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Chris_Wallace
08-13-2005, 02:04 AM
Where should I start, other than saying I had an awesome time! The weather for the most part was cooperative and the crowd was enjoyable as always.

Monday night, I leave work and swing home, say bye to mom, my dad, sister and I are on the way. Pull in to the Algoma Marina at about 3 am, get the boat rigged its now 4:15 trying to hustle and get out as soon as possible. Finally get out and start lowering lines at quarter to five. We started out in 70-100 feet of water.

Five thirty rolls around rigger rod snaps, hand it off to my sister, her first time ever salmon fishing, reels in a nice 5 pound king to start off the morning. 6ish, another rod snaps, hand it over to Annie she reels in a 11 pound odd ounce king, she is really excited and started to complain about her arms.

7 am the dipsy rod goes off, since we didn't want her to take that rod, I did, turned out being the nicest fish of morning a 15 pound king. Nothing really happens for the rest of the morning, we notice that all the charters are in 30 feet of water or less, catching small fish and cohos, yes they were limiting out but they were small, nothing over 8 pounds.

Swing into River Hills Motel for check in, swing over to Portside with Dick and Mary Welshons for some food to head out for the afternoon. We moved up into forty to fifty feet of water. We catch three more an 11 (annie), 15.7 (Me) and a football (brown Trout, Annie).

They had to go into town to meet some people so we ran up the river, grabbed our boat and took off back into the lake, we kept hearing about a bad storm coming, never saw it, we get out 4.5 miles as I am setting rods, I can see this cloud building over the town, it was really cool, I got to watch the wall cloud develop, it got so dark that Algoma turned their lights on at quarter to seven! Unbeleivable, so we snap lines and head back into port we get to the first bridge as the storm hits, so we keep rolling upstream to the slip, dock and head for cover. The evening bite finds us at The Penquin for their famous Pizza.

Wednesday morning we get out and picked up seven, nothing over 15 pounds I think 4 were in the teens but nothing huge, just a real nice average of fish and another football. 60 to 80 feet of water, dodgers, dipsies and spoons produced.

Our spotlight broke on the way over and its a real pain setting lines with a mag light, so we found ourselves up at Sturgeon Bay getting new fog lights to mount. 60 bucks later, a McDonalds stop and change of clothes the light was on and we were motoring to big water.

The bite started to get hot right as the fog moved in really really thick about 830 pm. We found an awesome skum line with about an 8 degree difference in surface temp. We ended up pulling in 9 all in the light teens and one a hair over 15, right as the bite started my mom calls and said that Karla and here were in Green Bay and wanted to meet us at port, right as the prime bite starts, so that shot the evening fish to hell. Oh well, what are you going to do.

Thursday morning we are heading up the river to the big waters by ten to four, turns out my girlfriend can't handle the waves, so after "putting out a chumline" for twenty minutes and three nice kings, one of which popped the dipsy well I was setting it, we drive all the way back up the river to drop her and my mom off, went back out but the morning bite was long gone, oh well. As we are cleaning fish Dick and Mary came over to the fish cleaning shack and said they were going out for the noon bite, so I tagged along, ten minutes into it fish on, his first run lasted about fifteen seconds and snap, line breaks above the dodger, no idea why, it happens, Dick is re-tying and I am setting lines and another one goes off on the dipsy, starting length on the dipsy was 80, it first run took it all the way out to 310, farthest going 380, one of the best fights I have ever had, nice king a little over 15 pounds. We catch 4 more kings, a nice steelhead we didn't weigh and another brown trout. It was pouring rain so we were soaked, get to port as my dad was taking the family out, we cleaned fish, Dick, Mary and Annie went in their boat and I hoped into ours.

