Tip-sea-tuna

Lines in around 7 in 80ft, first hit on rigger down 52 came before I could get the second lure wet. Reel in, reset, same thing. Raspberry carbon 14. Went the next 3 hours without any takers. Northwest to 180ft and back to where we started - Zip. Made some changes along the way, headed due north to 200, pulled the lines and zipped out to 400ft heading north. Picked up a skip on a green Chinook diver on 4 setting out 200 with a purple clown. Called it at 11:15 and last line in with the raspberry C14 had a small Atlantic on it, no idea how long we were pulling him around. Unfortunately he wasn't revivable, but was legal so he'll be dinner. Temp in close was down around 45-50', out beyond 400 was down around 90'. Marked 4 different large bait balls out in 400-450, down in the 40ft region, nothing baitwise in shallow. Very few boats at all. Wasn't sure if i was missing something - Friday before holiday weekend and we essentially had the lake to ourselves? Talked to one other boat when taking out and they stayed in close and did pretty good on browns. Tight lines!

Nice! You got the skunk off on a decent fish! We had a similar morning. Pulled in 3, one 10-12lb'er and 2 Skippys. Meat, flashers, lots of different spoons, nothing was on fire to say the least. Temps down in the 60ish range even in as close as 75ft. We went from 120 out to 275 and back into 75. Random marks, a few chasers on the screen but very few takers. Talked to another boat when pulling out that had almost the exact same luck. They're spread out and finicky it seems at the moment. Loads of fleas today as well. Tight lines!

The spoon was just purchased from FishUSA, for what it's worth. Literally new out of the package. Had fish on 2 other new DW mag spoons that day without a problem. I figured it was just crappy luck, but now I'm questioning that! Either way the replacement I used took 2 more fish and looks the exact same as when it went on... like it's supposed to.

Hit the water around 6AM. Son was driving and blew over the planned 120ft starting depth. So we started at 150 and went west/SW. Watched as more boats seemed to just appear as the morning rolled on, but we had 3 in the boat by 8AM, lost a good handful by then too. One bigger king hit a brand new DW Bloody death on a purple chinook, ripped line like he owned it, fought hard for a good 5 minutes until till he porpoised big and as soon as he landed, he was off. Reel it in to reset and the hook and split ring are both gone! Never had that happen before. We lost a bunch more than we landed and cleaned debris and weeds from the lines a couple few times. Fleas seemed to be bad only in spots. We hit fish anywhere between 55 and 75 but the best rigger depths were between 60 to 70. Lots of marks there too. Great day to be on the lake, as was evident by the number of boats stringing the fishing band that seemed to be 120ft-160ft in both east and west directions as far as you could see. Finished 6 for I think 13 or 14. Lots of shakers today. Biggest landed were 2 at 15 and 16. Bloody death took 3 hits, green flasher fly setup took a couple hits, Carbon-14 and the silver cabon took hits. Mostly rigger and diver action but a mag wonder bread took a fish on a 225 copper and a 10 color with a mag Grinchy that had taken 2 hits and a fish earlier got a little action. Tight lines!

Well done! Thanks for the report!

Fished from 7-11. Started setting rods in 170 heading NW, had a decent pick out to 210. Made a big u-turn and headed south east slowly back to 175. Hit a double on a diver and 10 color. Fun times when it's just my son and I and trying to keep everything untangled and the boat straight. We managed ok, thankfully, and landed both fish within a minute or two of each other. 8 for 11 overall, all spoon bite, a few diver shots, the rest were a split between 10 color and downriggers (set at 100 and 90). Best spoon was purple clown, then carbon 14 and mixed veggie. Great day of fishing! Started getting a bit rough around 10. We started pulling lines around 10:30, leaving the 2 downriggers for last. Both hit, great finale! A shout out to all the dad's, hopefully you got out fishing somewhere. And a shout out to the guy at the launch that helped me wrestle the boat straight on the trailer in the wind!

Launched around 6:15, headed out to 200 in a bit of leftover waves which gradually calmed as the morning rolled on. Set up and headed North to 400ft. Completely blank screen along the way. Various Spoons, meatrig, Flash/Fly combo used. FishHawk showed temp brake around 50ft down out beyond 300ft depth. No action at all or even a lone mark. Made a few direction changes, swapped some tackle, did arcs, adjusted speeds up and down a little - no dice. Pulled lines and headed back to 200 to try inside depths. Found 5 or 6 boats in roughly similar area all spread out and going different directions. Finally hooked up with an Atlantic on a carbon 14. We started marking fish around 175-160ish depth, but not many. Inside water temp break was down around 100ft so we swapped in 450 and 600 coppers dropped the diver and lowered the riggers. Another hour passed and by this time we had only seen a few scattered marks. Decided to try for some Lakers to end the morning. Set up a cowbell rig, slowed a little to 2.2 ball speed. Within 15 minutes, had the 450 with a mag gramma warrior just start screaming. Halfway through the fight, the 600 starts peeling off, but felt like a laker. To add to the fun, the cowbell rig also starts bouncing- triple! We prioritize the salmon on the 450, then retrieve the laker, then lost a small laker at the boat on the cowbell. Nice finale to what felt like a terribly slow day. Got both my son and father on decent fish on a beautiful morning, a win in my book.

