Frank joined me on the lake today in hopes of taking home a laker or two to eat. The air temps weren’t any higher tan 62 degrees at best & the water temps never exceeded 53.5 where we were. We were also blessed with heavy cloud cover, an occasional rain shower & gusting winds from the N/W at 10 to 20 knots. Our first spot only produced a few small bass & perch, but each day before had showed great potential when we had follows from lakers. Because there was only two of us in the boat, we decided to cast the break lines instead of the usual fly rod troll. This however didn’t work out & we soon set up the other rods & began to troll. On the first pass over deep water, one of the rods went off & I knew it was a lake trout. Unfortunately it didn’t stay on for long & left us empty handed. The other reel also fired briefly, but then went silent. Short strikes are a real pain! Both flies were mangled & we had to reset them for another pass. This time one of the deep reels fired & the fish was locked up. Once again however, it came off at the boat when both lines somehow became tangled. More bad luck with the trout! We did finally manage to land a couple of lakers but they both fell short of the slot size & had to be released. Too bad the first one wasn’t landed as I think it was close to 4 pounds. It would have definitely made the cut! The rest of the day was spent catching only perch & an occasional bass using this technique. The trout just didn’t want to cooperate today & left us a little short. All in all, still a good day despite to lack of fish. No pics today!

Keith, Landon & A.R. fished with me for 2 days. Winds from W/SW at 15 to 25 knots gusting to over 30 the first day and flat calm, sunny & bright sunshine day 2. We were in big waves all of the day 1 and light winds day 2. Some islands produced fish, but not what we were after. Water temps at 50 degrees along any west shore. We had to concentrate on windy shorelines for better temps! Landed a couple of lakers, but they were in the slot & had to go back. Landon definitely had the hot hand today slinging jerkbaits, but only hooked into bass over 30 plus feet of water. Keith on the other hand managed to bag a couple of lakers and many jumbo-sized perch. A.R. got into fish as well and definitely hooked the largest one of the day, right through the top of my hat! We caught fish on everything from jigs to crankbaits on deep ledges both days on the water, but weren’t able to bring back any of the larger lake trout we had seen.

Scott joined me today; fly fishing for trout & salmon in extremely windy conditions! We began trolling streamers for trout over deep shoals & ran 2 deep lines. We only picked up a few small bass on the first & second shoal. Weather temps upper 50’s, water temps low 50’s with N winds 10 to 20 knots. We had to run around looking for areas to be able to cast a fly. Scott hooked & lost either a salmon or rainbow in one of the sheltered bays when it went to the air. Only thing landed today were smallies & perch. We had a very tough day today with miserable conditions. No pics today!

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!