10/11, 10/12
Got out muskie fishing for the unofficial "trolling opener" and missed a day on Saturday because winds gusting to 30 MPH all day long. Here is a quick report of the results from Sunday and Monday with my wife an I trolling for toothy critters.
Lost 4 fish on sunday. OUCH!! Three of them were on and gone before we had a chance to fight them for more than a few seconds. Another was a 5 plus minute battle with a fish that probably would have made the whole fall on the first day out. It made 3-4 runs and pulled line like crazy on each before powering up the shoreline and head shaking the bait free. We never saw any of the those fish. We did land 4 northerns including a 37.5 and a super fat 39.5 incher that had the head of a much larger fish.
Sunday we hooked 4 muskies again, but this time landed 3 of them and lost one. We caught 40 and 42 inchers to go along with a 27 inch peanut. Also 3 more northerns; only one of which was a decent size.
Observations of note for the first two days:
the outside line was pretty dead. Except for the first strike of the day on Sunday, every other strike was on the inside line or the "middle" line after I abandoned the outside position and ran the second rod short over the middle like we normally do in a 3-rod set-up. After moving the second rod to the "middle postion" halfway through Monday, it got hit 4 times, 3 of which were muskies.
We ran multiple baits on the outside rod, but all 8 strikes on Sunday hit the rainbow trout pattern jake. Sunday had 4 fish hit a perch grandma and 3 hit the same rainbow trout jake. Much too early to tell if they will be productive throughout the trolling season, but they both performed well last year and are off to a good start this year.
Baitfish seemed scattered and on the very minimal side on most areas. The fast cool down may have it b eing a bit "early" in the fishes mind despite the water temp sensors saying it should be prime time.
Action has picked up mid-week so the fish are coming around.
Quick Trip report
