I headed back to the lake today with Norm to see if we could repeat the success that Christiane & I had just a few days earlier. We arrived at the ramp and were fishing by 9:30 A.M. under sunshine and light winds from the N/E. Air temps were hovering around 40 degrees but would eventually climb to 55 late in the day. Water temps were 42.5 degrees at best, but I wasn’t worried, as we had fished with success in 39.5 just a few days earlier. It took a little while before we had a reel fire and as luck would have it, another drive by! The next fish wasn’t as lucky however as it stayed pinned and eventually came to the net. Norm was amazed at the power and attitude these little salmon had and couldn’t believe how much fun it actually was on a fly rod. We had not seen too much action in the shallows with just one missed strike and decided to concentrate a little deeper with the open water. I think this was the right choice as the deep lines were the first ones to contact anything. It wasn’t fast & furious, but we had enough action to keep us happy as all the lines eventually accounted for fish at one point during the day. The lighter 5-weight rod was the star once more as it had at least 50% of the fish, as usual! Although there weren’t any browns to add to our quota today, we were able to take home a couple of salmon apiece for the bar b. The highlight of today would have to be when one of the salmon came to the net sporting hooks from two of the deep lines. It seems that when it hit one of the lines and it immediately went slack, it shot over and took the other one at the same time. Talk about greedy! Overall, we had a good day going 7 for 10 on the count. I can’t wait for another round of this crazy fishing!

Well, the maiden voyage finally arrived today as my wife Christiane & I headed to the lake for a day of salmon fishing. I knew an early arrival wouldn’t be necessary with the cold nights still upon us, so we began our day around 9:30 instead. We were closer to 10:00 by the time the lines were in the water and the game was on! The surface water temps were just above 38 degrees at the start and I knew I would have to work for each & every fish today. Fortunately, the air temps were to reach 48 degrees with sunshine and this would definitely help the cause. Unfortunately however, the winds were coming from the N/E at about 10 knots and that would prove to feel quite chilly. It took a little longer than I expected before we had the first reel go off & the fish was gone. A drive by on the first hit, crap! The next time it fired however, it did stay pinned and a chunky little salmon was soon in the net. I noticed a pattern beginning with both attacks coming on the deep lines and the next hit was no different. I decided to concentrate in deeper water around 20 to 25 feet and dropped the sinking lines a little more. We continued to pick a fish here & there for a while and all on the deep lines. The long lines just didn’t seem to be working and that wasn’t surprising seeing as how all the bait was pressed on the bottom, offshore. It wasn’t until around noon and the major that the action really heated up. While trying to eat a sandwich, we had all 4 reels fire off simultaneously. Talk about a fire drill! Ironically, we somehow managed to land all of the salmon and had quite a laugh afterwards. Throughout the afternoon hours we had many hits, misses and landed fish with a few more doubles as well. A few fish were caught in shallower water, but the bulk of them came from offshore, still in deeper water around baitfish balls. We even managed to land a few small rainbows and browns with the largest brown going about 2 pounds. Considering that it was our first trip of the season, we did remarkably well and decided to call it a day after another double header around 3:00 in the afternoon. We had managed to locate fish in deeper water allowing us to land close to 25 with several others either lost or just missed all together. The water has a long way to go before it warms up to where I like around 47 degrees and I can’t wait to get back for more of this tremendous fly rod fishing!

