Jim & I were back on the water once again today, but this time his friend Mike accompanied us. We launched the boat & ran behind an island due to the heavy winds to begin our troll. It was blowing strong from the W at 15 to 20 knots & we needed to set up somewhere calm. Air temps were in the upper 40’s & water temps were 55 degrees. For over an hour we trolled without a strike & relocated after catching a couple of perch & bass in over 30 feet of water. On the next spot, immediately after letting the lines out, one of the deep rods screamed & I knew this had to be a trout! I had just marked several big hooks on this deep shoal & one of them ate the fly. Mike Had a difficult time getting the rod out & too much slack caused the fish to come off. I hate when they don’t eat the fly better & we suffer the misfortune. The rest of the day was mixed with trolling & casting but no other trout were seen. We only caught perch and an occasional bass. Slightly tougher day today, but still good day on the water!

I hit the water around 8:00 this morning with Jim for another day of trolling flies for trout & salmon. The weather was the worst it’s been all month with cold temps, strong winds & misty rain all day long. It was so bad that we abandoned the troll early & went to casting the deep water with jigs & jerk-baits looking for active fish. Only one other boat was seen on the lake and they made a u turn when they saw how rough it was out there. We on the other hand, stuck it out in the 621 Ranger. These rigs are just made for rough conditions & we weren’t about to jump ship. Lots of marks were seen along with plenty of baitfish, but all we could hook up with were the occasional perch & smallmouth. By 4:30 p.m. we had seen enough & headed to the ramp in the heaviest rain of the day. Along the way back to the house it began to snow “Mashed Potatoes” and the temps fell to 34 degrees. What a miserable way to end a day! No pics today!

I fished with my wife, Christiane on our annual anniversary weekend today and began around noon. We fished on a smaller lake, trolling with fly rods for browns and lakers. Sunshine and no wind with air temps in the 70’s made this picture perfect. Water temps were 57 to 60 degrees depending where we fished and the reels were screaming! Unfortunately, the smallies were crushing our flies again and we weren’t able to keep them in the water long enough to get bit by the trout. Trolling over baitfish and large hooks in 20 to 40 feet of water with both lines down 8 to 12 feet, we still only managed to catch bass. All in all it was still a great day to be on the water! We got an earlier start on the second day and were fishing by just after 8:00 AM, trolling flies once again. Clear skies & sun with no wind once again made for an easy troll. Water temps were 55 to 59 degrees and the air temps reached 70 degrees by days end. Our first 2 hits were short strikes and came unpinned immediately, but the third strike locked up hard. The reel screamed and I knew it was a trout! When we got the fish close to the net I realized it would be short and just reached down with the boga grip and unhooked it for release. With the Quebec slot size of 35 to 50 centimetres having to be released, it fell just short at about 19 inches. It was a good fight, but still a disappointment! We had a few more rips on the reels, but they were striking short and never got hooked on the flies. I trolled this deep shoal for several passes but only managed to hook smallies before I relocated to another nearby. We were having the same thing happen here with short strikes and misses and then another short lake trout had to be released again. With the sun high & warm and a slight breeze I decided to troll a shoreline with deep water nearby and hooked up almost immediately on the high line. As luck would have it, this too was a short laker once again & had to be released. The rest of the afternoon we had hits, misses, hook ups and only smallies to show for our efforts. The most productive lines were down 12 to 18 feet over 20 to 30 feet of water today, but I’ll go deeper tomorrow! Day 3 saw us on the water about 9:00 AM and we ran to our first spot with great anticipation. The weather was better than expected with sunshine and light west winds. Air temps reached into the upper 60’s and the water temps were 53 to 59 degrees where we trolled. We trolled plenty of water marking baitfish and big fish but only hooked up with a few smaller bass over the water we fished. We trolled miles of great looking water with nay a touch! Sometime after lunch we crossed over to the other side of the lake and found cooler water at 53 degrees when the deep line fired. Way back behind the boat this silver bullet went airborne and I thought we finally had a salmon. After a lengthy battle and many more jumps I finally slipped the net under a rainbow trout and not a niche. We would be dining on this trout tonight seeing as how it was our anniversary and into the livewell it went. The rest of the afternoon only saw bass hitting and no other trout could be found. We eventually left the lake sometime around 4:00 PM when the onsite of storms approached in the distance. This was definitely the way to spend a relaxing day & end another anniversary weekend!

This was definitely the warmest day of the year so far as temps reached almost 80 degrees. Bobby had changed his date from the 15th to today when he saw the weather forecast & wasn’t disappointed. This year he was joined by Frank & his intro to trolling with fly rods was very productive. We began working over 20 to 30 feet of water & it didn’t take long before the reels began to go off. Unfortunately, they turned out to be bass on the smaller side and not the fish we were marking. I had seen several big hooks on the sonar and was sure they were the trout we were searching for. We worked all over the lake marking schools of baitfish & some really big arches, but couldn’t seem to get them to hit. The only rods going off were the deep lines and the shallow rod never fired until late in the day. Just when I thought we got lucky, Frank landed a 5-pound smallie & disappointment set in once again. It was a beautiful fish but not what we were after! This fish hit a fly down 12 feet over 38 feet of water. A little later over the same water, Bobby had a reel scream & I knew this was the real deal. By the time he got it out of the holder, it was gone! Unlike the bass, when trout take the fly, they take it with incredible speed and it’s usually unmistakable. This was to be our last shot at a trout today, but not for lack of trying. We switched up to casting jigs & jerkbaits on steep breaks and deeper structures and had a couple of lakers follow the jigs right to the boat. Plenty more fish were hooked but not what we were after and we moved on. We hit all the best areas & came up empty today. Flat water and high sunshine with water temps exceeding 60 degrees surely had a part in the outcome today. Although we weren’t able to land any trout, it was still a great day on the water!

Ed accompanied me today on the lake to see if he could get a few trout for dinner. I thought our best chances would be on the fly so we trolled streamers the entire day. The air temps hit 70 & the water warmed to almost 55 degrees with the sunshine making it just perfect. Little to no wind was present as we trolled smelt patterns both high & low only to have the deep line constantly firing. I was quick to change the high line for another deep line and began getting hit on that one as well. We covered a lot of water, but concentrated on a couple of off shore shoals because of all the action. This was unfortunate though as all of the hits turned out to be bass! Just as I said that this was to be our last pass, both reels screamed within 5 seconds of each other & Ed was into another fish. I just let the second rod stay in the rod holder and concentrated on the fish at hand. This time it turned out to be a lake trout none too soon! We had been trolling a deep edge from 10 to 30 feet and were both happy to see it in finally in the net. I told Ed to grab the other rod while I put the fish in the livewell in case it might be another trout and sure enough, it was. Wow, a double header! We continued to fish this area a little longer after landing the trout but soon left after we continued catching smallies. The next spot proved to be no different as we only caught bass over the deep water and relocated once again. After a couple of missed strikes & a few bass landed, Ed fought what we thought was another bass until both of us caught a glimpse of the fish by the boat. All of a sudden, this salmon came alive and went crazy. Ed wasn’t quick enough to let the fish run & the hook just pulled free. From what I saw, the fish was 4 to 5 pounds and no longer attached to the fly. Oh well, can’t win em all! The rest of the afternoon was spent covering water that apparently was void of trout & salmon because all we caught were the odd bass. Although we only managed to land a couple of lakers, it was still action packed. I wish the bass would start to move shallow and leave the deep water to the trout real soon. All in all it was still a great day on the water!