8-27 Rochester Evening Report Plus weird fish fighting story

[TrophySeeker]

Only went 1 for 3 this evening. Landed a smallish steelhead and lost another at the boat. That one was pretty cool though, 'cause he jumped an extra time after I had the line in the boat. Pretty spunky. Couldn't get the wire to fire. Threw all of my most productive flasher fly combos out but no takers. Fished out from Russell in 150 to 200. Best screen was in 160-180. Temp was down about 90' in this range - deeper in 160 or less. NBK with prism tape on the cup was the hottest.

Now for the weird part. The other fish I dropped fought differently than any fish I've caught on the lake. I had a release on the rigger on a slider. I was out by myself, so I turned the boat 45 degrees so that I was fighting the fish off the starboard stern. I slowed down and began bringing the fish in. The fish made a very fast run in the direction I was heading and wound up way in front of the boat. I tried speeding up and turning to port but, you guessed it, the fish headed across the bow, and I had to try to land it from under the boat. I got within about 3 feet, as I could see my main spoon come from under the boat. At that point, the fish took off to stern, I felt some added resistance and it was gone. When I finished for the night I found several feet on line wrapped around the kicker prop. The fish never came to the surface, so I'm ruling out a steelhead. Plus, I'm guessing it was pretty good size by the fight it was putting up. Could it have been a pi$$ed off king? I called my buddy and he mentioned atlantics fight differently, but I don't think I've ever caught one.

On a side note, those 2 spoons and swivels are the only tackle I've offered up to the fishing gods this year, so I shouldn't be too disappointed. Wait - also 1 brand new Attommik fly that was gone after a snap failed. Better stop thinking about lost tackle.

[Missdemeanor]

Sponge ,

Ive had that happen to me a bunch of times. Especially in the spring when the kings are at their best as far as fighting. Now real big kings will do the same. The two biggest kings I have to date ( 40# summer Hen and 37# Fall male) both made fast runs to the boat and then dove for the bottom. Those fish stayed straight under the boat and I really had to horse them up.

99% of the time big browns will hit, make a solid but short run, and then take off out to one side of the boat. Ive never had a brown charge the boat. Lakers...well you probably know what they are all about. Coho's and Steelies are both aerial artsits. My money would be on a king.

By the way We did the off shore thing on Saturday and It was well worth the trip. We had one major (probably 25lbs) with a 23 inch lamprey on him. We also did a bunch of 3 yr old kings and some nice steelies to boot.

[jason]

thats a normal fight with big kings thats why we fish for them. because you never know what direction there going to run

[UpGrady]

The most important part of the wierdness is the slider bite. You NEVER know what a slider fish is going to do while the slack is being taken up down to the mainline lure. In fact, when running sliders on the out and downs, there should be two people running for the rod, one to grab the rod, the other to grab the diver and go up an over the fish b/c half of the slider fish will hit and run under the diver... wire on mono wins everytime! This is even more likely when trolling with the waves and currents as the fish will generally try to run with the current ahead of the boat.

[Yankee Troller]

French - You gonna be out this weekend? Im planning on being out Friday-Monday. We can work together dude!

[ray koziatek]

on the wierd one i had several cohos do that in the spring,the water was flat and clear and i watched em swim by with the lures in the moulth only they were smaller then and i landed them all,glad i had electric riggers and the fish were high..

[LongLine]

Agree with MissD, probably a good size king. Have had a few charge the boat & go deep. (Turn away from them and crank like crazy.) If you're ever lucky enough to hook an Atlantic, you'll know it by the aerobatics that most of them put on.

Tom B.

(LongLine)

[muskybob]

I'm a wierd one.

You got that right.

[TrophySeeker]

Sounds like the consensus is a large king. Thanks for the input. What's weird is that I was fighting the fish of the back corner of the boat, and had eliminated the slack from the slider when he ran past the front of the boat. I was still travelling over 2mph SOG. Just have never seen that before. These types of things tend to happen when I'm by myself, so you get a little handcuffed trying to fight the fish, get the net ready, steer, etc. Anyway, as was stated, this type of action is why we target the kings. It was fun, definately more enjoyable than mowing the lawn.