I tried 8 of my buddies to see who the lucky one was going to be. It seems like no-body could make it and the list of excuses was as long as the list of people I called.
Gotta watch my covid kids, the wife has to work gotta watch the kids, gotta plant corn (seriously that's one of the actual best ones, I hunt his property), wife's B-day, gotta dig a ditch, workin' dirt (farmer), gotta work on the house, and even called someone who wants to go but never answers their phone.
Is it me???? Nah.
So it was just me heading up to Lake Michigan for the first fishing trip of the year. I got to the landing right around sunrise and there wasn't another boat or truck in sight. Either everybody's back to work or the launch is shut down. Well, I launched so it had to be the first. The big
motor started no problem, parked the truck, and started out on the lake.
It was a little bumpy in the morning with the wind and waves from the West. I decided to head West and go to
Gary light for 2 reasons- it is a beautiful morning and if it gets worse I can always troll back with the waves.
It was a little bit of a boat ride but "they" said the fish were hittin' over there, and it's always been a great early spring spot. So, off I went at just about 10 mph, yeah it took a minute. When I got there, there were only 2 other boats fishing so I got out of the way and started setting up my boat. The kicker started right up while it warmed I got the trolling motor down, board mast in place and the rest of the gear ready. After a bit, I engaged the motor and Holy crap is it idling high. I mean I can't get it to troll down less than 4.7 sog. Well, I installed my trollmaster this year and the only thing I can figure is I needed to adjust the tension bar. Of course, that meant shutting down, drifting, taking the cowl off all while bouncing in the waves, all while trying to loosen a screw and adjust the tension bar. It was a little too bouncy right off the bat so I fished. When I was going into the wind I actually was able to get it down to 2.6-3 and that's when I caught and landed my first coho for the day. After about an hour I thought the only way to make the day perfect was to try and fix my trollmaster. So, I got as far up into the pocket as I could
opened the cowl, found a loosened the screw, adjusted the tension bar, put the whole thing back together, started the motor, and hoped it worked. IT WORKED instantly I knew this is one of the best tools I put on my boat. I was able to keep my boat running an even 2.0-2.3 the rest of the day, and this is what the outcome was.
Limit by 11:30
One more short story: while I was fighting my 4th fish ( the king, the fish under the T) I thought that once I land it I'll start trolling back to the Ditch, to pick up my last fish. When all of a sudden my rigger rod popped and my limit fish was already on the line and jeopardizing the landing of my King. Well, needless to say, I was able to land the king first then land the smaller coho to fill out my limit.
Wish I had my camera rolling.
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