I was flying solo today so what a better way to try a few new areas and refine some old ones as well. I began by trolling over deep water looking for either trout or salmon with a tandem streamer. With the cloud cover, I thought they might be high so I ran a long shallow line and hoped for the best. It’s tough with the one rod rule to decide where to begin, but the fish busting smelt close to the boat had me thinking I had made the right decision. The water temps had risen slightly from yesterday’s heat wave and were now 49.5 degrees where I was. The air temps were in the 50’s and expected to reach into the 60’s by days end. The winds had switched overnight and were now blowing at 10 knots from the north. I wasn’t having much luck with the fly so after about an hour or so, I decided to try the leadcore and planer board once again in hopes of changing my luck. Wouldn’t you know it, the board went back and I was tight to another fish in almost the exact area as yesterday. I was pretty sure that it was another laker as I was trolling in about 80 feet of water when the drag went out signaling the fish. Sure enough, I was right and soon slipped the net under a clone of the one I had taken yesterday. I really thought I was onto something and stayed in the area that had produced both trout, for almost 2 hours. Nay another touch was had and I was soon reeling in the line and heading elsewhere in hopes of better luck. I’m sure that if I was able to get another line or two into the water that the outcome would have been different. I had been marking plenty of bait as well as fish marks mostly in 40 to 50 over as much as 150 feet of water. I think I might bring out the riggers next time just to keep them honest! The other areas weren’t as productive on the trout, but there were plenty of smallmouth caught on spoons over about 40 feet of water. I thought that with the clouds, I might be able to get an active salmon by going slightly shallower with the board. Oh how wrong I was as I found out many a time all over the lake. I think the bass also felt the weather change and it seemed like they were out and suspended by the way they ate the spoons. Talk about spoon feeding the fish! Although we did get some sunshine during the afternoon, it was mostly an overcast day and the bite was pretty much off for me on the trout scene. I hope tomorrow will be better as I have a couple of guests and I really want to get back into the fly rod trolling for salmon once again. If not, hopefully there will be more action on the lake trout with the aid of lead core and boards. This time, I will be able to run more than one rod and cover multiple depths by doing so.

After a couple of days of R & R I was back on the water again today looking for more trout & salmon. The weather was predicted to rise as high as 83 degrees with heavy winds. Water temps started out at 49 but climbed to 51 by the afternoon under sunshine and W winds gusting at over 30 knots. There was quite a howl on the water to say the least! I began trolling with a fly rod but this time I used the deep line as I was marking fish down in the 20 foot range and wanted to at least be in the zone. After a few unsuccessful passes, I switched up to a spoon on lead core and added a planer board in case they were a little spooky. As luck would have it, I hooked up shortly after and was soon reeling in a 15 inch smallie. Go figure! Power trim problems had me cutting out of this area sooner than expected to meet my wife’s uncle on the other side of the lake. He was looking foreword to possibly getting into a salmon or laker on the fly and met me by 10:00 for a few hours. We ran a couple of deeper lines as the fish were marking down over deep water and hoped it would work. In 2 hours, he managed to land about 10 or more fish, but all smallies coming in from the deep. Oh well, it was still fun! After I dropped him off at the dock, I thought I would get back into trolling spoons on lead core to see if I might locate an area that held fish. It didn’t take long to get a rip on the board, but as with the flies, it quickly went silent. About five minutes later, the reel went off again and this time whatever it was, got hooked up. After removing the in line planer, I realized that the fish, although lethargic seemed heavy. Shortly after, I was slipping the net under a 6 pound laker and thought I was actually onto something. As luck would have it, that was all she wrote! Several more hours of this and I was ready to vacate the lake, but not skunked! This time I had at least managed to land a lake trout that broke the long dry spell. Tomorrow, I will be back on the water again and hopefully a little more successful. I have a feeling the lead core line will produce once again! Tough bite today with the big howl!!

