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!!

Well, the four of us met up at 7:30 A.M. and were soon washing flies on the lake in hot pursuit of the elusive ouananiche salmon. We arrived to find that the conditions were even worse than yesterday afternoon, when we finished our day. Floating weeds & pollen were all over the areas that I needed to be, causing the troll to become almost impossible. Although the weather was nicer that the morning before with air temps in the high 40’s, the winds were non existent. The debris was everywhere and we needed wind to blow it towards the shoreline allowing us to troll the areas that held the fish. The water temps were between 45 & 50 degrees depending on which areas we were and that seemed just perfect for the salmon. We were constantly checking the lines and most times, coming up with some sort of crap on the flies not allowing the fish to eat the baits. Although we did manage to land one shot salmon and had another on for a brief period, I decided after a couple of hours that this just wasn’t going to happen. We picked up and left completely, hoping for a better area to be able to troll. We finally found an area void of debris and hoped that we would be able to find fish and it didn’t take long before we were locked up. Unfortunately, they were bass and although decent in size, not the species we were after. The entire day was pretty much like this with the only fish being caught, either bass or perch. We did manage to have a good rip on one of the reels in the afternoon that I was sure had to be a salmon, only to have it come unpinned when Jim wasn’t able to get the rod out of the holder. We ended the day a little under par on the salmon scene, but way above par on other species while trying. Mother Nature provided us with a rather difficult day today while in search of the elusive ouananiche salmon!!

I was back on the water once again today after a weekend of wetness for another shot at those miserable niche! Andre, Jim & Marcel joined me this morning as we trolled for what seemed like forever, waiting for the reels to fire. The weather was quite cool when we started at 38 degrees and the winds were out of the north at 5 to 10 knots. Water temps had chilled off considerably from Saturday where I had areas at over 51 degrees and now they were closer to 42. Fortunately for us, there was at least some sunshine making the cold morning, warm up quicker. It probably took close to 15 minutes before we had our first rip and Jim was soon fighting a salmon. The skunk was officially out of the boat when I slipped the net under a 16 inch silver bullet and released it into our livewell. In the next few hours it wasn’t fast & furious like I was use to, but we did manage to pick a few here & there. Eventually, we were able to put 3 decent fish in the livewell out of a possible 7 on the line. Unfortunately, 3 of the others landed were on the short side and made their way back to lake to grow up for the next year. Eventually, I had to relocate and try another location further down the lake. We were to troll & cast for several more hours without any more trout or salmon. We did however manage to land several smallmouth bass on flies & jigs in deep water over sand drops and rock piles instead. Some of them were in the 4 pound class and fought pretty well on the fly rods too! After realizing that it just wasn’t going to happen here, I decided to head back to where we began the day and try for a few more salmon for the last hour. With all the floating weeds and debris, it was almost impossible to troll without fouling up the flies as I soon found out. We made several passes over the best areas and all we managed to come up with were pieces of vegetation. It was time to go when the reel finally went off and Andre landed a very nice tree branch! Although it wasn’t what I had expected, we did still manage to boat a few salmon and several larger smallies to make it a worthwhile day to be on the water. Tomorrow morning, we will reconvene and try to put a better beating on the fish than they put on us today!!