Fishing Reports Appearing Monthy In Hawkeye Magazine

Written By Your Captain

June 07 Issue: There are few events i look forward to more than springtime salmon fishing on Lake Winnipesaukee. After a long winter of checking and re-checking all my rods and reels and organizing my lures i was ready. After a long drawn out chain of events and a highway crash involving my boat and almost destroying my trailer i got to hit the water for the season on May 10th.

I was booked solid 2 trips a day for a week and a half. Running around the lake and checking water temperatures was definately key to the success all my charter clients enjoyed. Springtime fish will often hold in areas of the lake with the warmest available water. From the 10th to the 12th that was between center harbor and 5 mile island. After a heavy steady blow out of the northwest all that warm surface water was sent towards wolfeboro and alton bay making the fishing really turn on down there from the 13th - 17th and shut off up north. There are a lot of little things like this to key in on during the spring and paying attention to them can result in having a great day or just an ok day.

Tactics that were most effective included running spoons off planer boards from surface to 3 colors. 3 color rigs straight off the back and running a lure behind the trolling motor in the prop wash. The most consistent downrigger pattern was running a spoon 11 feet down and 60 feet back straight behind the motor, on a cloudy day or early the "cool water cruiser" (purple/orange) was deadly and when the sun came out a Guide Special spoon in "Rangely Special color" was the go to lure. A sutton spoon size 61 in silver/copper was a deadly bait whenever the sun was up catching a few fish every time out. When not running a bait behind the motor and on a different downrigger 125 feet back was most productive from 9-20 feet down.

Sticking to colors of white, purple, orange, and combinations of these with other dark colors has been the best method during dark cloudy days. Swapping out for Silver, gold, brass, orange, and combos with other bright colors have been most effective on sunny days. A speed range for trolling spoons from 1.7 - 2.3mph worked every day and making sure to take a couple sharp turns now and then to turn on those unsure followers is important. On the lake trout subject thin flutter sutton spoons have been working very good when trolled down around 35 feet and near bottom or around structure that goes from deep to shallow. Keep the speed for these fish in the 1.5 mph range. My best trout spoon this week was a thin sutton 44 all brass with an orange ladderback front.

Fishing with these methods should remain consistent until the 1st - 2nd week of june and then things will get different as fish seek cooler water temps around 55 degrees, and it will be important to really pay attention to water temps both surface and sub surface. Around mid june salmon will be commonly taken off the riggers at 20-25 feet deep and about 5 colors of leadcore. If i had to give 1 tip for the month of June it would be to not be suckered in by the surface activity during hatches in mid june keep it deep as those fish feeding on surface bugs very rarely will take a minnow imitation like a spoon.

The official Fishlakewinni.com Channel on the vhf radio is ch. 12 anyone looking for daily tips can give a shout and more days than not can find hot tips for that particular day from charter captains and other fisherman, don't be a stranger on the water. Tight lines and good luck to all from YOAdrien and the Fishlakewinni.com Charter Fleet!

