Had a great day on the water with our forum buddy Tom. We met at Wade's in Valhalla at 5:00am, got a dozen sawbellies and a dozen shiners and we were on our way.
We launched from Area 3 in very calm waters. I admitted to Tom that I would have a hard time not thinking of every part of the shore and what bass lure I would throw. I did try and control myself because this was a day to target trout. We rowed down the middle of the passage toward the Rye Bridge area. I didn't throw as much as a spinnerbait and we got there pretty quick with the dual oar setup on my luxury liner.
Tom's idea was to head to the deeper waters 80+ feet and see if the trout were hanging out at the bottom. Trout do like the cooler waters, I believe 53 degrees or so, and the depthfinder was reading a hot 70 degrees near the top. Tom expected them to be down low in the cooler water and he was right. We headed to the west of the bridge where we knew a few deep spots, up to 115 feet.
We each rigged a live sawbellie or shiner to start off the day. I liked that Tom keeps it simple, we had the bait on a small 2/0 hook either in the lower lip or in the top dorsal fin area and a small 1 ounce weight about 2-3 feet above that line.
I got lucky first and brought up a nice 2 and a half pound lake trout. I felt the tug but it didn't seem to fight much. Tom thinks it may have been so low that it lost some of it's energy getting brought to the top so quickly. I was still thrilled to get my first laker ever. Here's a short YouTube video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1ToQ_DTu1cTom was next with another 2 and a half pound laker. It jumped off the bait, luckily inside the boat. Here's a quick YouTube video of that catch,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwpZdutPMjcOne of us caught another laker about the same size and we credited to the "Team" effort and called us even. We agreed after a few hours that the shiners did just fine and the sawbellies, for us, weren't worth it. All our catches were on the shiners.
We had a great time chatting but the sun was getting hotter and the wind was picking up. At around noon time we started heading back toward the bridge. As we rowed up toward Area 3 Tom gave me permission to fish for bass. We had had our laker success for the day so we considered a bass a bonus. Alas, all the spinnerbaits, swimbaits, and cranks didn't get a nibble.
Can't wait to get out there again. Nothing better then a day fishing with a new friend.
Best to All,
Vinny
