Frank & John accompanied me the first day on the lake for another shot at some trout. We hit the water around 8:00 and began our troll from the deep, in hopes of some action. Unfortunately after a couple of hours of washing lures all we had to show for our efforts was one small salmon from the cheater and another missed fish from the same rig. Fortunately, the weather was nice with cloud & mostly sun all day. Winds were out of the N/W at 5 to 10 knots with some gusts in the afternoon. Air temps were around 70 degrees and the water temps were up to a max of 55 degrees in certain areas with 51 to 53 on the open lake. We switched up in the afternoon and casted some jigs and minnow baits along the breaks and drop offs in hopes of a laker or two, but only had follows. They did hook all kinds of other things though as perch, rock bass, pickerel and an occasional bass fell victim to the offerings. By 4:30 we had seen enough and decided to call it a day. Tomorrow is another day and I think I will be trying another lake in hopes of better fishing! Well, day two on the other lake proved to be the right choice. This was only the second nice day of the season so far with sunshine, no wind and highs in the 70’s. It was picture perfect! Water temps were between 56 & 58 degrees, based on where we were but the fish were on. We began throwing jigs and minnow baits for the trout but only managed follows and an occasional bass. There were a couple of huge northern pike that were interested in our offerings as well, but they too just followed. In one area, we saw a bunch of big brown trout mixed in with suckers and that got our adrenaline going. We casted to them but never got their attention and decided we would try a troll with the boards. I decided this when I actually got a look at one that definitely went over ten pounds! We ran a tiny minnow bait on the closest shore board and a fly on the next lead core board on the inside. On the outside lead, we ran a spoon and made one pass through the shallows. The inside board went back as the reel began that lovely sound and caught a two headed perch on the minnow. It turned out that John reeled in a perch on each treble making it look like two heads and one fish. We tried another pass and caught one more perch sending us out to deeper water in hopes of finding some trout there. I switched up the lures and sent a rigger down as well when we hit open water and the deep board went off soon after. Frank reeled in a decent laker of over 22 inches and we were pumped! We spent several more hours trolling this area and managed to get into another 5 lake trout before we called it quits. We also lost 3 or 4 others with a couple of them seeming quite heavy before the hooks pulled free. I think I know where I will be tomorrow and I know there won’t be any argument from the others after a day like this!! Day three and oh what a day it was! We began by casting jigs and lures along the breaks where we had seen the large brown trout yesterday but only came up with perch, rock bass & smallies. Although we did see several trout along our travels, we were unable to lock up on any of them. The weather was a carbon copy of the last two days with high sun and 70 plus degrees. Light winds from the south aided in not frying as we fished and it actually felt good. Frank & John’s arrival was definitely the start of this warm trend & I hope when they leave today that they don’t take it home with them! They wanted to take home a fish or two & I knew our best chances would be trolling so I set the riggers and began. I don’t think we had gone 5 minutes when a rod popped & Frank was into a big fish. He fought it almost all the way to the boat before it came unpinned. I hate the unknown! Shortly after he grabbed another rod that popped and we thought it was also a big fish only to see that it was two lakers with one on each spoon. We managed to get into fish for the next 3 or 4 hours and several of them were 22 to 24 inches in length making them above the legal size for keeping. I had one planer out that had accounted for a couple of earlier lake trout and the reel began to scream. I mean it really went out and I was sure it was a big fish too! John grabbed this one and after a couple of minutes we realized that it wasn’t a laker. I was eventually able to slip the net under a beautiful rainbow that went about 4.5 pounds. What a bonus fish that was and John was surely going to bring this one back with him! The total for today was at least 12 or more lakers and a rainbow with several others lost or false released. This was the perfect end to a perfect three days for them and I’m sure they are going to miss the action when they head home tomorrow morning. The fishing has finally gotten good and I can’t wait to get back on the water again!!

