The alarm didn't stand a chance of
going off-through blurry eyes, I reached over and canceled it before
the annoying buzzer could jolt me from bed. I'd been staring at the
barely focused digital numbers for 20 minutes and I may as well roll
out-there wouldn't be any more sleep. Besides, getting on the road
earlier (by 2:15 a.m.) would put me downstate that much sooner-4
hours in the truck, Neillsville to Kenosha, was long enough. The sun
would be up at the harbor for a good hour by the time I set foot on
the boat.
Coho salmon, one of my favorite fish,
are not early risers anyway, or should I say early biters unlike
their big Chinook brothers. No need to slip out of the marina in
predawn darkness. Many of the charter captains in south east
Wisconsin enjoy this little extra zzzz time as well in the spring. A
more leisurely start allowed me to make the cross state drive and
still get a full day of fishing in-”banker hours fishing” captain
Kris would say.
The Corkscrew, owned by good
friend Kris Davis, would be the vessel of choice to hunt down cohos,
steelhead (rainbow trout), lakers or maybe even a king or brown-a
mixed bag sometimes in late spring. Kris runs Northfork
Sportfishing Charters and has quickly become one of the more
respected captains departing the Simmons Island Marina in Kenosha
Wisconsin.
I try to join Kris whenever I can on
Lake Michigan, especially in the spring- cohos are arguably the best
table fare to be pulled from the big lake in my opinion. The small
silver fish, usually 3-5 pounds by their third year , seemed to be
running bigger this year, which brought no complaints from us!
They'd been aggressive for the past week or so and I had high
expectations of bringing a few home for the grill. Steelhead would
also be willing to hit, as Kris had put a good number of them in the
cooler the previous day.
Usually, coho are somewhat
predicable-they start biting in the southern waters near Indiana and
Illinois and the season progresses northward following the warming
temperature of the lake water. Find the preferred water temp and
you'll find fish. That's the usual scenario. This year? Not so
much.
I met Kris, his dad Ed and friend Wayne
at the dock and quickly stowed gear, untied and no-waked out through
the harbor-a clear and sunny day with just a little chop on the lake
greeting us. A few lakeside fisherman were set up along the wall
plying their luck in shallow water for browns, steelies and maybe a
few cohos as we slowly motored past. Entering the wide expanse of
“mishigami “ the boat quickened it's pace. The Corkscrew
is powered by two 350 marine engines and there is a satisfying deep
roar from them as they throttle up leaving the shore quickly behind.
I love that part.
As Kris set a course for”the fence”
(Wisconsin Illinois border 8 miles south) the boat seemed to be
heading much further ofshore than our usual coho fishing grounds.
Watching the fish locator screen, the bottom was dropping away-50',
100, 250+ deep. Curious, I asked Kris and it seemed the fish had no
rhyme or reason this year for where they were hitting. Normally,
there is a parade of hopeful boats patrolling up and down across “the
bubbler” (Kenosha's warm water discharge) in 40-50 feet of water or
the same near Racine's Root River estuary, but not 10 to 15 miles
out! It seemed they were staging in very deep water and hitting
lures anywhere from the surface to 100 feet down. Kris was hedging
all bets, using planer boards, dipsey divers and down-riggers to test
all depths and see what they preferred. The added bonus of such a
range is other species like lake trout and king salmon could end up
in the tub.
You go where the fish are and although
this was unconventional coho fishing, the word was out and we had
plenty of company. Kris kept the 350's churning and we set up closer
to 300' of water, further out from the other boats. With four of us
onboard, we'd put out a spread of six high planers, three mid level
dipseys and three deep 'riggers to cover all bases. It didn't take
long.
“Fish on!” ...and there was an
excited hustle to grab a rod and net and boat the first fish of the
day-a steelhead. Before it could be scooped up, another planer board
was jerked backwards-”fish, FISH!, bottom pole!” and all four of
us scrambled to somehow not get tangled up, yet land the trout. We
did, and the steelies were stowed on ice and poles re-deployed.
“FISH!”-another bait is hit-this time on a deep line, pulling
hard- most likely not a rainbow. This is how to start a trip and as
Wayne brought the fish in close, we could see it was a nice lake
trout.
As quickly as it all started, there
was a lull, but that's fishing. This scene would repeat itself all
day, we'd hit one or doubles or even three in a row in a spot and
then they would shut down. Kris would swing by the same spot and
sometimes another salmon would be added to our catch, sometimes not.
None of us minded all that much-it was a beautiful day on the lake,
but then again, catching fish is better than not our captain would
remind us-yeah, it is.
Eventually, most of the other boats
cleared out, chatter on the radio indicated they were not having the
same slow-but-steady luck as the Corkscrew was. If the fish wanted
high placement, Kris would move some of the lures higher-if they were
finicky about color or pattern (even if it was a guess), spoons and
flies would be swapped out to maybe antagonize a few more hits.
Afternoon fishing hadn't been all that
good of late, but we continued on. Finally, after a threat of “we'll
give it 15 more minutes,” things restarted-so much so, that we
counted and re-counted the number of fish in the tank to be on the
good side of a limit. It was a final flurry of action ending with a
near triple like we started the day-perfect.
All of us had long drives back home
after a day on the water, so Kris turned the boat north west and we
let some lines drag while pulling one set of gear after another-you
never know about last chance fish. After everything was stowed and
tucked away, the boat roared forward for the 10 mile trip back to the
“candlestick” (breakwall light) of the Kenosha harbor.
Most of the other charters were
already nestled into their slips by the time we returned-the
Corkscrew had stayed later, but it paid off with the extra fish on
board. In short order, the Corkscrew too was buttoned up and ready
for the next trip. The fish were divided and iced in coolers-mine
would have to be cleaned later in the night. Already I had plans for
cedar grilled and smoked salmon and trout-I couldn't wait. Although
not a crazy fish-jumping-in-the-boat kind of day, it was great and
all of us happy and appreciative with the action and bouts of fun
frenzy when rods start bending back on themselves. My alarm is
already set for the next trip.
