10-30-2017, 01:28 AM
I went down to Fish Lake with friends to get in a little fall fishing. We started out on the boat on Thursday, but with the whitecapping waves and sustained winds, we quickly decided it wasn't going to be pleasant and decided to wait until Friday. Friday morning provided smoother water, but still started out a little slow, with few bites trolling and relatively few fish on the finder.
I threw a medium Jake's on some leaded line and pushed it out on a side planer. We trolled with the wind at our backs and began to approach the south end of the lake. We decided to pull in the rigs and cruise back to the north end of the lake to make another pass. As I started bringing in the planer I was a bit
by the drag on the line. It was a new (to me) rod/reel, a true trolling rig as opposed to the spincast rigs I'm used to. As I continued to work to crank the line in, I got the planer off the line and caught my first glimpse of the giant on the end of it. After fumbling around for my net I quickly realized this fish may not fit into it. We got the fish to the surface, and unbelievably, I was able to squeeze the fish into the net. A 37" mackinaw, at least 15 lbs. As I heaved the fish onboard I realized that I'd brought in TWO fish -- At some point in my trolling we'd picked up a 11-12" rainbow... which apparently was very enticing to this huge mack. The mack had latched onto the rainbow and would not let go. The rainbow was swallowed up to the pectoral fins.
Once in the net, the mack finally released the rainbow. Other than some good scratches from the lock of the mack, the rainbow seemed okay, so we removed the Jake's from it's mouth and released it.
So we had a mack on the deck without a single hook lodged in it -- landed on 6 lb leader. Unbelievable! At least to me.
By this time (around lunchtime), the wind and the waves were again making the lake really difficult, so we went in for the day.
Saturday, the 28th, we fished pretty-much all day. Again, there weren't a ton of fish on the finder, but we could visually see a ton of fish right along the weedline along the northeast length of the lake. We caught several splake and perch.
[signature]
I threw a medium Jake's on some leaded line and pushed it out on a side planer. We trolled with the wind at our backs and began to approach the south end of the lake. We decided to pull in the rigs and cruise back to the north end of the lake to make another pass. As I started bringing in the planer I was a bit
by the drag on the line. It was a new (to me) rod/reel, a true trolling rig as opposed to the spincast rigs I'm used to. As I continued to work to crank the line in, I got the planer off the line and caught my first glimpse of the giant on the end of it. After fumbling around for my net I quickly realized this fish may not fit into it. We got the fish to the surface, and unbelievably, I was able to squeeze the fish into the net. A 37" mackinaw, at least 15 lbs. As I heaved the fish onboard I realized that I'd brought in TWO fish -- At some point in my trolling we'd picked up a 11-12" rainbow... which apparently was very enticing to this huge mack. The mack had latched onto the rainbow and would not let go. The rainbow was swallowed up to the pectoral fins.Once in the net, the mack finally released the rainbow. Other than some good scratches from the lock of the mack, the rainbow seemed okay, so we removed the Jake's from it's mouth and released it.
So we had a mack on the deck without a single hook lodged in it -- landed on 6 lb leader. Unbelievable! At least to me.
By this time (around lunchtime), the wind and the waves were again making the lake really difficult, so we went in for the day.
Saturday, the 28th, we fished pretty-much all day. Again, there weren't a ton of fish on the finder, but we could visually see a ton of fish right along the weedline along the northeast length of the lake. We caught several splake and perch.
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