After trying out a local lake on the weekend with my wife, I was back on the water once again today. Ira, Marcus & Bert joined me in hopes of catching a few fish for their dinner and I knew just the place. By 7:30 we were trolling and well on our way to a very eventful day of fishing. When the first reel went off, it was a little disappointing as the fish only ripped line out and somehow came off for Ira. He did recover though when the second one fired and landed a beautiful 4 pound walleye. I was pretty sure there would be more to come aboard and continued in anticipation for the next one. It didn’t really take long before reels were screaming about every five minutes or less and all were fighting a mix of walleye & northern pike. Two more decent walleye of around the same size were landed before Ira topped all the others with an even larger one of five pounds plus making their total, four in the livewell. This went on for several hours before we relocated to another area nearby when it began to slow. There weren’t any more walleye landed, but there were plenty of pike caught on just about every lure we put down there. Even a few bass were taken in the afternoon when we switched up the day to casting! With the big tournament coming this weekend, there were boats everywhere and that made it difficult to pursue the better spots that I knew. For a change today, the weather was really cooperative with warm temps of 76 degrees and a light N/E wind of 5 to 10 knots. Sunshine was with us pretty much all day with an occasional cloud moving in from time to time. Water temps were around 63 degrees in most areas and on the rise in others. We really couldn’t have planned it better with the way that “Mother Nature” provided this spectacular day on the lake. All in all a very glorious day to be on the water and a few fish were caught as well!!

Well, after an unsuccessful attempt at booking up this week, Norm was back for another round of catch the lake trout! Everyone that was suppose to fish with me for these last outings had to cancel for one reason or the other and I wasn’t ready to head home quite yet. The fishing was just too good and Norm knew it after Monday’s unbelievable numbers day, so we hooked up around the same time and hit the water almost immediately. Although the weather wasn’t anything like it was a couple of days earlier, at least it wasn’t like yesterday’s monsoon and I was thankful for that. We were literally in the clouds with a misty rain falling and the lake blanketed with the foggy cloudlike system. The air temps were in the 50’s and there was no wind when we set the riggers out and began our troll. As with Monday, we had a quick hook up and the first fish of almost 22 inches was soon swimming in the live well for Norm’s dinner. He didn’t take any home earlier in the week and really wanted to try one or two from today. I wasn’t too worried about filling his request as this place was just too easy to fish! Shortly after the first fish I gave him a heads up before we went over the killer zone and he was ready. Just like each troll over this area, the rod popped and Norm was quick on the trigger. This fish however felt a little heavier than most and I thought we might finally have a really good one. To our surprise it was two fish with lips attached to each lure! They were a little shy of the slot size and both of them were returned unharmed. In a few short hours we were able to land at least a dozen of these lake trout and actually had another double header on the same rod once again. I kept one more trout due to the hook job as I was pretty sure it wouldn’t survive. I was right as it went belly up in the live well shortly after and died. When we had our fill of this, we decided to try casting once again and headed to another area a little further away looking for the browns. Oh they were there, but all we could do was look at them as nothing even attempted to follow our offerings even once. Norm even tried flies for a while with nay a touch! A few lake trout did come up from the deep water and a couple of them were taken on jigs but not the brown trout. They were just uncooperative and I didn’t like it! Off we went to another deep point and Norm hooked a real biggun from over 20 feet of water and I thought he might finally have one of those ghost browns. When it was close enough to the boat I caught a glimpse of the fish and it was definitely brown. Too bad the brown was the color from a smallie and not a trout as I slid the net under an almost 6 pound fish. A quick pic and back she went to the depths from where she came. She was a big pre spawn female and I didn’t want to interrupt her cycle by keeping her out of the water too long. We had to leave this area after we realized that the only thing here was bass and hit the other side of the lake and colder water. There we were having follows but only from lake trout and after an hour or so of this, just got fed up and also left. I spent close to an hour or so finally refining Norm’s fly casting skills enough for him to feel comfortable in his ability to present the fly and then we went back to lake trout trolling for the last hour of the day. This fishing is just too easy as we landed another half dozen lakers and missed several others before we called it a day. The last hoorah saw us leaving the lake around 6:30 P.M. totally satiated with the day’s outcome and Norm finally felt good casting with a fly rod. Overall a really great day despite the messy start in the clouds and plenty of fish were caught.

