yesterday's winni report

[deerme]

had the day off yesterday.  my uncle and his buddy made the trip up from MA to meet me at the launch for 5:15.  my uncle got sick (too many pinots monday night is more like it!) on the way up so his buddy accompanied me on the boat for the morning.

launched out of downings and fished till 11AM.  ran shiners off the back with one color of inline lead and orange/black spoons off the planers.  ended up with 11 salmon.  half came on the shiners and half on the lures.  lures were 3 and 4 colors out (inline).  almost all of the hits were around the sandy point area.

7 of the 11 salmon were tiny.  last year's stockies.  biggest was maybe 20".

after dropping him off at 11 and checking on my uncle for a bit, i headed back out to the mouth of the bay hoping to find some bigger salmon (said hi to KJ Louise on the way out).  this proved to be a very wise decision.  i found a drop off that went from 40 to 100 FOW and the salmon were all over it!  from noon to 4PM i landed 16 more salmon.  fished the two live bait rigs off the back of the boat and hooked up every time i passed this ridge.  after landing 15 salmon i was out of shiners.  put out the two 3 and 4 color rigs and landed one more.  they were all over the top of the water column.  twice i saw a salmon break the water surface 50 to 75 yards off to the side of the boat.  i have never had mid-day fishing be so productive!

all in all 27 salmon hit the boat.  biggest of the day was probably 22".  probably the most salmon i've personally landed in one day of fishing.

water temp was 5' colder out at the mouth (40').  not sure if that had anythign to do with it???

if you launch at downings, stick to the left side (as you're facing the lake) of the launch.  the right side is very uneven. 

[PDubs/NH]

sounds like a great day, congrats!   Any pics....??

[OutlawRedneck]

Sounds awesome....but dude where was your camera!!!

[DT5150]

great report, thanks! and congrats on a banner day of fishin!

[AquaAssassin]

Nice job buddy!

[waterwolf603]

that sounds like an insane day congrats!

[MikeF-NH]

great report...seems the salmon are moving higher in the water column than we were seeing last week. A more normal seasonal pattern. Wish I could get out....probably not until May at this point.

[deerme]

these are the only pics i snapped.  sent my uncle and his buddy home w/ three salmon, all others were released.

the three they took home:


pays to have lots of releases so you don't have to bring the boards in often.  what they looked like when we brought them in at 11:


the snake:


salmon #23 of the day:



that's it - sorry, not too exciting 

[NH Trout Fisherman]

Glad you had a good day out there Brian. The boat will be into triple digits pretty soon if ya keep that up 

[800stealth]

Sounds like good times.

[waterwolf603]

for some reason i cant see the pics 

[dickbaker]

  Brian, I know you are conscientious about care of your released salmon.   But for others looking forward to double digit days I hope you will take the time and care to carefully handle and unhook your salmon.   rubber nets and single siwash hooks (even barbless hooks?)  will make a big difference.   
Hook wounded fish are still over 30% and the 4 yr. old class is almost non existent because most of the 3 yr. old fish are taken home by years end.

Still a great place to fish and the number of fish might compensate for the lack of trophy fish.

Good day and nice looking fish.  Glad the shiners worked and you didn't have to waste money on smelt!!

Dick

[DT5150]

great fish brian!

[PDubs/NH]

Brian, I know you are conscientious about care of your released salmon.   But for others looking forward to double digit days I hope you will take the time and care to carefully handle and unhook your salmon.   rubber nets and single siwash hooks (even barbless hooks?)  will make a big difference.   
Hook wounded fish are still over 30% and the 4 yr. old class is almost non existent because most of the 3 yr. old fish are taken home by years end.

Still a great place to fish and the number of fish might compensate for the lack of trophy fish.

Dick

Dick:


Is this issue specific to , or more prominent at,  Winni? I would think that the factors, including 3yr old harvest and hook-wounded fish, would impact all salmon fisheries in the state with public access and the same creel limits.

I have no experience so any insight or opinions would be interesting...

Paul

[H82LUZ]

That was a heck of a reports there man, glad you had such a great day. Congrats!