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Devonian Orleans PRO/AM Report


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Team Devonian Fishing Report

First off- kudos to the guys willing to run the distances to win this tournament. We figured that a number of the teams would be willing to run alot of miles to take advantage of the fish well West of the Oak last weekend. We made a team decision to stay within reason of the Oak and let the cards fall where they may.

After three days of prefishing from the Oak down to Somerset, it was very clear to us, that we did not need to run very far to put together a 12 fish box comprised of Steelhead, coho, lakers and kings of all sizes. There was a nice temp break up and down the lake from the 25-26 North lines that was holding fish from the surface down to 90'. So we felt comfortable that we could put together a nice box of fish right in front of the Oak. The bite continued very good even on Friday's East winds.

So with that game plan in place we left the harbor Saturday morning only to find that the break had moved north about two miles, but the deep temp had come up shallower, the east wind was starting its upwelling effects, so we set lines and trolled south with very little action until we got back into the same 25-26 line as previous days. The surface was not breaking, but was holding about 61 degrees and the fish were there but far more scattered. We ground it out to the tune of 8 fish (2 teenage kings, 1 laker and 5 coho). A Slive/Pink Stinger Slider on our 30' out and down accounted for 4 of the 5 coho. We boated 3 steelhead, but unlike the 10lb class we were on all week, they were undersized and went back. Also unlike all week, the skipper kings shrunk to 15-16", so we turned back about 10 of those and the abundant lake trout on the break only turned up 1 for the day and it was only 4lbs... so we limped into weigh station with a 132 point box but sitting in 14th place.

Day 2- after the upwelling beginning, we determined that we need to try to generate a nearshore king bite early morning and maybe a brown or laker as well. So, we scoped out the nearshore waters and setup in 50-70fow off the pump house. As Mike Waterhouse was announcing we could set lines at 6am, the port engine dies, as well as the entire electrical system on the boat! Fortunately, we started the starboard and were able to keep moving, but all electronics were dead as well as riggers. While captain Mark figured out the problem, the team set EVERYTHING manually and within about 10 minutes we were fishing and had determined an alternator issue, but got the system back online... WHEW!!! With that excitement out of the way, we got to fishing and not seeing much of anything, we tucked into 50 fow once again and then headed on a north troll, ready to vacate the area when the wire diver at 125' with a white spinnie goes off smoking line... 20 minutes later we have a giant king aboard that ended up taking Big Fish for the tournament at 27.85lbs. We made two more passes thru the area and resumed our north troll. At about the 24.5 line we pulled a mid teen king on a 40' rigger, made a few passes in that area and resumed the north troll. Once again when we got to 25-26 line the action picked up with some skippers and small 4lb king, enough for us to begin working that same water. The rest of the morning was a slow pick thru some undersized kings, but was highlighted at about 10am when our starboard out and down at 35' bumped ever so subtly and by the time we got to the rod a huge Atlantic salmon was exploding five' out of the water 50' from the boat. The aerial show went on a few more times before we hauled the nearly 18lb hog aboard the boat. After that, we rounded off our box with another mid teen king on an 80' rigger and a laker. So, we figured with the conditions that we had bettered ourselves with nearly a 150 point box and were hoping to be in the money.

After all of the weigh-in's we sat at #8 and it felt pretty satisfying considering the distance that many above us needed to run. Attached are some photos from Sunday of the Big King and Atlantic as well as the team, Capt Mark Lewis, Myself, Rob Martin, Mike Lewis and Gary Cappon. You can see our team shirts this year are highlighted in pink as we were fishing for a cause in Breast Cancer Awareness. Captain Mark's fiance, Michelle is a recent survivor. Mark has a number of shirts still available for a contribution to the cause. His 27' Tiara "Devonian" is docked at Lake Breeze Marina on the Oak, so look him up if interested.

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Hans great catch and report.

That is realy a beautifull Atlantic and nice work on that tourny winning BIG fish and placing.

Congrats to you and Mark(by the way nice work also on the shirts and breast cancer awareness)

Best of luck to you and crew as i believe Don and dad get a "higher up kick" out of us still going strong out here.

RUNNIN-REBEL

Jerry

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