Big Nic
04-30-2006, 11:18 PM
Sunny Skies and Blue Water greeted Jay and I as we rolled into Lexington Friday morning for the first big lake trip of the year. The ink on my fishing license was barely dry before we hit the water and had lines set at the crack of 10:00.Yes we were fishing the "Hippie Shake" bite this AM and within 30 or 40 minutes we were rewarded with the first fish of the year.
Jay snatched up a rod that went off and had a brief but fiesty fight with a nice 5/6 #King trhat was so green that it even broke water with a couple small jumps. It came on a mag GCW 8' down over 17 FOW on the rear rigger.
We trolled north for the next hour working over the 15 to 20 FOW area when the port side in line board got hit with a rip that peeled off some line before I got to the rod and went to work on this fish. As is my luck it turned out to be a Laker in the 7/8 # range that we shook off at the stern, just a couple days early in the season or might have wound up smoked or cut up into strips to try in meat rigs.
Turned back south and trolled back to near harbor to pick up additional crew only 1 knock off and nobody home , our friend Jamie joined us at the dock and brought Subway Subs to the hungry fisherpeople .
We quickly got back out and steamed north for the time it took to get a few miles north of where we had been about half way to Port Sanilac. Set lines on a north troll and ran 4 riggers with spoons also 3 mono inlines on the starboard side w/ body baits and two 2-color leadcore inlines on the port side tipped with spoons. Sat down to enjoy ...a meal on the water... in the sunshine... watching rods. What a great way to dust off the winter doldrums it was truely a recharge for my run down batteries.
Sometime after chowing down on the spicy Italian Subs ( Jamie Rocks !! ) we had a fish hit on one of the inlines and handed the rod off to Jamie for her first fish of the year . She did a good job till the small King got near the boat and on top of the water. This fish decided it wanted no part of our cooler and spit the hook. Jamie was bummed that she lost her first fish of the year and promised she would do better on the next one. We turned back south and again covered the 15 to 20 FOW range and after a hour or so another 2-color rig went off and I tried to give the rod to Jamie but she was hesitant and I didn't need much coaxing to fight this fish that felt like it had a bit of girth to it . Enjoyed the heck out of fighting and landing a decent Brown Trout in the 7# range.
This one ate a regular size Bloody nose w/ black spots spoon back on 2-colors of leadcore on a port inline plannner board.
Fished till dark and had another knock off but no-one there when we got to the rod. All in all a great first day. New Garmin Radar and Display electronics worked EXCELLENT!!
Could see the depth read out from the riggers and made
yelling out "how deep are we" obsolete. Radar overlay on blue chart mapping was just too cool to describe with the radar color imprint over the chart map... AWESOME. Second year with the boat heat and it is just kick ***** to keep the cockpit 70 degrees and warm up when needed.
Ended up 3 for 4 with an additional 2 releases. Not bad for the way Lake Huron has been lately. All fish looked healthy but nothing in the belly of either the Brown or King we cleaned. No bait in the bellys but fish did not look emaciated.
As always can't thank Captain enough for the privlege of crewing on the good ship "OUTTA LINE" . Looking forward to more days on the water and many more fish in the cooler.
Jay snatched up a rod that went off and had a brief but fiesty fight with a nice 5/6 #King trhat was so green that it even broke water with a couple small jumps. It came on a mag GCW 8' down over 17 FOW on the rear rigger.
We trolled north for the next hour working over the 15 to 20 FOW area when the port side in line board got hit with a rip that peeled off some line before I got to the rod and went to work on this fish. As is my luck it turned out to be a Laker in the 7/8 # range that we shook off at the stern, just a couple days early in the season or might have wound up smoked or cut up into strips to try in meat rigs.
Turned back south and trolled back to near harbor to pick up additional crew only 1 knock off and nobody home , our friend Jamie joined us at the dock and brought Subway Subs to the hungry fisherpeople .
We quickly got back out and steamed north for the time it took to get a few miles north of where we had been about half way to Port Sanilac. Set lines on a north troll and ran 4 riggers with spoons also 3 mono inlines on the starboard side w/ body baits and two 2-color leadcore inlines on the port side tipped with spoons. Sat down to enjoy ...a meal on the water... in the sunshine... watching rods. What a great way to dust off the winter doldrums it was truely a recharge for my run down batteries.
Sometime after chowing down on the spicy Italian Subs ( Jamie Rocks !! ) we had a fish hit on one of the inlines and handed the rod off to Jamie for her first fish of the year . She did a good job till the small King got near the boat and on top of the water. This fish decided it wanted no part of our cooler and spit the hook. Jamie was bummed that she lost her first fish of the year and promised she would do better on the next one. We turned back south and again covered the 15 to 20 FOW range and after a hour or so another 2-color rig went off and I tried to give the rod to Jamie but she was hesitant and I didn't need much coaxing to fight this fish that felt like it had a bit of girth to it . Enjoyed the heck out of fighting and landing a decent Brown Trout in the 7# range.
This one ate a regular size Bloody nose w/ black spots spoon back on 2-colors of leadcore on a port inline plannner board.
Fished till dark and had another knock off but no-one there when we got to the rod. All in all a great first day. New Garmin Radar and Display electronics worked EXCELLENT!!
Could see the depth read out from the riggers and made
yelling out "how deep are we" obsolete. Radar overlay on blue chart mapping was just too cool to describe with the radar color imprint over the chart map... AWESOME. Second year with the boat heat and it is just kick ***** to keep the cockpit 70 degrees and warm up when needed.
Ended up 3 for 4 with an additional 2 releases. Not bad for the way Lake Huron has been lately. All fish looked healthy but nothing in the belly of either the Brown or King we cleaned. No bait in the bellys but fish did not look emaciated.
As always can't thank Captain enough for the privlege of crewing on the good ship "OUTTA LINE" . Looking forward to more days on the water and many more fish in the cooler.