First open water outing, Splake

[Fishnhunt]

I got out midday today with the canoe. I fished a small back lake for splake.
It was calm winds and mild temps which made for an easy paddle .At the Lau h there was a dead deer in the launch that I figured had fallen through the ice as there wasn’t a mark on it.

I cast the one side of the lake with no success so as I was heading down the opposite side I clipped on a different lure and trolled upwind. I immediately got a strike but lost it even faster. I reset and trolled a short distance when I got another solid hit. After a bunch of give and take and the fish running into the canoe twice and three clumsy netting attempts I had it in the boat. Im certainly a little rusty!!!

I lost one more and called it a day. The splake was a little over 22 inches and 3.7 pounds.

[Fishnhunt]

Splake

[Fishnhunt]

Measurement

[Fishnhunt]

Weight

[Fishnhunt]

Fillets

[Fishnhunt]

Lake

[mykola]

That’s a fantastic specimen of a fish. Great meat on that one. Very good.

[grampa]

nice fish well done

[sabmgb]

really nice looking fish. Lake looks inviting.

[longfish]

Very nice.

Arnie

[crappeeeman]

That's a happy first trip on the water.

[Fozzy47]

Those fillets look amazing. Nice job!

[Mike33]

Nice splake Bill! How deep down do you think you were with your lure on the troll?

[Fishnhunt]

Not very deep. Just a 1/2 ounce spoon flatlined behind the canoe on a slow paddle one long cast behind the boat. I would say maybe 3-5 feet.
I would say I prefer to be shallow rather than deep. I did cast an entire shore structure and never had a hit until I paralleled shore about an average cast away.
We often catch them casting to fallen trees or floating logs or other shore structure but not yesterday. I hit all fish trolling.

[Fishnhunt]

The belly had digested minnows and midges in it and there was a good hatch on the water.