We get out to our spot, five miles later over 5 foot swells and snap line goes off, little shaker about three pounds, but Karla's first salmon regardless, little bit later another one goes off about an 8 pounder, she was really getting excited now and starting to get a little sea sick too. The Dipsy trips and my mom wants it, it quickly takes out 150 feet taking it to 290 feet out. She cranks and gives up after only taking nine feet from the fish, so she switches to karla and she brings in a fourteen pounder. She gets sick again so we fly all the way back into port, drop them off with the fish and my dad and I are not mad at Karla, just really disappointed with the situation, a morning and evening all ready kind of messed, we bummed about tonight, but we went back out anyways, back into the wind, rain and waves. I get my dipsy out and my dad is putting his out and his trips, a middle teen king, net it, I put the boat back into gear and throw the fish in the livewell, as he re-sets, gets it out, puts a down rigger, the dipsy pops again the exact same size king, into the bucket, we got a shaker or two, meanwhile Dick, Mary and Annie have quads going and get all four so they were pumped. We pulled in some gorgeous fish, I am soaked to the bone since noon and just having the time of my life. A little after ten Dick decided to go into port, we were close to our limit so we were going to stay out, Dodger trips and its a real burner, first run lasting about 20 seconds, dad snaps as many lines as he can before it gets tangled but still does, biggest king of the trip, a 20 pounder, we decided to call it and head in with 8, not a bad pull for two people running the boat and missing the prime bite.

Water temp ranged from 52 to 59.9 we were fishing everywhere from 42 to 126 feet of water, using Dodgers, Dodgers and E-chips, Spoons and two dipsy rods. Here are the Pictures of the trip.

First and First for Annie and the trip:
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a306/cwallacelsf/Salmonfishing014.jpg

Annie's second King and second of the trip:
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a306/cwallacelsf/Salmonfishing001.jpg

Dad checking drag for her:
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a306/cwallacelsf/Salmonfishing003.jpg

My king of the morning:
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a306/cwallacelsf/Salmonfishing004.jpg

Annie's King with Dick and Mary on Tuesday.
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a306/cwallacelsf/Salmonfishing006.jpg

Fighting the 15 pounder on Willie Catchum with Dick and Mary:
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a306/cwallacelsf/Salmonfishing007.jpg

Taking a fish boating:
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a306/cwallacelsf/Salmonfishing010.jpg

Some more pictures:
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a306/cwallacelsf/Salmonfishing011.jpg

This is how dark the storm is:
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a306/cwallacelsf/Salmonfishing013.jpg

Kings from Wednesday night:
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a306/cwallacelsf/Salmonfishing022.jpg

Another Mid-day King
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a306/cwallacelsf/Salmonfishing023.jpg

Nice Steelhead, the water temps were not cold enough for them to be there yet, oh well.
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a306/cwallacelsf/Salmonfishing024.jpg

Other Kings from Thursday with Dick and Mary
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a306/cwallacelsf/Salmonfishing025.jpg

Seven of 8 from thursday night with my dad.
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a306/cwallacelsf/Salmonfishing029.jpg

Big Fish of the Trip
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a306/cwallacelsf/Salmonfishing031.jpg

Sister and A king
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a306/cwallacelsf/Salmonfishing033.jpg

This trip was a blast, if you guys are ever looking to do a trip like this hooking up with charters are very easy, we did this with our own boat and everything by our selves, if you ever want to schedule a trip contact me and I can set you up some great people, an awesome trip and some great fishing!

tex22
08-13-2005, 06:39 AM
Chris
Sounds like a great trip. Myself and three friends were in Algoma last week. We caught 11 the first day and 13 the second. All kings, and the biggest was probably 17lbs. This was our forth year going out of Algoma, and already have our trip booked for next year.

Tubes
08-13-2005, 08:44 AM
Nice Pic's Chris...That had to be a blast!!!

Chris_Wallace
08-13-2005, 06:11 PM
Were you out of a Charter?

We use our Lund Tyee and do our own thing.

tex22
08-14-2005, 03:02 PM
We went two years with RV charters. The third year we went with one of the RV captains that went out on his own. And this year I don't remember the outfits name but the captain's name was Tommy and the mate was Cody. They dock their boat right behind the bar right in the marina there.

Chris_Wallace
08-14-2005, 03:13 PM
The Fishing Magician I think is who you were with, another good guy is look for Andy of Kinn's Katch. Awesome Dude.

IAcrankbait
08-15-2005, 11:06 AM
I don't know weather to cuss you or thank you for that post. I'm headed to Kewaunee this Wednesday morning to chase some fish just like those. It'll be my fisrt Salmon charter ever and I'm real pumped up for it. So thanks for letting me know there's still fish in the are but dang, the time is dragging even more now.

IAcrankbait.