Fishville "Aboard Surprise" 12/21

[digitroll (ron)]

What a whirl wind week! Fished my 3-4 hour window for 4 out of 5 week days. Today we rolled the dice at 7 am with 40 mph winds forecast at 9:00 am. We stuck with the S/E 10-20 knots with the Marine Forecast. This time we won with 1 foot chop to calm from 10-1:00 pm. Very slow bite but as the only boat on the water we enjoyed the calm water and the shelter from the waves of rain that came thru every 30 minutes. 2 LT and 1 salmon 3/3. Our program: Two 3 color segmented lead rods on Offshore OR-19 inline boards / Two Big Jon mini discs out 100 feet / Two down riggers set at 30 and 40 feet with free sliders. Great program the last 4 weeks with 3 aboard the Surprise! It has been a great run the last 4 weeks! Winterizing my vessel this weekend. Might get out a few times in January / February if the mild weather continues on the Surprise. This season is now in the books!


Don't ever believe the Weather reports!

[dry net]

Last weekend we used rubberbands from our leads to offshore releases on otterboats. We had always just put the lead in the releases until once the inevitable happened. Didn't know if the bands would hold but they worked great in about 2 foot chop and released when bit. Wanted to share for those that don't use inline boards and are too lazy like me to tie segmented lead. Good luck, Matt

[Surprise]

Well today was a first and last day occasion.

First that my Friend Tom Booska was able to join us on Surprise and for Surprise the last Float that we will be able to get in for 2018.






Last nite the Forecast didn't look to promising. Ron and I waited the nite and sent out the weather dog this morning and decided it was a go. With heavy fog there is no wind......Rain is much warmer than snow.











We motored in the fog from Arnold to just south of Cole Island and set the spread. Picked a laker on a disc and set the Cloverleaf pattern on the RayMarine EV-100. Lots of fish and bait but No takers. Trolled north to Barbor where we picked another laker on 3 color lead.

In table top sea we broke out the lunch provided again today by Ron, Shrimp cocktail and Vegetable soup.

Off the North end of Barbor we picked the fattest 14 inch salmon any of us had seen on the rigger down 40.

With lots of fog and rain but no wind we pointed Surprise toward Arnold and engaged the auto pilot to take us home.

A great day shared with friends and while we didn't experience a flurry of fish today.

The words of Dan Adam "If I wasn't doing this I could be home folding laundry".


Thanks to my guests and Ron for sharing the first part of the Frostbite season






Merry Christmas & Happy New year

See you on the pond with My New & Very Own Lifetime License

[fishy1]

you guys had a great frostbite season. great pics and reports

[digitroll (ron)]

Nice summary Randy! Lot of great guests on the Surprise in the past month! Thanks for fitting my schedule with kids in school and travel back and forth with 3 hours of lines in the water time in between which is pretty typical of my fishing window the last 4-5 years.

Spectacular season at Fishville! Time to take the foot off the gas pedal now for fishing with the holidays and winter setting in. Switching gears to skiing and stick and puck sessions at the Essex Skating facility.

[digitroll (ron)]

Kool Aid winterization was the last step (ie. RV Antifreeze) completed yesterday afternoon with 10-12 weeks till splashdown in March:

[Surprise]

A bit of Halftime tidy up on Surprise and I wiped 249 fish waypoints "BreadCrumbs" as Jeff Light calls them from my Lowrance Chartplotter.




For about 5 weeks time fishing 3-4 days week. This consists of hook-ups and doesn't sort out the dropped not landed.

We had some 60+ fish days and ended with a three. I'd call it a Very satisfying Halftime. In the area we fished we experienced a low lamprey impact and mostly healthy Fat Fish feeding like hogs at the trough on small alewifes.

Hope that some of the Big Hogs show here after we return to play the second Half.

[Gecha (Gerry)]

Thanks Surprise and your crew for posting your fun days on the water.
While most of us are keeping warm inside, Surprise is in the top of the frostbite fleet.

Happy Holidays.

[Reelax]

The pics of the graphs make me wanna fIsh Monday... we will be back out before end of 2018... thanks for posts guys... great reads and pics.