Yankee on Labor Day

[Yankee Troller]

September 3rd (Morning) - A new group joined us today, and they also were in the LOC derby. So, our job was to try and get it done! We found a similar temperature structure in the same area we fished on Sunday. However, the bite just wasn’t there. The fish were there, but not nearly as thick. We worked from the Flats to Eagle Creek for most of the morning.

We ran our three Cannons down 50-100’, two wires out 150-300’ on a 1.5 setting, and a pair of coppers. We worked that inside water for most of the morning, but we just couldn’t get them going. At one point we swung out to turn around and tripled in 135’ of water. We would go on to work that waypoint the rest of the morning and pick a fish on every pass. No one bait was “HOT.†An 11†Chrome E-Chip/A-TOM-MIK Hammer fly took a few deep fish down 125’ as did the Stinger Chrome Green Dot E-Chip/A-TOM-MIK Sweet Pea fly.

We had a short trip, but ended with just seven bites. Not a stellar day by our standards, but many of the people I talked to had similar results. No derby fish, but we did pop a beautiful 25lb Chinook, which I believe to be a great representation of what Lady O has to offer!

September 3rd (Afternoon) - Well, what I thought was a 4hr evening trip turned out to be a 6hr evening trip. After how slow the morning bite was for us there wasn’t a real sense of urgency to get back out there. However, these guys were raring to go, so we hit the water around 2pm and went back to work in the same waters we’ve fished the last few days.

We went about 3 hours with not even a touch. I made the decision to point it North so we could grab a few bites from some Steel and immature kings. The Lake was rocking from the NE and as we put some water under us the screen never really got better. Finally, about the 25N line I hear the starboard diver ripping. I grab the rod and handed it off. We fought it for a little while thinking it was a King, and about 40yds behind the boat I see the head of a nice Steelie come up and spit the hook in our face. That fish took a Stinger UV Frog E-Chip/A-TOM-MIK UV190. At the same time we also took a whack on our 125’ downrigger, but when I got there no one was home.

The decision was made in my head that at 6:30pm we would be on plane headed back in to those inside waters looking for a few big guys. As I was clearing rods at 6:30 the deep rigger fires with a 2yr old and we had our first fish in the box. That fish came on an 11†E-Chip/A-TOM-MIK Hammer fly down 125’. At this point we were on the 27N line. We ran into 90’ of water and started to throw down rods. I set the probe rigger to get my speed right. As I am at the helm adjusting the speed that rigger fires with a 10†White Dreamweaver Spin Doctor/A-TOM-MIK White Halo fly down 60’. Our first big hits the deck of the boat!

We’d go on to take another immature fish and lose another while we fished there in that last hour. It was a tough night for sure and we only would go on to take seven shots. Regardless of the tough bite the clients were very happy.

[KJ pluggin]

Nice job Captain.