Took the family up to the Big Lake for the day yesterday and was smart enough to ask the wife to bring our second car in case anyone got tired and wanted to go home early. As it turned out, after a day in the sun, everyone wanted to go home after dinner in Wolfboro so I dropped them back at the dock and went back out alone to drop some lines.
I only had about 2 hours and the water was still a bit rough so I decided to go with DRs rather than leadcore as I can more quickly check them and change them out and I've only got 100ft of line out rather than 7 colors then the line. This makes a HUGE difference when you are doing everything alone in rough water.
I dropped one rigger (with vertical attractors) down to just above the thermocline and dropped the other to about 25 feet. Before I could sit the first rod fired and I boated a small salmon. I set the rod up again and before I sat, the second rod fired - bringing me a healthy 20 inch fish. And so it went for the entire two hours with only brief periods of quiet. The water calmed quite a bit too and I was marking baitfish everywhere. Ended up with 8 making it to the net and 4-5 more LDRs...mostly because I was steering or pulling up the DR ball while reeling.
During my last run through the spot I was at one rod released and before I got there about 10 yards of line was peeled off with a sustained run by a big fish. I got the fish to the far end of the prop wash when he came up with a huge leap...BIG FISH! He had 2-3 more sustained runs out there and a few more leaps before breaking me off (my fault for not re-tieing that lure...it caught several fish and was a bit worn (note to self...don't be lazy about re-tieing).
Most of the fish I hooked were right around 20 inches though I didn't measure any as I was trying to get them back in ASAP. That last one had to be over 24. The battles I had with these fish last night were some of the best fights I've had all season. Great two hour run for only 2 rods in the water. Nice to get a mid-week outing out there. Much less traffic than Sat or Sun. Fantastic sunset. I was fishing alongside a guy in an 21 foot white cuddy (the brand began with an "E"...maybe Enticer or Eliminator...stopped and said hi to you but don't know if you were a member here).