Sept 06 Issue: So, how was the fishing on Winni this August? HOT-HOT-HOT and I don’t mean the weather. The fish have been feeding up heavily and with the right lures at the proper depths it is some of the Best Fishing of the year.
 The YOAdrien and the Cool Water II have been fishing most days of the week and putting between 15 and 40 fish in the boat every trip out! The action has begun at first light and been steady into mid-day. The catch has been almost a 50 / 50 mix of Salmon and Lakers with a few rainbows now and then.
 The 3 year old salmon are really starting to put some weight on right now and the males jaws are hooking up pretty good. The females look like footballs. These 3 year old fish are between 20 and 21 inches and weigh from 3-4 pounds. The 2 year old fish are about 17-18 inches and are in beautiful shape also. The 1 year olds are about 11-13 inches and are being caught fairly often. Please take care when handling these delicate fish. They are the future and we don’t want them all having deformed jaws and missing parts of their face because we didn’t treat them with care. A damaged fish grows much slower and has less of a chance of ever becoming a quality fish in the future. I know I have said it before but for catch and release fishing a rubber net is an absolute must for every boat.
 The lures that have been producing best results are small. Lures like a smelt gun or a needlefish or any spoon about 1.5 inches long. These resemble baby smelt very closely. Also the regular top guns and DB smelt are good imitation for the baby white perch that are growing rapidly and are also being preyed upon heavily. Colors that have been working best are yellows, oranges, whites and copper. Flies have also been doing VERY WELL when fished on lead core out 7-10 colors. Work the rod and give the fly some action, and FISH ON! The Winni Smelt, the Fire Smelt, the Pumpkinhead, and the Red Grey Ghost are all sure winners, just keep them small.
 Two methods have been producing lately with flies. The first is trolling at 2 mph out 7-10 colors and pumping the rod and the other is practically crawling along working the rod around suspended pods of smelt and perch. Move the boat very slowly and work the rod just a bit. Both ways work very well. Try the speed method until you can find the pods of bait and work over them, most times this will work very well. If not then maybe slow it down to 1 mph or less and circle them slowly but reel in about half your lead core so it doesn’t go too far below the fish. The spoon bite has also been very good and trolling around pods of bait at 2 mph has been a consistent producer all month.
 Some notable catches of the month have been a beautiful 8 pound lake trout caught trolling deep on the Cool Water II and a 5lb 24” salmon also caught with Travis at the helm. The YOAdrien had a great day on august 16th putting 37 salmon and trout into the net and then backed it up with a 29 fish attack on the 23rd.
 The thermalcline is about as hard as a thermalcline can get right now, and anyone trying to catch salmon less than 32 feet down is wasting their time. From the surface down to 32 feet it is 73 degrees THE WHOLE WAY! Then in the next 3 feet it drops 15 degrees to 58!!!  Then there is a very slow but even temperature drop and the water cools only to 54 degrees by 80 feet. The Salmon are quite comfortable in this entire span and will travel through it freely and quickly. Work the top of it early in the 32-40 foot range and stay there as long as they are biting then watch your fish finders for them to go deeper and follow them down. It is not uncommon to catch salmon trolling the bottom in 80 feet of water on a very bright day.

August 06 Issue:  Here we are at the beginning of August and the fishing is good. The lake is pretty stable right now with a HARD Thermalcline set up. There is a 10 degree temperature break between 30 and 35 feet down. The surface temperature is quite steady at 77 degrees and slowly progresses downward to 68 degrees by 30 feet. Now is where the magic happens in the next 5 feet it drops sharply to 58 degrees. This acts somewhat like a fence for the salmon and trout. They are not comfortable remaining in water that warm for any length of time and stay below it 99 percent of the time. Exceptions include when actively chasing baitfish that tries to escape upwards, and emerging bugs on their way to the top. As we venture deeper the water slowly cools to 52 degrees by 45 feet and remains in the 52 degree range down 70 feet or more. The thermalcline of a lake is often the place containing the most oxygen, food, and the most comfortable temperatures for all species of “Coldwater” Fish. Concentrating Salmon and Trout fishing efforts here is the most productive area to work.

Lately my approach to the fish has been target the upper edge of the “Sweet Spot” early and slowly work my way down as the sun brightens. For example on July 26 we got started at 5 am and set the riggers at 32 feet deep then after an hour or 2 moved down to 36 feet and then 40 feet and by 11 AM we were catching salmon with the riggers set at 70 feet deep. This particular day the sun was very bright and there was no wind making the fishing difficult but by following the fish deeper as the sun brightened we were able to continue landing fish into mid day. On this particular day we landed a very nice Lake Trout of 9 ½ pounds. This fish was caught off the downriggers set at 36 feet over 57 feet of water at 6:15 am. Now this may sound weird to some people expecting the lakers to be down in the deeps and inactive but really they are fairly comfortable up in the 55 degree water especially when large schools of baby smelt and baby white perch are easy pickings. The big trout bit a Smelt Gun lure that is just about 1.5 in long and the color was gold and orange. These small lures are great producers this time of year as they closely resemble the size of the most prevalent forage. We were in no way targeting big lake trout at the time we caught this one but the truth is we were targeting the most likely place for all feeding fish to be. We were trolling at 2.2 Mph. This fish was an absolute bulldozer to fight he didn’t want to come off the bottom once hooked and we had to reel all our other lines in to turn the boat and go after him. We played tug-of-war for over 20 minutes until he finally came up. With only 6 lb. test and a tiny lure there is only so much pressure you can put on them. Although this catch is not typical of “Laker Fishing” those that have been doing well on lakers have been working suspended fish about 70 feet down over 75-120 feet of water, and also on the bottom in 60-90 feet.

