Knot Awake
Logan
6/11/20263 min read
Sunday June 7th AM
Well, as I'm sure you all are aware, these blogs are focused on Salmon fishing Lake Michigan. But, before I get to the ins and outs of this trip, I need to do a little housekeeping in the form of background information.
We all have a special person or two in our lives that are instrumental in the process of becoming the people we are today. A lot of times those individuals are teachers, and this is the case here. Joanne Walters was that for me. From 9th Grade until my senior year in High School, she managed my classes, gave counsel to both myself and my parents on some of the issues I dealt with being on the Spectrum, and advocated for me as needed. Come Junior and Senior Year at Portage Northern, my relationship with her grew more and more as more of a friend and mentor even though she was by definition, my teacher....
Last year, we decided to start doing an annual fishing trip where she would come up and fish with me on my Friend Mike's boat. Mike has always been more than generous in accommodating me and my guests and it is always much appreciated.
Now enough fluff, let's get on to fishing!
The previous two outings I had experienced were flat out phenomenal fishing! Based on that information, the hope was that we could pretty easily whack out a 3 man limit on the bank in 90-110, where we had been catching.
We got pinched out a little deeper than I would have liked off the bat, and our morning bite was honestly luke-warm. In that first hour, my out and down went twice, Mike's went 3 times, my high wire took a fish, and we had 3 long line bites. By the time the sun was fully up, I think we were 4 for 8 or something like that. It was not great.
The non existent boat traffic from Saturday morning (assuming the fog might have played a role in that) was very existent! Full Sun and a constant thoroughfare of shiny metal with sharp objects attached in relatively shallow water, shut those fish down in a hurry!
We did hit a triple once we slid in to 90. At that time, we decided to turn back South as our troll had progressed to the 04s. We rode for a long time without a bite. We were 8 for probably 15, and by my communications with other boats, we figured out that our morning was about on par with most of the others...
I wanted to turn due West, but the boat traffic was not making that possible. Finally in the 015s, I had an opportunity to bob and weave and finally get out to the deeper water. The move looked more like the cupid shuffle than any kind of fixed course. Hard starboard, hard North by Northwest, slow down and let that guy by, then Turn hard Port and get ahead of that guy.... I was quite honestly impressed with how well I managed it on the wheel. When you have to do a long series of Zigs and Zags you don't want to zag when you're supposed to zig and you don't want to zig when you're supposed to zag!
We finally got outside the wolfpack and got her on a straight line. About 25 minutes in to that West Troll we hit a double. Took a 2 year old King on a full Core, and then a 20 inch Trout on an out and down. Then we rode and rode and rode. Sitting on 10 for whatever, I think Mike was ready to throw in the towel. The current situation gave him good reason. A blank screen and no action on the rods.
I kept telling him to at least wait and see if we find them in 350! That depth had been good for me before, and we were close enough to justify taking a peak.
It's a blessing that the first fish out there hit in 330 and not 350 because I'm not sure Mike would've let me go much further!
From 330-380 feet in the 01s, we had 9 more bites, boating 7 and ending with our 3 man limit of 15 fish (keeping 5 and releasing 2 in the deep water).
It was an excellent day of fishing with excellent friends, and I am already looking forward to next years' outing!!
