Today was the first trip on local waters for pike & walleye and Colin was with me to experience our tremendous fishery. The last two days had south winds blowing 20 to 30 knots and I wasn’t sure what kind of effect it would have on the water & fishing. We met up at 7:00 and were running across the water shortly after with high expectations. Being from Colorado, Colin had never caught a northern pike and was hoping to land one or two today. Boy was he in for a treat! Although the weather was a little chilly at 54 degrees due to the wind change from the north, the waves weren’t too bad. At less than 10 knots they were at best 1 to 2 footers and the water looked clean enough to score. I instructed him on the rod holders and set the first rod only to have the reel fire in less than 45 seconds. He was landing his first of many northerns in under a minute. Talk about taking the pressure off! Although it was only a couple of pounds, it was his first and he was glad. The second fish came almost as quickly as soon as the second rod was placed in the holder. Both fish came on the same lure color and I was wondering if I needed to make a change, when the other rod also took a hit. Unfortunately it was a drive bye and no one was home. It didn’t matter though as the day was only a couple of minutes in and we had plenty of time to get even. The overcast skies had me running brighter lures and with the 54.5 degree water temps, a slower troll as well. I was covering plenty of water and getting into fish here & there but not what I was accustomed to and kept searching for the mother load. Colin thought it was great as he had landed about a dozen or more pike up to 6 pounds and wanted more. We plucked one here & there for quite some time until the sun came out and the light switch was turned on! For about three hours in the afternoon it was non stop action with one rod after the other and fish after fish. As soon as the rods were placed back in the holders, it seemed like the reels were firing. The water temps were on the rise and the fish were active! We even managed to catch a bunch of perch and some of them were quite large. Eventually, the temps climbed all the way to 63 degrees and everything was feeding. The only walleye that we hooked unfortunately came unpinned as it neared the boat. I caught a glimpse of her under the boat and immediately went for the net but it wasn’t meant to be. It was a good one and probably close to 6 pounds by the mass in the water. It may even grow by the time Colin returns back home! We kept at it until 5:00 P.M. and finally called it a day after three more fish in a five minute period. Colin had gone from never having caught a northern, to landing close to 75 in one day. You might say that he had his fill but still wanted more. We couldn’t have had a nicer day on the lake and the fishing was just tremendous. I’m sure he’ll be a little sore tomorrow but it’s a welcomed pain and one anyone would be happy to have. Hopefully he’ll be back and maybe the next time the bass season will be open and we can have a multi species day. Can’t wait to get him back!!

After three near perfect weather days it was inevitable! The fourth one was almost a nightmare with heavy rains overnight and 20 to 30 knot winds from the south today. Due to the direction, I opted for a different boat launch and although it was less windy, it was still pretty bad. We decided to give it a try anyway and headed out after 8:30 to the main lake. I knew it was going to be rough out there but I didn’t think it would be ocean like. There were 4 & 5 footers on the lake and we headed only as far as a sheltered island would allow us. With the lines in the water we prayed the fish would be somewhat active. With all the mountains around us the wind still managed to hit us from different directions making boat control a little difficult. Add the cooler water temps, down to 54 degrees from the 58 yesterday & heavy floating debris and it was just perfect! Needless to say the fly rods didn’t stay out long before we went to the downriggers and a more controlled troll. A couple of the lines popped over 20 to 40 feet of water but there was no one there! I think either the light releases or surges from the wind made them go off or maybe it was more of those smallies coming in from the deep again. Either way, it was a difficult task nonetheless! We fished as long as we could but by noon, we were ready to call it a day and make the long drive back home. We did manage to get a few perch casting to the deeper points with the jigs but could barely feel the bites. Back at the ramp I could see that the winds had intensified and there were 2 & 3 footers rolling in making the take out a little tricky. I’m glad we ended the day when we did because the winds actually got stronger as the day went on! Tough day to be on the water but the 3 days preceding were just spectacular. Too bad the salmon didn’t think so but they were probably already full from all that damn bait in the lake!!

We got an early start today and were on the water before 7:30, hoping for better fishing than the two previous days. Although plenty of fish were being caught each day, we still weren’t getting the salmon that we were looking for. Would today be any different? I set the fly rods out immediately along an extended point and made three passes in different depths, looking for active fish. Water temps were around 52 degrees and air temps were expected to reach the high 70’s with mostly sunshine today. After 30 minutes of absolutely nothing and not much marking on the sonar, I opted for the riggers and open water. I had tried almost everything else, why not deep water. I set one at 40 and the other at 30, both with sliders and headed across the bay towards the other point. Some of the water was over 300 feet deep and there was definitely plenty of activity on the sonar in all depths. The amount of baitfish in this lake is just astonishing! The only release I had in the 90 minutes we did this was from the bottom when I tried to get too close. Oh well, there goes a couple of lures! There were more boats on the water today than the last couple of days combined and ironically, I never saw anyone actually hook up. With plenty of dead smelt present on the surface it’s not a wonder why the fish didn’t want to eat our offerings! Another change was in order and this time we were going to let the wind drift us along while we casted jigs and stick baits to open water. Maybe a slower approach without the motor might help and we were willing to try just about anything. The only thing we managed to get were piles of perch and an occasional bass from the open water. Some of them were suspended and others were on bottom in 20 to 40 feet of water. The perch had tails sticking out of their mouths and some of the bass puked out dead smelt while coming to the surface. It’s like an all you can eat buffet here! The remainder of the day was spent mixing it up between the fly rods and more of the riggers but the results were still the same. Although I did see plenty of fish on the sonar they seemed to all shy away from the cannon balls when I passed through them. The fly rods on the other hand managed to catch all kinds of perch and an occasional bass from as shallow as 8 feet all the way to open water exceeding 100. What a mess! Despite the results the weather was tremendous and the last few days on the lake were just spectacular for our anniversary weekend. Tomorrow on the other hand may not be and an early departure may be in the cards. At least we managed to get three fantastic days on the water!!

