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!

I fished with my wife, Christiane on our annual anniversary weekend today and began around noon. We fished on a smaller lake, trolling with fly rods for browns and lakers. Sunshine and no wind with air temps in the 70’s made this picture perfect. Water temps were 57 to 60 degrees depending where we fished and the reels were screaming! Unfortunately, the smallies were crushing our flies again and we weren’t able to keep them in the water long enough to get bit by the trout. Trolling over baitfish and large hooks in 20 to 40 feet of water with both lines down 8 to 12 feet, we still only managed to catch bass. All in all it was still a great day to be on the water! We got an earlier start on the second day and were fishing by just after 8:00 AM, trolling flies once again. Clear skies & sun with no wind once again made for an easy troll. Water temps were 55 to 59 degrees and the air temps reached 70 degrees by days end. Our first 2 hits were short strikes and came unpinned immediately, but the third strike locked up hard. The reel screamed and I knew it was a trout! When we got the fish close to the net I realized it would be short and just reached down with the boga grip and unhooked it for release. With the Quebec slot size of 35 to 50 centimetres having to be released, it fell just short at about 19 inches. It was a good fight, but still a disappointment! We had a few more rips on the reels, but they were striking short and never got hooked on the flies. I trolled this deep shoal for several passes but only managed to hook smallies before I relocated to another nearby. We were having the same thing happen here with short strikes and misses and then another short lake trout had to be released again. With the sun high & warm and a slight breeze I decided to troll a shoreline with deep water nearby and hooked up almost immediately on the high line. As luck would have it, this too was a short laker once again & had to be released. The rest of the afternoon we had hits, misses, hook ups and only smallies to show for our efforts. The most productive lines were down 12 to 18 feet over 20 to 30 feet of water today, but I’ll go deeper tomorrow! Day 3 saw us on the water about 9:00 AM and we ran to our first spot with great anticipation. The weather was better than expected with sunshine and light west winds. Air temps reached into the upper 60’s and the water temps were 53 to 59 degrees where we trolled. We trolled plenty of water marking baitfish and big fish but only hooked up with a few smaller bass over the water we fished. We trolled miles of great looking water with nay a touch! Sometime after lunch we crossed over to the other side of the lake and found cooler water at 53 degrees when the deep line fired. Way back behind the boat this silver bullet went airborne and I thought we finally had a salmon. After a lengthy battle and many more jumps I finally slipped the net under a rainbow trout and not a niche. We would be dining on this trout tonight seeing as how it was our anniversary and into the livewell it went. The rest of the afternoon only saw bass hitting and no other trout could be found. We eventually left the lake sometime around 4:00 PM when the onsite of storms approached in the distance. This was definitely the way to spend a relaxing day & end another anniversary weekend!