Finally... shakeout cruise 2024

 After a long week of rain☔, wind💨, and cold⛄ (last week), this week was a 180 degree turn for the better. So I started asking around last weeked if anyone would want to go fishing on Monday. It wasn't the best day, the sustained wind was still high and the gusts were terrible. Tuesday looked better but there was rain in the forecast when I was watching over the weekend. 

Sidenote......

I should've been a TV weatherman... I can't think of another profession where you can be wrong EVERY day and still keep your job.

 

Ok sorry got off an a tangent there for a second... Well, as it turns out the weather cleared for Tuesday so I threw up the fish signal (mass text) in the Northern sky and had one brave soul commit to a day on the water. My buddy John answered the call, he got to the house at 4:38 and our day began. By 7ish we were getting ready to launch out of the ditch in Portage. The big motor fired right up, cleared the fogger from last year and we navigated the channel out to the mouth. We turned North and got out of the trollers way, killed the big motor and started the kicker which also started right up. Whew..... so far so good.

Next we put out 2 lines while I was deploying the boards, then we got the other 2 rods on the boards. Next was the downriggers... the first rigger hooked up without a hitch. The second was dropping the ball kinda weird so I looked a little closer and the wire had jumped the pulley guide. I had to disassemble the pulley end of the rigger and get the wire back in the guide... problem solved. 

6 fishable lines 👏👍 Everything is working.

It took a while before we hit our first fish 

but after we hit our first it was no time at all before we were up to #6. Then the wind died down and it really slicked out and the bite died off for a while. Shoot it got so nice I think John fell asleep... not to fear though, the wind started back up and so did the bite. 

This guy showed up and wanted in the harbor just as the bite was picking up... I let him through

We worked from 8ish to 2:30 but finally filled our limits with 10 coho, and one of them was a 23" stud. This time of the year a 17" fish is the norm, so these "larger" spring coho were a lot of fun.

 

 Just so you can tell all your friends...

We did best in 46-47 FOW going 2.3-2.6 SOG and 7 came on flatlines with 2 off the D/F at 15 back and 15 down, and 1 off the slider on the other rigger set at 37 down. 

These are the lures that did the damage.

 Good Luck 👍

Oh wait were not done, I've got some video.....