First of all, let me start by stating that fishing this spring has been slow and frustrating.  Others are catching bass, while I have been left with a lot of el skunko’s.  Next, I have never had success downtown in the spring.  I am always a week early or a week late for the runs.  I have never caught a spring salmon from shore.  Today, I decided to go out in a frustrating spring, attempting to frustrate myself even further, by going after an elusive spring Coho.

Conditions:   The surface temperature in the harbors was in the very low 40’s.  The air temperature fluctuated in the mid to upper 40’s.  The winds were strong out of the North, and eventually switched to westerly gusts.  It was very cloudy and overcast.  The lake was fairly dirty, with far less than usual visibility.  

Fish Tales: Here is how this morning went:

6:30 am – Todd picks me up at the house, with his son, and we immediately head downtown, towards Burnham harbor.  

7:00 am – We are fishing in the harbor due to the strong winds.  There is one other guy there who is working the bottom for browns.  He states that he is 0-1 with the browns, and that the fishing has been good.  I rig a minnow just off the bottom and begin by casting a small blue and silver cleo.  

8:15 am – Still no fish, no bites, no signs.  We decide to pack up and move to a new harbor.  

8:30 am – We arrive at our new harbor and are in the water.  We see a few cohos surfacing.  I switch to a Rapala J-7 firetiger.  I also have a crawler four feet under the bobber.  Todd has a pole for a crawler and one for a minnow.  

8:32 am – Fish on.  Todd hooks up with a small coho on a crawler.  He lets his son reel it in to make it the first official salmon he has ever caught.  We are all stoked about this and the fact that we have signs of fish.

8:36 am – Yes, it is only 4 minutes later.  Within a split second, and I mean fast, of my crawler hitting the water, I give Todd a shout of “Fish On”.  After a brief battle, I bring in this coho, and immediately smile, as it was my first spring salmon.

9:10 am – The action has slowed considerably since our first back-to-back fish.  I decide to do a little casting.  I throw a J-7 Rapala, firetiger pattern.  On my 1st cast I hook up.  This fish was a little bit better, and actually put up a slight fight.

10:05 am – After seeing my coho on lures, Todd switched over to a firetiger patterned spoon.  He made only  few casts with it when he hooked up with a fish.  He reeled this on in himself, as the fish was barely hooked.  The fish hit the lure hard and up very high in the water column.  

10:32 am – We have had several bobbers go down with no fish to show in almost a half hour.  We are confused as to why we are not hooking up.  My bobber goes down again, but this time I am able to hook up with the fish.  It is a quick exciting battle that leads to my 3rd fish of the morning.

11:00 am – We decide that five fish is a good morning and we decide to call it.  We begin to pack our things to go home.  We wanted to get a few final pictures and enjoy the rest of a beautiful spring day.  

11:05 am – While we are taking pictures and packing, we have still left a pole in the water.  Sure enough, during the picture, Todd hooks up with a nice fish.  This caps off the morning with a total of six.  

11:15 am – We finally officially leave one exciting morning of fishing.  I have gone from frustrating days to a day I will never forget.  The action was fast and fun.  The weather was nice and it was good times in general.  I do not know if I will go back downtown again, this year, for spring coho.  It would be hard to top off a day like today.  

Trip Totals:

6 Coho Salmon (3 for me, 3 for Todd)  

Year to Date:

9 Trips
15 Keeper Perch
2 Largemouth Bass
3 Coho Salmon