Our salmon trip for 2007 was a success! We had a great time on Lake Huron and the weather was only really bad the first day. The wind was blowing into the bay at about 20-25 mph producing some nice size rollers. I wound up on the winning boat, the Striper, and on my rookie voyage salmon fishing I caught the most fish! Never under estimate a southerner when it comes to fishing. For the most fish award I would like to thank Abu Garcia for making the 6000 model and Berkley for the IM7 rod. Without you two, it wouldn’t have been possible.
Day 1 – Thursday
My plane arrived in Detroit on Wednesday so I got to spend a little time in the office. Thursday morning after getting dropped off at Kevin’s house by the Morlock, Kevin and I drove from Livonia over to Birmingham where David “Captain Jew” Little lives. We threw our gear into the truck, hooked the boat up and were on our way to Rogers City, MI to meet up with everyone else.
We arrived at Brad’s cabin around 3:00 PM and the rest of our cabin was there. We threw the football around a bit and Brad showed me around his place. I then remembered I needed to load new line onto my reels so I got out my rod and reel and loaded new Vanishing fluorocarbon 14lb on it. As soon as I got done we loaded up to hit the water. We drove over to Brian’s (Brad’s twin brother) and met up with the rest of the gang and then headed into town from Hawks, MI where we were staying to Rogers City.
Everyone was pumped, even Radek who had never been fishing before. We launched the boats and it was game on!
When we got to the bay, we fished probably for over an hour before anyone got a bite. Captain Little took the first fish of the trip on Thursday evening. It was a nice 9-10lb fish. At this point the game was on since our boat, the Striper, had caught the most fish two years in a row over Ben’s boat. We fished until after dark, but the fish just weren’t biting. We rolled back into the marina and had Jay clean the fish for us then headed back to the cabin to play cards.
I won both Texas Hold ‘Em tournaments and was feeling good since I was up about $100 for the trip, and we had a fish. Physically I was tired, the difference in time zone was killing me. We got to bed at about 2:00 AM on Friday.
Day 2 – Friday
With only 3.5 hours sleep the cabin woke up at 5:30 AM and it was a chilly 36 degrees. Burr! We knew it was going to get cold so we bundled up pretty good for the ride back out to the bay. The ride out sucked. That is all I can say. It was a 3-4 mile ride with rolling waves that made you wish you had a bigger boat that is for sure. We finally got out to the bay and got anchored down but we could barely stand up in the boat. It was cold, the wind was blowing 25mph and making huge waves that were 3-6 feet rollers.
The conditions were not great but we fished. I finally made my way to the front of the boat so I could sit down, actually law down and cast from the side. After about 3 casts I had a fish on! Finally I had caught a salmon. Now I knew what to expect. I noted my retrieval speed, the location I caught the fish, how the strike was and so on. Once we got the fish in the boat and in the live well, I went back to the front of the boat. Same spot and started casting. Within a few more casts I had another fish on!
Radek, who again had never been fishing before, landed one as well. We fished some more but the water was too rough so we went in about 8:30 AM. When we got back to the marina I hung my biggest fish from the Rogers City sign to document the occasion.
After we had breakfast I decided to ride with Ben, Mike and Lance to Cheboygan, MI to see if the salmon were running in the river there. After a 40 minute ride we arrived only to be disappointed. We decided to head back into town and do some bowling to kill the time. By this time, my central time zone body was hurting. With only a few hours sleep, and the time zone shift I was death walking.
We bowled several games and I was so tired and sore from the ride earlier in the morning that I didn’t even pick up a spare, little alone a strike! Ben, Mike and Lance won some of their money back from the night before needless to say.
The rest of the guys showed up and we ate some pizza, drank a few beers, bowled some more, and then headed to the water, hoping it wasn’t as rough as the morning. Thankfully it wasn’t and that night I caught two more fish and Radek another. Ben’s boat was catching up though and now they were only down one. Damnit!
After we got the fish cleaned we headed to the Night Hawk’s Bar for some burgers but they were out. How can you be out of burgers?! We had to settle for something else. Ben and I got Reuben’s and Mike got shrimp. Because when you think of the Night Hawk’s Bar and Grill you think of shrimp right? Hah! It was late when we got done eating so we went back to the cabin and crashed.
Day 3 – Saturday
We awoke at the same bat time and bat channel and headed to the marina. What a pretty morning. The water was calm and we were able to get out to the fish much faster. The only problem was they just weren’t biting. Nothing, zilch. So we got the boats loaded back up and headed to breakfast and then back to the cabin since it was college football game day. I took a nap trying to kill the time zone monster. We watched football and then at about 4:30 the race was on back to the marina. Literally it was a race to see who could get there first since we were now down a fish.
The water was a little rougher in the evening but manageable. We decided on a spot and fished it, nothing. We needed two fish for the win. We moved closer into shore and fished a spot really hard. No one was catching anything this evening. The fish just weren’t coming into the bay. Ben’s boat decided to move closer in which opened up a spot where we caught fish last night. Not only did we catch fish there, but I caught the biggest fish of the weekend there. So we moved and luckily we did cause it paid off (thanks for moving Ben!). At this point Kevin hadn’t caught a single fish but he hooked up about 30 minutes after dark with one. It was small, but it counted! Several minutes later I hooked into a 12-13lb and we landed it. Whew, it put us over the top for the win!
All in all our boat total was: David 1, Kevin 1, Radek 2, Keith 5
When we pulled back into the marina we were blaring the radio and having a blast. “Hey Striper, leave those fish alone”…. “All in all its just a, nother fish in the well.” We took the liberty to rewrite the words to a classic Pink Floyd song as we pulled back into the marina. Absolutely hilarious.
After we got the fish cleaned we headed back to the bowling alley for pizza and cosmic bowling. At this point our trip is winding down.
Sunday morning we cleaned up the cabin and drove back to the city listening to the Lions vs Bears game (really good game).
All in all it was a fabulous trip, we had a blast. I can’t wait until next year to go back. FISH ON!!!!!!!!!!!!
If you have time, have a look at all of the pictures from Salmon Hunt 2007.