The winds this spring are taking over where the fall fishing left off, constantly moving the fish around . We`ve had a couple of steady days, but usually end up chasing them. Some boats are doing better than others, but for the most part it`s been day by day.

Despite bait and marks right in front, the water is still murky so on Thursday I went straight out from 100` - 140` setting up on some marks. I worked the area East and West, it wasn`t Lock-N-Load, but we caught our share of fish. I`ve been picking up Kings since my first trip out, they have been pretty cooperative at hitting spoons, getting them to the cooler is another story. We managed to boat one and a few steelies as well on `riggers down 50` and 65`. The boards with blue flies were best for me.



On Friday I started in the same area and found the fish were still scattered. The deeper `riggers down 65`-80` brought in some lakers as I fished from 120`-180`. The boards brought in a combination of coho and steelies totaling 11 in the box. The shocker of the day was when this 19.3 # King (according to my digital scale) took an aqua midget flie behind a "00" orange dodger 14` down on a `rigger 10` back. The fish was in great shape with beautiful colors, and pretty chunky as well. In the pic the fish isn`t held way out in front of him, just enough to keep him off his clothes, he was 37" long.



Saturday morning was tough to say the least for those of us who fished the shallow waters. The strong West winds lured most of us in, hoping the water would clear up and the coho would bite. I did have a King take the same dodger/flie combo as the day prior, only to have him run into three of my boards, wiping out all four lines and getting off to boot . Not too good of a showing for the middle of May as I only managed to get 4 coho to the boat :o . I was afraid to go out to the deeper waters as I was fighting white caps in 20` .

For the afternoon the Winds had subsided and I had a three boat trip taking out the "Dundee-Crown H.S. Fishing Club". I set up on some marks straight out in 100` and it wasn`t long we had 2 decent Kings in the box. I continued out to 160` where the screen drew a blank. I heard of action out in the 200` plus range but that was well South of me, so I brought it back in and stayed between 110`- and 140`. I had the young ladies of the club and they ended up with braggin` rights back at the school, although one boat had a couple of more fish than ours, we had the size.



On Sunday morning once again the winds were howling, this time out of the North. I set up where I left off and and tried to stay near the line only top have the winds push us further South on each pass. They were still catching the coho out in the 200` plus range, but I didn`t have the time to get out that deep, and the group wanted to try for larger fish. We took our fish with the `riggers down 35` and 45` with a Silver Streak Black Fin Tuna and Smurf in tow, taking the bigger fish. The boards seemed to have more action with the midget flies (tied to the hook) in blue.




For the afternoon the Lake had calmed down considerably from the morning so I ventured out to the depths. Setting up in 165` I had two fish take the only rod I had out as I was explaining my set up procedures. I continued East as far as 238` with the best bite going to the East. I only had a couple doubles and a triple but it was a relief from the morning prior knowing there are still coho around. I once again had the Black Fin Tuna out and it was working well until the winds died down. I was on my final pass and I took it back to where we started. I told the guys as hard as it is to pull a bait that`s been working, there are time you have to do it. I switched over to an "Old Yeller" (Chrome with a chartreuse stripe on the side) and it wasn`t down more than 5 minutes and it took a King. I was pulling lines as he hit and dropped it back down while I finished taking in the rest. It was one of the last rods out and it took another king having us end the day the way we started with the same rod taking two fish within a matter of minutes.



I fished from 7` all the way out to 238`. I was in three different levels, with the coho in the shallow, 7`-35` range (at times) and also 190` plus. The Kings seem to be most abundant in the 90`-160` depths. I`ve fished the same area as other charters with them taking coho on boards and I`m doing better on Kings with my `riggers. I tell them what I`m running and they can`t get it to go and vise-versa. Don`t get all flustered changing baits by what you hear on the radio or read here. A fine example came on Sunday afternoon, there has been a lot of talk about the "Hey Baby" spoon and someone wanted to see what it looked like, I don`t have one. I just have different patterns that work for me, and "If it ain`t broke, don`t fix it" .

"Wet Nets"
Captain Jim