Norm was back for some more punishment today, but this time he was the punisher. We began our day shortly before 8 and were into the first laker less than 5 minutes after we set the lines out. I had just slid over one of my open water humps and told Norm to get ready because he was about to get hit. Five seconds later he jumped on the rod as it popped from the rigger and a 19.5 inch lake trout was soon being landed. All he could do was shake his head in utter disbelief as the fish hit right on cue! We weren’t only blessed with cooperative fish, but it actually looked like “Mother Nature” might give us a break today as well. Sunshine and light N winds along with temps in the upper 60’s were what we were going to be seeing and many fish too. In the next couple of hours there were a half dozen lakers landed and several other releases and lost fish along the way. Unfortunately with the north winds seemed to come the short fish and they all had to be released. The winds kicked up a little bit more and we were receiving a cold air now, shutting the fish down completely where we were trolling. I decided to try other areas closer to the wind blown shoreline, where I had seen the brown trout only a few days earlier. Norm wanted to practice his fly casting skills and decided to break out the fly rod and see what he could come up with. I threw a tiny minnow bait jig along the deeper breaks looking for those cruising trout as Norm worked over the mid depths searching for the active cruisers. Both of us had a few follows and I think I may have had a couple of trout hit as I casted to some of the browns I saw swimming. Unfortunately neither of us were able to get into any of them and all we could come up with were perch & rock bass along with an occasional bass. The winds kicked up a little more than we both wanted along this shoreline and I decided to switch lake sides to avoid the chilly air and see if we might be able to hook up over there. As with before, all we were able to accomplish on this side were followers once again and decided to give trolling another shot before we called it a day. Follows are great if you are a musky fisherman, but I want lips attached to my hooks! Apparently trolling was the ticket as Norm got into at least another half dozen or more trout once again and we even had a double header at one point too. In this batch of fish there were a few legal sized lakers up to 22 inches and I live welled them for Norm to take back home at the end of the day. By 5:30 we were calling it quits but not before we had another release and landed just one more. Norm decided that he wasn’t going to bring the fish home after all, so we released the lake trout after a couple of quick pics and were on our way. This day was full of action and he really got to see the riggers in operation before we head to Lake Ontario this summer in hot pursuit of the mighty King Salmon. Overall, a pretty good day with the weather holding out for us, this time!!

Frank & John accompanied me the first day on the lake for another shot at some trout. We hit the water around 8:00 and began our troll from the deep, in hopes of some action. Unfortunately after a couple of hours of washing lures all we had to show for our efforts was one small salmon from the cheater and another missed fish from the same rig. Fortunately, the weather was nice with cloud & mostly sun all day. Winds were out of the N/W at 5 to 10 knots with some gusts in the afternoon. Air temps were around 70 degrees and the water temps were up to a max of 55 degrees in certain areas with 51 to 53 on the open lake. We switched up in the afternoon and casted some jigs and minnow baits along the breaks and drop offs in hopes of a laker or two, but only had follows. They did hook all kinds of other things though as perch, rock bass, pickerel and an occasional bass fell victim to the offerings. By 4:30 we had seen enough and decided to call it a day. Tomorrow is another day and I think I will be trying another lake in hopes of better fishing! Well, day two on the other lake proved to be the right choice. This was only the second nice day of the season so far with sunshine, no wind and highs in the 70’s. It was picture perfect! Water temps were between 56 & 58 degrees, based on where we were but the fish were on. We began throwing jigs and minnow baits for the trout but only managed follows and an occasional bass. There were a couple of huge northern pike that were interested in our offerings as well, but they too just followed. In one area, we saw a bunch of big brown trout mixed in with suckers and that got our adrenaline going. We casted to them but never got their attention and decided we would try a troll with the boards. I decided this when I actually got a look at one that definitely went over ten pounds! We ran a tiny minnow bait on the closest shore board and a fly on the next lead core board on the inside. On the outside lead, we ran a spoon and made one pass through the shallows. The inside board went back as the reel began that lovely sound and caught a two headed perch on the minnow. It turned out that John reeled in a perch on each treble making it look like two heads and one fish. We tried another pass and caught one more perch sending us out to deeper water in hopes of finding some trout there. I switched up the lures and sent a rigger down as well when we hit open water and the deep board went off soon after. Frank reeled in a decent laker of over 22 inches and we were pumped! We spent several more hours trolling this area and managed to get into another 5 lake trout before we called it quits. We also lost 3 or 4 others with a couple of them seeming quite heavy before the hooks pulled free. I think I know where I will be tomorrow and I know there won’t be any argument from the others after a day like this!! Day three and oh what a day it was! We began by casting jigs and lures along the breaks where we had seen the large brown trout yesterday but only came up with perch, rock bass & smallies. Although we did see several trout along our travels, we were unable to lock up on any of them. The weather was a carbon copy of the last two days with high sun and 70 plus degrees. Light winds from the south aided in not frying as we fished and it actually felt good. Frank & John’s arrival was definitely the start of this warm trend & I hope when they leave today that they don’t take it home with them! They wanted to take home a fish or two & I knew our best chances would be trolling so I set the riggers and began. I don’t think we had gone 5 minutes when a rod popped & Frank was into a big fish. He fought it almost all the way to the boat before it came unpinned. I hate the unknown! Shortly after he grabbed another rod that popped and we thought it was also a big fish only to see that it was two lakers with one on each spoon. We managed to get into fish for the next 3 or 4 hours and several of them were 22 to 24 inches in length making them above the legal size for keeping. I had one planer out that had accounted for a couple of earlier lake trout and the reel began to scream. I mean it really went out and I was sure it was a big fish too! John grabbed this one and after a couple of minutes we realized that it wasn’t a laker. I was eventually able to slip the net under a beautiful rainbow that went about 4.5 pounds. What a bonus fish that was and John was surely going to bring this one back with him! The total for today was at least 12 or more lakers and a rainbow with several others lost or false released. This was the perfect end to a perfect three days for them and I’m sure they are going to miss the action when they head home tomorrow morning. The fishing has finally gotten good and I can’t wait to get back on the water again!!