After hearing the thunder storms all night, there was no rush this morning to get on the water. The rain was still falling when I awoke and we waited until there was a clearing before heading out. I guess it was somewhere around 8:30 or so that we finally dropped the boat in the water and hit the first location. Air temps were quite nice at 55 degrees but the humidity made it feel a whole lot warmer. Absolutely no wind at all had the fog hanging in earlier and by now it had finally lifted making the run less dangerous. With all the high water lately, there has been plenty of debris floating and navigation has been a little tricky. In fact, there is so much crap on the surface that trolling with flies is becoming more difficult each time out! Without the aid of some wind, the debris & pollen just remains heavy all over & keeping the flies clean is a real chore. Regardless, we still managed to drop the lines in the water and troll an area that had produced a few days earlier in hopes of a hookup. After having no success an hour later, we were forced to try somewhere else and opted for an area closer to the main lake. It was here that I was marking plenty of good sized hooks and giant balls of bait that I encountered something for the first time. Out of nowhere, a beautiful salmon of 5 or 6 pounds decided to come out of the water like a dolphin about five feet in front of the boat. It was so damn close that I think I could count the spots on her side! These fish are so well fed that catching them has become more difficult than ever this year. They just cruise around eating everything in site. Where’s mine? Needless to say, we never saw her again or any other family member for that matter. The next location had one of the reels firing, but it soon went silent and that was all she wrote. I tried several other places with the same success and only managed to come up with a few perch and an occasional bass. The afternoon hours had us running boards and down riggers once again through all kinds of deep water without a single release. Although I did see several good sized hooks, we just couldn’t seem to make them go. Water temps remain anywhere between 51 degrees all the way to above 60, depending where you are. At least the weather was nice though as we were in sunshine and above 70 degrees for most of the afternoon. Somewhere around 4:30 we decided to call it a day and headed back to take out. Although we had caught plenty of fish, they weren’t what we were looking for and it left me feeling a little empty. I think tomorrow I might bite the bullet and try for lakers right off with the riggers. There won’t be much of a fight but at least we should get into a few more trout this way. Hopefully there won’t be too much boat traffic with this being a long weekend or I’ll have to resort to other methods once again!!

This was the first day of our long weekend & Christiane was with me to celebrate our anniversary once again. Traditionally, this has proved to be a great 3 days of fishing and I hoped this year would be no different. She arrived shortly after 8:00 A.M. and we were on the water about an hour later. With no wind, the black flies were insane at the ramp and you couldn’t just stand still. We prepped the boat and hit the water as quickly as possible just to get away from them! Pollen was all over the lake and really thick in certain places so we tried to find cleaner water in order to troll the flies. Open water with temps around 60 degrees were our starting point and anywhere from 8 feet to 30 feet were where we had our lines. As we approached the high spot on the shoal, both lines started a blazing and the first hookup was a double. The fish however weren’t what we were looking for as both were smallies. One of them was close to 4 pounds and had both of us wondering during the fight if it wasn’t a lake trout. It never took to the air and just stayed down throughout the entire battle. We covered a lot of water marking both baitfish schools as well as some really big hooks all the while only coming up with the brownies. I decided to switch up the presentations a bit and changed locations as well. Planer boards and lead core lines with spoons went out in hopes of better success. With many more marks showing we trolled the lines through the fish for what seemed like forever. After about 90 minutes of washing lures without a single hit, I pulled the plug and relocated again. This time however, I decided to rip jerk baits where the lake trout had been taken yesterday and not long after, we had several hookups. To my amazement, they were jumbo perch and an occasional bass. One of the perch was so big that I actually went for the net to ensure that it wasn’t lost. Weighed in, it went almost 1.5 pounds. Now that’s a real jumbino! We decided to keep a few of them for a dinner and put 4 of the largest ones into the livewell. I continued looking for some active trout or salmon but never really found anything, anywhere. Although we did catch many a fish, we still didn’t have the hookups that we were looking for. Somewhere around 4:00 we called it quits and headed back to the ramp. We’ll try to get an earlier start tomorrow and hit a different area of the lake in pursuit of the silver. With any luck, we’ll be having fish for dinner!!