Rookie Fisherman

Well done!

Fished 10 of the last 11 days (or something like that) Today & tommorrow are a blow off. Many different friends & family in/out of camp this month so we have been on the water a lot! Mostly afternoon/evening trips. Fished from 45'- 600' during this stretch. Couple of slow days, couple decent days and a few solid double digit days. Many Kings over 20lbs and 2 at about 26lb were the highlight. Couple of personal bests for some friends! Spent one evening chasing browns for the last two hours of daylight and it was non-stop action. A few doubles and one triple made for a fun time. We were trying to get one for the board but only managed a 6lb or so as our largest brown. Only kept one for the grill. Fat Nancy pro troll with a clean green meat head & dyed bait strip took most of the shots right on the bottom. Meat rigs, Flasher Fly & spoons all having their days but meat has been the most consistent for big Kings. 300 & 400 copper with Meat had some banner days. Wannabe paddle w/Musslehead meat rig produced multiple strikes almost everyday. Also Lances Two Face Stinger paddle w/matching Diabolic meat rig took some good fish. S/D Two Face & Valium w/Atomik Flys on divers were fairly consistent. Yesterday Koyote Nitro Glow w/Atomik fly was good for 4 mature kings. Spoons that worked for us were Die hard, NBK, Hammerhead & Fat Nancy. The night we were brown fishing we also took a Mature king on a Stinger standard Double Orange Crush in 55 fow. Hopefully back at it on Saturday

Yup its a real catch and not all that uncommon. Typically an injury from previously being caught and released when the fish was small. I caught a King last year with two mouths although it was slightly different. The one I caught had teeth on both upper & lower jaws And if you look at the side it appeared to have a second gill plate. Still most likely an injury from being caught when young and it healed this way. I released the fish hoping someone else would have the enjoyment of catching it. Afterwards I thought "maybe I should have had it mounted" would have made a good conversation piece.

I set one of these up earlier this season and ran it yesterday for the first time. We fished it both deep for kings and shallow for browns. Ended up taking 1 King and 3 Browns with it (although we we had a great brown bite on everything last night) Need to dial in the release tension a bit still as I had a couple that didn't trip when the fish hit but over all this is a nice alternative to the slide diver. Going to set up another today. Thank you for posting this.

Yankee is on the money "don't necessarily need boards for browns this time of the year" We mixed it up yesterday in OZ fishing both Kings & Browns. Had a great Brown bite last two hours of daylight. Riggers 5-15' off the bottom, slide diver on one side and a modified Chinook diver out 100' on the other side. All took multiple shots. We did have cores on the boards as well but only took 2 hits on those. Michigan stinger standard size & Dreamweaver super slims are all you need. Although they do love the meat as well. Most important is find the temp and fish the marks.

Agreed. Great thread, great pics!. We had to put one of ours down earlier this year as well, it is very tough to do. Our other boy Jack is nearly 15 years old now. When he is gone we will take a break for a time but will rescue another. Once a dog person......

Appreciate the drawing! Here are my thoughts. If you are new to this less is more as stated above. Pass on divers 3 & 4 until you have the technique down pat of fishing 1 on each side. 2 Riggers, 2 divers, 2 junk lines is plenty to handle from a small boat especially if just starting out. Can always add cheaters to riggers and (or) a chute line. If coming later this month and fishing shallow shorter copper or cores will be in order, if a lot of tight boat traffic be careful running long lines. Good luck and let us know how they trip goes!

Nice!

Have many batter mixes but a did this one recently and really liked it. First get some Bachmans sourdough pretzels and grind them up, not to a powder though. Little chunks is fine. Roll filet in flour with a little black pepper if desired Light egg/milk wash (or egg/beer as beer and pretzels go well) Roll in the grounded up sourdough pretzel mix. Into the fryer. The Pretzels gives it a great crunch with a little bit of salt/sour dough flavor. Doesnt taste like a pretzel covered fish

The Tekotas and Saltist are great, have a handful of Saltists on the boat mostly on my LC lines. Had Tekota 6,7 & 800's when I was fishing the Pacific down in Mexico for several winters. Handled Sails, Mahi & roosters without issue Black Friday I bought a bunch of Coldwater 30 high speeds for about $80 a piece or so. Sent them off to Tuna Tom for drag upgrades. So for about a $100 a reel these are great. Have them on wire divers & down riggers. No complaints. We will see how they are long term though.

Thanks Earl, Let me know if you want to get out again sometime. The Northeast wind had some pockets of cooler water blown in. Rigger at 35' was about 60° or so in that area that day. I dont think there were a lot of Kings in tight, most of what I was seeing on the screen there were probably Browns. It was the only strike I took in that area.

It does looks like a UV variation of Lances two-face. On the swivel side it has both chrome and white on the same side on the edges though. Here is a copy of the tag on the package. Says "Custom" Fairly sure I got it from Anglers ave.

