Report; 6/11/18
Walt & I launched and started fishing around 7:40 am this morning. The air temp was still cool at 53 degrees with the water at 67. Winds were light and variable from 4 - 8 mph. This is what the lake looked like when we started:
Pretty nice day overall. The direction of the breeze varied as well; the TM mounted for side pulling helped us maintain direction and control quite well. When the pulled off at 1:45 pm, the motor was still running. So, this series 24 deep cycle on the 40# thrust Minn Kota is working out great for our needs on the Tracker P16. Still....a learning curve as far as maintaining a course side pulling, but we are getting better at it as time moves on.
We marked fish & bait at various depths from 5' down to the bottom at 22'. The fish were active, as was the bait. Unfortunately, the two photos I took of the sonar didn't come out very well. Maybe next time I'll try to focus better!
Right off the bat I nailed a very nice bluegill on a marabou RR:
From then on it was one after the other until the breeze died down to a calm surface, around 10:30 am. Then it was one here....one there. But the action continued all day, netting us 47 fish caught & released; 40 crappie, 5 bluegill and two nice fat rainbow trout! One rainbow took the RR and another the straight tailed plastic. Here's what these pretty fish looked like:
They make mighty fine eating if your into fresh water fish. I prefer mine from Schermahorn's fish market....and the ocean! Don't get me wrong, I've eaten a lot of freshwater fish. Just at my age, the cleaning, prepping and cooking is something younger fishermen can appreciate more than I.
Here are some of the nice crappie we caught today. Walt had the "hot rod" last time out. This time it was mine to savor:
To summarize, today was a much better day overall. Weather conditions were significantly improved and the fish were more active (in the morning anyway) and showed signs of schooling up in the deeper basin areas. Plenty of bait fish around too, to support their appetites. It's only going to get better from this point on! (Wishful thinking!)
Hope some of you were able to wet a line today. Thursday looks to be our next outing, if the weather Gods cooperate. God Bless you all!
"A voyage in search of knowledge need never abandon the spirit of adventure."