Part 1 - got up and went to lake Samm with my wife JoAnn to target chinook salmon. We arrived and had lines in the water by about 6:45. My plan was to switch up gear every half hour or so, cycle through stuff and hopefully find something that would work. I had sardine wrapped kwikfish, dodgers, flashers (green), bare hooks, hootchies, spoons. Tried em all and had no success. I fished off bottom and suspended, from 5 feet off bottom to targeting fish at 25-40 feet suspended. The fish are all over - we marked fish everywhere outside the creek mouth - deep, suspended, shallow, finning. I did see 6 fish caught. 1 on a private boat, 1 on a guide boat, and 4 on a guide boat. The guides had green flashers and... I'm guessing bare hooks, but Mr. Cup-His-Hands wasn't showing, LOL. Called it a morning at 11am.

Part 2 - JoAnn surprises me by suggesting we go back out in the evening since the launch ticket is good all day. Well, can't turn down an invitation like that, can I? I tried a few more variations and focused on red bare hooks, scent, etc. Again, nada. A private boat went 2-3 on herring (of course the one thing I didn't have, brother). Fished 4:30 to 7:30. Evening was scattered rain, but not the worst evening, just put the top up and JoAnn was happy.

Lake Samm is so convinent, close by, peaceful trolling, no stress, not huge crowds (on a weekday anyway), and tons of fish. I'm just struggling with getting it dialed in. No more opportunties this year, but I plan to try again next year!

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