Shelburne 6/24

[keithm87]

Headed out with Steve and Vin for some laker action today. Hit the water at 7, but because it had been a few weeks since I was last out, it took a while to get gear all set. Lines were in the water at 7:45, and we trolled north starting in 80ft out into the basin.

The first hour was uneventful, and I decided to check gear. I popped the deep rigger and felt some tension. The rigger was set at 75, 20ft below the other rigger, and with only a 5ft setback. As I reeled in it felt heavy, but I could feel the motor pulsing through the rod, turned out that the rigger was tangled with out shallow line, which would not pop from the release. We brought the ball up on the shallow and finally saw some color. turned out that the fish had hit the shallow rigger that had a 50ft setback, and then must have gone deep and hit the other lure. everything was good and tangled, but we managed to net the fish. The only hook in it was from the shallow rod, but I reeled it in on the deep one.

After that we hit the same area we had been catching at a couple weeks back, and started to pick away at them. by 10:30 we had landed 7 fish, but then the ****ing yacht club decided to stage a race exactly where we had been looping. After almost 1.5 hours of them blowing a horn and doing idiotic u turns they finally headed north, by then the sun had come out and we were back at square one trying to find gear that worked. we were picking off a fish here and there, but it had slowed down real bad. Then for no reason it lit back up. We ended the day with 19 fish boated, landed a double, and at one point was even hooked up triple (losing 2). Steve had his go pro so if he posts a vid to the tubes I will post a link.

The lures of the day were the trusty hammered blue and silver on 8 colors lead (wicked sucky to catch a fish on way back with penn 309's) and the trusty chartreuse clown spin n glow with the green mylar wings down 68 running up the ledge into the 70ft flat. temp was up to 67 surface at EOD, but the temp broke at 48 pretty sharp from 61 to 52 at 53 ft.

Unrelated my ego s2 slide handle broke, the button part of the handle detached from the tubing beneath and now slides free, so the net opens and closes without locking in place and just kind willy nilly does its own thing. anyone ever have this happen and have a fix? This is the 3rd handle I have had in just over a year and they all seem to have short lives. As a concept I love the net, but its durability is garbage.

[pfu]

Contact the net manufacturer. They sent me a new one free of charge. Had it in three days.

[fishy1]

sound like the day ended up pretty well any size to the lakers? great report

[keithm87]

No real size to them. Most were in the 6-9lb range with a few small ones. Still can't seem to get into any monsters. Have boated over 100 lakers this year, and only one has cracked 10lb.

[Sawyer]

Wow 100 Lakers nice to hear

[Reelax]

100 lakers is what killed your net. I have had 2 ego-sliders fail over the years...they don't like fish over 8. I have 2 nets for that reason...

Nice report!

[Hairbone]

No real size to them. Most were in the 6-9lb range with a few small ones. Still can't seem to get into any monsters. Have boated over 100 lakers this year, and only one has cracked 10lb.

Thats great. Weird year for us as we never really found lakers in the 60-80 depths during may/june. Ended up fishing 100' plus for the bigger ones. Fished 4 days so far for lakers and we have about 30 landed at 10-12 pounds. In my book you have to find the schools of big alewives to find the bigger ones. There was big alewives up on the shore but we didnt fish em

[keithm87]

That is likely my problem. I have a lot of trouble justifying fishing 100+ft down when they are biting at 75, but it does seem that all the bigger ones we have caught have been on the 75 rigger, and everything on the slides and the shallow (40-50) rigger have been much smaller. When you are getting the big ones in the 100+ are they suspended in bait, or are you fishing the bottom?

As for the net we never lift the fish out of the water with the net extended. We always retract the handle before lifting the net up, but it is an indispensable tool with the extension feature, so I have a new one in the mail.

[riddlervt]

Great report! If you want bigger fish, fish with bigger lures. You will catch less fish, on the plus side they will tend to be bigger! I never net lake trout. I use a pair of needle nose and shake them off at the back of the boat. Saves time too...!
Riddler

[Registered Kayak]

I have always thought about trolling that giant Williams whitefish, the 8inch or so spoon you guys always see at the store and wonder what you would catch on it......anyone ever tried it. 15 bucks is quite the risk though for a hang up.although a laker that would bite it........

[keithm87]

I have never been a person who buys into the bigger lure bigger fish. I have caught small fish on big lures, and big fish on small. Ice fishing there is a lake I fish that has jumbo smelt, i have seen a 15 inch rainbow take a 9 inch smelt. Most of my laker program this year has been spin n glo's behind a 00 dodger. that setup is about as big as any other setup. I know that the deep lakers take cisco, so I imagine that there are pigs in the lake that would hit a 12+ inch lure if presented right, but I think that same pig would probably hit a small spoon too. The way I have always seen it is I am a big guy, but toss a few reeces pieces in front of me and I will eat them.

[Greenhorn]

I am intrigued by Hairbone's report of catching the big lakers deep. Like Keith, I have caught larger lake trout the deeper I fish. Keith, I was the black Alumacraft out there last Saturday. I thought that was you. I ended up with 11 lakers and (1) 17-18" salmon and was off the water by noon. The largest laker was 9.25 lbs. For me, a large white warrior spoon with a blue patch in the middle was the hot lure. I caught most of the lakers 75 feet down.

I am looking for some lakers over 10 lbs also. I will be camping on Apple Island Resort this coming weekend, so I am going to try to find some clouds of bait in the Stave Island area and see if I can catch some lakers over 10 lbs.

[Hairbone]

Had good luck some days with a size o dodger and a double spin-n-glo rig like the "gambler rig" i made myself. The datilios spoon relax posted awhile back is a killer some days. Glow back with black edge and a tape on top.

As with any lake trout fishing scent is a must'

[Reelax]

Had good luck some days with a size o dodger and a double spin-n-glo rig like the "gambler rig" i made myself. The datilios spoon relax posted awhile back is a killer some days. Glow back with black edge and a tape on top.

As with any lake trout fishing scent is a must'

And the BEST laker scent to use is wd40 believe it it not!! Works great!!!!

[keithm87]

that may be our missing thing. I have used scent here and there on lures but never found that it makes a huge difference. But it makes sense that deep down that would be needed. some of my water wolf videos are pitch black on corners when they get deep so I guess it would be logical that scent would be more important than color. I usually run the spin n glo's solo, do you guys run 2 of the same pattern? I have been using the large one, would I size down when doubling up?

Greenhorn were you solo out there? if so we saw you hook up and my buddies were pretty impressed that you could net the fish and drive and reel at the same time.