Bobby was back to fish with me again today and this time he brought along Sam and his son David as well. I knew that I was going to have a good day as it’s the “kid factor” rule! The weather was looking a little mixed up with sunshine giving way to heavy clouds and some of them were rather dark. Winds were from the S/W at 5 knots at best and the air temps were almost 50 degrees at the start. Water temps were between 51 & 53 degrees on the open lake as we began our troll. With all the bodies in the boat today I was planning on running 2 boards and 2 riggers to cover the depths efficiently. It took me a little while to get all the rods out and once I was where I wanted to be, the inside board started to fall back when the reel went off. I knew it was a laker and passed the rod to David for the fight. He reeled like it was Moby Dick and eventually brought a 22 inch trout to the net. This was his largest trout to date as his father usually takes him fishing for brookies on their lake up north. This also broke a long dry spell of short lakers for me and I was happy about that too! We had one other release on the rigger a little later and unfortunately that was all for the trolling. I switched up to casting breaks to see if they might be in shallower along the drop offs and managed to have several follows. They were curious, but not enough to actually commit to hitting the jigs and baits we were throwing. I really wanted to teach David how to cast a spinning outfit and ran him through all the basics involved. After 10 or 15 minutes he was casting like a champ and ready to graduate from his spin-cast outfit back home. I guess he will be receiving a new rod & reel soon! Sometime in the early afternoon, we had to make a dash for cover when I heard thunder in the distance. I never chance being in open areas when there’s electricity in the air and managed to take shelter in a boathouse nearby. We took this time to eat lunch and wait out the heavy rains that came along with the storm. Eventually, we were able to get back on the water and began casting once again. Although we were catching a few fish here & there, they weren’t what we were looking for. Bobby hooked several perch, a couple of pike and a bass here & there as we fanned out over a deep sand point looking for another laker. By 3:30 P.M. they were ready to call it a day as Sam had to be somewhere by six and they had a long drive ahead of them. A few quick pics of David & his catch and they were on their way with the little guy providing dinner for his family. Overall a good day with plenty of fish landed and one happy little boy!!!

Well, Norm & I were back at it once again this morning and we were going in hard! I knew we wouldn’t have much company on the lake today as we were the only trailer at the launch. I thought we would try a different area in hopes of better fishing and more active fish. Although it poured rain all night, we were fortunate to have only overcast skies this morning with no wind at all. Air temps were barely 45 degrees but the water was in the upper 50’s and this looked promising. We were loaded for bear and planned on trying it all! From planers and riggers to all densities of fly rods, we pretty much had everything, including the kitchen sink! This was to prove to be more work than it was worth as it didn’t seem to matter what we put in the water, they all caught fish. The planers & lead core managed to get perch, pickerel & bass from over depths as much as 40 feet. The riggers caught bass & perch and the fly rods also caught the mixed trio along with several rock bass thrown in just for laughs. When we worked the boards, we were marking all kinds of fish and giant schools of baitfish literally everywhere. I was shocked to see that we came through this, untouched! I even trolled the fly rods on a deep line off the edges of the humps in open water and had a couple of reels fire only to land one small bass and an obviously lost chain pickerel. The winds had kicked up in the afternoon, blowing 10 to 15 knots from the south and creating some nice waves in the process. The weather also changed and put a misty rain on us, making it all that more enjoyable. After a while of fishing where the fish were, I decided to try another area in hopes of better results. We had several more reels go off on the boards & lead core, but as with before they were either perch or bass. The bait I was marking was insane in this trench and should have been surrounded by literally every fish in the area. I did have plenty of hooks marking, but they weren’t taking anything we put down. All we could catch were perch, pickerel & bass once more and that was just frustrating. In the end, I just figured I would troll all the way back to the ramp and that I did. Oh we did stop in a few areas to throw jigs and minnow baits on sloping drops but as with every other area today, nada! We stuck it out till about 6:30 and finally decided to call it a day. As luck would have it, a little too long as we finally got poured on, while on our way back to the ramp. Just when you think it can’t get any worse, Mother Nature thrown a curve ball at you and does this! The perfect end to a perfect day, I guess!!

Norm & I decided that a little rain forecasted for today wasn’t going to deter us from hitting the lake once again. We hooked up around 7:30 and were fishing shortly after. He was use to the fly rod trolling but had never seen the planer boards in action, so we were going to troll lakers for a while this morning. With winds from the south around 10 knots and very overcast skies it should be perfect for the boards. Although the air temps were to reach a max of 48 today, it felt a whole lot colder than it actually was and we felt the chill too. I ran one board and dropped a rigger down with a slider to cover more water columns and began to wash lures. The first trout to come in was on the cheater when I saw the rod bouncing in the holder and Norm was officially on his way. It didn’t fight like the salmon he was use to getting on the fly rods, but it was still a blast. Unfortunately, it had to go back as 19.25 inches was all she measured again. The next fish came on the lead core and ripped some line from the reel on the initial hit stirring Norm up a little. I think it sounded more like the fly reels and he definitely liked that! This one was also to measure a little short and back it went once more. The third & final trout fell victim to a tight turn between someone’s large tie off float and the shoreline and really ripped line from the reel when the board went back. I thought by the sound that it was going to be a decent fish but was a little disappointed when I saw the size. It once again measured short at 19.5 inches and reluctantly went back to the lake. He had gone 3 for 3 and that was something to be happy about, unfortunately he had nothing to show for the efforts and that sucked. We decided to switch it up a bit and try trolling the fly rods in another area in hopes of a possible salmon or two and bolted to our next spot. After an hour or so of unsuccessful fly washing and constant line checking from all the floating debris, we killed that idea. Now we were going to try casting jigs in deep water with occasional minnow baits thrown in for good measure as well. I can’t tell you how many perch and big perch we caught, but it was unbelievable. I think we stumbled into a herd of them in 30 plus feet of water and yanked them in one after the other. Some guys would have killed to have this and probably harvested the entire school for dinner, but not us. We were after bigger fish to fry! Although we didn’t land any more trout, I’m sure by the feel of some of the fish we had hooked up to, there’s a good possibility they were lakers. The bite was really off today with all this weather and seemed to have the fish in a real lethargic state. We did catch several good size bass in the mix too and from the depth they were coming from, there wasn’t really any fight involved. An off & on misty rain fell throughout the day and kept the skies really dark and dreary but we stuck it out till after five. Overall a little slow, but it sure beats sitting on the couch!

