Once again the weather could have been better on Friday, which lead to another reschedule. The strong North winds seemed to play a role in the fishing over the weekend at North point as well. The action wasn`t bad, but for the amount of fish on the screen, it could have been unbelievable. We no longer had the cold water down deeper in the column and it appeared the fish were adjusting.
On Saturday morning I headed North of the border and set lines in 60`and stayed in the 60`- 90` range for the entire trip. We went 10/17 with a mixed bag of coho, Kings and a laker. The hot presentation was a green fly behind a "O" orange dodger. It brought us one nice king around 14# on a wire dipsey 80` out on a # 1 setting, and the second one that hit it broke the dodger after making a few hard runs. We brought in the welded ring on the end of my swivel
. The fish was at the surface and waved bye to us with a very large tail. We lost another King in the mid teens at the back of the boat as it made one last run thru the `rigger cables that hit a Smurf on the lead.
For the afternoon I returned to the North with guests up from Missouri. To hold true with their fishing experiences back home, the women caught the bigger fish
. We went 11/15 with a handful of kings that we wished were 2 years older. Lil` boy blue behind chrome, a banana rig, and a clown behind chrome were the better presentations. Whether on dipseys, or riggers, they all took hits. A Magnum Smurf and Monkey Puke on the lead took a few pokes as well.
On Sunday Morning we had a multiple boat trip, so I stayed in Illinois waters, I trolled from the line down to 42* 28`N between 50` and 90` feet of water. We ended up with 4 smaller kings and a nice 10# Steelie which hit a Silver Streak "Hot Lobster"on the lead. We had quite a few short hits where the rod would pop, but nobody home. it was the hardest trip of the weekend I had trying to entice the fish to bite. My dipseys never took a hit.
For the afternoon it was back to the North again staying in the 60`-90` range, from the line to 42* 33` N. The 3rd rod down brought an 18 # King to the cooler after a 20 minute battle. Just as I placed the net under the fish the Magnum Smurf was spit and he fell into the net
. Plenty of bait as well as marks all over the place. It again was a mixed bag with a few steelies, Kings and coho. I ran the same baits as I did on the prior trips. We ended up 7/8 loosing the last one around the 50 yard mark on the lead.
I stopped running my birds, as well as many other Captains, since I haven`t had much success with them on the last few trips. However one captain said the birds saved his trip, go figure
.
Since I was in the same depths for the entire weekend, the `riggers were down 30` to the bottom with the baits about 12` back. Dipseys were out 40`-80` on a number 1 setting and 100`-150` on a number 3, the lead was always a full core out.
Many of the boats are leaving the dock at 5 or earlier and having success at sunrise, I found myself playing catch-up by leaving at 6.
"Wet Nets"
Captain Jim
www.luckydogcharters.com
North Point 6/24-6/25
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