Personal Best on my lake: 7 lb Lake Trout - caught in heavy boating traffic

There was a lot of traffic on the way up to the cottage this weekend. Many cops as well on the highway with speed traps. you'd think this was the August long weekend! I was out on the dock by around 7am. The bilge pump I got from eBay really worked to cut down the time I would have normally taken to dump the accumulated rain water out of the aluminum boat - took only 1 minute to empty it vs 15 minutes by hand. It was a clear sunny day, without a cloud in sight. The water was mirror like - zero wave action. I have noticed that every time the lake has no wave-action, there is also no trout action. True enough, I got skunked.

I went out again at 5:30pm. There were about 15 boats on the water zipping around. I think some of the drivers need to get their boaters exam license, as they seem to have zero concern over smaller watercraft on the lake. It doesn't seem to concern them that smaller boats such as mine, or canoes / kayaks may be capsized by their wake. I was passed repeatedly at full speed within short casting distance (we're talking as little as 30 ft). (I remember last year a motorist passed between my boat and a kayak at full speed, which was only 50 ft away from me. Not only is it inconsiderate as it scares all the fish away, but it is also dangerous). There were some kids swimming from the boat launch across the lake and a motorist veered from them only 30 ft away. I also had to put my boat into full stop as a boat was going to intercept me. One of the cottagers had the sub-woofers blaring at 10pm as well with horns (the ones that you activate with a pressurized container). Very annoying. OPP stopped by our place by accident looking for someone else's, likely the noise makers.

Well, enough ranting, more fishing! So I was trolling around and the lake more than made up for skunking me in the morning.... I hooked a couple of fish but they got loose. Then... I hooked into a fish that doubled my rod over.. I use a medium-heavy rod which usually doesn't bend past the top 1/3. This time, the fish made the rod double-over. I couldn't really move him.. Every time I tried he just went back to where I hooked him and hung onto the bottom. 15 whole minutes later I landed him.... my personal best on this lake - 7 lbs (according to Normark fish scale). It's hard to get a sense of scale here because I was alone in the boat and had to take the pic myself. I threw in a pair of pliers in one of the pictures of the fish in net below.



It took my some time to weigh him but I tried to keep him in the water as long as possible. A boater (the same one that almost ran me over) noticed and asked me to hold the fish up.

"Holy crap!" they shouted. "What is that?".

"A Lake Trout", I said as I lowered the fish back into the water to release him.

"You're not going to let him go are you?"

"Yes. I am"

"Give him to me, I'll give you 20 bucks" (Even if he offered me $2,000 I would still have released him.)

"Nope.. This guy's old and I have to let him go....."

"What a waste.....", they said as they sped away.


Photo below: 7-lb'er being released: It took 5 minutes for him to recover enough strength to swim away.



Here are some other pics of him - he weighed down and really stretched the net out (click on pic to enlarge):



I also caught this 3 lb'er a few minutes later:



Now... I've gotta find a 10 lb'er......