We got out on Lake Michigan on Saturday and Sunday. In a normal year we would've been fishing for more than a month now, but the weather and various mechanical problems have been conspiring against us. The planets finally aligned and let us out of the harbor.
A few of the bigger tourneys start in the upcoming weeks so we really needed to get some fish, both to boost confidence and to start building a pattern. We were successful on both accounts. We launched at 4:00 am and had our limit of cohos and chinooks by 8:30 on Sat. That's not exactly burning them up, but it was good for the confidence. We had a couple doubles and one triple in which we were able to land all but one fish. It was good to get the "boat dance" back -- passing rods, going over and under each other, talking through crossed lines, not getting hyper, we hadn't gotten to practice that stuff since last September.
Sunrise on Saturday
We lost count and had to dump the cooler. Here's 13 out of our limit of 15
I was lucky enough to get to the dipsey rod first on the big fish of the day. A decent king, and my first of the year.
I love it when they barely fit in the cooler
Here's the total catch and my longtime boat partners Kirk and Steve.
The cleaning station was PACKED. Nobody else was even close to a limit. That's a good feeling going into a tournament. We were more that a mile from the popular spots and I don't think anyone saw us, which is an even better feeling.
Now I know this is going to surprise some of you, but since we finished so fast in the morning, we decided to take the afternoon and fly fish for some smallies. We went to a sweet little Lake Michigan tributary that I haven't been to since my rock skipping and frog chasing days. We didn't get any fish but it was fun to return to my childhood stomping grounds. It was also good to see that this little river is still in fine shape. It would've been nicer to land a few smallies, but who can complain after the morning we had.
On Sunday morning we decided to fish in the more popular spots, both to check them out and to cover our tracks from Saturday. We caught about half as many smaller fish.
It was a melee out there with boats crossing each other and spooling each other's rods. I think I heard some new words on the radio.
The auto pilot took a dump and by the time we realized we were going in a circle, half of our lines were tangled. After a few hours of trying to fix it, it looks like it might be something on one of the circuit boards by the motor. I gave it to friend who builds and repairs circuit boards at work. He said he'd take a look.
It will suck to not have next weekend if we start getting into doubles and triples again
The coolest part of Sunday morning was when we almost got boarded by pirates.
This tall ship appeared out of the fog right after sunrise. I had my eye out for Kiera Knightley, but she was nowhere to be found.