David & I ventured out onto a local lake for smallies today but this time with the fly. He wanted to catch them with a fly rod & I knew just the place. Although we began the day with overcast skies and cooler air temps, that was soon about to change. By mid morning, the sun was shining bright and the clouds were gone. Eventually the temperature made its way into the upper 70’s with a light wind of around 5 knots from the S/W. This did make the casting a little more complicated, but not impossible! Water temps were 69 degrees where we were and I knew it wouldn’t take long before he would be locked up on one of those bronzeback giants. David started with a top-water popper on his line hoping for a surface strike and after having a couple of fish on, realized that it may not be the right choice and switched to another fly. This time the fly resembled a perch and almost immediately, was hit. He had fish on his next couple of casts as well and landed several more during the next hour or so up to 4 pounds or better. This came to an abrupt stop however when he was bit off by a toothy creature and didn’t have another pattern like the one he lost. He had lots of flies, but not the exact one that was catching fish and we tried many. He hid have a few more hookups but most of them came off during the fight. The wind was definitely a pain with the direction he needed to make the casts work and distance was lost in the process. We made the best of it though and still managed to have several hook ups in the process. When things slowed down, we relocated to other areas in hopes of hitting some aggressive fish somewhere. We did see a few cruisers but they weren’t takers and we just kept moving around trying to find aggressive fish once more. Sometime late in the afternoon we managed to get onto fish once more and picked at several here & there but most were lost after being hooked. An egg sucking leech pattern seemed to work the best as David had several fish hooked on this fly. Some were landed and some were lost! What made matters worse were all the ones we were able to see just cruising around this area without any interest at all in feeding. By 5:30 we had enough of this torture and decided to call it quits. We will be back out again this week and hopefully this time the fish might be a little more cooperative and actually eat the flies instead of just following them back to the boat. Overall a good day but the landing ratio was a little tough on the fly!!

I was back again today with Paul & his wife as well as their two grandsons, Craig & Chad for some more action. We began in the clouds once more but the skies soon cleared and sunshine was upon us for the remainder of the day. The air temps reached into the mid 80’s with unbearable humidity and the water remained in the upper 60’s in most places. Winds were out of the south in the morning at 5 to 10 knots causing a pretty good chop on the water but when t he sun came out it went flat calm. Trolling was a little difficult with all the floating vegetation and heavy weed cover and I really had to monitor the rods to keep them clean. We got into a number of northern pike but nothing very large and eventually had to relocate after lunch. Here we were into smallies consistently and landed fish up to almost 5 pounds, on soft plastics. Paul’s wife started the ball rolling with a nice bass over 4 pounds on her first cast and the kids landed many more afterwards. We fished a variety of areas and had success in all of them. The highlight of the day would have to be when a muskie grabbed hold of one of the baits giving us a five minute battle. I had to chase the fish with the electric motor just to keep up with it. I never really thought we were going to land this beast but we gave it our best shot. Eventually after a beautiful leap, the hook tore from the jaw and all went silent. It was fun while it lasted! We carried on a little longer catching more bass before we finally called it a day. We had a mix of everything today and enjoyed every minute. The whole idea was for the kids to have fun and that they did. Everyone enjoyed themselves and went home with plenty of memories from the day. This was definitely the most and biggest fish the boys had ever experienced and I’m sure they will remember this day for quite some time!!

Well, back to reality and a local lake after a couple of days of battling the silver sided kings of the big pond. I was to fish with Bram & his brother Neil & their sons Dylan & Jamie today for a multi species kind of day. The weather was a little confusing with cloud & light rain in the morning and bright sunshine in the afternoon. Little to no wind was present as we set the lines for a troll hoping for a mix of pike & walleye. Although the air temps were only in the low 60’s, the water temps were in the upper 60’s and this should have meant that the fish would be active. I was about to find out different as It took almost 15 minutes for our first bite and that’s very unusual. A small pike was landed and another shortly after and then it began. I concentrated in an area that was putting out fish on every pass after this and continued to hit them regularly. We were now getting into pike up to about 6 pounds with an occasional walleye and amazingly a few largemouth bass as well. In fact, Bram landed a nice one of over 4 pounds that we really thought was a walleye by the way it was fighting. Another big fish was lost along the way in by one of their sons when the hooks just pulled free, leaving us with the unknown. I’m pretty sure by the fight that it was a big walleye, but will never know for sure. After this area slowed, I switched up a couple of rods to spinnerbaits and slid in over the shallower weeds for more action. There were a number of northerns landed here, but after an hour or so of catching them, we decided to make another move for a different species. Bass was what we were after now and they were about to hammer them pretty good on a variety of baits. From spinnerbaits and crankbaits to tubes and soft plastic, they all got bit. I had to give an explanation on each & every bait and pretty much locked up every time on a good smallie while doing so. There were just too many fish in the area not to and they were all finding out as well. I really don’t know how many fish were caught here, but I know it was over 25 by the time all was done. We had been hearing thunder and watching a storm system moving in but managed to stick it out till 5:00 before we headed back to take out. I’m pretty sure that there were at least 50 or 60 fish caught today with decent sizes in all species. Everybody managed to hold their own despite the ongoing bet the adults had with the kids and I do think that the boys managed to win by a hair. The parents may have something to say about this though as the competition was quite intense at times. All in all a great day was had by everyone and a few fish even got caught in the process!!

