Sheboygan 6/1

[TXRH Wausau]

So I finally made it out for my first trip ever on my boat on the big pond Wednesday.

But first, a report on the night before. Seven of us went out on a couple of charter boats (Tuesday evening) and did pretty well. 30 fish total. 25 Cohos, 5 kings. Biggest King was 14#. Average Cohos were about 6-7#. Caught the majority on a variety of dodger/flies, with 3 coming on clean spoons running on the boards. About even numbers off dipsies and riggers. Fishing in 25-40 FOW about 15-20 down on average. Last light fish started coming on chartreuse stick rebels.

So I went out with 2 (also inexperienced) buddies the next morning and broke in my boat. We were on the water at 5 am. At that time the water was reasonably calm, with steady west wind at 10-15 mph. Got one 7# coho about 5 minutes after setting the second rod. (Came on a braid dipsy running a white / glo dreamweaver with a blu / glo howie.) While dealing with getting that one in/netted the rigger on the same side tripped (it had a #00 orange dodger with a white fly). Didn't get to it in time. (Rookies I told ya). That was an exciting 10 minutes.

Then things changed. Needless to say shortly after the sun came full up the weather changed dramatically, with whitecaps changing to 2-3 footers and winds averaging 20 mph+ with gusts to 30. Fought that BS for over an hour fighting to keep the boat straight, dealing with fouls, terrible line twists, wrapping around the rigger cable, etc. After nearly 2 hours of that I told the boys it was time to give it up and we headed in around 8:00.

What did I learn on this trip?

1.) GLF is a great resource. My boat is set up fairly well to do this, thanks mostly to what I've learned here from you guys.

2.) I HAVE to get the tiller/kicker connected to the main. (Steering from the stern sucks.)

3.) I do have the correct equipment to catch these fish.

4.) DON"T TRY FISHING IN 20+ mph winds or 3 ft waves until you know what you're doing. When it goes from fun to major frustration from tangle after tangle, it it defeats the purpose of going out at all.

I will not be fishing out of Sheboygan anymore - it takes me too long (gas $$$) to get there. This trip happened only because of a business meeting I had in Sheboygan Tuesday morning. Algoma will likely be more home for me moving forward. So if any of you fish out of there, let me know. (KJ Pluggin I know you're going out of SB typically - I may make a trip or two up there this summer as well. I'll let ya know...)

Thanks again to all for the support.

-Brian

[A-Fishy-Anado]

We've all been there Brian, I can tell you that!! Keep working at it and put your time in. We appreciate the great comments about GLF...best of luck out there:thumb:

[KJ pluggin]

Fishing in the wind makes everything more difficult, nice job putting a few scales in the boat.

[pikeman8]

Good job! You can only read so much and the rest you figure out hands on to get your boat tuned in to what works for you. The wind sucks for anyone. Even the big boats struggle in the wind, it really takes the fun outta fishing. I do concur about the kicker, it's a real pain to steer from stern espcially in rough seas. I really like my ez steer. Keep up the reports!

[jimcr]

watching the weather will help, west winds are good to a point , then they get obnoxious.

nice to get the boat stinky I'll bet.

[GLF]

Nice job Brian. Each trip out is a learning curve. It may have worked better to use the big motor in the wind to control the boat instead of the kicker.