Lucky Enuff Henderson/ Oswego report & Loc Derby King

[Fishtails]

I went up to fish the A-Tom-Mic challenge with my 11 yr old son Justin, teammate Rollie (Final Flight) and his buddy Ed.

We decided to launch out of Henderson on Friday to see what was cooking in the shipping lanes. It was our first time fishing the wall and the shipping lanes, but we wanted to give it a go on the hunch their may be mature kings lurking their. We made the 14 mile run from Henderson and arrived at the wall to a lot of bait, but only a few hooks. We made fishing a new area to us even more challenging by loosing our new Fish hawk X-4 probe the moment we got their We searched without knowing the down temp or speed, but only managed one small king for the first several hours. Just as we were getting ready to pull rods, I dropped a rigger 135 down over 130 thinking we could scrape something off the bottom for my kid. I sent a white spinny followed by a Big Weenie Proctologist fly down to do what it does best....catch big kings. Within minutes of dropping it, it started screaming drag and my son got on the rod and started working the fish. It burned out a couple hundred feet, Justin would get a hundred back, then the king would burn out another 150 We were all stoked to see his new personal best hit the deck at 26.8 lbs and get him on the loc board for the first time.

So, we shot our tourney pre fish day in the lanes and now we gotta fish the Challenge without ANY pre fishing done in Oswego OR Mexico yet this season. I had no idea where to start, so I headed slightly west and set up over 250 fow. Some very good teams arrived shortly after I did, and set up in the same area so I'm thinking to myself, good guess Rod ! Everything looked great, nice temp break between 100 & 110 ( got a new probe at woody's ) and hooks everywhere. A few passes netted nothing, and I ain't feeling so good about my guess anymore We finally got things going with an 8 lb king on the white spinny/ Big Weenie Proctologist. We decided we needed fish, and not knowing where the kings were I decided to go deeper and get our tourney box on steelhead. Our hope was to get them with enough time left to upgrade with a big king or two, but it worked like most of my plans work....not so well

We took our first steelie over 325 fow on the 600 copper pulling a white/blue spinny and a Big Weenie blue weenie fly. As soon as we put it back out, it took another shot that we missed. Then we proceeded to take a Coho on the same rig and a smaller steelie on a uv blue Yeck spoon free slid on the 45 rigger. With lots of time left, we are sitting on four fish....then the bite died. We searched, we changed up several times, but we burned up a solid hour without a fish. Then, our bite turned on and we doubled up. We landed one Steelie on the 500 copper with a custom blue/green spinny pulling a Big Weenie blue weenie and lost one on a 280 slide diver pulling a kevorkian. After a couple lost fish, we finally got #6. A steelhead that took a kevorkian off the rigger. The steelies didn't want anything to do with orange on Saturday. All blues and purples for us.

So, we got 6 fish and 42 lbs and we know that ain't gonna get us no $$, but we only have 45 min left to fish. Well executed plan as usual We landed one more skippy king and had to pull lines and head in. Our 102 point box landed us in the bottom 20's somewhere out of 70 or so teams, one big king upgrade out of the $$. We had a blast and look forward to the Oswego Pro Am in a couple more weeks

[High Bidder]

Glad to hear a report from Henderson. I was considering a trip to the shipping lanes in July. I caught a few kings there two years ago but I haven't tried it since. The accomodations at Henchen's are convenient since they have slips and I don't have to launch and load every day.

High Bidder

[Pike Hunter]

Congratuations Rod on your young son with his big king on the derby board. Not every Dad gets to see his son fish like that.

Tight lines.

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[Fishtails]

Thanks Anthony. As he grows up, I know my days are getting fewer...I cherish them!!

High Bidder,

Henchen's said our king was only the third that came in there this season. The other two were 6lbs. I bet a lot of boats will start targeting them now that a bigger one came in, so there will probably be more reports coming in from that area.

[Tall Tails]

Way to GO BIG OR GO HOME Rod!!! Those of us in the corner, say that about running up there!! You are either going to be a Hero or a Zero!!! Nice Job getting your Son on the Board!

Brian

[Landshark]

Rod it was great catching up with you. Your kid looks like he really has the passion, that is great. I look forward to catching up to ya at the pro am.

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[Fishtails]

That was the plan Brian, it just didn't seem worth the run for Saturday. Hey, nice job on the youth prizes and getting involved!!! If I can ever help out, let me know.

Same here LS.....we'll see ya at the Pro Am's

[fishman08]

beauty king justin caught there rod , looks like you guys found a set-up to get big kings and can't wait for mine to come in the mail lol...i gave ya a call earlier today and it went straight to voicemail...when you get a chance give me a ring...

[shadster]

Rod, You had to love the way your boy asked you to hold those raffle tickets for him for luck and both times the numbers came up! The look on his face and in his eyes really showed the love for his father. That was a great fish the boy landed.

[Fishtails]

Will do Matthew

Thanks Shadster. It was good to see you again. That was funny, wasn't it Once in a lifetime

[jaychunter]

nice fish wish my kids liked fishin ..

[Richard Bullen]

Congratulations to your Son must be nice to get your son on big fish congrats again

[spoonfed_111]

Nice job Rod and Justin.

Glen

[sufan22886]

yeah i fish out of henderson, on my own boat and first mate on a charter in the harbor. We caught our first king of the year off the finger, marked some more but nothing much yet. Lots of bait setting up though should be a good july here.