So I decided to test out my 10' Aluminum Jon Boat today since I had nobody to go fishing with me. I wanted to try a local lake that I have never been too and went with cottage. As soon as I launched, I was expecting the Jon Boat to be super wobbly and unstable since I had become accustomed to my 9' Livingston. Yeap, it took me a while to get used to it and find my proper footing to be able to stand and cast without falling over.

So I began circling the lake and working every sort of cover I could find. I threw everything I had and everything I could see. I threw everything from a drop shot to an umbrella rig at everything from a dock to a patch of pads or weeds. I couldn't locate any fish and couldn't get anything to bite. I had some nibbles in one area on my drop shot. But I knew just from the feel of the bite and the inability to eat my bait, that it had to be yellow perch.

One thing that I wanted to point out was that the largemouth spawn is long over on this lake. I saw thousands and thousands and thousands of largemouth fry all over the lake. I saw them near docks, near lily pads, and out in open water. However, these fry won't last long if at all because the trout and taking complete advantage and absolutely devouring the fry. Trout were busting the surface non stop all over the entire lake. I saw countless trout jump completely out of water. I was extremely impressed with the hang time that these trout were getting. I couldn't tell you how many trout I saw jump over 4 feet out of the water. And No, I am not exaggerating. These trout were literally flying out of the water and eating mouthfuls of fry.

After circling the entire lake, retying my 5 different rods countless times with different lures, I decided to call it quits on largies and target trout. I started off with my go to lure for trolling which is an inline spinner. This has always produced the most trout for me when trolling. However it failed me today. I trolled the length of the lake twice, zig zagging randomly and tyring to go to where I saw the most surface activity. But didn't even get a single strike. I switched to an F7 Rapala Original Floater and within 10 minutes had my first fish! It was a rainbow trout about 12" or so. After about 20 minutes I got another hit and brought in another rainbow trout about the same size.

I then went about 30 minutes where I had half a dozen strikes but no hook ups. Continuing to troll and randomly zig zagging to cover more water, I get a savage strike and I set the hook while turning off my trolling motor. Immediately my 7' MH Powell Diesel Glass Crankbait Rod is completely doubled over and this fish is pulling out a ton of drag from my Shimano Curado 51E. Immediately I am thinking that I hooked into a monster holdover rainbow. I start reeling in and fighting this fish, letting it take line when it wanted to. Then it jumped out of the water about 2 feet getting completely airborne and I realized that my initial guess was correct. It was indeed a huge holdover rainbow! Unfortunately, shortly after it landed in the water, I felt some massive headshakes and the fish was off. Crap! It must have not been hooked were well. I was super disappointed but there wasn't anything I could do but keep on fishing. You win some you lose some right?

I continued to troll and 15 minutes or so later I hooked into a small trout and bring it in. I see bright red/orange under it's throat with some slits and think to myself that this has to be a cutthroat trout. I also noticed the difference in the size of the mouth and the shape of the jaw. I didn't know that these were present in cottage lake. I snapped a couple pictures and let it go.

I kept trolling until it started to get dark and I took off. I want to come back to this lake with panfish gear and try to catch some of the perch and crappie that are supposedly in this lake (according to the lake info).

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