I decided Wednesday to travel north to Port Washington on Thursday Morning to chase some salmon with a novice crew and avoid the Milwaukee fireworks mess. I arrived at Port early to clear skies and great visibility, but by the time my crew arrived and we made t clear of the harbor, a rather tenacious fog bank appeared from nowhere. With visibility down to 25 feet, we ventured out cautiously SE to 80 FOW and started setting lines. It sure makes me nervous fishing blind like that and we were on high alert for any sound of any other boats. The fishing was a grind to say the least. I started with a spread of glow spoons and a couple of FF. The first rod to fire was a wire dipsy in 140 FOW out 140LOC with a FF combo. That would turn out to be a 12 lb king that ripped off another 100 feet of line before we could gain the upper hand. While that was going on, the down rigger on the same side went off with another king– Doubled up so start the day! Both fish found there way into the box a short time later. Then eerie silence for the next 30 minutes as we trolled NE out to 180 feet. There were tons of marks all the way out but no more takers. We spun around and trolled back to the SW and started switching the spoons to FF. A good decision that payed off quickly at 145 FOW with a triple that turned into a tangled mess of leadcore! We managed another king and a 12lb bow out of that mess. The king on the wire dipsy and the bow on 7 color lead with FF- There was one strand of mylar left on that fly thanks to that one being hooked deep, got the hook back at the cleaning station. The lost one was on the ten color that had fired first on the lone crabface spoon we had left out. Continued the stroll SW as we cleared the tangle and reset as so as we had turned back to the NE and doubled up again at 140. By now the fog was thinning, and we could see the Silver of an acrobatic Steelie at the end of the 7 color. The second was a Laker on the second downrigger down 60. We would circle back through 140 feet with 3 lost screamers to end the morning 6 for 10. Those who stopped to chat at the cleaning station would have dismal reports and only one other stopped to clean their lone fish while we were there.
July 3, 2014 at 9:45 pm
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