Sunday 8/4 morning was a blow off. Went out around 4pm with waves at about 3' +/- Forecast was for the wind/waves to settle down and they did. Went Northeast out of the harbor to about 220' Spun around and trolled with the waves at my back. Took 2 fish at 180' one came on 50' rigger/spoon NBK the other on 10 color w/Black/silver spoon. Then nothing for a couple hours. Decided to troll my way back to the harbor. Got to 65' finally had some prospects on the screen and the 5 color core starts screaming. Mid teens King took a Magic Man stinger (standard size) ended up 3 for 3. Monday 8/5 Our 12 yr old nephew from Ohio flew in for the week and it was right to the lake. Lines in at 4pm and the action was almost non stop. Seemed like we always had a fish on. 1 Triple, couple doubles. Fished offshore on some waypoints from the previous week. 500-580' was the sweet spot. Spoons on riggers with pinned cheaters 55-65' & F/F on divers doing the damage. Took one fish on 300' copper meat rig but never get it back in the water. Spoons were Carmel Dolphin, Monkey Puke, Orange UV Tux Stinger Stingrays & a Moonshine Road Toad. Chinook #5 divers at 210' Captain Valium SD w/stud fly (been good all season, couldn't keep it in the water this day) and 240' diver with SD (not sure of name) and a Pro-Am fly. Picture below. Ended the night 10/17 in 4 hours. 5 fish kept that we couldn't revive. Honestly think its was one of those days that anything wouldn't have fired, just needed to be on top of them.

Scotty # 1177 power grip release. Adjustable tension. Work fine for pulling copper w/braid backer.

Now thats funny! Nice fish Gary! For everyones curiosity you should show a picture of your rig and be done with it.

After a couple of weeks off the water for a family vacation and some other obligations I was back at it this past week. Sunday evening 7/28 solo trip. Ran offshore to check out some waypoints from last summer. Set up in 550' Didn't take long and started getting bit. Fished about 4 hours ended up 5 for 8 with 3 Kings & 2 Steelhead. Biggest King about 16lbs. Steelhead were in the 5lb range. Had one really big rip that came unbuttoned at about 330'. 4 Fish on spoons on riggers at 50-60 down, one on F/F at 180. Monday evening 7/29 Solo again. Ran back out to where I started the night before. With a plan to troll back to port and cross some spots where I had good looking screens the night before. Set up with meat on a diver and spoons on riggers w/pinned cheaters. Hits came in scattered depths. Ended up 4 for 6. All Kings, two good ones at 22 & 24lbs. The 22lb was on a Lances two face Stinger paddle w/Diabolical 2 face meat rig in 330'. (Same depth as the good hit from the night before that I lost) The 24lb was on a NBK mag in 120' Wednesday evening 7/31 My wife came up to camp before heading to NYC for a few days. It was a little bumpy wasn't sure how she would do. Headed back offshore. Set up in 540' on a southeast troll at 500' rods started firing. At that point my wife was not doing well. Pulled the lines and headed in. 45 minutes of fishing. 2 for 3. Largest at 15 or so pounds. All spoon hits. Friday 8/2 Had an employee and his step son up for a day on the lake. Split the day up into two outings. Few hours in the morning and and evening run. Morning Started the morning before sun up at 100' First rod fired before the second was even deployed. Nice mid-teen King to start the morning followed by 2 more in the next few minutes. Circled back around and picked up 1 more. At this point boats everywhere, heavy traffic. Pointed the boat Northwest to get away from the pack. Glow spoons early, Die hard UV & Hammerhead taking shots when the sun came up. Ended then morning shift 9/12. 8 Kings one Steelhead. Spoons on riggers and F/F on divers doing the damage. F/F was Chrome 2 face S/D w/stud fly and another similar pattern 210' & 240' #2 setting on Chinook divers. Largest King at 22lbs. Evening Back out offshore with the plan to troll home as I did earlier in the week. Started a little deeper in 660 fow. One hit right off the rip and then silence until we got back to about 520' Stayed around the 500' range for a while and passed through waypoints from Wednesday. Few more hits, one was a Nice Steelhead at about 9 pounds that hit a UV Purple Tuxedo Stinger on a rigger. Pointed the boat back towards port with scattered hits coming along the way in until about 200 fow. Another 22lb King came to the net on Frost Bite UV spoon. Spoons on riggers and meat rigs on copper taking most of the hits. Only one hit on F/F. Ended the evening 6/12. Only kept a handful of fish all week, released what we were confident would survive.

Torpedo swivels for me. Never had one break. Have 30's, 50's, 70, & 90's on board Typically use the 30's for browns, small spoons & sticks 50's with Stingray size spoons 50's & 70's with Mag 90's for Flashers

Local bait shop will have package portions. The link you looked nat is for bulk, typically a dozen or more packages

I think that the majority of these leak issues that Tracker had are behind them. Something to keep in mind is that Tracker sells more aluminum fishing boats across the country than any other manufacture every year. This has nothing to do with quality but exposure, sell more boats have more issues. = More people talking about their issues. Link below to my experience with the 18WT Targa. Bought it new in fall 2011 and never had any real issues to speak of. Have since upgraded to a West Coast style boat.