Don't give up sounds like your doing everything right. Just need a little luck.And a charter would help a lot. They know all the tricks. This hot weather makes for tuff fishing.
Sounds like you're putting waaay too much pressure on yourself.
In your last post you said you were "at a good speed of 1 to 2"... I'm not sure who told you to stay between 1 and 2... but its not helping you. I am dead serious when I say you are going to catch a bigger quantity of fish if you go between 2 and 2.5 mph. A wider variety of fish are going to bite a lure at that speed AND you're going to cover a bit more water which means presenting your lure to more fish. The speed was the main concern to me, when I posted a reply right after you first asked what to do to catch more fish.
Some people will fish slower than 2 for salmon... but generally they are targetting big fish. YOU want quantity and to get a bigger quantity you're gonna have to go the speed that the majority of fish will hit. That means covering a speed range that all three species of cold water fish will be interested in.
I may have missed it, but I don't remember you saying that you are trolling leadcore. A lot of people are catching their majority of early morning fish on leadcore right now. It imparts a completely different action to a lure, especially a fly. I never run a bare fly on a downrigger, as it has no action, it just travels straight. Your best fly action comes with the erratic movement of leadcore. It causes the fly to pulsate in the water and trigger strikes.
You've got one day left... my advice would be to start as early as possible, use white, orange or glow spoons the first hour of the day and then start swapping stuff out every 15 to 20 minutes until you find what works. Speaking of which... I don't know how you were able to only buy 6 lures. I can't walk by a bait shop without six lures jumping into my hand (each time).
You know... you never did say what you're using for leaded or attachments. The lighter the leader, the less the fish will see it. I use at least 15' of 4 or 6lb seaguar fluoro carbon leader between my main (mono) line and the lure. I put a very small swivel at the main line/fluoro intersection and a very very small snap to the lure. If you can't find an ultra small snap, just tie direct to the lure. The fish in Winni really are line shy. The lighter the better.
slipknot makes a good point on line size. While changing up my lures and dialing up a good speed have make a big difference for me, the biggest single factor increasing my success was putting on a high quaility leader of 6# Seagar "leader material". #8 leader does no where near as well and 6# anything else doesn't work as well for me.
Question for you early morning guys, do you start right off at first light with 6 colors and 32-25 feet of depth or do you start more shallow then go deep after the sun pops up? I know fish are rising at first light but don't know if they are taking up near the surface.
Thanks again for the great tips and taking the time to help a guy. I don't know the exact speed as I am in a tiny boat and my finder does not do speed. I am not using leadcore. I have been using a Dodger with my White Perch fly thinking that would give some action. I have a swivel at the rod side of the Dodger and then a 12lb leader tied to the streamer end as well as the streamer. I am running 6lb line with #12 snap swivels at the spoon. I have never run leader before except when I'm fly fishing. I didn't know I was suposed to. Would it be better to tie direct to my spoons and have the swivel 5-6' up the line?
Thanks everyone for the excellent advice and help. I didn't have time to go out this morning as I had to pack all my gear away and leave for home. My family that lives here doesn't fish so it all goes away when I leave. Anyway I will be back to try again next summer. Thanks again and I'll post again next year and let you know how I did, and more questions I'm sure.
Thanks,
Chris
