternoon. Light winds from the south had Warren & I relocating to another area in hopes of better fishing down the lake. It didn’t take long to realize that the fish were lethargic and casting jigs instead of trolling was what we were to be doing on this deep water shoal. I think it was on about the 5th cast that we hooked up and the move was looking pretty good. Unfortunately this was a perch and nothing to get excited about. A few bass were caught afterwards and I was contemplating another move when a nice lake trout of over 6 pounds inhaled the jig. For a laker, it fought pretty good on light tackle and into the livewell for later pics it went. We tried to cover this area a little more but soon had to leave when 3 other boats decided to move on in. You gotta love the weekend! After this, we bounced around plenty and changed up our methods often with fly rod trolling, planer boards, down riggers and a little more casting before we just decided to call it a day. Nothing was working and in the last area we decided to fish we were cut off once more as the boat coming at us decided to pull a “U Turn” in order to get ahead of us and troll where we were heading. Although it wasn’t a great day we still managed to get into many fish and some quality ones as well. Neither one of us wanted to take the lake so after a few pictures, we released it back to the lake. Catch & release still exists for some fishermen and although I’ll never begrudge someone from taking home a few fish, there are still rules to follow. I hope the person that kept the short salmon this morning finally gets what he deserves too!!

After a few days at home, I was back on the water again today for another shot at those hateful creatures. I arrived yesterday afternoon to 15 cm. of fresh snow from the storm on Tuesday and spent the first couple of hours cleaning off the boat and shoveling my way in. I don’t think I had used a shovel since January! Alain, Cindy, Jean Pierre & Nadia were joining me today and I really thought with all those lines in the water that the fish didn’t have a chance. Oh how wrong I was! I realized quite early that it was going to be a real challenge as the water temps had dropped almost 10 degrees since I was here last. Although we were in sunshine the temps never got above 60 degrees & with a 15 to 20 knot wind from the N/W, it felt even colder. We began with the fly lines and I hoped that with 4 rods going we would figure them out. In two hours of trolling, we had one drive bye & Nadia landed a salmon of just over 16 inches. Oh yeah, Cindy also landed a fish but it was a smallie of around 3 pounds on the deep line and quickly released. I figured that after 3 hours of painful trolling we would try something a little different and went to the riggers and boards. Jean Pierre got a hold of another salmon on the shallow board and unfortunately we had to release it as it was barely over 15 inches and too short. Things were really looking like the fish were going to win this one as one of the riggers got hit hard causing the rod to bounce several times. It didn’t release however as I still had the tension set for kings from last summer. All we had to show for this was a lost spoon and a little heartbreak! With only a couple of hours left we decided to go back to the fly rods and managed only one more hit as Alain landed a small, legal rainbow trout. Although we continued to troll a little longer, we only had another drive bye and called it a day. We managed to catch a few fish, but it wasn’t easy with the sudden drop in water temperature today. Hopefully with the warm weather in the forecast for this weekend, it will climb back to where it was a few days earlier making the fish a little more cooperative and easier to catch. I really don’t want to have to go for lakers once again! Salmon are the target and I’m sticking to it!!!

Well Norm was back for some more niche action today and this time he brought Buddha along. Another chilly morning soon gave away to 60 plus degrees with the aid of sunshine. Water temps were still between 43 & 49 degrees depending on where we were & winds were light & variable. We were bound & determined to make this day a skunkless one after the beating the fish had put on us, on our last trip. It wasn’t looking too good as we had been trolling for over an hour with nothing but leaves, twigs & debris to show for our efforts when one of the rods fired scaring the crap out of both of us. I guess we weren’t ready! Unfortunately it was a short fish of around 15 inches and was released immediately. More hate and pain for several more hours with just a few brown fish and then another reel fired in the afternoon. Once again it shocked both of us but this time it felt a little more substantial in size as it sounded for the depths of open water. I really thought we had a decent fish until it showed at the boat. Another skippy slightly larger than the first one was what we had and it too was released unharmed. More hours of nothing and a couple of drive byes were all we were to have for the remainder of this day & we called it quits around 4:30. Although it was still tough, at least we weren’t skunked today. I really hate that creature and hope it never shows again!!

Well after an unsuccessful journey to a northern Quebec lake for niche yesterday, the “Holy Grail” was not found. Norm & I had our first skunk ever! Apparently there’s a lot more nothing when searching for trophy landlocks too! Today however I was back on home water with great expectations for a much better day. Frank & Stephanie were joining me for a couple of days and boy did they pick them! Bluebird skies and temps that reached 70 degrees were joined by no wind making this feel more like May. With water temps in the upper 40 degree range I was sure we would score with the flies & locked up in a mere 10 minutes. Frank battled the fish for a while as I cleared the other lines and somehow it came unpinned right near the boat. A nice salmon of at least 18 inches was soon a memory. I couldn’t even return to see if there were more as the boat traffic was just insane. Hook up and they flock like flies to %$@#! Many more hours passed with us just washing flies and nada. We relocated to another area and after unsuccessfully hooking into only bass, we returned to the scene of the crime to try again. Fortunately all the traffic had cleared and I was able to troll the fly rods like I needed and my favorite reel went off. The 5wt. had managed to hook a real beauty and Frank was awakened from a dead sleep to battle another one. What a fight too as it made plenty of leaps and several screaming runs before I was finally able to net this 22 inch beauty. She was all of four pounds and the skunk was officially out! Unfortunately this was all we were to see as the day finally ended. The second morning saw similar conditions with slightly cooler air temps at the start, but in the 60’s by the end. Franks son David joined us along with Stephanie once again to try for more salmon. We began in overcast skies, but sunshine soon greeted us as the day progressed. The best thing however was the absence of boats. The pack had really thinned out today allowing us a more comfortable troll. North winds of 5 to 10 knots and water temps in the lower 40’s began our day and it was slow. We were marking plenty of hooks and piles of bait in certain areas but nothing was moving. After several hours of this and just one drive by I decided to change up our location as well as the tactics. We casted smelt like jigs to deep sand edges and rock shoals and it didn’t take long before a nice lake trout was hooked. It may not have been the salmon that we were targeting but at least it was a trout and we were all happy to see it. As with before, it was to be our last hookup other than those brownies and we headed out once more. It was also going to be our last trout of the day as we went back to washing flies once more. Several more hours of marking bait and hooks and no more takers! Although it wasn’t the most successful 2 days of fishing, at least it wasn’t painful. The weather was just spectacular for the end of April and we actually caught a few fish. Who could ask for any more??