I’m not one to suggest going out in extreme heat alerts, but the lake has a way of moderating the temperature and if you plan your trip to avoid “Bankers Hours” you can usually get out on the lake and remain comfortable.
July was a hot one and with very little rain. August started out as a continuation with high temperatures pushing the mercury to just above 35’C and feeling like 40’C with the humidex. The forecast for today was nothing short of those stifling temperatures and with little wind in the forecast for the morning. Tom and I knew we needed to make a quick fish in the morning before the sun gets too high in the hazy sky.
Tom met me at 5:30 am dockside in the dark and said lets go and set up before first light. This was to be his 3rd of 4 outings with me this year and this one was a solo run with the opportunity for more rod time. We made our way out on the lake with a slight role on an otherwise flat lake. The stars were still in the sky and the street lights on shore were the only source of light other than the navigation lights on the boat. The flashing amber light on the Grimsby weather Buoy was a great point of reference and we continued at 20 MPH to just past the marker and set up in 120 FOW.
We pulled the flashlights out and used the navigation stern light to charge up the glow tape on some of the lures and flashers before setting lines.
The four rods were quickly set and we were patient, yet inpatient at the same time. “Any second, we should hear the drag pull”, I said with a sense of positive thinking. The sound of a drag would be the only indication of a hooked fish, considering the dark impeded our ability to detect any rod movement. The first 10 minutes of the troll without a sound , felt like an hour. The SONAR showed we were in the vicinity of fish but it was a period of waiting for the fish to turn on.
It’s hard to describe the sensation of first light while salmon fishing. It’s like a light switch is turned on in an instant and your heart begins to beat fast as the sight of your set downrigger rods first comes into view. The anticipation of the first strike is like knowing the split second before a punch is about to land square on your cheek bone, or seeing a lighting strike off in a short distance and waiting for a crack of thunder.
Then it happens, the first rod goes off, I grab it and hand it to Tom and a Rainbow Trout breaks the ice, but before the fish is netted the other down rigger rod goes off and so it begins. For the next three hours Tom witnesses the busiest morning of fishing he had seen. 2 Cohos, a hand full of Chinooks up to 19 lbs and about a dozen rainbows that went all the way up to 11 lbs.
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At the end of the morning 4 hour trip the sun was starting to bead sweat on my brow and it was obvious our time to pull lines couldn’t be more perfect to escape the heat.
For fun I wanted to see if the fish still would hit at extremely slow speeds and slowed the motor to 1.7 mph. moments later the diver with a spoon is hit and Tom brings in a Rainbow Trout. I put the rod in the rack to retire it for the morning and then pulled the two downrigger rods. I left the 10 colour leadcore until last. Then I grabbed the leadcore and proceeded to jig it for a minute . Then a strike! It hit lightly , but then started throbbing the rod while in my hands. I held the rod bent for a moment but the fish came off. I jigged it some more, but then reeled it in with a chorus of chuckling from both of us.
Shane Thombs
www.FINtasticSportfishing.com
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