By 5:45 we had all of our lines in, and by 6:00 we had our first hit, likely a Rainbow on an orange spoon 300' behind a planer board. Within 10 seconds the fish jumped 3 times and spit the spoon! This would be a common theme over the next 2 hours as we started the trip off going 0 for 3!
Our luck would eventually change as we found an active area of fish and managed 3 fish in 1 pass, with one being a Rainbow, the next a King, and the last a Coho! As the sun crept closer to the horizon our spoon bite faded and the dipsies 90' back with green flasher/flies started to produce! This proved to be the rod of choice, as we caught 3 of our 6 fish on it!
Once the sun set we brought all of our stuff up and glowed in hopes of catching a couple Salmon right before dark. I also replaced one of our orange spoons on the surface with a glow J-Plug.
While all the other rods went quiet, all of a sudden the flat line out the back with the J-Plug started screaming drag! This fish ended up being our biggest of the trip, and surprisingly a Rainbow!
Fishing out of a 16' boat without downriggers is a bit more challenging than fishing off of a 30'er, but it makes me remember how I started out and also that you really don't need all that fancy equipment and large boats to catch a few fish on the Great Lakes!
