Launched about 9am and had the first fish in the boat at 10 when my buddy hooked up with a nice 2lb carryover on a Muddler Minnow tipped with Berkley Gulp maggots. I caught several planters on a plug, so we switched over to non-baited plugs for the rest of the day.

Started out with trolling patterns similar to what I use at Roosevelt but that wasn't what these fish wanted, had to slow my presentation quite a bit to make them happy.

My fishing partner and I boated several fish, and since we were bait free, we practiced C&R with the little guys unless they were mortally wounded. We were after the bigger 'bows we read about.

Lost a dandy that only made it half way in the net, so he got to swim away to fight another day. Lost another nice one on my leaded line outfit when it pulled my leader through the knot. I put an end to that scenario by tying a small bead swivel to the braid and then tying on my leader - problem solved.

Best fish of the day, and my 5th keeper, was a 20 1/4" 3lb 8oz 'bow caught on a #5 chartreuse/silver Rapala floating plug. My buddy was pulling the same plug in shad and both were very effective. I was also pulling a Rip'n Minnow 65 in orange/gold on my mono rig and it was producing quite well too.

Most productive trolling speed was between 1.5 - 1.8mph. Streamer style flies were ok, but not as much activity with them compared to plugs. We were successful with leaded line and long line mono. We ran the #5 Rapalas on leaded line roughly 2 1/2 colors out (100' per my line counter reel) and I sent my mono rig to 125' behind the boat. Water surface temps were 68° - 69°.

We spent about half our time fishing the deeper section of water east of Harper's Island midway between Four Season's Resort and the public launch before moving to the narrows for the rest of the day. Both areas produced consistently, especially planters, and each produced at least one carryover.

We had periods of heavy overcast, and some really dark, ominous looking clouds, as well as sunny breaks. Every time we had a break in the clouds with some bright sun, the bite improved significantly. Oddly, as clouds moved back in and blocked the sun, the bite seemed to just shut off. Just the opposite of what I would expect.

The carryovers had good orange/red flesh, not quite as nice as the Roosevelt 'bows I'm used to, but still not the pale pinkish white of planter trout. I hope they smoke up nice, will find out Saturday.

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