Thursday, July 08, 2010

Brown Trout and King Salmon Out On Lake Michigan




















Once again, I was out fishing on a boat in Lake Michigan with my new friends Keith and Beau. Last time, we caught three fish... all of which were 3-4 lbs each. Not bad, but they were nothing in comparison to what we caught last night!

We went out around 5:45 PM and started fishing around 6:10 PM in 40 feet of water. Almost immediately, we had our first bite! Beau grabbed the rod and pulled in a huge 12 lb. Brown Trout! From what I'm told, Brown Trout aren't all that common in July, but the water was cold enough to entice this one to come in closer to feed. We were fishing around 40 feet of water... maybe 2 miles from shore.

I pulled in two 7 lb King Salmon and also a small 3 lb King (the smallest of the bunch) and also lost one. I wasn't feeling all that well as we were really bouncing around on the boat this time and the Dramamine I took did not seem to help. Not long after losing one of the fish, I did what all land-lubbers do... tossed my cookies overboard! Luckily for me, I didn't have anything to eat since lunch and had been downing a lot of water on the trip, so at least all that came out was really just water. Keith and Beau had a good laugh as they watched me contribute some water to the water... but we didn't care... we were on the fish!

Beau pulled in a huge King Salmon which we later weighed in on my Boga Grip at 12lbs. And right after he pulled this one in, Keith landed the big fish of the day... a 14 lb King Salmon! This monster was HUGE! He later brought in another 7 lb King Salmon.

After all was done at around 8:50 PM, we felt satisfied that the night was a good one. In all, we landed 7 out of 8 fish. While my two 7 lb King Salmons were nice, they paled in comparison to what the experienced guys had pulled in. No matter, as I was lucky to be given a bunch of the catch to take home once again. After Keith did his amazing "fish autopsies," I brought my share home and weighed the fillets in at 11 lbs worth of fillets. That's not bad for a night's work! Beau brought some of his home as did Keith, but they shared the majority of it with me.

While I am still trying to get my sea legs, I'm determined to go back out again and catch a big one this summer. Maybe next time, I'll have to get another motion-sickness "patch" to go behind my ears, because the dramamine doesn't seem to help much. I'll go more prepared next time! Be sure to click on each photo for a closer look.

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