In the month of August Salmon fisherman should expect almost all action to come from 35 feet deep or deeper. And not be afraid to go really deep if it is super bright out. Lately the best colors have been gold/orange, orange, pink, and white. With silver outperforming most in the high sun. This is the time of year when yellow and chartreuse take off as a great choice for salmon but I have not seen it happen yet. If you are headed out have some yellow on just in case it turns on if no action for an hour or more change it up. But believe me it will start to produce soon. This is also a good time of year to work small streamers in the 1-2 inch range try them on 7-10 colors of lead core line and pump the rod just like you would do in the spring. It is definitely a producer if you can get it down to the fish. A tip for those of you new to midsummer salmon fishing is to use lures with a single hook instead of a treble hook. When running 300 feet of lead core and small treble hooks the fish often fall off before making it to the boat, a nice single hook like on a needlefish will hook and hold better and your odds of landing those fish that you hook go up considerably. Good luck and tight lines to all from YOAdrien of the FishLakeWinni.Com Charter Fleet. 

July 06 Issue: Another month has come and gone on good old Winnipesaukee. June was another banner month for fishing the big lake. Throughout the month we saw the bite change from almost exclusively on planer boards to finally a good bite on the downriggers. Lots of days with 10 to 20+ fish landed for the YOAdrien and Cool water II. The catch was mostly salmon but a few lakers also made their way off the bottom up into our patterns. The Cool Water II even landed a brook trout on an evening trip, quite a rarity for Winni.
 Although a deep hard thermalcline has not quite set up, it is really close and fisherman should expect something in the 30 foot range to be holding those fish down there in the beginning of July. As of June 30th the surface temperature was 70 degrees and it was 55 degrees at 33 feet.  A lot of fish have been taken this month from 22 – 34 feet down and on 4-7 colors, but there have still been some surface fish (especially rainbows) being  caught in the10-15ft or 2-3 color range. Lots of fish have been boiling on the surface feeding on bugs the last 2 weeks but have seemed uninterested in taking any type of minnow imitation. I believe you should concentrate deeper as those fish are not looking for baitfish and rarely bite lures. The best lures of June were once again the NH Guide color (orange with black dots) in any popular spoon like Top Gun or DB Smelt. Gold and Orange combos have been very good and another top lure was the solid pearl DB Smelt. If you find your way out on a cloudy day make sure to have at least 1 white spoon out, and in turn if the sun is bright get some flashy silver spoons onto your lines.
 Looking ahead to July a good strategy would be to start down 32 feet on your riggers and 6 colors on your lead lines. Mix your stuff up, run 1 lure close to the downriggers and 1 back 100 feet or more. Different days bring about different moods, try to figure out what they want and adjust to them. Often times in summer the early morning salmon are quick to bite bright glowing orange and yellow spoons give them a try for an hour at first light and if nothing start switching things up until you can get something they want. Don’t ever just put a lure on and troll all day and say they are not biting, they are always biting something get pro-active and give them choices. As the sun rises you may need to go deeper for the fish, maybe even 45 feet or more, and as the month goes along the thermalcline will push the fish deeper and you may need to begin the mornings with riggers at 40+ feet and 7 + colors of lead. On the Lake Trout subject I have heard a lot of reports of fish coming 60 feet down suspended over deep 100+ feet of water on thin Sutton Spoons trolled at 1.5 mph. Often those fish are eager to bite and can make some great action. They may be as deep as 100 feet as July progresses but they should mark on your finders wherever they are. Good luck and tight lines to all from the FishLakeWinni.Com Charter fleet.