Fished out of Ame's Farm with my best friend Col. Mike Burlage , from Dover. We had a super week!

Monday was cold and we fished in a white capped cauldron between Rattlesnake and Diamond. Caught three nice salmon in between bouts of seasickness. Mike was kind enough to bring me back to camp at 9:00 AM. We warmed up and went back out and hooked another 10 salmon before we came back for beer and dock fishing. Ame's Farm was out of the wind and sunny.
Tues. Mike had a bass fishing friend come along . We took 8 salmon before he had to leave at noon. We went back out after lunch and hooked 8 more salmon before 4:00 PM beer time.

Wed. We took a run down to troll Elaquoya to Belknap Point. Just one nice 5lb. laker that put up a super fight. We pulled back off shore and trolled the deep water south to Daimond. We picked up scattered salmon all the way and just north of Diamond we hit a pod of salmon and had three doubles in an hour. We were cold and beer time came at 3:00 PM.

Thurs. Weatherman forecast showers but it was sunny, warm with a nice little chop. We got on the water a little after 7:00AM and were back to camp at 4:00 PM.
We lost a few fish but 23 salmon came to boat side. One quadruple came in 60' of water south of Diamond with two fish on unweighted flatlines,one rigger down 20' and the other down 30'. The rest of the afternoon they came in the top 10'.

Fri. Mike's son Ken came to fish so we didn't get on the water until 9:00 AM. Mike found the fish for us but Ken and I lost 50% if them. By 3:00 PM we had 12 salmon boat side and kept 6 for the freezer.

We fished only Arkansas shiners(always the right color)! AJ loves us because we went through 15 dozen shiners and had to go back for some more.
Fishing was simple. I don't have GPS mapping and my old Eagle fish finder was acting badly and barely gave us depth. Two manual downrigger (Big Jon) with Dave/Davis spinners attached to 6lb. balls and Roemer releases two feet above the balls. and two counter flat lines. Shiners were set 5" to 10" behind the spinners. Most of the fish came in the top 10' in 60 to 80 ft. of water. Two reel counters flat lines were unweighted except for a live bait swivel and 8' of 6 lb. mono leader. One was set 150' back and the other 170' back. Salmon came on both. A few fish jumped off because we were using #2 light wire aberdeen hooks with the barbs squashed down, but it was really easy to slide the hook out while the fish was in the water boatside. We only used the net when we planned to put a fish in the cooler.
Other than a sunburn on the top of my head it was a terrific week and I will prepare salmon fillets for my wife this evening.

Travis!! I'm sorry I didn't get you on your cell phone but I didn't get your Email until I got home Sat. afternoon. I look forward to seeing you in July.

Dick

Now that's the type of fishing report I'm used to seeing on here!!! Glad you had a good week fishing, wish I could have gone out today, but I guess the boat was full???? Oh well, decided I'm gonna take Grandpa's old 14' starcraft out of mothballs, try and get the old merc. 25hp going and then I won't have to rely or look for rides from anyone else!!!! This way I can go FISHING whenever I feel like it!!!!!!! Take Care God Bless LOL Dave

Great report Dick. Sounds like a good time was had by all. Now I really can't wait until Monday when I can finally get back on the water! Only 9 more hours of work left...yuck

Great report.Sounds to me like old style fishing is just as good as new style (use every type of new technology out there)fishing.polebreaker

Were the shiners lip hooked or did you sew them on?

I guess you would say the shiners were sewn on but it nothing like the old Maine style. The #2 light wire aberdeen goes twice , center and just forward of the eyes (leaving loop) than through stomach just forward of the caudal fins and out the anal hole. Push the hook eye back into the second hole and take up any slack by tightening the looped line at the nose. it takes about thirty seconds.
The shiner should live for long time and troll upright with NO SPIN. Small shiners are best because they are to imitate small smelt and bigger Arkansas shiners tend to lose the silver sheen and turn gold.

When we fish off the dock we just lip hook the shiners. Although more Ame's Farm salmon come on crawlers below a bobber.

Give it a try.
Dick

Sounds similar to what I have done but we always tighten up enough to get them to spin. Are your actually swimming?

Yup! They should be alive and swimming upright. You don't want them to spin. That trick is left over from a past age and just results in line twist. Believe me we have done both. We now go to a great deal of trouble making sure the shiner doesn't twist before we drop it back. We are also limited to a boat speed far less than 2MPH.

Dick

Good report Dick. Say Hi to your partner. Retired D.O.T Eng.
From A soon to retire, D.O.T maintenance Super Dist. 4
W-Fat