 |
| Holy Smokes! The wildfire smoke! These past couple days on the lake was like fishing in a friggin marshmallow! The Canadian Forrest fire smoke completely engulfed everything out over the lake in a thick smog that at times rivaled some of the thickest fogs that I've ever ventured out in. Really bizarre. I've ran charters 7 days a week for 40 summers now and only in these last few years have we ever had to deal with this kind of crap. What the heck is going on up north in Canada! And if it wasn't smoke, it was like fishing in a blast furnace out there! The heat! Just crazy the conditions we are faced with daily trying to get our trips in. But through it all, thick or thin the Walleye fishing remains just spectacular! |
 |
| We even added yet another species to our list of exotics that we have incidently captured this summer. A nice fat Coho Salmon! I wonder how many are actually caught each summer and people just don't know any better and just called them Steelheads. When you know what to look for, there is a world of difference. Steelhead have a snow white mouth and gums. Coho have grayish to charcoal colored mouths (King Salmon have a all black mouth) The tail is a huge clue. Steelhead when you fan the tail out have a almost straight square tail with many black dots. Coho have a forked gray tail with almost no specks. The scales are real tight on a Steelie. On a Coho they are very loose and many come off in the net and in your hands when you handle them. There is other differences as well. Day and night difference. That's where they get that old saying... If you know, you know! Ha! |
 |
| And just for "fun" on a couple of rather flat lake days this past week I cranked it all the way north just shy of the Canadian border (before the smokey days set in) just for a little looky loo. 20+ miles! And guess what we found? Walleye fishing as fast as you can go! Imagine that! Just like it is 15 miles out. Just like it is 10 miles out. Just like it is 5 miles out and even clear back into 38 foot of water where we fished one morning because of super stiff south westerly winds. Although not quite as good as further out, there is still plenty of Walleyes in shallow. If I were a private boater and only needed like 6 or 12 fish, I don't think I would ever leave that in close water. Plenty good enough! Maybe it might take a little bit longer to catch say a dozen fish but it's a wash really. You don't have the travel time involved say running out 10 miles and back! Or the ugly gas bill! |
 |
| Speaking of gas, that little venture off shore to the Canadian line I took just out of "curiosity" was really fun... till I went to fuel back up! I made 2 trips on that particular tank of gas and when I went to fill her back up it was over $500 dollars! Needless to say, there will be NO MORE "looky loos" Lol! That was PAINFUL! But now we know for sure. There are fish EVERYWHERE! Aboard The Trophy we have now since settled in fishing most days around 10 or 12 miles out depending on wind direction and the angle that we have to come in on them. Plenty far enough for a nice boat ride out for everyone and to make sure the marina is still making good money off of me when I go to fuel back up. Ugh! Prices are still miserably stuck at $6.00 bucks a gallon to fuel up dockside. Thanks again to everyone who has been digging deep in their pockets at the end of the day to help out! We'll get through all of this. This fuel emergency. The heat wave. The forrest fire smoke. All of it. I think! I hope. Stay tuned... Capt. Walt |
(166.198.251.57)