Just Nichin’

Today was the 2nd time this week that I had waken early to head fishing. Darren & I were going on a road trip and met up at 4:00 in the morning in hopes of catching a few silver bullets. Niche was on the menu & although I hadn’t fished this lake since last year, I had loads of confidence that it would be a success. By the time we had reached our destination and prepped all the rods, we were 2 hours into the day and itching to get bit! The trees were pollinating pretty good and the surface was covered with all kinds of junk, making it difficult to fish clean. We had to improvise and watch the lines constantly but it paid off. The first reel to fire was a deep line and the skunk was about to leave the boat. I was surprised that the niche didn’t jump but with 47 degree water I guess their metabolism was real low. Once boated we realized that it was of legal size and someone was having fish for dinner tonight! With livewell running and the line back in, I noticed something busting the surface behind the prop wash. As luck would have it, there was another one locked up again. We almost had a double! This one actually made one leap in the air and I saw that it was a little bigger than the first. Our fish was to have company in the tank soon! We reset the line and went back to trolling but success was short lived. After about 2 hours of nada, I was ready for a move. Apparently the other boats around us had the same idea as they were already gone. I hadn’t seen anyone hook up nor a net pulled out so I guess we should have felt lucky for the two we had. I however didn’t feel that way and opted for a long run to an area that usually produced well. Ironically only one small brown was caught here and we shifted to another spot again. I wanted to try a really shallow sandy area and concentrated on finding warmer water and of course, niche! Eventually I stumbled onto 53 degrees exactly where my waypoints and icons were and a reel let go. The scream was unbelievable and I knew this was a larger fish. It went into an aerial display and we hoped to bring it to net. Unfortunately she had other ideas and pulled the hooks a short distance behind the boat, on one of the runs. This was our one & only chance here so I decided to return to the area we had began. It was completely void of boats and we had it all to ourselves. I mentioned that this has happened before & I’ve crushed the salmon because of it. Well, guess what? It was about to happen once again! Afternoon sunshine always heats the water up and activates everything around. The first reel went screaming within minutes of our arrival and it was game on! The third & fourth fish were so close together that it should have been a double. The high line was finally producing and produce it did! We had multiple rips from one area and I just kept at it until it died. Afterwards I went looking for more and came across another of similar results. Again, multiple fish were taken and released followed by even more. This was how I expected it to be today but judging by the water temps, wasn’t surprised. We now had 52 degrees and they were on fire. In the last couple of hours we had landed all kinds of fish and missed many more. What had started slow, ended with a bang as we packed up to be on our way. The weather was sunny all day with a slight breeze from the south and a high of 80 plus degrees. Who could have asked for more. Overall a very successful day for our first nichin’ trip of the year!!!