Click here for the previous day’s fishing story.
Wakey-wakey! It is time to go fish hunting!
Salvy and I crawl out of our cozy sleeping bags at 4:45 am, dress up warmly, and get ready to troll the Golden Hour to try to emulate the angling success from yesterday morning. Over the next three hours, we fish the Narrows (i.e., the deep channel that connects West Grand Lake to Junior Bay), the deeper eastern half of Junior Bay, and Pocumcus Lake. We come up woefully short, with only one hit to show for all our early-morning efforts…
Who doesn’t love a double hooking!!
Before heading back to camp for breakfast, we decide to investigate the outlet of Sysladobsis Lake. We have not been there before and are curious about the height of the dam, the amount of flow coming through it, the length of the stream, and the composition of the substrate. Plus, such a location in early spring is liable to attract landlocked Atlantic salmon that are chasing spawning smelt. The outlet flows into a relatively shallow bay located at the extreme western end of Pocumcus Lake and is reached by navigating through the Pocumcus Narrows. The outlet flows out of a low-head dam no more than 5 ft. high. The “stream” is 30-40 ft. wide, 400-500 ft. long, 2-5 ft. deep, with strong current and a bouldery substrate for the first 200 ft. or so. We are impressed with the general setting and decide that it is worth spending some time fishing it, particularly since we observe dozens of fish swimming around the area!! When I go out trolling, I always bring my ultralight spinning rod, teamed up with a small spinning reel spooled with 6-pound monofilament to which is attached a marvelous #2 Mepps spinner. One never knows when these tools might come in handy… Well, now is one of those unexpected moments. Salvy rejiggers his trolling rod to also fish with a Mepps spinner.
Goofing off at camp.
I get a hookup on the third cast. YES!! Houston, we are on to something! A 17-inch landlocked salmon comes flying out of the water and provides great acrobatics. Salvy and I catch five salmon over the next 30 minutes. All are well-fed creatures that measure between 16 and 19 inches. This is just incredible: the fish seem to be stacked in various current seams waiting to pounce on unsuspecting baitfish. We would gladly stay much, much longer but need to return to camp before Joel gets concerned about our long absence. We walky-talky him on the way back and return to a royal breakfast of pancakes, scrambled eggs with cheese, beacon, sausages, bagels, cream cheese, and hot coffee. We chat excitedly about our find and take our ritual morning shot of Jägermeister. Five hours and multiple Jägermeister shots later, it is time to head back out and continue catching landlocks!
Joel skillfully plays one of his salmon.
Salvy stays behind at camp; Joel and I buzz out towards the outlet in our own boats. We both take our fly fishing rods with us to see if we can cajole a fish using a small streamer fly or dry fly. We anchor our boats and start casting with streamer flies. In short order, both Joel and I catch a salmon, and I also hook and land a lake whitefish. The latter is a wonderful and unexpected surprise! That species has been on my bucket list for a LONG time and I finally caught it. I am actually quite impressed by its fighting abilities. In fact, I am so excited about the whole experience that I forget to take a picture before returning the creature to its watery world… We soon discover that two boats crammed in the small space in front of the dam with two guys fly fishing is just too much. I decide to leave the spot to Joel and let myself drift downstream to where the stream enters the bay. I saw several rises over there earlier and want to give dry flying a chance. What a monumental mistake! Over the next hour, I see dozens of rises all around me but none of the fish are interested in my various combinations of dry fly/emerger offerings, small streamer flies, or woolly buggers. Meanwhile, after swapping out half a dozen streamer flies, Joel stumbles on the magic lure of the moment: a small Parson Tom smelt imitator! He slays the salmon, hooking over a dozen fish and netting seven, all of that without moving his boat one inch. Yeah Joel, rub it in! We figure afterwards that the smelt pattern combined with the arching floating line suddenly pulling the streamer fly out of the current created a visual effect so strong that it proved irresistible to the hungry salmon. Darkness is setting in and it is time to head back to camp for diner and lots of happy talk with Salvy. Life is good in the woods and on the water, particularly since it is too early in the season for mosquitoes and black flies!
Joel is mighty pleased with this 20-inch landlocked salmon, which is also the largest of the lot!
The results: Between the three of us, we landed 13 landlocked salmon (largest = 20 inches) and one lake whitefish (17 inches) in 3 hours of fishing.
Was the information in this blog useful? I invite you to share your thoughts and opinions. Also, feel free to discuss your fishing experiences at this location.
Tight Lines, y’all.
~ ~ ~ ~ ><« ({(« º >