Back to the lake I went this morning but this time I was joined by Mathieu & his father, Alain. It was his birthday & his son was treating him to a day of fishing as his present. I wasn’t sure what we had in store for today but it began partly sunny and that was a welcomed treat. The air temps were in the low 40’s and the winds were almost non existent when we started our troll. Water temps were still cool at 51 degrees as we set out the 2 lead core lines on planers and I also dropped a rigger down seeing as how we were three in the boat. It really wasn’t fast & furious as we washed lures for quite a while before we had a drive by on one of the boards and the reel screamed out drag. They usually don’t get off on these set ups and I wasn’t impressed! I covered plenty of quality water looking for a taker but never managed to have one cooperate. Although we were marking plenty of fish, there really wasn’t much bait in this area today. Previous outings in the same location had huge pods of baitfish showing up all over the screen along with many fish hooks. Today wasn’t one of those days though and I decided to try another area when the weather looked like it was getting dark over our heads. So much for sunshine as we were surrounded by clouds and the onset of showers were imminent! The next area was loaded with bait and there were lots of fish holding above the pods, giving me a little more confidence to troll here. While we trolled, we started to get rained on and then a reel went off. I knew it had to be a trout as we were over 100 feet of water and the line was down less than 20. Alain reeled in the fish and I unclipped the planer so that he could fight the fish without the board. As bad luck would have it, the fish took to the air close to the boat and came unpinned. I’m not sure if it was a salmon or a rainbow but I know it was at least 3 pounds or more. I circled around and tried another pass just to keep it honest, but nada. We continued to cover water in the bay and after we had completed the entire area decided to relocate once again. As we were reeling in the lines, I found that there was a small salmon on the cheater spoon. I have no idea how long it had been there, but it dashed off when released. Rain was falling and a storm was creeping up on us so we decided to run south and see if we could find clear skies. We trolled in sunshine and some clouds and had another reel go off on the board. Alain was now reeling in the first fish of the day but unfortunately it turned out to be a bass. After a while more of this, I thought a change up was in order and had them start casting lures to the deep drops and sandy points. A couple of lakers showed, but none of them wanted to commit to the baits other than an occasional smallie. Another storm was approaching from a different direction and this time it was electrical. I packed up and bolted north trying to outrun its arrival. Eventually, I had to take shelter in a boathouse and just wait it out. Finally, after about 20 minutes or so, the skies cleared and we were able to continue fishing. They were still set up for casting so we tried some deep water edges along cliff walls for unsuspecting trout. As with previous areas, all they could come up with were a few perch and several bass instead of the following lakers. I thought we would go back to trolling and headed to the other side of the lake now that the sun was out and there were blue skies over there. Although I was marking fish, there wasn’t any sign of bait to be had! We trolled for a while and had another reel go off on the shore side and I knew it had to be a laker as that was all I ever caught from this area. As with most other fish today, it also came off when Alain started to reel it to the boat. The entire day was short strikes by every trout we almost had! I made one more attempt at the other side of the lake where we had marked tons of bait and lost the only trout we actually saw. When we arrived though, the waves were 2 & 3 footers and the wind was blowing straight into the bay. This lasted all of about 5 minutes and we called it a day. The ride back was a little bumpy, but nothing like it could have been, because it only got worse after we took out. Although “Mother Nature” had a strange sense of humor today with us constantly dodging storms, it was still decent. Alain will have memories of this bizarre day for a while on yet another birthday!!