After Saturday’s outing, I headed home to spend some time with my wife and I also took an appointment to have the trim looked as well as throttle control installed for the kicker, Monday morning. I must have taken too much sun or something, because I completely forgot that I had a booking for Monday and headed back early that morning, to the lake. I met up with Bobby & Chiko around 7:30 and headed on the water shortly afterwards. The weather was a little cool with the air temps hovering somewhere around 40 degrees under cloudy skies. There was also a brisk wind from the north at 10 knots making it feel even colder. Water temps were higher than the air at 51 degrees in most areas. We began by trolling lead core & planers as well as one downrigger to see if they could catch a few lakers to take home. It was a little slow at first but we eventually hooked into a laker on the planer. Unfortunately it was a little short at 19 inches and had to be released. They have to be a minimum of 19.75 inches in order to be kept and I had to throw their dinner back. At the same time the other planer was reeled in when it acted a little strange and to our surprise there was a short salmon on the spoon too. Both these fish were returned unharmed! We were really washing lures and almost ready to try something else when the downrigger rod started to bounce in the holder. I knew it was a fish on the slider and popped the line out of the release in order for Bobby to fight the fish. Unfortunately, his too was a little short at 19.25 inches and went back to the lake to grow some more. We did this up until about noon and then decided to try something different. They casted jigs and threw minnow baits on points, humps and sandy drop offs to see if they could entice either a trout or a salmon into eating. Bobby had a small salmon come up to the minnow bait and just swirl all around the thing before disappearing to the bottom, 40 feet deep. They did manage to catch some perch & bass, but were unable to contact the trout. We even tried trolling flies for a while but after having to clear too much debris from the lines all the time, went back to casting for a while. There were no more trout to be had today, just bass over 30 & 4o feet of water to show for our efforts. Although it was a crisp day on the water, it was still enjoyable and nobody got hurt!

Mike & his son Ryan joined me today on the lake for another crack at the salmon. The cool air of 40 degrees this morning had me feeling that we might get lucky with the fly rods in a couple of areas. With no wind, I was more concerned with the possibility of debris on the surface but decided to give it a try nonetheless. We made three passes over the first location varying the depths from as shallow as 8 feet to as deep as 100 plus but no takers. Oh we did have a few busting the surface around the boat and they were either rainbows or salmon based on the silver flashes they left behind. The water temps were barely above 50 degrees and I knew it was perfect for what I was doing, but we still only washed flies! I was however marking bait clouds up in the mid range areas and plenty of larger hooks as well. The second location wasn’t much better with plenty of bait marking over deep water but it was all pressed to the bottom and that’s not good. I tried the first pass close in and had a rip almost immediately on one of the high, long lines that went silent as fast as it went off. Damn drive bye! The fly was all rolled when I checked it and back out it went. A little while later another high line also started pumping and line went out once again. We had more frustration with another drive bye leaving us wondering what we had to do to lock up! We couldn’t catch a break and I began getting the other lines ready for planers and a downrigger when a third rip was also had on the high line over 100 feet of water. Three strikes and you’re outa here and so we were! We ran a couple of boards and one rigger over the area that I had caught the two lakers the last couple of days, but only managed a tiny salmon on one of the lines when we were bringing it in. After a long run to our next location, we were casting jigs and ripping lures over open water shoals and only having followers under the minnow baits. Several times, a laker came up behind the lure only to turn and dive back to the depths from where he came from. We did have several fish take the baits however, but as usual they weren’t what we were after. A few of the bass were quite large and we thought they might be trout when they ate the jigs in 20 to 30 feet of water where we had the followers. Another first was had today when Mike hooked into what I thought was a lake trout over 30 plus feet of water on a drop, only to find out that it was a northern pike when I grabbed it with the boga. It took a while to clearly identify the pike as it actually looked like it might have been a muskie at one point. I’ve caught plenty of chain pickerel on this lake before, but never a pike! The winds kicked up in the afternoon and we decided to troll along some of the wind swept shoreline, looking for a possible taker. No trout, but many more other species from perch to pickerel and both smallies and largies. All fish were between 15 & 30 feet of water. What a messed up year this is as the water temps are moving every day with the switch in wind directions. Yesterday I had a strong N wind blowing at 15 to 20 knots and today it went S at 20 plus in the afternoon. No wonder the fish are all over the place with conditions like these!!