First trip in over 2 months after deciding to convert the old tattered soft top into a hard top, so it was a bit like a shakedown trip in a way. Pulled out of the creek around 7AM, started setting up in 75 fow heading NW. 5 minutes after getting the last rod of the spread set up we get an instant screamer run on a #4 green Chinook diver with a hammered mixed veggie out 140. Screamer just wouldn't stop - dials flipped over 999 and finally slowed and stopped at 122! Ran off all 1000ft of braid and we were into the mono backer. After a very long fight, only able to gain any kind of line back with the walk backwards and crank forwards technique, we finally get the fish in sight. 3 more random darting runs around the boat and on the final approach (and the attempted net approach seeing the fish was tired out finally) it charged the rear of the boat, partially porpoised, and got the diver leader wrapped in the kicker motor prop (which is just under the surface at troll speeds). I only use 30lb big game mono for leaders and was really worried that it was going to get cut or rip the hook out of its lip. Thankfully it was so tired, it didn't really have enough energy to pull hard enough to make that happen. After a good 5-7 minutes of me hanging off the back of the boat trying to somehow unwrap the leader, the whole time starring at a beautiful king, it was apparent it wasn't coming off without cutting an end. Managed, after several attempts, to hand line the fish back into the net and rip it in the boat. Very nice king, my son's and boat's biggest yet -Thankfully I had decided early in the morning we better enter the derby, just in case. Had another rip on a mag gramma warrior spoon on 330 copper while we were in the middle of the prop mess, but we had only 2 of us so we had to stay focused and let it be. Fished till 11:30 with only 2 rigger releases to show for it. Went through a submerged debris field similar to other recent posts, fought fleas on everything, had several lines jumbled/caught unexpectedly, and finally lost the same Chinook setup when trying to release it to pull in (must have damaged the braid in the prop struggle and didn't know it). To which my son said "Dad, we used up all of our luck on that salmon". Pulled out, weighed in and he's on the leader board - another first! (25lbs) Very few marks, no noticeable congregations of fish at any particular depth. Even pulled in and tried out in 400fow heading North. Line of 5 boats at 7AM around 100-150fow had all dispersed and were assumingly hunting marks by 9AM. Beautiful day to be out regardless of only boating one fish.

You avoided a skunk - always good!

Crazy warm day for mid April! In at 6:45, off at noon. Went 6 for 7, 2 coho's, a large laker and 3 browns. Lost a brown at the boat off a green Chinook diver with a glow frog. 3 fish on a 3 color withablue glow frog, one coho on a rigger, one on black Chinook with a purple clown, other brown on a weighted line with a Gramma Warrior. Green water out to 45ft and as far as we could see North. 47F surface temp. Lots of small and medium marks. Most fish on screen and hits were between 25 and 30 ft, westerly troll. GPS speed at 2.2-2.3mph. Tried faster/slower and arcs with no real improvement. After talking with 3 other boats, as we were taking out, we had the best luck. Beautiful day to be out on the water!

Thanks!

Headed out with the family after scraping the boats windshield (inside and out). Truck said 28 for air temp when we launched - cold enough to make a nice hole in my older canopy window on the drive up! Headed west to start, was muddy everywhere. Setup in 15ft but took that out to 20+ and still had a blend of muddy but green water, darker than I would have preferred but it was hard to find that distinct brown/green line. Loads of murky and green water all the way out to beyond 20Ft depth in areas. Surface water temp basically everywhere was 40-41°F. Only went 1 for 2 - both fish on mixed veggies - one on weighted line, other on 2 color. Made my annual spring mixed veggie donation to the lake when our 3 color got hooked up with the bottom (young drivers). Daughter learning how to drive the boat, immediately after taking her boater coarse - hopefully some of that sinks in better having actually applied some of the learnings! I'll happily donate tackle if they are learning something that sticks. Marked lots of fish but couldn't seem to get them interested in the bite. Ran at many different speeds, 1.6-2.5mph GPS speeds both east and west, did alternating arcs, changed out spoons, and stick baits a few times. Used lead core, 2 chinook divers, and split-shot weighted lines, some double weighted just to change things up a bit. By 11AM the north breeze picked up a little and it was getting pretty cold to continue washing tackle. All in all a successful trip - no skunk - all systems worked as expected and the family had fun - what more can you ask for!

My 16ft tracker has a 5/16" T slot vertical track system, which is great for DIY brackets. Mine are just 2x2x1/4" angle aluminum with stainless steel 5/16" carriage bolts and stainless wing nuts. They are real sturdy and very easy to move around where I want them or to quickly remove. I mounted the dual axis cannons on them and have loads of options and flexibility. The smaller bracket on the left of the picture is where my hand crank Penn fathom master downrigger attaches to, its just a thicker angle piece. I've got a setup like this for each side and use this boat for early season brown fishing in the lady O and for all other in shore trips on the finger lakes or the river. They work great and if they're in the way or I need to change the setup to adjust to a different technique or method it's really easy to do so (or to store them so they don't walk away).

Were the browns all that different in color phase or is that just the way the pics look with the lighting or angle?