Beginners luck on Mexico Bay

[wannabe trollin]

My girlfriend and I made it up to the motel room on Friday night and got settled in for our first time out on the lake with my own boat on Saturday morning. I launched out of Pine Grove and went out and found the pack of boats trolling over about 160-200 fow. I set up and got my first King on a white glow spin doctor and a green big weenie fly. Landed a 39" 27 pound King 140 down over 170 fow.

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Sunday found me back out to the same area to find just as many boats. This time I got away from the pack and went out on my own. I ended up Sunday boating 1 - 37 " & 4 - 38" Kings and one Lake Trout. Two kings were taken on spoons the others were on FF. The Laker came on a FF combo on a dipsie. The weekend couldn't have gone better! I would like to thank everyone who posts on this awesome forum for helping a beginner like me to be able to go out and be successful and have a ball! I'll be back up from 8/22 - 8/24 to try my luck again!

Andy

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[spoonfed-1]

Congratulations!!!

 

Nice work.

[Egoody]

Beautiful fish...

Is there a daily limit?

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[wannabe trollin]

There is a limit, I thought it was one King per person per day. So on Sunday I released three of the Kings. That evening I took my catch to Juniors to have them fileted and he told me that you can keep up to three per day. He said that you can keep a combination of three fish per person per day, however you can only have one steelhead. Oh well, I don't honestly know what I would have done with the filets anyway.

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[skipper19]

This forum sure does shorten the learning curve! Wish it was around back in the 80s!....way to go Andy! The money pit just got a new shovel..LOL!

Mark

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[antney1]

I believe you can keep more than one steelhead as long as it's over 21", other members correct me if I'm, wrong. The syllabus says 

 

"3 in any combination not to include more than 1 rainbow trout (or steelhead) in the tributaries"

 

1 fish if you're fishing in a tributary, up to 3 fish if you're fishing on the lake ??

[kingfisher8]

I agree with antney1. 3 steelies in the lake, one in the tribs. Have to be 21 inches in both places.

[wannabe trollin]

That's good to know thank you guys for clearing that up! Can't wait to get back up there on Thursday!

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[John Kelley]

And you can keep two lakers on top of that, and one Atlantic, if you get lucky enough to hook one, for a possible total of a 6 fish box for one man. The 3 fish in any combination rule applies to browns, cohos, kings and steelhead.  Nice job on the catch, by the way!!    

Edited August 20, 2013 by John Kelley

[wannabe trollin]

Thanks, I had a great time and now i'm hooked so to speak! Good info on the limits. It was a little confusing at first.

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[bassmaestro]

Beautiful fish, well done

[Adk1]

So here is a question, I know it has been discussed before. Can you honestly release the kings this time of the year, say kinds in the 20lb class? I was chatting with a guy who seems to know his stuff. He told me that after the king fights so hard and coming up into the warmer water etc they are pretty much gonna die. He stated that even if you do let it go and see it swim away, the stress of the fight builds up acids? in its body and it will soon die? Just curious to hear from someone that may know more. On Sunday while trolling in the Mexico Bay area out about 7 miles or so I saw a beautiful king, in the 20lb range floating belly up..

[sammyslayer]

That may be true but they have a better chance surviving in the lake than they do in an ice box. Revived and released one that seemed to swim right for the bottom on sunday. I'm sure theres some truth to lactic acid theory, but if your not going to eat it and have already kept enough to give away, watching a fish swim away seems to be the right thing to do. Keep the net handy if they do go belly up and retrieve it.

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[steelfire]

I have a set of bogga grips on the boat. I hook it on the fish to release and hold him in the water on the side of the boat till he is kicking and ready to go. it works great.

[sammyslayer]

Exactly steelfire. Just don't hang the fish vertical. I hold them right against the boat. Keep hands and fingers out of the gill area as well.

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[Adk1]

steelfire, yeah I remember another thread where you stated that is your process. seems to be the best. Ok, just curious. Getting differing opinions and just wanted to figure it out myself

[skipper19]

It's also a kind of judgmental thing. If the battle was long and the king came in the very end just surfing It's likely spent. Using copper or long wire is generally gonna be a dead fish due to longer fights. Rigger hits on spoons not so bad. The hook is a little easier to remove than a tournament style fly next to the boat.

But that depends on the height of the freeboard on a boat as whether you use a net. Then the fishes chances are less.

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Edited August 21, 2013 by skipper19