Here is a brief summary (see photos below) of the life of a charter boat captain when he brings a mish-mash of people from different parts of the globe trolling for trout and salmon.
Had a busy week and a half with many outings, some great and some just ok, as we averaged 8 fish per trip, or 1.5 fish per hour of trolling Lake Superior – mostly lake trout, but a few coho salmon and steelhead mixed in. Some of my clients were: Hand Surgeon Mike, MD Leah, Curt Trailer Hitch Mfr Kevin, aerobics student Jillian, dancer student, Dept of Defense contractor John, Oceanographer Bob, Div. 2 basketball coach, Mexico born Denzil, Mech Eng student Denzil Jr., 10 year old “full of enthusiasm” Aaron, Investment Representative Ed & sons, Jackson, TN client Jeff and Nurse Cathy.
Last week the fish were still deep, in their winter mode, but this week we are finding them in the 150 foot range, and others suspended in some thermoclines. The surface water is at 51 degrees and we are seeing some scum lines developing with fish in them. We even caught a 10 lb trout on the surface – he bit on a pink FinnAction lure behind a planer board and gave quite a fight on one of my smaller rods. We’ve had a couple steelheads doing aerobics as they tried to shake the hooks – and lots of lazy trout that provided excitement to the vacationers. We had to dodge some flying hooks, too as some aggressive (and lucky) fish got away at the surface, just behind the boat.
Fortunately we didn’t break any rods (except the tip of one) or lose any tackle (oh, one of my homemade lures) with any of the rookie, beginner, inexperienced, overly excited clients. A little coaching goes a long way, but sometimes I forget to coach and sometimes they forget in the heat of the moment, or sometimes they simply don’t pay attention AND (this is a big one) there is a communication gap between me, with my Yooper accent and them, coming from different parts of the country where the dialects are odd. Of course they don’t realize they have an accent and I tauk perficly normal inglish.
Son, Andy, not too pumped about his rock bass
After a busy day of landing fish – caught 11 lake trout, 2 coho salmon and 1 steel head.
A nice catch. Lakers and one coho
Here was the 10th fish caught and it tipped the scales at 10 lbs.
You could call this a triple – all came in with-in 5 minutes.
Catching a few Coho
Bob should be a captain – he has the right look.
Not much here to show after a very windy, one-direction troll, but 12 year old Aaron had fun!
Happy hunters form WI with 6 nice fish, including a steel head.
Brian Helminen