Well, we headed out this morning around 7:30 in hopes of battling some of those disappearing landlocked salmon. What we didn’t anticipate though was the weather that we were to be faced with later in the day. After several hours of washing flies in my best niche spot again, I decided that this was the last time I would be fishing the area until next year. The fish just seemed to vacate and I couldn’t locate them anymore. Sunshine, no wind and air temps of almost 50 degrees, along with water temps of 47.5, soon were about to change as the clouds blew in. The winds increased from the S/W at 15 to 20 knots with heavier gusts at times. Prior to this, I had been getting into only bass on the flies over 20 to 30 feet of water and marking plenty of bait & hooks all over the place. Once the weather changed, so did every water column I tried. Somewhere around 2:00 in the afternoon, the skies let loose and we were being pounded by the rains that weren’t in the forecast. Lucky us! We trolled all over the lake and eventually came to an area with gravel, sand & deep water adjacent. I was marking some of the largest marks that I had seen anywhere on the lake when the long line let out a scream. Unfortunately, it also went silent immediately afterwards. If it was one of the hooks I had seen, it was a big fish! I trolled all over this area marking bait and more fish without another touch. I think the boat was spooking some of the fish as I would mark them descending to the depths as I went over the hooks. I might have to go back with planer boards and try once again. We both decided with all this misery that we would call it a day and headed off the lake hoping for better weather tomorrow. Day two wasn’t much better as we had listened to the high winds all night long with heavy rains pounding on the roof. I knew that we would have to fish another smaller lake nearby if we wanted to get on the water at all. Even this lake wasn’t very nice as the waves were 1 to 2 footers in most areas making the launch ramp quite tricky. Although the sunshine was a welcomed treat, the cold air of 37 degrees wasn’t. It actually felt colder today than any other day this spring! Water temps were between 47 & 51 degrees depending where we were. The first rod fired almost immediatey as I ran along a deep to shallow sand bar but I knew by the sound of the reel that it wasn’t what we were after. A smallie of just about 2 pounds was soon being released and I had to de mangle the fly he had eaten. The next time the reel fired the lines were over 37 feet of water and by the feel of this fish, it was big. Eventually after dogging down deep for the entire battle, we were both surprised to see that it was another bass. It didn’t seem to matter if we went deep or shallow, bass were everywhere! Last year around this time I was able to get into at least brown trout fishing the same general areas with the flies. After covering miles of water and only coming up with smallmouth, we cut our losses and headed home. I hate when the bass are coming out of the deep and begin to suspend over deep water and eat the flies. They take too long to make to be destroyed by the bass that quickly. The third and final day of our anniversary weekend would be cut short today as we would be heading home early in the afternoon. The cold winds from the north continued to blow this morning and left a real chill in the air as well as on our bodies. Water temps were 47 degrees and the air was barely 40 when we started our troll. I figured I would go back to the area that I had found a couple of days earlier in the rain and give it a few of passes before I moved on. The bait was still there and so were the big fish hooks, but nobody wanted to eat. I spent almost an hour trolling shallow and deep offerings at these fish only to watch them on the screen do another disappearing act. I knew the next location probably wouldn’t give up anything once again, but still had to give it a try. Here the water temps had really fallen as they too were 47 degrees, down from as much as 55 a week earlier. No bait on the break line, only deep hooks and schools of smelt every once in a while. I knew that this area wasn’t going to work out either and only made one pass to keep it honest. I blew out of there and hit the main lake once more looking for the niche. Reels were firing every once in a while but once more the smallies were coming aboard instead of the trout. Some of these fish however were in the 4 & 5 pound range and fought great on the fly rods. I really need the weather to warm up pushing these bass into the shallows where they should be at this time of the year and vacate the deep. I don’t want to go to the riggers quite yet and might have to make some necessary changes next time out in order to get the salmon once more. Looks like a deeper trolling pattern might be in order!!

