Finders Keepers WHI Report

[Finders Keepers]

Pre-fishing on Friday we started 4 miles to the west over 100 fow. Right from the start we had a great looking screen with suspended marks and many hugging the bottom. So we ran a spread of 2 riggers set at 90 and 60 ft, 4 wires out 150 to 360 ft, and 2 surface lines. Soon after setting our spread, we tripled up with both riggers and a wire taking shots. First fish to the net was a 12 lb laker that came on the 90 ft rigger pulling an NK black/green glow mag, the second fish to the net was a healthy 14 lb king that hit the 280 ft wire on a 3 setting pulling a wonderbread echip with blue glow Atommik hammer fly, and the third fish was a monster laker that puuled our scales to 21 lbs that came on the 60 ft rigger pulling a Stinger Green Penguin stingray spoon. It was just shy of the LOC board so after a few pics she went back to fight another day. After the quick action we thought we would be in for a banner day, but that wasn't in the cards. The rest of the day we had a slow pick at kings and lakers from the Red Can to east of Wilson, and it appreared as though Sat might be a tough bite.

 

On Saturday the fleet was greeted by stiff westerly winds and we knew we were at a disadvantage being in one of the smaller boats. It took us a while to pound through the waves westward to the spot we tripled up at the day before. When we set down a little west of those waypoints, the screen looked very similar with both suspended and bottom marks, so we set up the same program as the day before. Soon after setting up the 95 ft rigger took a shot pulling a Stinger Green Penguin spoon and we boated a 12 lb laker. Saw a couple other nets fly with small fish, but no decent kings boated, so we decided to go into scout mode. After covering a ton of water, throwing an assortment of gear at them, adjusting speed, depths, etc. We finally found an active pod of fish out deeper over 180-220 fow down deep (110-160 ft) in the last hour of fishing. They wanted small spoons (Stinger UV Tuxedos in the Stinger size) fished super deep and very slow (1.8-2.0 down speed). We boated three kings before we had to pull lines and head in. With the fishing being as tough as it was (and seeing many boats making runs to new spots), we felt pretty good having 3 fish in the box! At the scales we saw that most teams struggled as we expected, and our box put us in 15th place.

 

The banquet and ceremony were top notch - thank you Keven and crew for putting on another fantastic event!! Congrats to those who put more fish in their box to get into the top 10 - a well deserved win for sure!! This was a great way to start the tournament season for us and we look forward to fishing the WHI next year!!

 

 

[Rippin'Line]

Laker looks like a dinosaur. Nice fish