Date: May 12th 2020
Air Temp: 50ish
Surface Temp: 43-44 degrees
Winds: W to E(ish)
Waves: 1-2ft
Water: Mud line at about 50ish
Stats: 9 / 14 with 2-3 drive bys
Notes: Still pretty dirty water, still trying to figure out how to ‘film’ our fishing
Finally the timing has worked out with work, weather, and wind for Two Fishes to go on another field trip to do a follow up study on salmonid fish migrations in Lake Michigan.
We left the house about 6:00AM and headed for Bender Park in Oak Creek. Had the boat on the water and the GoPro out and filming by 7:00 AM. Our game plan was simple – get out to clean(ish) water and work that line in the general southish direction. That seems to be the general starting point for everyone fishing out of ports south of us.
After a little bit of a boat ride we found a depth (50ish fow) and water clarity we were looking for. We got all 8 rods (current max for the Two Fishes) in the water and headed on a south-ish troll. Our main target was coho, and half our rods had coho rigs or baby spin doctors, the other for rods were geared towards bigger (or deeper) fish with spoons and a flasher fly combo.
We didn’t have the rods in the water for more than 10 minutes and boom – Fish On! A 3 color took the hit. Joe was up first! He fought the fish as best he could, but after breaking the surface a couple of times, what appeared to be a decent coho threw the hook.
No worries – only about 5 minutes later, the 2 color SWR rig popped – Fish On! Tom was up next. Tom battled the fish all the way to the back of the boat and into the next! A decent coho hit the floor! We were excited – only a few minutes in and the fish seemed to be biting.
A bit later – 2 color SWR fired again. Fish On! This was a big laker that Ben was able to get to the net. My scale is broken, so I was unable to weigh any fish, but I would say a 10lb class laker that was released.
So far this was shaping up to be a great day on the water. All the kids have had a chance to reel in a fish, and we were only out there for maybe 30 minutes. Though it would be nice if they would catch smaller lakers so we could put one in the smoker!
In all seriousness – I did kick up the surface speed a bit to almost 3mph to try and lose the lakers. We have caught quite a few of them through the last couple of trips and while they are fun to catch – our goal today was some silver fish.
The bump in speed didn’t help. The next round of fish were all lakers. The good news though, Tom caught one that was more eater size! Finally one for the smoker.
Another moment later – a 1 color took a hit – Joe was at the plate. After a brief splash at the surface, what looked to be a little smaller of a coho was gone. Poor Joe is just struggling to keep tension on that line when the fish starts splashing at the surface. He felt bad about losing two fish, which sometimes just happens and sometimes offers a learning opportunity – a little of both for Joe today. We sent Joe right back up there a few minutes later and he pulled in a another good laker!
And as we were there laughing about the big lakers, our SW Dipsy diver rod started screaming! Fiiiish OOONNN!
I grabbed the rod, kept this one for me to reel in, and then – chaos in the boat lol. The boys (and I) all knew that drag sound was (hopefully) a king and they all about ran across the water! Then, to make things even better – an outside board with a one color took a hit – a double for Two Fishes!
Tom grabbed the rod out of the holder and started battling the second fish. It was at this point, at the height of our excitement, when all seemed right with the world, that things started going sideways, mostly because of me and mental mistakes.
My first miss here was slowing the boat down. As I mentioned above – we were trolling rather fast. This clearly worked to get fish on, but battling a double out of a small boat with kids is already challenging enough without adding additional speed.
As Tom started battling the fish on the board rod, as best he could. The front board clip didn’t release though, which made the process much more difficult, especially for a 10 year old. And this leads to mistake number two..
I should have had him hand me the rod to snap the release. Instead I told him to battle the fish slowly as I subconsciously started trying to get my fish in quicker. The way I saw it, the king was the primary objective, which was true, though that didn’t mean hastily bringing a green king to the back of the boat to make room for Tom’s fish.
A couple of minutes into the double, Tom, fighting the fish and the board noticed his fish was no longer pulling back. I had him put the rod back into the holder – and instead grab the net as the king was nearing the back of the boat – only about 40ft to go as I pulled the dipsy off the line.
And here is mistake number 3 – or maybe mistake number 1 again. With a green king at the back of the boat, I finally decided to slow the boat down. Can anyone guess what happens next? Yep king goes charging at the boat and alongside it! Lol
By some miracle, we avoided all tangles with the downrigger or other dipsy rod. I had to horse the fish a bit, it was risky, but it seemed to work. However, everyone in the boat got a good look at the fish! A decent 15lb plus King! A whole new level of excitement in the crew of the boat!
Which leads to mistake number 4 – not clearly assigning my very young crew specific jobs in this situation. We got the king to the back of the boat, Tom put the net in the water, and unknown to me with the net in the water two additional hands found their way onto the net.
The king calmed down for just long enough, I started to pull it over the net. Yes – we are going to get this in…here we go! And then, two of those four hands started lifting the net up before the fish was actually over the net. WTF! Tom is a great net man!
The net caught the spoon, missed the fish and we all went from total excitement to complete disappointment as we watched the king swim away. It was exactly at this point, I realized mistake number 4 – that there were more than 2 people in the back of the boat – as I stepped back, tripped on someone and used my rod hand to catch myself and of course – breaking the rod in the process.
This is where having video evidence is handy – four hands where on the net and I can say that my A number one net man is still that. Tom felt terrible about it, so for his sake I was glad to give him some reassurance as well. The whole experience did lead to a new rule on the boat – if it is a king on the line, only Tom or myself touch the net.
Kind of ironic – one of my first trips on lake michigan Tom (again my 10 year old son) and I were talking with another boat at the landing telling stories. A man from the boat said something along the lines of a good net man is the money maker – oh how true this turned out to be today.
We tried to pick ourselves up as best we could, learning the lessons this fish taught us. The boat was quiet for some time, though we did come out of it after talking about what each of us can do better next time. .
Everything was quickly forgotten a few minutes later, when the wire diver – that didn’t get tangled – started screaming. Fish on! I picked the rod up out of the holder, felt the fish for a second or two and then nothing. COME ON!!! Reeling it in, it seemed unusually light – and then we saw why. The dipsy was there, the snubber was there, but what was an 8ft leader was only about 4 feet. You have got to be kidding me! That leader was brand new line – I literally just added wire divers this year!! Suck!
Eventually a couple more lakers did make their way into the boat and Joe was able to put a coho into the boat as well – overcoming his shaky start! He was super excited about it – having lost two coho on his turns earlier in the day, he was super excited to put one in the cooler for dinner!
As we packed up for the day – there were definitely a lot of lessons taught to us (me) to think about. Overall we had a good 3 – 4 hours fishing, going 9 for 13 or 14, but it was a mixed feeling thinking about the ones that got away. It was also a little different for us, normally our biggest problem is getting hooked up, not struggling to get hooked fish into the boat.
As we hit the two year mark trolling on Lake Michigan, based on the numbers, this is one of our best days putting 9 fish into the boat. But it is also one of our worst days landing only about 65 percent of the fish. In the end, the kids were all excited so we’ll call it a win!
