About 35 miles directly into that sun would be Detour and Drummond Island. I'm setting up lines here just a bit east of Mackinac Island as an ore carrier passes through the Round Island passage to my port side.
It was about then that a lead core line started that sweet sing of line exiting the reel. I was sure I was into a lake trout as has been common in those waters, but to my surprise...
my first Straits of Mackinac salmon!!
That's about a 10 lb. Atlantic salmon. I've only caught two of those over the past twenty years downstate. Atlantic salmon are much more abundant in this part of the lake. That was a nice way to break the ice on this fishery. Unfortunately, the euphoria was brief. Two small lake trout were the only other fish I was able to capture this morning which I released. Other boats are catching loads of lake trout but I don't target them so catch only a few.
After trolling east for a couple miles, I turned and crossed the channel in front of the freighter "Algo Steel".
Then trolled up the east coast of Mackinac Island on a dead calm lake.
Now the bad news...
More BUGS!!! UGH!!!
Midge flies. They're everywhere. The shady side of buildings are just black with billions of the pests and the uncut wild areas just hum with swarms of flies. They really don't do anything other than get on stuff and sit there. More of a nuisance than anything else. I talked with a DNR person and seems they need a little warm weather here to break the cycle of hatch/breed/lay eggs/and hatch again. This is the 3rd hatch this year and unfortunately it's not exactly summery kind of weather so I'm not sure when that cycle might be broken. A couple weeks of global warming would be nice.
Oh well. We got back to the dock, cleaned up and made our way to one of the buffets down the street. They have a soup and salad bar that is decent. The hot food isn't too exciting so we just go for the greenery.
Time for a little rest and maybe take in the concert in the park tonight or the laser show in the Crossing. Forecast for tomorrow is marginal so plan is for catching up on some sleep.
...but that could all change.
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