I remembered my safety kit, keys to the motor, oars, life jackets, fish finder, etc.... The one thing I didn't bring, but really should have brought was a jacket. I think it might have hit +10 out there, and with thew wind, well, I was frozen even with my built-in body insulation.
Now, I didn't bother bringing my fishing gear, because I only had 2 hours, and I really wanted to give the motor a good run for its inaugural launch.
I ran the full length of Silver lake twice at full to almost full throtle, and I was amazed at the power that my little 25hp johnson had at pushing the 16 foot fibreglass boat around.
I did run into some trouble getting the motor to start. Its a 1998 25hp Johnson, and it took me about 5 minutes to start it. I think I figured it out, and all I really need to do instead of flooding it
is to just turn the key for half a second, and it starts....any longer, and well, the engine gets flooded and I need to wait a few minutes....Maybe this is normal, I'm not sure, I've never owned a boat before.
I know, this post isn't super interesting for a lot of you, but it here comes the good stuff:
The surface water temp was between 65 and 66 degrees depending on where I was on the lake.
I was marking HUGE, and I mean HUGE schools of fish on drop offs anywhere from 40-75 feet deep in 85-90 feet of water. I'm assuming these schools were the resident Lake Trout population, and I marked some grand-daddy size trout.
Has anyone ever jigged for them at this time of year? I've trolled with downriggers in my uncles boat about 10 years ago with good success, but the shear volume of fish I marked and in the HUGE schools they were in has me excited beyond belief to go back and check them out!!!!I also marked alot of good sized fish on the flats in about 30 feet of water, suspended between 20-25 feet.
I've never gotten to the end silver lake before, and on the right is a spring that feeds into the lake...pretty neat to see, and I'll definately be back sometime this month to check out the fish that sit around that back bay since it looks like it has real potential.
cant wait) we have only cought a few small accidental lakers on it but from what im told its great for them....