The Bar - 6/16

[tlox]

A few days late in posting this, but headed out to the bar Sunday for some Father's day fishing with the old man.  Got a little later start in the day due to the weather, but ended up getting set up around 9:30 - I was watching the weather radar and though I timed it right, but mother nature had one good last downpour in store for us.

 

Based on what i've been hearing, we started out deeper in 275 FOW running the standard program, two riggers /stackers, one wire dipsy and one dacron dipsy.

 

The stacked lines on the riggers were running 30 & 35 feet down and started paying off quickly.  Running green NK28's we took two nice cohos off the bat. Then we got into a fun 8 lb steelhead, followed by another 10 lb steelhead on the dacron dipsy.  Moving between 250 & 300 FOW we were getting occassional bait pods, and would fire a rod after passsing through them.  We took a few 10 - 12 lb kings down 75 on the deep riggers.

 

At about 12:45, in 280 FOW  the wire dipsy (Mag dipsy w/ ring dragging a mtn dew spin doctor and hammer fly)  was back 175 and just got crushed.  I have 10'6 pretty stout dipsy rods and the tip went under water and the wire just started peeling off. (A few weeks ago due to a pretty good kink I had to cut about 110' off the wire leaving me with about 850 ft on the spool.)  This fish took off unlike anything i've had on the line in a few years and in a short amount of time the counter is already past 500 feet on the initial run.  At this point i'm trying to do some quick math while the line is still peeling off and figure if I can't slow this fish down, i'm about to get spooled.  I start tightening the drag as the counter is going past 600 and its not having much effect.  At 650 feet this fish is still cookin in the opposite direction at which point I take another half turn on the drag, and proceed to pull the hook.  I've caught a few 26-27 lb salmon on this dipsy rod and reel combo and never had a fish put a run on like that......... I would have really liked to see that fish.

 

All in all it was a good day, spent about 4+ hours on the water, went 8-10 and got some blood on the deck.  Hopefully this is a sign the fishing is starting to turn after a pretty uneventful spring for us.

[Gill-T]

what did the picture look like at the drop?

[tlox]

Sporadic hooks, some smaller bait pods between 50 & 100, fish were spread in the water column from up high down 30 to some bigger hooks down to 120, the temp was actually better out deeper.

[John Kelley]

Nice, but next time that happens you might want to circle the fish with the boat, and start chasing it to gain line, instead of tightening the drag so hard that it pulls out.  You will be amazed at how much line you can gain back in a hurry doing this.  This trick helped me out a few times last summer on bigger fish, when I was by myself.  I hope this helps.

[tlox]

Nice, but next time that happens you might want to circle the fish with the boat, and start chasing it to gain line, instead of tightening the drag so hard that it pulls out.  You will be amazed at how much line you can gain back in a hurry doing this.  This trick helped me out a few times last summer on bigger fish, when I was by myself.  I hope this helps.

 

I did have that conversation with the wheel man who got a bit too excited and wasn't paying attention to his job..... i've chased down fish in the past too, this one caught us off guard a bit and turned the boat into a fire drill

[Diversion]

Tim, next time you get a hit like that, just slow the boat a bit and start turning, nothing hard, just start a big circle to change the angle so that the rod with the fish is inside of the turn. I've done that before and it helps, especially when the fish gets a ton of line on you.

[John Kelley]

I did have that conversation with the wheel man who got a bit too excited and wasn't paying attention to his job..... i've chased down fish in the past too, this one caught us off guard a bit and turned the boat into a fire drill

Haha, that's what makes it so exciting, I guess, and why they are the Kings!

[The Scottsman]

Tlox,

 

        What were your coordinates on that peel off. I had the same thing there last month. Peeled me just about to the end. Cut the wire. I think we have a loch ness out there.  lol.

[tlox]

I'll have to check the graph next time but it could have been the loch ness.... my other thought was a russian sub.  There wasn't much left of the fly when I got it in, just a few strands of the skirt left on it.

[rw6788]

You were snagged on the bottom. There is no excuse. Why didn't you turn the boat and get the snag out . Ha ha