Hey guys,  hope your season is better than mine, its been a slow start with very crappy weather. Only been out one time with a friend in his boat, my old boat has engine troubles, again

anyway, heres one of my friend Richard with a nice king from a few weeks ago:

Haven't posted much here lately so I figured I'd share a few pictures from our season out on the bigwater this year.

Our season ran from early April to early November (though, Oct. and Nov. we're totally dead) and we fished three of the Great Lakes this year including our home eastern Lake Erie and western Lake Ontario on our boat as well as central Lake Superior on Captain John Tomczyk's boat (Daybreak Charters, also highly recommended if you're looking for a great experience!).

On Erie we trolled for Lakers, Drum, and White Bass and jigged for Drum and Walleye. Lake Ontario in early August was monster Steelhead trolling with plenty of small Chinook as bycatch. Lake Superior in late June was a great new place to fish for us and we caught a multitude of native Lakers. It's amazing how much variation Superior fish have since they're the original strains and have adapted specifically for the various environments of that lake.

Another awesome season in the books, we'll be back at it again next April for Erie Lakers, but until then it's time to keep crushing them in streams and rivers!

(We catch & release 95% of our trolled fish, but a few pictured below (the gill gripped ones) were kept for the grill.)

Erie Lake Trout

Wicked Lamprey wound

Largest fish of Spring, 18 pounds

8.5# Walleye

White Bass are welcome on our boat

Superior Laker

Bug-eyed Char

33" Lake Superior tank

Awesome coloration

Inshore Drum jigging

37" 23# Erie Laker

Action was hot in July

New PB Lake Trout, 38" 24#, eastern Lake Erie

Some more jigged Drum

Lake O Steel

Bycatch Chinook

12 pound Steelshark

Some of my better catches from last year's boat fishing season. Spring Lake Trout on eastern Lake Erie and Summer Steelhead on Lakes Erie and Ontario. Plus some much welcome bycatch all year! 2017 is already out to a great start with some big Lakers, hoping to post some of them later on. Enjoy!

First Laker of 2016 33", late April

34" fatty, early May

32" bycatch Walleye, late May

30" Pike from the propwash, mid June

28" Erie Steelhead, mid July

First Pink Salmon, mid July

SLOB Summer Laker 36" and 23+ pounds, mid July

29" Deepwater Drum

First Chinook Salmon, late July

Lake Ontario monster 12 pound Steelie, early August

Happy New Year, hope 2017 is  a great year for fishing!

AcruN0W5ejQ

I hate winter, cant wait for spring. Thought Id share a few photos from the last season on Lake O. Didnt do much salmon fishing as I was trying to learn how to jig fish for lake trout. Have a lot to learn about vertical jigging for lakers on the big open lake.

Anyway, heres a few pics I like, hope you like them too.

1. My very first jig caught laker. About 10 pounds on a Luhr Jensen crippled herring, 4 oz.

2. another jig caught laker

3. release pic of a jig caught laker,

4. another release pic,

5. my largest jig caught laker-- 19.6 pounds,

6. 1st jig caught rainbow on the big lake,

and , also did some trolling with friends cause they dont have the patience to jig fish............

7. a dandy 15 pound coho caught by my friend, trolling trolling in my boat,

8. and last, a nice brown caught by another friend in my boat, 15+ pounds,

and those were the highlites of my season.

Hope spring comes soon cause Im going crazy here:grin:

Sunrise Laker

B5tM-Rrr1_E

This is one of my favorites...this King in certainly not the largest I have caught but it has a special place in my heart. We were fishing out of Pt. Sanilac on Lk Huron in early August of 2011. It hit a rigger line 74' down over 119fow. It fought long and hard and the excitement of my grandkids was priceless. They had never seen a fish that size. It was also exciting to know that since the crash on Huron that Kings of this size existed in the southern end of the lake. A very special day for me and the grandkids!

11 salmons over 22 lb and several 28-31 lb and a nice 34 lb salmon

And a big number of 13-22 lb fish

Many two and three strikes, When the 34 lb strike at the same time a 24lb strikes.. nice fights with 400-800 ft of line out on several fish

Best Regards Jonas

Here is our first Tyeeeeeeeee of 2012 - 31lbs

Here are a few 29lb brutes:

now the fish is great but the story to go with it is even better....

3 color lc fired with a nice bow...hoots and hollers, fish jumping all over, line peeling good fish, took the board under a couple times and bout the time we made head way , "FISH!! FISH!! FISH!! INSIDE BOARD!!

we had ourselves a double,

but wouldn't you know it, this fish also decided it was gonna take down the board, right about the same time both boards were next to each other....

this and that later, it was evident that both lines were crossed, so only one thing to do pull and reel in tandem....i could see the bow spinning behind the inside board, it was obviously gonna be a big mess....

bag in the water,w/ both bow and board ... on the deck, not sure how we did it but fish out of the bag, board off the line , cutting lure from the super braid, untie a knot, untwist, this and that later...freed line and fish still on, more hoots and hollers, this fish just would not come up, digging hard, we had no idea waht it even was and when it finally did.... jumping up and down more hooting!!...in the bag!!!

What a mess and what a great fish!!

Then all hell broke loose when we heard Josh and Bo start screamin! Ill let Josh tell that story! Though it ended with the biggest Laker ever aboard the RELENTLESS! Over a dozen fish on my boat in the last couple years between 30-32ish, but its tough to break that number for me....until today.

I give Josh all the credit in the world. From the time we netted this fish, he intended to release it as soon as possible. We snapped a few quick pics and got him back in the water within a minute.

With the surface temps still about 45 degrees, we really thought he had a good chance. Josh spent over 25 minutes bent over the side of the boat trying to revive the fish. He just wouldn't come around. After his hands went totally numb from the cold water and the fish showed no sign of getting better, he decided to bring him back onboard and put him on the wall. The good thing was, now we could get an exact weight on him and a few more good pics before we wrapped him up in Borax and prepped him for the taxidermist.

This is what the graph looked like when Josh hooked his fish... :rock:

Though we didnt measure him, he made my 140qt. cooler look kinda small...

34 lbs!

Thankfully, we also captured most of the fight on video! Here is a true testament to the strength of a Gander Mountain Guide Series fishing rod! Pretty sure it was bending all the way down inside the cork handle! The entire fight took about a half hour, and when the fish bit there was less than 20' of line between the rod tip and the spoon! Without someone on the rod like Josh with patience and knowledge to just let the fish go, and dont try to stop him, this fish would have never made it to the boat.

Enjoy! And Congrats Josh on the Fish of a Lifetime!