Elevenmile 4.23.05

We fished Elevenmile yesterday, and the plan was to locate ice-out lake trout and try and boat a few. We were on the water at about 6:30 a.m., and started trolling towards east bay and the dam while trying to locate lake trout. We located a few at east bay hugging bottom in 40 ft. of water, but instead of stopping, we decided to continue to troll the lake in hopes of locating a greater concentration of fish. We continued to make our way around Witcher?s Cove, up past Deer and Goose Island, and towards the bluffs, while changing hardware in order to entice a bite. We soon realized we needed to do something quick to toss the ?Skunk? out of the boat, and land some fish. It was really disappointing to see how few fish we marked on sonar through out the day.

A the bluffs, Terre and I decided to cut down the center of the lake over the channel and back towards east bay to set anchor to bottom-jig for the few lake trout we spied earlier in the day. I switched over to a black and silver minnow crank-bait on one rod, and a jointed rainbow pattern crank-bait on the other, long-lined trolled at depth of 15 to 20 ft of water and landed a bow near the bluffs, and another on the way to east bay. Once at east bay, we discovered that the lake trout had moved on; so back out to the channel we went. We continued to troll a line from the bluffs, and back towards rocky flats. Terre took a double a hit couple of seconds apart on the rod she had rigged with a minnow crank, and missed the fish. After another run back towards rocky flats, we boated another rainbow and missed a strike or two. On one of our last passes and working our way back towards, boat ramp bay, I took a hit on the jointed rainbow crank, and grabbed the rod, as the drag began to sing. This was definitely going to be the biggest fish thus far. As I reeled in about 75 feet of line, the fish went straight for the bottom, and we were thinking, oh yeah lake trout. Terre went for the net, as the fish surfaced just behind the boat long enough to let us get a quick look; rolled and threw the crank bait? gone; not huge, just a few pounds, lake trout.

We talked to several fishermen through out the day and it seemed that the average catch was about half a dozen rainbows or so. We talked to one fellow who said he landed a 13 lb. lake trout while boat fishing just after the lake opened, but wouldn?t reveal what he was using to catch it; no problem.

All in all, we had a great time, as the sun was shining, and the wind gods were good to us by providing for flat-water fishing throughout the day. I had an awesome time meeting and fishing with another board member, Terre, who is an exceptionally knowledgeable fisherperson and is all business in the hunt for fish. I was hoping to bring back some fish photos to post, but not this time. Instead here?s a pick of Terre, and Terre?s 2005 21 Ft. Sea Pro taken at Eleven Mile. This is beautiful rig, and a fully loaded fish havoc reeking machine; check it out:

Pete

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