Nice Day on the Lake

Fished with Captain Daryl. Temperature this morning was in the lower 60's and when we quit fishing it was in the lower 70's. The wind was out of the southwest when we started fishing and started switching around 10:00 am to the southeast less than 10 knots. Waves were less than a foot. The water temp is 61 degrees. Started fishing the south side of the dump with junior thunder sticks set at 80 feet back and deep diving thunder sticks set at 55 feet back. We also ran a couple of dipsy's set at 30 to 40 feet back with bombers. We were marking a lot of fish so we just stayed and worked this area. The catching was slow but a least we were catching some walleye. The blue and green thunder sticks seemed to be the best colors. Kept 10 walleye and put back about 10 short walleye and we only caught 2 silver bass.

Nice Day, Bad Results

Fished with Joe and Daryl. Temperature this morning was in the lower 40's and when we quit fishing it was in the lower 60's. The wind was very light and variable with no waves, just a little chop on the lake. The water temp is 58 Degrees. Started fishing around the S-Buoy trolling with junior thunder sticks set at 75 feet back, deep diving bandits set at 50 feet back and dipsy's and bombers set at 28 feet back. We were marking a lot of fish but we had no takers, so after a half hour we took off the thunder sticks and put on crawlers set at 45 feet back. The water was dirty, but clean enough to catch fish. Finally we caught our first walleye and it was a short walleye. Stayed in this area for a while and we landed only one keeper walleye so we started heading to the East. About 15 minutes heading into this direction I started playing with the auto pilot and I put the boat into a 360 Degree spin, not a good thing. I shut down the motor and we were into a major mess. Thanks to all the good work of my crew we did not lose anything, hard to believe. Since all the lines were out of the water we headed for walleye alley. Set up here with the same program and we only caught one keeper walleye. We pulled lines and headed back to the dumping grounds running the same program. When we fished the stained water we started to catch walleye, some keepers and some shorts, but our time was running out. When we got into the dirty water we were catching logs and paper. Kept 7 walleye and put back 8 short walleye. Only caught a few junk fish.

First Trip of the Year

Fished with Joe on the first walleye trip of the year. The weather report was for light northwest winds with waves less than a foot. The day started out with the winds out of the northeast around 10 knots and by 10:00 am the wind was blowing at 15 knots with waves 1 to 3 feet. Not a good start to the year. When we started fishing the temp was in the lower 40's and when we quit fishing it was in the lower 50's. The water temp is 52 Degrees. Started trolling at the S buoy heading towards the E buoy with crawler harnesses with 2 ounce weights. One side of the boat was set at 40 feet back and the other side of the boat was set at 50 feet back. We were about half way in the dumping grounds when we caught the first walleye, 14 1/2 inches. We started picking away at the fish until we got to the E buoy and the water started clearing up so we made a pass back where we came from. About this time the wind started blowing and it was tough to control the boat. We fought the wind and waves for about a hour and called it a day. Kept 1 perch and 10 walleye. We put back 14 walleye that were under size.

Trout Fishing 2017

Headed up north with Joe and John on Thursday morning to set up camp on the Boardman River. When we were in Grayling, fueling up, the temps were in the lower 70's and by the time we arrived at camp the temps were in the middle 50's. The river looked to be in good shape for the opener on Saturday, April 29.

Saturday morning the temp was 38 Degrees with a slight breeze and  clear skies, just a beautiful opening morning. We all headed to our favorite spots with high hopes. When we all met back at camp we had the same reports, the fish were biting and we all caught fish. Opening morning produced 12 brown trout from 8 1/2 inches to 14 1/4 inches. What a great start to the trout season! Minnows and worms both caught fish, but the bigger fish came off the minnows. We now had enough fish to have trout dinners for a couple of nights.

Now Mother Nature decided to step in and change the trip. The rain that started Saturday night chased us away from the camp fire and continued into Sunday morning. We had a small window to eat some breakfast and do a little fishing before the next rain storm arrived. We got a couple of hours of fishing in before the rain started. We caught some nice fish, but that was it for fishing on Sunday. The rain quit just in time to have a camp fire but, again, we were chased away from the fire around midnight because of the rain. The forecast was for more rain on Monday morning with a small window of no rain then more rain for the rest of the day and rain on Tuesday. We made the decision to cut our trip short and break camp on Monday morning when the rain quit and head for home, which turned out to be the right choice. We kept 20 brown trout for the weekend with the largest fish measuring 16 inches, that I caught on Sunday, which makes me the Trout King for this year!