6-30-13 Finders Keepers Report - Kings!

[Finders Keepers]

Dumped in at Fair Haven at dark o'thirty in the morning and headed NE out of the chute. Our sister Amy joined us so we could show her the ropes of how to run our rig. We set down over 90 fow with a blank screen, so we continued NE as we set lines. Soon after setting up the probe rigger set at 70 ft pulling a stinger seasick waddler mag with a free slider seasick waddler gets whacked and we put Amy on the rod. A few minutes later a 7lb laker hit the deck. We continued eastward from there working 100-200 fow still not marking very much. We had 50 degrees down 70 ft and the water covered from the surface down to 100 ft. About an hour later the starboard side deep diver starts singing. It was out 240ft and pulling a white/green dots spin doc with ultra green glow fly. Ten minutes later we put a 19 lb king in the boat. We swung back through the area a couple times without a touch so we continued our treck eastward. We then went 5 hours without a touch. By this time we had a pile of gear in the back of the boat that we had tried, but then again we hadn't marked much either and we were approaching the College. We decided to start working our way back towards Fair Haven, as there was one area where we did mark quite a few fish, but couldn't get them to go, so we thought we'd give that area a try again. They still didn't want to play, so we continued westward and then at about 2pm the screen lit up! Bait pods from the surface down to 100ft with suspended fish around and underneath them, and WHAM! The port side deep wire out 210ft gets hammered! Amy is on the rod and the king screams out to 610ft. She then learns what it takes to bring a hefty king back from that far out to the boat, but she handles it like a champ and after a 20 minute battle we slid the net under a beautiful 22 lb king! This one hit a UV gator echip/hypnotist fly. We put out several more of these boards plus a UV 2 face and it was GAME ON!! Down speed of 2.2 was critical. In the next hour we boated 3 more kings (21, 20, 12 lbs), all on UV gator echips with hypnotist flies. Then, as my brother was bringing a skip king to the boat, the starboard high diver out 400ft gets nailed, breaks the surface and rips out to 680ft. We had to back the motor down to a crawl before I could budge this fish - either it was hooked in the gill plate and was spinning, or it was BIG. After 25 minutes of a slow cat and mouse retrieve towards the boat, I had it 150 ft back and it was still diving deep - this told us it was a monster king. When it hit 100 ft it came up to the surface, did a little dance with one hard head shake and the hook pulled free. It turned sideways as it swam away and all we saw was a very large silver flash. I can't say how big it was as we never fully saw it, but based on the way it fought and felt - easily 30+ lbs. First king we've lost this year and it had to be that one!! Hopefully we'll see that one again coming up behind our boat in August after it puts on a few more pounds!! That one hit the UV 2 face echip/chasin' tail fly. Heartbroken, we set back up and a couple minutes later the port side rigger pulling Stinger UV Gator spoons releases with nobody home followed by the starboard deep wire taking off. Another beautiful 20 lb king hits the deck to finish the day for us at 4pm. We ended up 7 for 9 on the day and I was looking forward to getting back out in that area to hunt for the BIG ONE again!! All our hits came 70-90 down over 120-140 fow.

 

While the kings are not here hot and heavy all over like last year, they are here schooled up, and once you find them the rods start flying! We didn't get out today with the NE blow - hopefully this won't totally mess everything up, but it usually does for a few days...We'll be out tomorrow (if the lake settles) and Wednesday...

Edited July 2, 2013 by Finders Keepers

[TOP SECRET]

Nice shootin boys!  We'll see you out there this weekend, save us a few!

 

Nick

[John Kelley]

Great job, and nice report!

[reelintense]

Awesome job guys. I'm hoping that king was heading west and will be in my area Friday to Sunday! If so, I will be happy to send a photo!!!!

[bout time]

Great job. Nice fish

[Sk8man]

Nice fish and nice report....very encouraging !

[Finders Keepers]

Thanks fellas! We're heading out later this morning to see if this blow messed things up - I'll let you know what we find...