Fish Report 5/17 And 5/23

[YAKFM]

I troll two rods out of the yak and if you look closely you can see the portable graph forward of my seated position in the 3rd picture. The trolling rods are held in mounted rod holders 3 feet forward of the seat. This allows me to have full paddle range and easy access to the rods when there is a hook-up. I am using a 14 foot kayak, which helps with tracking and allows me to maintain fairly constant speed.

My top end speed in the yak is somewhere around 6 or 7 mph when I need to get from point A to B. I estimate that I can maintain my trolling speed for the flickers between 1 and 3 mph, depending upon what the conditions allow/dictate. My graph is low tech and is not GPS enabled, so I can only estimate how fast I am moving. However, I did crudely calibrate my trolling speed in a friend's boat using several different sizes and styles of crankbaits. I did this by comparing the flex in my two trolling rods against various cranks at different speeds. Low tech, yes, but it is good for a first approximation for the yak and has been effective. I also use modified S-turns early in each outing to help me understand the speed that fish prefer for a given day. I pay close attention to whether a strike occurs on an inside or outside rod as I am completing the turns.

And the catch totals for the two trips last week was spread over 14+ hours on the water. I have had some not so productive days on Beaver this year too. Those are the trips that I used scout new water and try to figure out what went wrong.

Thanks again J-Doc and F&F for sharing fishing space in our prior encounter on the water. I hope to meet you both (and others on the board) when we eventually get together for the OA meet and greet that was proposed in another thread.