Sk8man

Nice going ifishy. Good example of why it pays to experiment with different stuff than we may be used to

For those folks just starting out or new to fishing for king salmon some additional basic information (based on my own experience at least) about them may help or be in order. Kings are a very special fish with special circumstances when compared with trout or most other fish for that matter. They have a very highly defined life cycle with fairly strict time limits imposed on them to feed, grow, breed and die. This situation needs to be considered when fishing for them at different points in the season, and it is especially important as we move toward the Fall. There are also big differences in fishing for mature vs. immature fish as they have very different needs or habits in their respective parts of the life cycle. The imatures wil actively feed all throughout the season increasing their growth rate rapidly while once the kings mature they are concerned mainly with procreation and propagation of their species and their feeding needs decrease as the season wears on and drops off rapidly with the changes going on in their bodies as the staging and actual spawning starts to occur. These mature fish are now motivated and maybe "obsessed" with spawning concerns and the search for their ancestral root locations, "mates", and territorial defence of nesting or potential nesting sites so they become very aggressive in their behavior and this behavior is very different than feeding responses. Out in the lake as they are searching for or homing in on the streams or locations of their origin or birth they may unleash their aggression on any object coming to their attention especially if they perceive it to be a threat of some sort to their instinctual spawning concerns or processes. In this case the use of bright shiney highly colored up or erratic action lures and attractors are the things to go with to provoke them and get them to evoke the aggressive behavior. Sometimes this even may translate to them attacking the attractors rather than the spoon or fly itself. At this time of the season a much different "mind set" is needed to be adopted by the successful chinook fisherman. It is all about getting the the mature kings attention and provoking him to respond. The immatures will still respond to spoon and fly presentations as in feeding situations and scattered at different depths or mixed in with matures while staging kings may not respond to anything at all or only if provoked (sometimes repeatedly) and sometimes they can be seen in large groups on or toward bottom looking like stacked up cordwood off the mouth of or near stream mouths waiting for the water levels or conditions to be good for spawning. To be successful catching them it is necessary to understand this basic pattern in their behavior and the changes in strategies needed to consistently catch them and during this time water temperatures are nearly totally irrelevant to them

Now that is the information I'd be going with especially at this point in the season and fishing the marks anywhere around any bait is always a good idea too.

Great job! The look on their expressions says it all really...they are psyched

Nice going Mike and good report. My cousin is up here from Nashville and I'm still figuring out where to take him fishing sometime this week....Cayuga looks pretty good from what you've been doing there Seneca is sounding pretty weedy right now and Lake O is always a big question mark regarding the weather....ah the big decisions in life

Great report and great fish and despite the fact that it may have been a record fish I think you did the right thing releasing it to keep the gene pool going That is what true sportsmanship is all about

Thanks tinfin your guess is as good as mine on the fight etc. I've often wondered if it was because they may have been hooked before and got away and they know what is coming when they see the net especially. Also some of them seem to instinctively go for your other lines or head straight down and toward the prop of the motor. I think they may be a little smarter than we give them credit for

There shouldn't be much of an interference problem with other transducers because it operates at 70 khz and that frequency was selected on purpose to avoid just that. Most modern depth finders are either 50, 83/200 or combinations of higher frequencies (DI or SI units)

Nice work Kevin and Gene. Great looking eyes there.

Very nice report, great fishing and careful handling of the fish no doubt useful lessons given to the youngster and beautiful sunset pic....doesn't get much better than that

I've had contact with Brad both by email and talked with him in person in the past as well as recently and he is a very knowledgeable guy. It looks as though at present at least we may still have a puzzle with some missing pieces.....pretty cool topic that generated a lot of interest and fun debating about it anyway. Maybe the future will hold a clearer answer and supply the missing pieces of the puzzle. Thanks for the fun Mike.

The Spro #2 and # 3 coastlock swivel snaps are the same length - - 1 1/4 inches long. The #2 is 45 lb test while the #3 is 60 lb test.The difference is basically the diameter of the wire I believe. I think what you are referring to as far as the action is that the coastlock snap has a slight angle to it at the front end vs. a truly rounded front end on either a standard snap or a duolock snap. therein lies the question. It may make a difference especially with a spoon without a split ring as the edge of the hole in the spoon can seat in the angle of the coastlock snap and may influence the action of the spoon. On a spoon with a split ring it may do it but probably not as much. Any change in action could go either way in terms of success though. For many years I have used the solid ring ball bearing swivels but attach a duolock snap instead of the coastlock because the rounded end allows a lot of freedom of the spoon whether it is superior is open to question because folks that use coastlocks still catch fish For sticks I use just the ball bearing swivel at the end of the mainline to leader connection or in some cases place one about 3 foot from the spoon and use just the small duolock snap or an extra large size (still very small) Fast Snap to fasten to the stick bait.