I got a late night call from my friend Boo of Tall Tales Charters wanting to know if Jane and I would like to join him in Homer for a “shakedown cruise” and a little bit of fishing. In the off-season, Boo replaced water and gas tanks, the toilet, bilge pumps, wiring, and the outboard motors on his saltwater boat. He even gave the Red Ryder a fresh coat of paint. With decent fishing reports, I wasn’t going to say no to this opportunity.
We spent the morning trolling for king salmon. Unfortunately, we could not find any willing biters. Boo asked if we wanted to switch things up and catch a few black rockfish before calling it a day. He didn’t have to ask me twice. The action was non stop.
Do you know anyone who has ever backlashed a downrigger before? Well, I could be the first to do it. While we were jigging for black rockfish, I inadvertently bumped a rod holder, which happened to flip the on/off toggle switch on the downrigger. Before I could react, over a hundred feet of cable spooled upon itself. Do you think Boo will ever let me forget about this? Yeah, me neither.
Since the river is closed to king fishing until July 1, and the red salmon have mostly moved through the lower river, I thought it would be a good time to revisit a nearby lake I haven’t fished in a few years, Spirit (Elephant) Lake.
It was a great weather morning, and the fish were cooperating.
Spirit Lake is stocked with rainbow trout, Arctic char, and landlocked silver salmon. Since it’s a “put and take” fishery, the limits are very generous. On this day, Jane and I kept enough trout for a meal.
For the coming week, I’ll be playing it by ear. If the weir counts for the Russian River improve, I’ll venture there for red salmon action. If not, there are a few stocked trout lakes nearby that I’d like to explore.
See you next week.
Almost forgot…Happy Father’s Day!
Fishing Report Week Ending 6/14/2020