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It was supposed to be a nice smooth steelhead trip for me Tuesday and Wednesday. One footers or so on Fishweather. That was so wrong. I left home about 3:30 am and was going meet Kelliann about 9am for a late morning to afternoon trip. GC Undercover hopped on board also a little while later. Really started trolling about 11 or so with 8 rods out. It was a very bumpy ride most of the day, 2's and 3 footers and rollers made it tough to fish but we managed. GC and I needed drammies for this one. Action for us started quickly and was steady all afternoon. Caught both Goos and steelies. We had a couple of rigger bites, a couple of dipsey bites but our hot rods were 150 coppers again and a doctored 100 copper that GC hung 3 ounces of lead on. All the fish were below 30 feet. We boxed 8 really nice steelies and lost some others in really tough fish fights. Good to talk with Webster and crew a;so, sorry we didn't help much on your outing. Weird how it works sometimes. Always seems to be hot boat around when you are struggling.
On my way back home today i stopped for gas in Clinton, IN and an older than me gentleman approached me and was asking me about my Hewescraft. We spoke a bit about the boat and he asked if I was going fishing and I told him no I was on my home from steelhead fishing. His eyes lit up and asked me " Do any Good?". I showed him my box full and he asked me to sell him a couple of fish. I said no I can't do that but if you really want some I will give you 2 of them. He put a mask on and went into the gas station and came out with a big black trash sack and stuffed a couple of fish in the bag with a little ice. He said he was from Door County in WI but moved to Clinton some years ago and used to fish the lake like we do and missed it so. He thanked me and drove off with a wave. Maybe I will have something good go my way now!
Any way spoons again were the lures of choice and 4 of them did the damage. Warrior UV Elite Mixed Veggies and the Blue Pearl were go to spoons again. Another bait that got hot later in the day was DW mag Kevorkian Orange/Red. I left it with Bob as a mercy spoon until we can get more of them. I have standard sized ones also. But the big hitter was an old school Eppinger Evil Eye spoon. GC and Bob teased me all afternoon about the spoon,Heck they even tried to name it after me "Dead Eye Don" among other things. It does need a name though, I am thinking Felix after the magical cat and that bag of tricks he had. I was glad to have had one in mine. Got a few pics to share. Notice the split ring on the Evil Eye. It took a beating but did not fail.

We won’t forget the ol Dead Eye Don spoon! I’m laughing my ass off! It proved its worth alright! Glad I had a couple dramamines with me! Great trip though. Steelie Don has a beautiful set up and very organized. And you forgot that our last rod in the water took our 8th Steelie just after you said it was going to hit! That was great!! Thanks for the trip!

Yeah it was a great trip dead eye! We were fighting those waves all afternoon but managed to put fish in the box. Your boat did great in those conditions.

Nice job men !

Great trip guys!

Cool story. Brought back a 100 year old memory of a day when I had a great afternoon skamania trip on which an old, single hooked Evil Eye spoon was the stud. Wonder what happened to that spoon? I fished it several more times after that day and can't remember ever getting another bite on it.

BNature wrote:

Cool story. Brought back a 100 year old memory of a day when I had a great afternoon skamania trip on which an old, single hooked Evil Eye spoon was the stud. Wonder what happened to that spoon? I fished it several more times after that day and can't remember ever getting another bite on it.

You never know what is going to work on a given day. I have 3 different ones and this one is first one I have fished. Had them for several years.
The hot goo bait was a Yo ZURI floater stick bait. Size 130mm in a cotton candy color I think it’s called. Looks like everyone else’s wonder bread pattern. Took 3 or 4 of them until I made Bob take it off. It was supposed to catch a steelie. Here is a pic.

Great job guys sounds like a fun time. Good to see they are still around.

Could be the end of the steelie run on the lake with 2 weeks of bad winds coming! Hope I’m wrong. Was great while it lasted. Maybe few kings will trickle in.

Yeah we've been getting them really good for several weeks. I don't even remember running that lure Don. Is it yours?