Trout Fishing 2015

2015 Trout King

Headed up north with Joe and John on 4-23-2015 for our annual trout camp on the Boardman River. On the ride up north we ran into quite a few snow squalls but the snow was not sticking to the ground.The river was in excellent shape when we arrived to set up camp, the lowest we have ever seen it. Spent Friday looking for new spots to fish on the Boardman River not too far from our camp and we found a couple of spots. The game plan was to go to bed early on Friday night and get an early start for opening morning. I woke up around midnight and the furnace had gone out in the camper. I worked on that for a while and could not get it going so I went and got the back up heater. Haven't used the back up heater for a while and as I was putting it together there were some spot welds that broke so we could not use it. The game plan was to let the Coleman lantern run for as long as it could. The temp outside was 20 Degrees and inside it was in the lower 40's. We got dressed in a hurry and left camp wide awake and ready to fish. John fished his honey hole and Joe and I went down river to fish. We came back for breakfast to find out that John had a great morning while the two of us had no fish. The good news was we had a enough fish for a trout dinner on Saturday night and it was awesome!

Hockey Night at Camp

The catching was tough for the rest of the weekend but we had a lot of fun trying to catch some more trout. We caught most of the fish using minnows and only a couple off the night crawlers. John caught 1 fish using a #9 Panther Martin. We caught enough fish to have a trout dinner again on Monday and we brought some fish home with us. We kept 10 trout for the trip and I won Big Fish this year with a Brown Trout measuring 16.875. The weather was great for the whole trip, no rain and temps averaging around 50 Degrees during the day and in the low to upper 20's for the night. We burned a lot of wood, told a few fish tails and had a few adult beverages. We all came home Tuesday happy and tired.

Slow fishing day

Fished with Joe and Daryl. Temperature when we started to fish was in the lower 50's and when we quit fishing it was in the lower 70's. The wind was light and variable with hardly any waves. The water temp is 49 degrees. Just a beautiful day to be on the lake. Started out fishing just short of the dumping grounds trolling worms on one side of the boat and junior thunder sticks on the other side. Caught the first walleye off the thunder stick pretty quick so the game plan was to just work this area. We were not marking any fish and the debris on the water made it tough to fish. Wasted too much time here but we finally moved towards the S buoy and set up with the same program. The water was stained and we were marking some fish so things were looking better. Lost a hog right at the net (would have put it back any way) because it was to large for the net. Picked up two more walleye and then we called it a day. Kept 3 walleye for the trip. Most of the fish we caught were on the worms. There is a lot of large and small logs floating in the water.

Maiden Voyage 2015

 Fished with Daryl and Norm. Temperature when we started fishing was in the middle 40's and when we quit fishing it was in the middle 50's. The wind was out of the northwest less than 10 knots until 11:00 AM, when it was like someone flipped a switch and it started coming out of the east less than 10 knots, then the temperature started to drop. The waves were less than a foot and the water temp is 49 Degrees. Went to Turtle Island and Daryl and I started out with the blade baits while Norm used a jig tipped with a minnow. Daryl had the first fish on but we lost it at the boat. After that, everything went down hill. We caught one walleye and one perch drifting with the blade baits and had six other hits that we lost. Decided to give trolling a try, so we went to the dumping grounds and set up with junior thunder sticks set at 50 feet back and deep diving thunder sticks set at 45 feet back trolling at 1.2 to 1.4 MPH. Caught a small mouth bass that we put back and when we started to pull lines we had a nice walleye on that we lost behind the boat. The catching was not very good but a least the boat ran great. We saw one boat doing pretty good with the blade baits out by Turtle Island.

First Trip of the Year

Fished with Captain Norm. We went fishing after my doctor's appointment. Temperature when we started fishing was 42 Degrees and when we quit fishing it was in the lower 50's. The wind was light out of the southwest and the lake was almost calm. The conditions were perfect for walleye fishing, overcast skies and a little chop on the water. The water temp was 39 Degrees. Started fishing in front of Toledo Beach Marina in 16 feet of water and trolling towards the swamp at a speed of 1.7 to 1.9 mph. We were running bombers set at 50 feet back with a 3/8 ounce rubber sinker 6 feet in front of the lures and junior thunder sticks set at 30 feet back. Made the pass into the swamp without any hits, so we pulled lines and headed to Turtle Island and started to jig with hair jigs tipped with a minnow. Made about 5 drifts here and we only had one hit so we called it a day. The fish are there but we just did not have the right combination today. Even though we did not catch any fish it felt great to be back on the Great Lakes again. Norm's boat ran great for the first trip out so I know he was happy.