I finally got to wet a line once again as my wife & I headed out for our annual Christmas fishing trip. We fished for a total of about two days worth of time and had a blast. Despite the weather raining on us for most of the first couple of days, it was still fantastic. We arrived somewhere after noon on Friday and by the time we hit the water, it was after 1:00 P.M. We fished for about 3.5 hours and managed to get into several good fish. I think between the two of us, we landed about 7 of the 10 possible fish that we had on. Not too bad for a short time! The second day saw us arriving on the water just before 9:00 A.M. due to the torrential rains that were falling prior to this time. I wasn’t sure what was going to happen with the runoff and decided to wait it out. We still fished in plenty of rain, but began when it had let up a little. Christiane managed to land 3 nice steelies on her own once again and I had 5 of a possible 7 to my credit. The largest would have gone possibly 13 pounds but all were fresh and powerful! We decided to cut out for lunch around noon and realized later that this was a big mistake. When we arrived back on the water after 1:30 P.M. it was virtually unfishable. The colour was absolute mud and the visibility was practically none. Although we gave it a shot, we soon realized that it wasn’t to be and decided to cut our losses and just go shopping instead. The third day we were to fish with Kevin Davis from “Catch The Drift” and hooked up with him just after 7:00 A.M. The water level had risen quite a bit and the colour wasn’t great either, but we were going to make the best of it nevertheless. We decided to put in further up river to avoid some of the muddy water and hoped to be able to fish slightly cleaner water by doing so. Christiane really had the upper hand on me today as she landed 4 fish before I even managed a strike. Unfortunately, the strike soon became a break off and I was still at zero! Everywhere we stopped to drift a presentation, it seemed like she was hooking up. In one spot, I hadn’t drifted ten feet and she was locked on her first cast. The water was starting to get dirty as we floated further down river and at one point, we could only fish part of the river due to a huge mud line down the middle. To make matters worse, we were losing temperature and the winds were gusting at about 50 MPH. It wasn’t pretty, but we continued nonetheless! By the time it was all over, we had landed 9 fish and I had only managed 3 of them. We probably had chances at over a dozen or so, but under these conditions, were happy to get what we had and called it a day. Based on the conditions, I don’t think we would have had anywhere near the number of fish on our own today. By booking a trip with Kevin, we turned a terrible day into another great one. He really knows the river and fishing from a drift boat gives you another advantage that you just can’t get from any shoreline. You can see the pics from today on his website at www.catchthedrift.com I urge everyone to give this a try as he will definitely make your day a memorable one! All fish throughout this entire trip were released to fight another day!!

Kevin & Rob accompanied me on this damp & miserable day to have a chance at some jumbino smallmouth. Kevin had been trying for a couple of years to hook up with me, but never managed to confirm an outing date. Today was a little late in the season to get into any numbers, but he was just looking foreword to seeing some quality bass. We began in a light rain and winds from the S/E that seemed more like the S/W blowing at 15 to 20 knots along with 34-degree air. Water temps remained the same at just under 41 degrees and they seemed a little dirtier than usual too! The first fish to come aboard weighed a little less than 6 pounds and they couldn’t believe just how fat she was. With a length of only 20 inches, I can’t imagine what her girth must have gone! A couple of quick pics and back she went. The next couple of fish to come aboard were close to five and Rob landed another that topped the scales at over 5 pounds as well. Once again, more pics and back they went to the depths from where they came. The fishing was slower than usual and bites were being missed by all, with hook ups occurring now & then. A couple of pike were hooked into also along with one walleye, but the bass were being real finicky. By moving around plenty, we were able to get into a fish here & there, but most were either coming off or just missed altogether! With the later than usual start today, we ran out of daylight quickly and before we knew it, we were heading back to the dock to take out. There weren’t a lot of fish caught today, however there were some really nice ones and that what it’s all about at this time of the year. It’s big heavy season and there are bigguns to be caught. It won’t be too long before it’s all over and done for the year and ice fishing will be the only game in town!!

After Monday’s trip, Norm & I headed back on the water today to see if he could better his personal best once more. The weather was a little different with winds out of the W/SW blowing on us at 10 to 20 knots. Overcast skies and light snow flurries also added to the already cool air temps of 34 degrees making it feel quite a bit chillier. The water temps hovered just below 41 degrees and never really changed throughout the entire day. I had a feeling that this one was about to become more difficult than the last trip out and instructed Norm to really be on his game. The bites were so subtle that feeling the pick up was next to impossible if the line wasn’t tight. Most hits felt more like a weed than a fish and we began setting on anything that didn’t feel right. Hook sets are free and we took advantage of them! In the early part of the day we were zero for 10 before we actually brought one into the boat and those are incredibly terrible odds by anyone’s standards. The fish were just barely picking up the baits and not moving. After we figured out what was going on and made the necessary adjustments, the game was on. From that point on we were really giving the fish time to tighten up the line and move off with the baits before we set into them. This proved to be a much better technique as our landing ratio began to climb. We were still missing plenty, but at least most of them were coming aboard. Norm even managed to land a couple of nice walleye that would have gone better than 5 pounds apiece! The best we could manage on the bass though was not quite 5 pounds and most were 3.5 to 4 pounds as well. Moving around seemed to be the best choice for us as I was never really able to find any concentration of fish in one area. We even foul hooked a couple and came in with scales from time to time as well. Before the day was done, there were a number of smallies, a couple of northerns and five walleyes landed along with numerous missed strikes and dropped fish and oh yeah, several bite offs. Not the perfect day, but it was still nice to get out before it’s all done and freeze up occurs having us resort to hole drilling for entertainment!!