Superkid's Lake Superior Charter Service on the Blue Sweetie
Ice fishing round up: After the big January trip, lake trout fishing really slowed down. I fished Burntside Lake near Ely with two friends on a Sunday, but we only got one trout between 3 of us. Later in Feburary, a friend's bachelor party was held near Ely again, but the conditions were so cold and windy that virtually no fishing was done. Two subsequent winter camping trips in March had me seeing very poor fishing, with only a few trout. It was surprising, as ice and weather conditions were really good.
I picked up our new 16' Lund Fury with 25hp 4 stroke Honda from the dealer in late April. It took quite a bit of time to outfit it with my add ons, including rod holders, a base for a downrigger, depth finder, GPS holder, line cleats, and more. Finally got it out in early May onto Lake Superior. The motor wasn't quite working right and we didn't get any bites. Took it out again a couple days later on the big lake, and it still wasn't quite right. It was a nice day, though and Bergen seems to enjoy boat rides. Took the boat back to the the dealer that next week and it turns out the motor wasn't synced up quite right by the factory.
Got out one more time on the big lake after the motor was fixed and it worked well, but I lost the only fish I hooked after fighting it for a good bit of time. Probably a good thing to lose the first fish hooked in a new boat...get it out of the way. On a subsequent warm early May day, the Chief and I headed out on the big lake again and caught several lake trout and salmon. We were in his boat though, so the Blue Sweetie was still fishless. I went out with My Wonderful Bride and Superkid on the Blue Sweetie the next morning to the exact same spot and caught nothing. And the motor wasn't quite working right again.
Took the boat back to the dealer and he made one more adjustment. We backed it into the water, still on the trailer, to see how it performed. It seemed to be right. On the way off of the landing, I heard a hissing sound and watched one of the boat trailer tires go flat in about 30 seconds. Luckily I had just bought a spare. I took into town to get it fixed and then went to get gas down the road. I had noticed that the spare tire was a bit under inflated, so I made some goofy maneuvers to get the tire in place to the air hose at the gas station. Before I could even get out of the truck, I was approached by a game warden. He stated that my maneuvers in the parking lot were suspicious considering I had just seen him. I said I didn't see him, I was just getting air. He seemed to buy that, but then pointed out I had left the plug in the boat and I didn't have registration numbers on the bow. OMG, I thought, on top of having to take a brand new boat back to the dealer (90 miles one way) twice and then getting a flat tire, that I was going to get a couple tickets, too?
I explained that it was new boat and that I had just gotten the registration from the State that very day. He seemed to accept that as well. The explanation about the plug being in because I had simply backed the boat in on the trailer and didn't run it was not acceptable, but he only gave me a warning ticket. Whew! The drive home was uneventful.
The next time I got the boat on to Lake Superior, I was all alone at the landing, hoping the warm water had drifted north enough to bring the salmon north. It had - I caught 3 salmon and lost 2 within the first hour of trolling in the Blue Sweetie. Success! It was shaping up to be a stellar day, but then the wind picked up and blew the warm water away from shore. It was too windy to chase it in my small boat. Oh well. Made it out one more time after that when a hometown friend was up. We caught only one salmon, but it was again very fun.
The week after that (June 20-27) was the annual Camp Sh*tstorm Canoe Trip. Watch for a report on that soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment