Singer, boys hockey player and dancer (yes, all 3 in one 11 year old girl) Taryn, landed a coho salmon and her brother, grandpa, cousin and uncles all caught lake trout on the Fishin’ Mission yesterday. After we pulled lines to go in and motored a short distance, there was a very long and pronounced scum line that, from a distance, looked like a long net floating on the surface, but turned out to be foam. I wished we had more time to fish directly along the line, as I’m sure we could have caught some more coho and other suspended fish (which typically give a better fight.)
I made a mental note to get out there again in the early evening to fish it with my Harbercraft, but I did not make it until after dark, and though I had marked a waypoint there, the scum line had disappeared or moved and I could not find it by surface temps. At least the moon was out and I enjoyed the stillness of a calm lake while trolling with some glow spoons.
Anyway, back to the day-trip…our first fish was a small 2 lb laker to get the skunk out of the boat, then caught a couple more in the 4 lb range before heading out to another spot to see if they were on the humps. We ended up with only 5 lake trout and the one coho after losing a few.
Lake Superior was really calm…I wish we had a little more chop on the surface in order to give the presentation more action, but we came in with some nice fish anyway. If I remember right, heavy equipment operator, Rich, caught the largest fish, a 5 lb lake trout. Police officer, Ray, got a nice fish along with college student, Elizabeth, coffee bean roaster, Kevin, and hockey player, Nate. Maybe we should have trolled some more FinnAction Lures, because after using mostly dodgers and spin-n-glows for most of the morning, we put on a gold and pink prism FinnAction Lure, chosen by hockey player Taryn, and caught a nicer laker on it. Taryn got to keep the lucky lure, since it was her choice that caught the fish. By the way, she got right in there with the blood and guts of the fish, and cleaned many of them for me. Maybe some day she’ll be a deck-hand, or perhaps even a charter boat captain! Not likely though, since she wants to get into surgery and the medical field pays much better than this kind of work. The rewards for this charter boat captain come from doing what I love to do and seeing the enjoyment that my clients experience.
Today is an off-day with thunder storms and winds from the east, making the bay very rough. Maybe we’ll fish Lac La Belle later in the day.
Brian Helminen