Day two began with almost no wind and a little different than the first one as we began our troll. The sun was coming up and the sky was a brilliant red signifying a change for the worse on its way. Air temps were actually cold and damp with water temps not quite 50 degrees at the start and the air slightly warmer. It took quite a while before we had the first rod fire and Norm knew by the fight that the fish wasn’t very big. It was more like the landlocks we caught in the spring rather than a king from this big pond and we released the skippy. The next one was a clone to the first one and a little disappointing once more. The third fish to hit however was a reel screamer and went airborne several times behind the boat just going crazy with the flips. I saw that the spoon was hooked in its back causing the salmon to freak out with the aerials. It must have tried to hit it but somehow managed to miss and become foul hooked. Either way, it wasn’t going to be landed & thankfully tore lose. It was definitely a slower day than yesterday, but I had the confidence that we were going to catch and trolled over some of the same areas and a few newer ones looking for the big bite. A wire line rod went off when I slid in a bit shallower and I thought we might have a good one only to find out when it came to the boat that it wasn’t a salmon after all. Ironically it was a laker and not bad in size. It went 10 pounds and was the first lake trout I had ever seen from here. Back we went to trolling and with the flat calm conditions, had to cover lots of water to get the bites we were having. Although we were only on the water till about 1:30 we never really got into them like the day before and had to settle for a total of 10 fish today. Norm wanted to try one of these salmon so we kept a couple of smaller ones less than 10 pounds in the livewell swimming. We may not have had the action we wanted today but we still landed 10 more fish and that’s good on any day. I think yesterday spoiled both of us leaving us thinking it was too easy and wanting more & bigger today. Either way it was a great two days of fishing and we can’t wait to get back & tackle more of these strong kings again!!!

I took a long road trip with Norm to Lake Ontario for King Salmon today and we departed at midnight to be able to begin at first light. We decided that a two day trip would be the best way to go, due to the long drive & figured on fishing the following day till about noon. Our arrival was planned just perfect as we were on the water at first light and fishing before 6:00 A.M. The winds were out of the W/NW at less than 10 knots and were scheduled to diminish throughout the day even less. You don’t want to be on this lake in a smaller boat when it’s blowing hard! Waves were less than 2 feet at the start and that was just perfect for me to be able to troll without getting swamped. I had informed Norm of just how strong these fish were & instructed him on what he was in for, but I don’t think he expected what was about to happen. On the first line I put a magnum spoon down 60 feet and started to troll. I set the second line down 50 over 200 plus feet of water and ran a flasher & cut bait on the other rigger. I was about to put the third line in when the second rod started to bounce and I knew we were locked. Norm thought I was joking when I handed him the rod & said there was a fish on the end. That line hadn’t been in the water more than about 45 seconds when it fired and we were on our way. Although this fish wasn’t a real big one, it was the start of good things to come for the day & an indicator that I was on fish. After battling this thing for about 5 minutes or so, I slid the net under his first king of over 10 pounds. He couldn’t believe the power of this fish and was fibrillating at the thoughts of something bigger. After releasing the salmon, I began to re set the lines and was on the last one when the third, wire line rod started to go and line peeled from the reel. I had set it just minutes before and we were locked again. This fish however was substantially larger than the first and Norm was in his glory battling this beast. The line was screaming from the reel & just made it all that more enjoyable as he kept laughing throughout the entire battle. By the time the line counter reached about 350 feet or so, he was finally able to start to reel her back in and this time he spent closer to 15 minutes before I was able to get it in the net. I thought he was going to have a heart attack when he saw the size of this one! It weighed 18 pounds and after a few quick shots, was swimming back from where she had come from. We could have gone back home after that fish and he would have been happy, but I kept him there for plenty more punishment. This was to be one of those days that moat people just hear & dream about and Norm was actually living the dream! I would need to write a novel to explain everything in detail that happened throughout this day but the end result was 20 salmon landed out of a possible 20 fish on with the largest one weighing slightly over 24 pounds. Most of the fish ranged between 18 to 24 pounds and gave him amazing battles. We caught fish on a variety of spoons, flashers & flies as well as cut bait rigs. They were in anywhere from 100 to 240 feet down 30 to 90 and were hungry today. On average, we had a fish about every half hour and considering how long it took to set the lines & reel them in, there really wasn’t much down time. He just fought fish! I told Norm that the weather and fishing isn’t always like this and that we were going to stay out as long as we could in order to take advantage of this spectacular fishing. We fished till about 6:30 before we called it quits and headed back to the ramp to take out. I think Norm’s head is still spinning after having the day of his life on his very first outing. Can’t wait for tomorrow!!!