Round three at the Valley

[Deepdeckhand]

Put in another full day on the Valley. It was back to my usual one fish a trip, but we had some solid bites with some swing and misses so it was no fault of the fishes. There were 3 of us today with half of our traps in 5-10 ft along shore and the rest in 85 for Lakers/ or so I thought....after no flags on the deep traps all morning I moved one up to 10 ft suspended just to try something different, I take 5 steps away and it gets slammed, and a 16 in fatty Rainbow is on the ice.Sweet!no skunk.Suspend a few more traps- thinking I might be on to something- you guessed it / no more bites out deep..Our last flag was in tight and after a long run to the tip up the line is still running out- my buddy sets up on it right away and after a few seconds of tug of war( was a nice fish) it got him wrapped on a boulder( I'm guessing), because suddenly the line wouldn't budge.We could feel him on there at first so we let have a little line hoping for a swim out...That didn't happen, and had to snap him off. We wrapped it up at 4 and while pulling our gear got checked one of the most polite and informative Wardens I've had the pleasure of meeting- kudos to him, and he confirmed my thoughts.Wake up in the dark/ fish early and Bag it at 3 on the ice when your fishing the Valley.Is this what you all have experienced??? The ice was 8-10 in/ solid black on the bottom 4 in, and by the end of the day the top 3 had got mushy, but I'm sure it will re- freeze tonight...good luck out there and catch emm up!!!

[Rob B]

nice job, how come your not chasing deep around the bahamas.

[Deepdeckhand]

It looks like we will be doing a few trips in West End next month. Not a lot of Marlin there, but lots of meat fish and it's easy on the fuel bill. We were trying to get a Chub trip going but with fuel being $7 a gal there, just moving mirage there and back would be 5-6G ....That's why RV is Awsome- world class trout- less than a hour drive to get there, and you only need a dozen baits for the day...And trout taste better than Mahi any day :-) good catching up with you...catch emm up!!!