Captain Rick Bentley
04-18-2010, 04:06 AM
After finishing up the 2009 season with a 20-fish limit for our final voyage, we have ushered in the 2010 season with two straight limits over Saturday and Sunday morning's trips.
Saturday was the maiden voyage with lines in the water and we fished somewhat blind as only a scarce number of anglers had attempted to commit themselves to a plan for Coho and Browns this early in the season. Despite a slow first hour as we approached traditional early spring fishing grounds, our wager to be one of the first charters to execute a successful salmon & trout trip paid off nicely and we headed back to port before 11am with a 15-fish limit. We let another 3 fish go at the boat and witnessed another 10 more escape on their own.
Sunday morning we welcomed a serviceman from the U.S. Navy stationed at Great Lakes and his family that was visiting from Louisiana. Excited about the previous day's success, I headed back to the same area with a few minor adjustments to really maximize our catch. Without even having all of our lines set, we began catching fish and experienced mostly steady action throughout the trip and came back into port at 11am with an impressive 6-person, 30-fish limit of half Brown Trout and half Coho Salmon in the box. 2 of the Browns were in the 14-15lb class.
Because the Windycitysalmon rack only holds 19 fish, 11 more were left in the cooler on Sunday!
I am always very cautious in urging folks to come fishing based on recent catches. But, this time of year the risk of doing so is probably at the lowest. Therefore, if you were thinking of holding off until May to come fishing and have not booked a date yet, I would recommend giving the month of April a try because good numbers of fish have arrived earlier than expected!
Thanks for reading,
Capt Rick
Saturday was the maiden voyage with lines in the water and we fished somewhat blind as only a scarce number of anglers had attempted to commit themselves to a plan for Coho and Browns this early in the season. Despite a slow first hour as we approached traditional early spring fishing grounds, our wager to be one of the first charters to execute a successful salmon & trout trip paid off nicely and we headed back to port before 11am with a 15-fish limit. We let another 3 fish go at the boat and witnessed another 10 more escape on their own.
Sunday morning we welcomed a serviceman from the U.S. Navy stationed at Great Lakes and his family that was visiting from Louisiana. Excited about the previous day's success, I headed back to the same area with a few minor adjustments to really maximize our catch. Without even having all of our lines set, we began catching fish and experienced mostly steady action throughout the trip and came back into port at 11am with an impressive 6-person, 30-fish limit of half Brown Trout and half Coho Salmon in the box. 2 of the Browns were in the 14-15lb class.
Because the Windycitysalmon rack only holds 19 fish, 11 more were left in the cooler on Sunday!
I am always very cautious in urging folks to come fishing based on recent catches. But, this time of year the risk of doing so is probably at the lowest. Therefore, if you were thinking of holding off until May to come fishing and have not booked a date yet, I would recommend giving the month of April a try because good numbers of fish have arrived earlier than expected!
Thanks for reading,
Capt Rick