Yesterdays outing with Darren had Norm frothing for more salmon, so we headed right back to the lake this morning, just praying for a similar day. The weather conditions were a carbon copy and I was pretty sure with this stable weather pattern that we would have a great day. Little did I know that it was to be a day chock full of surprises and all good ones too! Winds were light & variable with occasional gusts from the west blowing at 5 to 10 knots and the sun was with us all day. Air temps climbed to the upper 60’s and the water temps were anywhere from 43 degrees all the way up to as high as 51 in certain areas of the lake. We didn’t break the 1 minute hook up, but we were able to get into the first salmon in less than 15 minutes and then the games began. We literally had reels firing off about every 5 minutes and sometimes even less! There were at least 4 double headers throughout the day and plenty of action to keep anyone on their toes. It got to a point that we would see them on the sonar and actually call the rod that was going to go. Talk about confidence! After getting into about 10 or so fish, we decided to take a break in the action and refine some of Norms fly casting skills for a bonefish trip just around the corner. I guess this lasted about an hour or so and back we went to trolling flies for the silver bullets once again. If it wasn’t for all the floating debris on the surface, I think we could have caught even more than we actually did. Unfortunately, we spent a lot of the time checking the flies for weeds and debris and never were trolling at 100% by doing this. It did work in our favor several times though as we were hit while lifting the rods out of the holders and that was incredible. In fact, the largest salmon of the day hit while lifting the rod over some floating twigs. It hammered the fly when the direction was changed and immediately went to the air when it felt the sting of metal. Of course it had to hit the 5 weight and give Norm an even stronger battle, making the fight last even longer than usual. I don’t think Norm realized just how big this fish was until it leaped three feet out of the water in front of his face. His jaw dropped in awe and the reel just screamed uncontrollably as the salmon dove to the 80 foot depths we were now hovering over. I knew this was the biggest salmon he had ever battled and hoped he would be able to hold onto the beast long enough for it to come to the net. After several more leaps and runs, I was finally able to scoop it up and we were both delighted to see it come aboard. She was a fat, chrome silver 24 inch beauty. I’m sure if weighed, it would have been a five pounder. I took many pics of the fish and placed her in the live well beside the others. Talk about mutt & Jeff! She dwarfed all the others making them look more like bait. I thought that after this, it would be all downhill but soon found out differently when the reels began screaming once again. This was to carry into the afternoon pretty much the same as the morning and we actually lost track of all the fish being caught somewhere around 3 o’clock. Although we fished till about 5, we really never had any extended periods of dead time to worry about and that made for one of the best trips for salmon this season. I’m not sure what the final count was, but we knew it was at least 25 or more landed and at least 15 that were lost while on the way to the boat. There’s a definite possibility that we had close to 50 or more salmon on the line throughout the entire day and we left them while they were still biting too. It was such a fantastic day on the water that we both decided to release the 24 incher back to where she came from and replaced her with an 18 inch salmon shortly afterwards. All I can say is wow! Norm on the other hand may have to be locked up after today as his head is still spinning. Today was not great, it was insane!!

Back to the lake I went today but this time, Darren was going to be accompanying me for his first fly rod experience. He had never caught a niche before and wanted to experience these incredibly active, psycho fish on a fly. The weather was looking great with sun & cloud cover as well as a decent wind from the S/W at 5 to 10 knots. Air temps were in the 60’s and water temps were between 42.5 and 48 degrees in one area. To say it started out with a bang would be an understatement as it only took one minute for the first reel to fire. Darren was officially locked up with his first landlocked salmon and only one of many more to come. The first 3 fish were all of legal size and things were looking good for us as there was only one more needed for our limits. I knew this wasn’t going to be a problem as we hadn’t even been trolling for 15 minutes! I had decided before the day began to run two high lines instead of one deep and one shallow due to the active nature of these fish just a few days earlier. Obviously it was the right decision as we had several doubles and many, many singles throughout the day. The fish were active and Darren was getting a real treat today fighting niche up to 18 inches. The shear power of these little bullets was incredible to say the least with every one of them just screaming line off of the reels during the fight. Some of them came unpinned during the day, but the majority of these salmon eventually came to the net only to be released after our limits were filled. We had action pretty much all day long and by 4:00 we decided to call it a day. The total for Darren’s first experience today was 18 for 23. As with every other outing with Darren, “Lady Luck” was with him once more. I think I will have to call him “Lucky Darren” from now on!!!

