Well today I made my first big water trip in the new boat. We made our way down to Wellington from the Ottawa area to try our luck for a few salmon. My fishing partner for the day was one of my former students from a few years ago. He has never salmon fished before and I have never been the boat captain during a salmon fishing trip and have never fished the Wellington area..... so we were just hoping not to get skunked.
Using some tips from Al aka Trannyman, who not only messaged me some tips, but was waiting for us at the launch this morning to give us some last minute tips before he went to work. , we were off to the Bonnet. Thanks again for the info Al, you are a first class guy.
Luckly the water was nice and calm, on the way out I made the comment that if we make it out and back safety and with no major issues I would be happy............... this comment will come into play later.
After arriving at our spot we set up our trolling spread, no downriggers on the boat yet, so 2 braid dipseys with Spin Doctors and flies, a 5 colour core off the in-line board and a 10 colour core out the back, both cores with spoons.
After trolling the area looking for different depths, and bait our dipsey rod goes off and after a good battle I land our first fish, a nice 21 pound chinook.
Awhile later my buddy is up and after a good battle, using a wrong handed reel, he lands his first salmon ever, a nice 18 pound chinook.
We continue to work the area and another dipsey rod goes off, I am up the fish makes a nice run and heads for the surface, it does not jump but rolls around just below the surface, this fish doesn't want to move. Definitely the biggest chinook of the day unfortunately after about 10 minutes of fighting the fish comes off.
A short time later my buddy lands his second fish of the day another pass of the area and we call it a day around 2pm.
Days totols: 3 for 4, plus 1 other hit. All 4 fish hooked were on braid dipsey set ups, number 1 dipsey, number 3 setting, 200 feet of line out, green+blue Spin Doctor with blue fly and green + white Spin Doctor with green fly. Our other hit was on 10 colour core, no hits on 5 colour.
Remember my comment from earlier............ we start to make our 20 km run to the marina.......... all is well after 10 plus km we start to lose power and are now crawling back at about 7 miles per hour, with about 2.5 km left to the marina the motor dies and will not restart
We have the electric trolling motor but that is barely moving us along, so I get another first for the day............. the first time I have had to call the Coast Guard
The Coast Guard Auxillary out of Wellington came out as we limped our way back into the marina and towed us in the rest of the way.
A big thanks goes out to the guys of the Auxillary.
A quick stop at Reel Things Tackle to buy some more salmon tackle for next time and we are on our way home.
No idea yet what is wrong with the motor............. clogged fuel filter, broken fuel pump.......... I am suppose to be bass fishing Saturday at 7am, not sure if that will happen
JimW
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I guess as long as i pick the right day it should be ok. Is wellington the closest port to the bonnet? It looks like you had a great time. I did a salmon charter once and it was awesome. Unfortunately i dont know much about catching them. I assume i cant use my medium action rod and spinning reel? I may have to put a request in for some heavier gear to the CFO.