Alain & Cindy joined me this morning in hopes of fighting a few salmon on the fly. I too was looking foreword to hearing the reels go again as they had been pretty silent lately! We hit the water after 9:00 and immediately began to troll. The weather was almost perfect with light winds from the W at 5 knots, under sunny skies. The air temps were in the 60’s and expected to climb even higher throughout the day. The only thing that worried me was the storm that we experienced yesterday and the cooler water temps that I was reading this morning. Where I had 51 degrees now read 47 and a drop in temperature usually isn’t a good thing. For almost 2 hours we trolled without a touch, although fish & bait were present all over the place. When I had just about enough, I called it quits on this area and decided to try somewhere else, hoping for better results. My wife Christiane was to join us around noon, seeing as how she was up for our anniversary weekend. I picked her up at the docks on our way by and off we went to the next location. Instead of trolling, I thought we would try casting jigs and minnow baits along the sandy drops in hopes of a hook up. The water was really cold on the main lake points and this definitely played a role in the outcome for today. Well, it finally happened on the next spot! Cindy locked up and the emotions were high until we saw what she had hooked into. Instead of a trout or salmon, she had a smallie attached to the lure and I was not pleased. The 40 plus feet of water should have put out a laker, but not a bass! Apparently, that was all there was in the area as both Alain & Cindy hooked several more on the stick baits. I couldn’t buy a hit from anything other than a perch in these depths and opted for another location change almost immediately. The next area wasn’t any better as the bass just kept coming. Eventually, I switched to the fly rods and trolling once again in hopes of a cruising salmon. Oh we were in the right area as a couple of fish were busting smelt on the surface all around us and I could see by their backs that they weren’t bass. We tried this for quite a while before we ended the day and all we had for our efforts were a few more bass when I swung in too tight and landed over water less than 10 feet deep. Although there weren’t any trout or salmon once again, it was still a better day that yesterday with beautiful weather, and great company. I’ll be back tomorrow with my wife and plan on getting even if “Mother Nature” allows me!!

Norm & Alison were joining me today for another round of salmon fishing and this was to be Alison’s initiation into the fly rod technique. She had heard and seen all about Norm’s previous trips and wanted to experience it for herself. We met at around 7:00 A.M. and were on the water 30 minutes later. I really had high expectations when we hit the water and thought we were going to just crush them once again. Oh, how wrong I was! The weather looked great with sunshine and a forecasted high of almost 70 degrees, but there wasn’t any wind expected and that worried me a bit. There had been a lot of floating vegetation lately and this technique required no debris in the way to be effective. Even the water temps looked good, hovering around 49 degrees in the bays. Unfortunately in the first hour or so, we had only one reel fire and Alison landed a scrawny looking bass instead of a beautiful salmon. After another hour or so of washing flies, I decided that this area wasn’t going to produce and started venturing offshore and elsewhere. We trolled for what seemed like forever without any trout or salmon but did land plenty of active smallies while searching. Eventually, we switched up techniques and began casting jigs to the sandy drop offs as well as an occasional jerk bait, but no salmon came to the offerings. We had a few follows from squirrely lakers, but no salmon again. The smallies were even coming up from the deep water in a few places and just looking at the lures. I really didn’t know what to make of this, but continued perusing these silver bullets nonetheless. Eventually after landing only bass, perch and a couple of big pickerel, I thought we would go back to trolling with the flies and see if things had changed. Wouldn’t you know it, as I fired up the big engine and began to idle out to deeper water, a 5 pound niche busted a smelt right beside the boat and pissed me right off in the process. We couldn’t catch a break! The last hour or so of the day saw lots of bait up high and several nice hooks above them, but the gods weren’t on our side. Oh we did have a reel scream off in under 10 minutes, but the salmon came off when Norm transferred the rod to Alison. I guess it just wasn’t meant to be today and we left feeling wounded ourselves. This was the first day of the year that I wasn’t able to get into them and I wasn’t pleased. Between the previous cold front and heavy rains we had recently, I think the fish were just off. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it! All in all, a nice relaxing day with plenty of fish, just not the ones we were after. The second day saw just Norm as Alison had to work and left last night after dinner. This was going to be equally as productive as the previous day, as the winds were gusting at over 20 knots when we woke up. They were also predicting heavier gusts later in the day with winds up to 40 & even 50 knots with some heavy rain thrown in just for good measure. I knew we would have to jump lakes and take our chances elsewhere if we were going to have any chance at all. I drove by one of the possible lakes and when I saw that it looked pretty calm, I opted for the other one in hopes of getting into some browns and salmon as well. What I wasn’t expecting was all the dirty water that we were faced with when we arrived. The water temps were between 47 degrees and in some places as high as 51, but visibility was only inches. Apparently, all the heavy rain they had a few days earlier muddied up the water and it just hadn’t cleared up yet. We trolled one high line and the other deep just to see what was happening and neither seemed to be working. We did however manage to catch 2 perch and a half dozen bass up to about 3.5 pounds before we decided to leave this place and jump to another lake instead. Imagine our surprise to arrive back at the first lake that was calm only to find a big howl going on now. Even the boat ramp had 3 footers crashing onto the shore! We tried one more lake only to find it even worse before we decided to abort this day and play safe. No fish is worth putting your life on the line for! This was another one of “Mother Nature’s” cruel tricks, but we will get even!!