well, I got close and learned a lot in the process, but wasn't able to get one in the boat.
Had a good size fish hook up at 70 feet, but broke off my leader pretty quickly. My fault for only using 6-lb fluoro I had leftover from ice-fishing season instead of getting some 10-12 lb stuff.
I also got 6-8 additional strikes over a few hours fishing, but wasn't able to set the hook. Is there some trick to the technique with the way lakers take a lure? I wasn't setting the hook as aggressively as I would on a largemouth bass, just lifting the rod tip a couple feet as soon as I felt the tap and maintaining tension on the line. Strikes were always on the retrieve, never felt one on the drop though could have missed some without any line tension on a fast-sinking jig. I wonder if they are feeling the unnatural weight of the big ball of lead in the head and shaking the hook out?
All the strikes were on the goby tube, with a 1 oz jig head. No action on the bucktail. Was not able to find a 4-5" white tube locally so I will order some online.
Fish finder was fairly active as I drifted slowly over 60-90 FOW. I used the drift sock to slow the canoe down the 0.3 MPH in general. Most of the bait fish schools were at 15-25 feet, or 40-50 feet. Should I be targeting bait fish, rather than solitary lakers holding on the bottom?
I had the Garmin set on 77 kHz CHIRP (45 degree 3 dB beamwidth), as the 200 kHz frequency was so narrow (15 degree 3 dB beamwidth) that I lost my jig on the drift even at less than 0.5 MPH. Am I kidding myself by watching an area that large? A 45-degree beam illuminates a 100-foot diameter circle at 100 FOW, so I'm probably seeing fish that are nowhere near my jig.