Fished Saturday a.m & p.m. and then again on Sunday morning chasing salmon on Lake Michigan with Quintin Biermann & his cousin Luke. The bite was not as good as it had been but we did manage to find enough willing fish to make it plenty interesting. The late afternoon bite was definitely better than the early morning bite.
For sure, part of the slow action on Saturday morning was the fish had moved somewhat from where we were catching them the weekend before so we did have to relocate active fish. Talking with other anglers at the fish cleaning station during the middle of the day on Saturday did get us some valuable information on better area’s to concentrate our efforts on Saturday evening and Sunday morning.
Knowing how far these two guys had traveled to get here definitely added to my desire to put these guys on fish. Nothing worse than telling stories of all the nice fish your catching, setting up a trip with someone with great expectations and then having the fish take a hacienda when your crew shows up. Been there and done that to many times before and if at all possible, even though I was dead tired by mid-day on Saturday due to sleep deprivation, I was determined to not let that happen again.
Last year, fishing glow spoons in the dark was lights out, fast action and at times, it was difficult to even get my usual 6 rod spread in the water due to the fast action. This year, fishing in the dark before sunrise and after sunset is still proving to be a tough go for my boat.
Right at daybreak or like on Saturday evening, just before complete sunset, the action has been pretty good for my boat. Saturday night, the action for about 45 minutes was almost crazy good. Unfortunately, several of the big fish created multiple problems for us and all the bigger fish escaped the net. Basically, they never made it to the net before coming unbuttoned and we ended up coming out of that flurry of activity with several shakers and one nice two year old King which put our afternoon total at 7 fish boated out of approximately 10 or 12 hookups.
Sometimes that’s just the way it goes and probably more often than many of us would like to admit.
Our best bait for the weekend was probably the double aqua fly pulled behind a green flasher which is shown in this picture.
Our 2nd best bait would have to be the LBB fly behind a white flasher. (shown in picture below)
A close third was a bit of a surprise and I have to thank Greybeard for turning me on to these baits a couple years ago. That would be a Brads Cut Plug filled with Starkist Tuna fish. I’ve been carrying a box full of these around for the past 3 years and they’ve gotten only a small amount of time in the water during that time. After this weekend, that may change on future trips.
Wonder Bread was the best color for us and unfortunately, I don’t have a picture to post of it at this time.
By the end of our adventure at 10a.m. on Sunday morning, our tally looked like this: 4 fish on Saturday morning (2 kings a coho & a laker) 7 fish on Saturday evening (3 kings, 3 coho & a laker) and 4 more fish on Sunday morning. ( 4 kings) I’m writing this quick over my lunch hour and don’t have my notes available at the moment so the exact species count may be a little off but the numbers are accurate.
Basically, Quintin and Luke took home 15 fish which isn’t quite as good as what I had hoped for but far from what I feared for a while there on Saturday morning.
Both these guys handled the rods & boat driving duties just fine and that always helps a lot. Plus they were both good company in the boat which made the time go by pretty fast. As a side bonus, “Larry the Laker” will for sure get plenty of air time in my boat on future trips. One of the fun, little benefits of fishing with different people.
Despite the sleep deprivation part, it was definitely fun meeting and fishing with you two Quintin & Luke although I sure wish I had snapped a picture of you two sleeping in the front of my Tundra on Sunday morning. Looked a lot like a couple of giant tuna stuffed in a can not nearly big enough for comfort. I have no idea how the heck you guys can sleep in those odd ball positions.