Back to the lake I went this morning but this time I was joined by Mathieu & his father, Alain. It was his birthday & his son was treating him to a day of fishing as his present. I wasn’t sure what we had in store for today but it began partly sunny and that was a welcomed treat. The air temps were in the low 40’s and the winds were almost non existent when we started our troll. Water temps were still cool at 51 degrees as we set out the 2 lead core lines on planers and I also dropped a rigger down seeing as how we were three in the boat. It really wasn’t fast & furious as we washed lures for quite a while before we had a drive by on one of the boards and the reel screamed out drag. They usually don’t get off on these set ups and I wasn’t impressed! I covered plenty of quality water looking for a taker but never managed to have one cooperate. Although we were marking plenty of fish, there really wasn’t much bait in this area today. Previous outings in the same location had huge pods of baitfish showing up all over the screen along with many fish hooks. Today wasn’t one of those days though and I decided to try another area when the weather looked like it was getting dark over our heads. So much for sunshine as we were surrounded by clouds and the onset of showers were imminent! The next area was loaded with bait and there were lots of fish holding above the pods, giving me a little more confidence to troll here. While we trolled, we started to get rained on and then a reel went off. I knew it had to be a trout as we were over 100 feet of water and the line was down less than 20. Alain reeled in the fish and I unclipped the planer so that he could fight the fish without the board. As bad luck would have it, the fish took to the air close to the boat and came unpinned. I’m not sure if it was a salmon or a rainbow but I know it was at least 3 pounds or more. I circled around and tried another pass just to keep it honest, but nada. We continued to cover water in the bay and after we had completed the entire area decided to relocate once again. As we were reeling in the lines, I found that there was a small salmon on the cheater spoon. I have no idea how long it had been there, but it dashed off when released. Rain was falling and a storm was creeping up on us so we decided to run south and see if we could find clear skies. We trolled in sunshine and some clouds and had another reel go off on the board. Alain was now reeling in the first fish of the day but unfortunately it turned out to be a bass. After a while more of this, I thought a change up was in order and had them start casting lures to the deep drops and sandy points. A couple of lakers showed, but none of them wanted to commit to the baits other than an occasional smallie. Another storm was approaching from a different direction and this time it was electrical. I packed up and bolted north trying to outrun its arrival. Eventually, I had to take shelter in a boathouse and just wait it out. Finally, after about 20 minutes or so, the skies cleared and we were able to continue fishing. They were still set up for casting so we tried some deep water edges along cliff walls for unsuspecting trout. As with previous areas, all they could come up with were a few perch and several bass instead of the following lakers. I thought we would go back to trolling and headed to the other side of the lake now that the sun was out and there were blue skies over there. Although I was marking fish, there wasn’t any sign of bait to be had! We trolled for a while and had another reel go off on the shore side and I knew it had to be a laker as that was all I ever caught from this area. As with most other fish today, it also came off when Alain started to reel it to the boat. The entire day was short strikes by every trout we almost had! I made one more attempt at the other side of the lake where we had marked tons of bait and lost the only trout we actually saw. When we arrived though, the waves were 2 & 3 footers and the wind was blowing straight into the bay. This lasted all of about 5 minutes and we called it a day. The ride back was a little bumpy, but nothing like it could have been, because it only got worse after we took out. Although « Mother Nature » had a strange sense of humor today with us constantly dodging storms, it was still decent. Alain will have memories of this bizarre day for a while on yet another birthday!!

Bobby was back to fish with me again today and this time he brought along Sam and his son David as well. I knew that I was going to have a good day as it’s the « kid factor » rule! The weather was looking a little mixed up with sunshine giving way to heavy clouds and some of them were rather dark. Winds were from the S/W at 5 knots at best and the air temps were almost 50 degrees at the start. Water temps were between 51 & 53 degrees on the open lake as we began our troll. With all the bodies in the boat today I was planning on running 2 boards and 2 riggers to cover the depths efficiently. It took me a little while to get all the rods out and once I was where I wanted to be, the inside board started to fall back when the reel went off. I knew it was a laker and passed the rod to David for the fight. He reeled like it was Moby Dick and eventually brought a 22 inch trout to the net. This was his largest trout to date as his father usually takes him fishing for brookies on their lake up north. This also broke a long dry spell of short lakers for me and I was happy about that too! We had one other release on the rigger a little later and unfortunately that was all for the trolling. I switched up to casting breaks to see if they might be in shallower along the drop offs and managed to have several follows. They were curious, but not enough to actually commit to hitting the jigs and baits we were throwing. I really wanted to teach David how to cast a spinning outfit and ran him through all the basics involved. After 10 or 15 minutes he was casting like a champ and ready to graduate from his spin-cast outfit back home. I guess he will be receiving a new rod & reel soon! Sometime in the early afternoon, we had to make a dash for cover when I heard thunder in the distance. I never chance being in open areas when there’s electricity in the air and managed to take shelter in a boathouse nearby. We took this time to eat lunch and wait out the heavy rains that came along with the storm. Eventually, we were able to get back on the water and began casting once again. Although we were catching a few fish here & there, they weren’t what we were looking for. Bobby hooked several perch, a couple of pike and a bass here & there as we fanned out over a deep sand point looking for another laker. By 3:30 P.M. they were ready to call it a day as Sam had to be somewhere by six and they had a long drive ahead of them. A few quick pics of David & his catch and they were on their way with the little guy providing dinner for his family. Overall a good day with plenty of fish landed and one happy little boy!!!

