My Salmon Extravaganza

[Jim Hudson]

Well after a few weeks of plans falling through for one reason or another, I finally made it to the other Great Lake our state has on it's border in search of them fish we call the "King". On Tuesday, I headed for Lake Michigan, out of Port Washington to meet a good friend, Paul Fabian, for this trip. Where we planned on fishing for two days, or I should say nights, in search of these line screaming fish.

I arrived at around 5PM, where we got the boat ready, making sure all of our gear was set and checking things over twice. This organization is something I can not stress enough when fishing for Kings, especially at night. You need a good system that works smoothly to land these fish, as it is not uncommon to have two to four fish on at one time. Being prepared and having a game plan between everyone in the boat will ensure that you all know what to do. And in the end, be able to boat the fish without complications. Well for the most part!! You never know what these fish will do, especially four at a time. But by being prepared, a crew can overcome most forseen complications.

After preparing our rig, we got some dinner and hit the sack for a early rise. The alarm sounded at 2am and we got dressed and headed to the landing At about 2:30am we were on the lake and setting lines. We opted for only 4 lines, as there was only two of us in the boat and we did not want the problem of dealing with any more lines in the water. Our set-up included running four Fishlander Triple Glow spoons, two of which were run off of dipsies and the other two off Cannon Mag 20 downriggers. We set up in 30 FOW with a surface temperature of a balming 51 degrees. Our lures were set anywhere from 15 feet to 25 feet, as our graph showed a huge number of fish in this depth range.

After getting set, we did not have to travel long before we heard the sweet sound of drag screaming. I grabbed the dipsy rod from the holder and settled in for the fight this freight train was going to give me where in an instant another reel started to scream and shortly after another reel started to peel line. Oh boy, Paul and I said to one another, a triple for the start. Getting into our game plan, we brought each of the fish to the boat and to the net. Now I knew why Paul had two nets in the boat!!

We glowed the spoons back up and sent them back into the same range and got back on course. As we were trolling along, we shared fishing stories of fishing on the Great Lakes and how Lake Michigan and Lake Superior are so different when it comes to fishing opportunites. Noting how the growth rate of salmon species and brown trout is so much more pronounced in Michigan then the cooler waters of Superior and how Superior's lake trout population is taking off again compared to the occasional laker caught off of Port Washington. Each are great fisheries, but we both agreed that Michigan can not be beat for the numbers and size of salmon in our state!!

As we changed topics to the excitement of landing that triple, I heard another dipsy rod start zinging line and we were back into action. This time we had to wait until I had this fish halfway to the boat until we heard another clicker go off. The other dipsy reel sounded like it was going to explode as the fish ran. Both fish found the net and now only after about an hour we landed 5 fish in the 15lb range. Not too bad so far, but my arm was already feeling it.

After these fish, we landed 5 others and had three shake off near the boat or on the initial hit. All of our fish, except one, were four year old salmon and weighed in and around the 15lb range. Some bigger some a bit smaller. All hard fighting fish that never want to give up. Not once was it easy to guide these fish into the net. Especially trying to control the rod and spotlight at the same time. Like Paul told me, this is definately a three man job. But, at about 6:30am, as other boats were still coming out of the harbor we were headed to the cleaning station.

Now when it comes to eating fish, hands down I love the meat of lake trout then any other species of fish, but after looking at the bright red fillets of these freshly caught salmon, lake trout was the last thing on my mind.

We cleaned up our fish, got some breakfast, and headed back to the room where we made some minor repairs to the equipment and hit the sack. We woke up, replenished from our night on the water and decided tonight we would hit the lake at dusk and hopefully be off the lake around 2am. Allowing us to get some sleep before we had to leave the next day.

So dusk came, and we were off to the lake again. As we exited the harbor and were setting lines, the rest of the boats were heading back into port. Same set-up as the night before but tonight we found the water temp had risen to 55 degrees. This fluctuation showed how temperature tolerante these fish are. The amount of fish arcs shown on the graph were fewer and far between because of this rise in temperature. But, in short order we had our first fish hooked up and the battle was on again. No triples or doubles that night, but we were still off to the cleaning station by 2:30 am and in bed by 4:00 am.

As I fell asleep, I could still hear the drags screaming and could feel the power of these salmon in the bruises and sore muscles I got from their feverish attempts to stay out of the net. But thats what you get for messing with the King!!!

[outdoor ran]

Dang it Jim! Now I really want to go over there and troll. I was hoping I would make it threw this year and do it next summer. Good story and pictures. If we could only get those fish to smile in the pics

I will try to get the pics and laker info for you really soon.

[Valv]

OutdoorRan, you have to go, it's exactly as he described.

Honestly it's a rush.....you can't think about anything else after this. If you haven't tried it, go get them, you won't regret it.

Reading this story puts mein my boat exactly as it was 2 weeks ago.

JKH431 you did a great job, that's a nice report.

I agree on fish smiling...but JKH431 should smile too after the catch, I know I would have been.....

[wyldewal]

That's it! I'll have to talk my buddys into going this next weekend. I will have to twist outdoorran's arm I think. . And I'll hope the weather is good.

[DuluthGuy]

Great Post - looks like you did well~

[evntam]

Jim:

Hello again.

Check out my post (mostly regarding you) on the BWCA Duluth page.

Thanks again for the fish last weekend. You're a real gentleman.

[Jim Hudson]

Anytime man, and remember to look me up the next time your in my area. Hopefully we can make it on the lake together.

[LOW Lover]

My wife and I just returned from Sister Bay-Gills Rock area. While there she said, "hey honey let's try salmon fishing." So we lined up a guide out of Gills Rock (Capt. Paul Mariner Goodman)and went out Wednesday AM at 9:00. We had a ball!! Caught 7 salmon in 4 hours lost one more at the boat, had a line breaker, and a few that got off! Being a Musky/Bass/walleye guy, it was such a cool experience that I will be going back a couple of times next summer. The biggest fish was an upper teens fish was caught by my wife. If anyone wants a truely fantastic experience look this guy up in Gills Rock, he is a class act, a real gentlemen, and he knows what he is doing (35 years experience). He also owns the Mariner a smoke house and fish store two miles south of Gills Rock. His smoked fish and salmon spread is to die for! Our only regret is that we did not go out for a whole day. Off to Hackenmueller's on Friday to have some of the salmon smoked!

LOW Lover

[Jim Hudson]

Sounds like a great trip LOW...... Those Kings can get addicting!!!