Well the previous weekday reports and weather didn`t change over the weekend.
I started off around 6:30 on Friday morning in 60` and pointed it East 2 miles South of the line. There weren`t too many other Charters out, perhaps due to the Tournament. We took our first hit as we crossed the 100` mark and took a decent steelie. I continued out past a Tournament boat that was pulling lines and ripped out to the deeper water. I followed his lead and trolled out to 200` and found it to be a big mistake, no hits, no runs, no errors . I marked a few, but not much. I turned it back in and we finally had a hit around 150`. As I reached the low 100`s we finally saw some more action and took a coho while missing 2 others. It was nearing 10:30 and I asked if they had plans as I was willing to keep them out "On the house" since I didn`t have an afternoon trip and it appeared the active fish were in the 100` level. Their son wasn`t used to the early wake up and with the lack of action being broadcast over the radio they decided to head in early. We ended up 2/5 in what turned out to be about a 4 hour trip. I later found out the tournament boat I followed out, to which I knew, wasn`t anywhere the top of the leader board . All it would have taken was a couple of hits early in the shallower water to keep me there. With the first fish being a Bo`, I thought that perhaps some might have shown up in the deeper water, Wrong Answer! After licking my wounds and contemplating calling "Boat Trader" to put "The Dog" up for sale, I found out I wasn` far below par for the course and decided to hold off on the sale of the boat.
On Saturday morning there were a few Charters that left at 5 working the hills, and they didn`t have much to show for their earlier start. I set up on the line in 40` on some marks and we had 4 hits by the time we reached 60`. I turned back and circled thru a couple of more times and we were seeing decent amounts of bait and a few pokes. The problem, as the day before, was getting the fish to the boat. If our percentage was that of a entrance exam needed to get into college, we`d be lucky to get a GED. The last hour or so the bite died off, and I took it out to the 90`s and low 100`s and then trolled back in towards the harbor finally taking a few hits in the 60`s. I continued to run my usual spread and don`t recall a bait that really worked better that anything else. We ended up 7/13 and I was no longer below par, and back in contention.
For the afternoon I took it a little South and set up in 60` at 42° 27`N and trolled Southeast for a mile where we reached 100` We managed to land one of the four hits we took on the slide out then we were greeted by "The Swarm". We could have changed the name of the marina from "North Point" to "Gnat Point", it was miserable to say the least . I`ve never witnessed such a thick mass for as long of a run as I did. In the past I`d go thru a hatch and then after a minute or so you were out of them, not here, it was relentless. I called a Charter that was a couple of miles South and he said he`d been in it for the last hour. I noticed the water temp where I set up was 68° and now it was 75°. I did a 180 on my present heading and was able to get back to the cooler water and out of the gnats. We took another couple of hits on the way and it appeared the fish were hanging right around the temp break. So it was either deal with the gnats knowing there are active fish around, or take our chances. It was a unanimous decision and were back on the hunt. I managed to stay out of the swarm to the South and found brief pockets as I took it North. We saw some action but still had the problem of not being able to get them to the box. I figured I`d give it a shot where I started off my morning run and trolled in along the line from 100`. The cloud cover must have brought them back in and we took another 4 or 5 hits landing 3 to bring the happy total to 7/15. I spent well over an hour cleaning off my boat. The easiest way to describe the vast number still on board is that it looked like the underside of a rock that you would pick up looking for bugs, and find an ant colony. That was what the walkway from the back to the topside of my boat resembled.
On Sunday I had an 8 O`clock start taking out a Father and son from Iowa who just graduated form business school. After the experience the afternoon prior I didn`t want any part of that, so we headed up over the line and found the cooler water was enough to keeps the gnats and flies at a tolerable level. I set up a mile North and had 2 quick hits one on a board and the other the lead , missing both. I continued to take it out over the hill to the 90`s and followed that level for another mile. We managed a few pokes and the 40` dipseys were the best rods out. I did mark quite a bit of bait but only a few fish. I turned it back in and we managed to land a few more coho, but no Kings or Bo`s. I headed out towards the wreck and circled it with only one small chinook that took our first `rigger bite as we passed the 100` mark. I came back into the 50`s with more action and followed that level back South. We ended up with the best percentile for the weekend going 9/14 with eight of them being decent coho.
I didn`t change much around as far as presentations, I still used boards, dipseys, `riggers and the lead core. They were at the same leads and depths that I`ve been running. One trip the boards were the ticket, on the next it was the `riggers and so on. On Sunday`s trip the first four hits were, a board, the lead, a shallow and then a deep dipsey. Spoons and dodger / flie bites were mixed as well as spoons ranging from the small stingers to magnums.
We are in the June transition and the weather pattern is supposed to change the next couple of days so hopefully it get rid of the gnat hatch and move the waters around a bit, and for the better at that.

"Wet Nets"
Captain Jim