Norm & I hit another lake today to see if we could tackle some more trout & salmon on the fly. We arrived at the ramp with the air temps barely 35 degrees, but the sun was out making it feel much warmer. Winds were out of the N at 10 knots and the air had a chill to it too. By the time we finally got set up and fishing, it was almost 9:30 and we were anxiously awaiting our first rip. I don’t think we had gone 15 minutes when the long line let out our favorite sound & we were locked. It felt like a good fish but just briefly as the line went limp not long after. The fly was all twisted around the shank and the tandem wire was mangled leaving us wondering how those razor sharp hooks never got penetration. The next rod to fire was the other long line and this one stayed pinned right until the net. Once in, the hooks were out and the fish was free. They really weren’t hammering the baits, just nipping at them as we were about to see. The morning bite lasted for a few hours in this area before we opted for another location in hopes of bigger fish. We went 3 for 6 here and didn’t appreciate the odds! Although the water temps were about 43 degrees and bait was everywhere, we could only manage 6 bites and that was too slow for me to stay any longer. Round two was even stranger with the absence of trout all together. Oh we had many hits and landed several fish there, but they really weren’t what we were after as we trolled through what seemed like miles of prime water. I had found water temps in the upper 40’s and marked big schools of bait in several of the areas but was hooking smallmouth bass everywhere I went. I was concentrating in 30 to 40 feet of water and the fish I was marking were suspended, causing me to think they were either trout or salmon. What a surprise to find they were bass and some of them were quite large as we hit a few that were over 4 pounds. After a few hours of covering water without any success, we decided to go back to the location where we began. Apparently, it was a good decision as the first reel screamed in less than 3 minutes and the game was once again on! We were to land the first 5 salmon that attacked our offerings and somehow lose the next 6 that fired the reels. In just a couple of hours, we had shots at 11 fish and that was great. By the end of the day, we had somehow only managed to land 8 out of a possible 17 salmon. Unfortunately, the heaviest fish that we were into didn’t make it to the net as we were barely able to move it before the hooks pulled free. The unknowing is always the worst as we were left in awe! Although we were able to go 8 for 17, the odds still were below 50% and that just sucked! Overall a great day on the water with plenty of action and nobody got hurt!!!

The weather was looking just too good today to pass up, so I gave Norm a call and as luck would have it, he was willing to hit the water again for more fly rod action. We arrived about 9:00 and with the S/W winds of 5 to 15 knots, began the troll. Water temps ranged between 42.5 all the way to 48.5 depending where we were. Sunshine and high temps of the mid 80’s were what we eventually received and it felt more like August than April. It took quite a while before we had the first hit and oh what a screamer it was. It had to peel off at least 50 feet of the backing on the light action fly reel before it stopped. I thought we had a giant as Norm battled the fish and I turned the boat around trying to get some of the line back onto the reel. As our luck would have it, the lengthy battle ended in disappointment when I saw that it was a northern of at least 7 pounds. Good fight, bad result! This was the second pike with 3 other perch that we had caught and it was about to get even worse. When the next reel fired and the line wouldn’t stop going out, we were sure of what was attached and put more pressure on the fish not too be worried. Sure enough as expected, another 5 pound northern! I figured that there were only pike in this area and started to head for deep water when another reel started screaming, but it stopped quicker than expected and showed signs of headshakes. When it took to the air and we saw silver I think we were both a little relieved. Eventually, a 17 inch salmon was soon in the net and the skunk was out of the boat. Unfortunately, this was to be the last of its kind for this area and after about another hour we relocated. I guess it was a good move because in less than 3 minutes in this area, the first reel screamed once again and another 16.5 inch salmon was leaping like a fool behind the boat. Number 2 and more to follow! When the next reel fired, simultaneously another one also started to scream and a double header was on. Too bad one of them decided to jump over and tangle another fly line and came unpinned in the process. We lost the salmon and landed the brown instead! The action continued for about 30 minutes longer with us landing a few more and missing a few others as well. The largest was a brown of almost 4 pounds and oh what a fight it was. We finally called it a day around 5:30 and headed home. A rather slower than expected day, but it finished with a bang!

I headed to Magog only a couple of days after the trout opener with Mike, Phil & Peter today in pursuit of some salmon action. The weather was great yesterday with the air temps reaching the mid 80’s, but we weren’t going to be that lucky on this outing. Although we did manage to dodge the rain and even had some sunshine, the north winds of 10 to 20 knots made the air temps feel like 40 at best. I knew I would have to find warmer water if we were going to get into anything and left the 39.5 degree surface in pursuit of better temps. I found an area that was showing signs of 44 degrees and decided to start there hoping for some action. Once the 4 fly rods were set out we didn’t waste much time before the reel screamed and our first of many drive byes occurred. I think there were 2 or 3 of them before we managed to get one of the salmon to the net but it wasn’t looking good. I was sure it wouldn’t make the cut and didn’t even bother measuring it. At best, it might have gone 14 inches. We trolled all over this area and hooked a few more with the first one being a slight hair longer than the 15 inch limit and that was good enough for us. The next fish of 16 inches came from over 100 feet of water and just crushed the fly! The 4 or 5 hours we spent in there produced 4 fish and only 2 of them were long enough to be legal. We also had about 6 or 7 drive byes with one of them a real screamer. It must have taken out 20 or more feet of line on the initial hit and then, gone. A combination of tiny minnow baits and tandem streamers accounted for all of the action today, but not fast & furious. We did spend the last hour or so trying a couple of other spots just looking for an aggressive bite, but it wasn’t going to happen. Although we were marking enormous balls of baitfish and many hooks around them, it was difficult to trigger them into eating our offerings. We decided to call it quits around 4:30 p.m. and headed back to the ramp somewhat satisfied with the first attempt at Magog salmon. I spoke to a couple of guys back at the ramp and they hadn’t done a thing all day. Oh well, that’s fishing I guess! Although a tough day, still one with some action!