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Author Topic: A Weeks Vacation  (Read 1756 times)

zwiggles

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A Weeks Vacation
« on: May 14, 2017, 06:15 PM »
I was lucky enough to spend the last week on the big lake. My mother's college roommate has a place on winni which she offered to us for the week of the winni derby. We had to go a week early as my good friend will be getting married next weekend, and my family is going to the wedding. The weather did not look great, and my father had to work the first four days of the week and commute, but it was a great time.

Fishing wise I covered a lot of water at high speeds going for midday boat rides with my mom. Fishing was secondary, but I explored a lot of new areas on the lake, and was surprised to find widely varied water temps. Fishing wise the camp was in an area I am familiar with, but had rarely fished. Although I expoored a lot of the lake, almost all the fish where caught around our camp.

We got their on a Saturday afternoon, and trolled around and managed one nice salmon around 15" in a short evening troll then called it a night. Sunday morning we went from around 530-10 then went in for breakfast. Had to work hard for this rainbow, but she saved the skunk. We found water that was 49, but only got the bow after changing spots and finding 43 degree water.



The next morning my brother and I slept in. I went to AJs for smelt, and he was kind enough to sell me a nice sewing needle as well as give some pointers on sewing smelt. Grabbed some more streamers, and hit the water for a few hours exploring and cruising around with my mother. Didn't get any hits on the streamers, but found some warm water to try in the evening. Although we fished the warm water that night we got our only skunk of the week while trolling a few hours in a new to us area.

The next few trolls produced one or two fish, with most being 15" ish salmon which were all healthy. I started to try out fishing with sewn bait which is all new to me. I have used the slider rigs, but mostly only caught smallmouth with them. Last fall I bought a new iPilot for my fathers boat, and we had not used it much for trolling. This week we learned a lot about how to use that in conjunction with sewn smelt, and I was very pleased that we did in fact catch a few fish.

The big motivator for this was early in the week there was a massive hatch of bugs. I remembered from the past two years that when these bugs come out the bite dies. I had in the past tried everything in my "tackle box" to switch it up, but almost never caught fish. Trying the new technique, and being patient with it really paid off. Friday morning we had worked out some of the kinks, but we learned quickly that shallow water + slow trolling speeds + erratic turns = lots of rock fish... we snagged four times, and had to pull in all six lines plus the otter boats, but thankfully everyone kept their temper and we also kept all of our gear. We also caught some nice fish:

This one came on an evening troll Thursday night. She went home with my dad for a relative who wanted some fresh fish. She was absolutely loaded with eggs:



This was Friday morning after all the rock fish we released  ;)



Midday Friday my dad and went out in the bright sun with zero salmon chop. I expected nothing but a sunburn, and was happily mistaken. We got a nice salmon off the bay. My mother was with us, and wanted to eat it for dinner. I measured it, and it kicked overboard, and swam away.... we all got a laugh. Then we got another rainbow shortly after which came home for dinner:



After that my mother was asking how we know if we have a fish on since we were mainly using fly poles with various lines on them. We explained the rod will bob, or bend over. I turned around and she starts screaming that a fish is on, and sure enough my dad was hooked into a nice fish. The water was very clear, and once he got it close I saw a bunch of big bubbles, and some the nice big fins of a lake trout. The fish dogged under the boat for a few minutes, and made some good runs. This picture doesn't do it justice, but it was a much better than average winni laker with some great colors:



That night was slow. My friend joined us for the night, and he and I both missed a fish early. I think with the way I sewed on the smelt "setting the hook" seemed to result in dropping the fish. After releasing the downrigger to check that the bait was not stolen I wrapped the line around my finger, grabbed the release to reset the line, and all of a sudden the bait was pulling back hard! I grabbed the leader with my free hand scrambled for the pole, and looked out back to see a nice salmon leaping from the water. Got him in the boat, got a quick pic and was going to release him, but my dad wanted to keep him for super. No issue with me so I went for a quick measurement, and whoops over the side again.... needless to say I'm not allowed to measure them until we get to the dock anymore haha.



Finished up the week a day early Saturday with the forecast of heavy rains on Sunday. We fished the morning, and got four fish before the wind from the east picked up and bite died off. 2 lakers, and two nice salmon. One was a bleeder so it went home with my friend for salmon burgers, and the other paired with the rainbow we caught earlier for a very nice meal.





All in all it was a fantastic week with most of the highlights being unrelated to fishing. Still had some great fishing, learned some new techniques, and explored some new areas. We released around 20 fish, and took a few home for dinner. Water was warming up at the end of the week but areas which were 48-50 one day would be 45 the next. If I had to guess most of the lake will be in the low 50s this weekend. Good luck to everyone at the derby!








JoeGG

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Re: A Weeks Vacation
« Reply #1 on: May 14, 2017, 06:22 PM »
Great report.

skinnywater

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Re: A Weeks Vacation
« Reply #2 on: May 14, 2017, 06:27 PM »
Nice report,  Thanks for sharing.  Looks like a great week off.
greenshack on shanty

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Re: A Weeks Vacation
« Reply #3 on: May 14, 2017, 06:36 PM »
I wish I could take a week off just to fish and relax with family.

Great report. Thanks for all the pictures and glad to see you had a good vacation..

Mr.Harry

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Re: A Weeks Vacation
« Reply #4 on: May 15, 2017, 07:53 AM »
Great way to spend some quality time off. Some nice looking fish in that gallery. Great report. Thanks.

BarringtonBrad

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Re: A Weeks Vacation
« Reply #5 on: May 15, 2017, 03:52 PM »
Nice work wiggins&co. ! And thorough report!

61gun

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Re: A Weeks Vacation
« Reply #6 on: May 27, 2017, 05:35 AM »
great read and report. Thanks for sharing!

ericbres

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Re: A Weeks Vacation
« Reply #7 on: May 28, 2017, 07:57 AM »
Great report - beautiful fish. Glad I'm not the only one who had the action come to a halt as soon as that wind picked up Saturday.

 



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