Sunny warm and mostly a dead calm day.
What a difference a week makes. Last Friday at 8:15 am, I was the 4th trailer in the parking lot. Today at 6:45am, I was the the 19th trailer in the parking lot.
I was by myself and by the time I got rigged up and out there with a line down it was 7:30.
Boatswere widely scattered, but most to the South. I usually go where others aren't, so I worked my way North, running in 90 to 110fow. Headed for a waypoint I have off Craigleith and didn't mark much until I got in that vicinity . I was running a Freedom Herring Cut Bait down about 80ft and about 80ft behind the ball.
Had a small laker of about 3lbs hit and I got it to the boat and it got off as I was trying to net it.
Switched to one of my other FHCB's, running behind an Agitator flasher and I landed a 4lb laker which I kept.
Marked a few fish and as it was dead calm I tried jigging a heavy spoon, but no lookers or takers, so after about 10 minutes and that was it.
Decided to head back South and put on one of my favorite Luhr Jensen Shoehorn spoons, Wonder Bread pattern . Noticed a concentration of gulls on the water and they seemed to be feeding on something. When I got in the area, I was in 100fow and there was a good concentration of scattered bait all the way from the surface to 70fow. Marked some fish and decided to stay in the area doing large circles and figure 8's, running the Shoehorn at 80ft and 50ft behind the ball. Had a good hit and landed a laker around 5lbs and I released it.
Kept working the area and a couple more hits, but nothing there when I grabbed the rod.
Still stayed in the area and then my friend Phil who I normally fish with phoned to see how it was going. He wasn't able to go today due to a Chiropractic app't. As we are talking, the rod fires and does it ever fire!
Jump up, shut the phone down and grab the rod. A couple of good hook sets and the reel starts screeching as a fish makes a run for the far distant East shore of the bay. She stopped with 358ft of line out according the line counter on the reel. Took me about 10 minutes to get the Salmon to the boat and into the net. 11.5 lbs, what a fun fight with many strong runs. WB Shoehorn comes through again.
Continued to work the area using the same lure and depths etc and had two more good hits, but gone by the time I grabbed the rod.
While all this was happening, there wasn't another boat within 3 miles of me.
Called it a day at 1:30.
That's the 3rd time to C'wood this year and I don't seem to have any problem catching lakers. Each day, I have had my limit or more and needed to release fish. They are a nice size, in that 3 to 5 lb range.
Pic of salmon and Shoehorn.
SDC
Collingwood Report-Friday July 23, WOW, What a Day-4 for 8