Well, Norm & I were back at it once again this morning and we were going in hard! I knew we wouldn’t have much company on the lake today as we were the only trailer at the launch. I thought we would try a different area in hopes of better fishing and more active fish. Although it poured rain all night, we were fortunate to have only overcast skies this morning with no wind at all. Air temps were barely 45 degrees but the water was in the upper 50’s and this looked promising. We were loaded for bear and planned on trying it all! From planers and riggers to all densities of fly rods, we pretty much had everything, including the kitchen sink! This was to prove to be more work than it was worth as it didn’t seem to matter what we put in the water, they all caught fish. The planers & lead core managed to get perch, pickerel & bass from over depths as much as 40 feet. The riggers caught bass & perch and the fly rods also caught the mixed trio along with several rock bass thrown in just for laughs. When we worked the boards, we were marking all kinds of fish and giant schools of baitfish literally everywhere. I was shocked to see that we came through this, untouched! I even trolled the fly rods on a deep line off the edges of the humps in open water and had a couple of reels fire only to land one small bass and an obviously lost chain pickerel. The winds had kicked up in the afternoon, blowing 10 to 15 knots from the south and creating some nice waves in the process. The weather also changed and put a misty rain on us, making it all that more enjoyable. After a while of fishing where the fish were, I decided to try another area in hopes of better results. We had several more reels go off on the boards & lead core, but as with before they were either perch or bass. The bait I was marking was insane in this trench and should have been surrounded by literally every fish in the area. I did have plenty of hooks marking, but they weren’t taking anything we put down. All we could catch were perch, pickerel & bass once more and that was just frustrating. In the end, I just figured I would troll all the way back to the ramp and that I did. Oh we did stop in a few areas to throw jigs and minnow baits on sloping drops but as with every other area today, nada! We stuck it out till about 6:30 and finally decided to call it a day. As luck would have it, a little too long as we finally got poured on, while on our way back to the ramp. Just when you think it can’t get any worse, Mother Nature thrown a curve ball at you and does this! The perfect end to a perfect day, I guess!!

Norm & I decided that a little rain forecasted for today wasn’t going to deter us from hitting the lake once again. We hooked up around 7:30 and were fishing shortly after. He was use to the fly rod trolling but had never seen the planer boards in action, so we were going to troll lakers for a while this morning. With winds from the south around 10 knots and very overcast skies it should be perfect for the boards. Although the air temps were to reach a max of 48 today, it felt a whole lot colder than it actually was and we felt the chill too. I ran one board and dropped a rigger down with a slider to cover more water columns and began to wash lures. The first trout to come in was on the cheater when I saw the rod bouncing in the holder and Norm was officially on his way. It didn’t fight like the salmon he was use to getting on the fly rods, but it was still a blast. Unfortunately, it had to go back as 19.25 inches was all she measured again. The next fish came on the lead core and ripped some line from the reel on the initial hit stirring Norm up a little. I think it sounded more like the fly reels and he definitely liked that! This one was also to measure a little short and back it went once more. The third & final trout fell victim to a tight turn between someone’s large tie off float and the shoreline and really ripped line from the reel when the board went back. I thought by the sound that it was going to be a decent fish but was a little disappointed when I saw the size. It once again measured short at 19.5 inches and reluctantly went back to the lake. He had gone 3 for 3 and that was something to be happy about, unfortunately he had nothing to show for the efforts and that sucked. We decided to switch it up a bit and try trolling the fly rods in another area in hopes of a possible salmon or two and bolted to our next spot. After an hour or so of unsuccessful fly washing and constant line checking from all the floating debris, we killed that idea. Now we were going to try casting jigs in deep water with occasional minnow baits thrown in for good measure as well. I can’t tell you how many perch and big perch we caught, but it was unbelievable. I think we stumbled into a herd of them in 30 plus feet of water and yanked them in one after the other. Some guys would have killed to have this and probably harvested the entire school for dinner, but not us. We were after bigger fish to fry! Although we didn’t land any more trout, I’m sure by the feel of some of the fish we had hooked up to, there’s a good possibility they were lakers. The bite was really off today with all this weather and seemed to have the fish in a real lethargic state. We did catch several good size bass in the mix too and from the depth they were coming from, there wasn’t really any fight involved. An off & on misty rain fell throughout the day and kept the skies really dark and dreary but we stuck it out till after five. Overall a little slow, but it sure beats sitting on the couch!