After I graduated from college, my Grandma kept asking me when I was going to get a \\\\\\”real\\\\\\” job. Well I did and it has really cut into my LOW fishing. Luckily, I was able to schedule a work/fishing trip so I could have a long weekend at my Uncle\\\\\\\’s cabin on Rocky Point. Get ready for a long report, but it was 4 days.
Friday-checked the area from Gull Rock to N. Arnesen\\\\\\\’s Reef and the reefs were pretty bare. 
downrigging time. With only my Unlce and I in the boat, we just ran two downriggers. In 2.5 hours of fishing we only boated 2 small saugers. For the afternoon we picked up my parents and Aunts. The plan was to fish the 33 ft fasin East of Arnesen\\\\\\\’s Reef. We ran a spread of 2 leadcore setups and 2 downriggers. From 3-7pm we ended up boating 15 walleyes/sauger. Half of the fish fell victim to a Firetiger Flicker Shad at 5 colors. Should have been twice as many, but they came unhooked. 
The second best was a gold spinner rig pulled near the bottom on the downrigger.
Saturday-With no wind, we decided to make our virgin trip to Garden Island. Three guys in my Uncle\\\\\\\’s new Warrior 2090/175hp Opti we had no problem hitting high 40s. It made the trip pretty short. Fishing was slow. We headed back and ran into a line of atleast 40 charters fishing off long point. A couple hours there and only a few fish. Finished the afternoon/evening on Archie\\\\\\\’s reef pulling spinners. We ended up catching 12 walleyes with two slot fish that had to go back. They weren\\\\\\\’t showing a preference for any color.
Sunday was rough, so as soon as we rounded Gull Rock we dropped the lines and started trolling North at 2-2.5 mph. Good choice. At 10 am we had been on the water 1 hour and I was reeling in fish number 6. All of them fell victim to the same black/silver TD-9 set deep on the downrigger. The other two lines were rigged with bright colors like Hot Tiger and goldfish. On the next pass we threw on a black/silver TD-7 and a blue/silver Flicker Shad. Not as good as the first pass, but we caught a couple on each setup. At 3 we called it a day 
with 11 fish in the livewell and just as many smaller fish released. The fish definitely wanted natural colors trolled tight to the bottom. I tried off and on all day running the usual reds, oranges, and chart., but nothing.
Monday-The wind switched 180 degrees. My Dad and I trolled the basin East of Arnesen\\\\\\\’s for a few hours in the morning. Upon arrival I spotted the classic bait clouds with arcs on the Lowrance. Determined to catch some suspended walleyes, we tried numerous crankbaits in the 20-25 foot range. I finally gave up and dropped the downriggers and emptied the spool on the leadcore. No sooner did I say \\\\\\”We should atleast snag a sauger down on the bottom\\\\\\” and a nice sauger hammered the TD-9 on the leadcore. We ended up catching 14 walleyes/sauger from 8-19 inches. The same mix we saw each day. I should also note that the fish wanted the baits trolled under 2 mph. Most of the fish hit on the inside of a turn or when I slipped the boat in neutral.
The fishing was slow by my LOW standards, but still very good. 
Last year we caught 75% of our downrigging fish suspended 6-12 feet off the bottom. On this trip we never caught a fish higher than 4 feet off bottom.
