Hughes 8-20-19

[Sk8man]

First of all comes the confession: I am a "Chinookaholic" and I  have had my addiction since 1975  Admiral Byrd and I sensed the narrow weather window yesterday and figured it was "now or never" and we hadn't fished together for kings this year yet so off we went on the water at 6AM in Bob's boat. We are a lot like the "odd couple" when fishing with me preferring the mid depth water and he the real deep water. We started in about 170 and worked our way north to the 307 ft range and picked up some small kings and a steelie along the way. At the 307 marker Bob nailed an 18 lb king on a rigger so we messed around in there for much of the morning taking small kings and steelhead all thrown back coming mainly off riggers set in the 70-90 range and our speed about 2.6 - 3.0. Bob's temp probe was acting up so we didn't have any actual info from it to work with for most of the time out. We had a few marks but for the most part all up very high  in the water column. One we hit 340 my 10 color leadcore on walleye board took a vicious hit and it buried the board deep in the water. The king continued to use the board as a bobber and made long runs which seemed like were going to smoke the gears in the reel. Despite a carefully tightened drag he took out a total 769 ft of line of which I had only 600 ft of backing along with the 10 colors (for a total of 900 ft) as it was one of my Finger Lakes set-ups as I had my other high capacity stuff in my boat and though this would get me by I did get a bit concerned about getting spooled despite the size of the fish.... The reason I am giving this detail is that the that assumption that you don't need a high capacity reel when  fishing for kings was tested and found to be lacking even with a 24 pound fish.... By this time Bob had had enough of the "shallow water" fishing in the 300's so we trolled our way out to 690 and marked very little along the way but we did pick up a couple steelies in the 600's and then at 640 my wire took a savage hit with a spin doc and homemade "googly eyed" fly set at 250. Another epic king fight  and apparently when reeling in a an earlier smaller king the wire had slipped to the side of the spool and nested with a loop underneath it so when this 20 lb maniac burned wire to that point I couldn't let him go any farther and had to "horse" him to get back wire to continue the fight and luckily it worked. We ended up at nearly 6 PM after almost 12 hours of trolling with the three kings in the box, many smaller 5-8 lbs. thrown back, several steelies ranging form 5 pounds to 10 pounds one coming on the flasher/fly combo while the riggers were the main target with magnum spoons. All in all a beautiful day weather-wise and a whole lot of fun busting balls and enjoying our shared passion (aka "addiction"). Even after 35 years of fishing together Bob and I exhibited just as much child-like excitement as our first king fishing way back when....and that is what this stuff is really all about sharing a passion and having fun out there.... life is short. Note the example of Bob's pic taking ability in the third shot (or maybe he was jealous of the size of the fish?)

Edited August 21, 2019 by Sk8man

[Frogger]

Sounds like fun day with the Admiral. Glad the googly eye made its debut on his boat. I always thought he was never a fan of those......[emoji849]


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[Sk8man]

Yeah Bob never wants to admit that they work but I noticed that one of the ones I previously gave him was nearly worn out from use and looked as though it had been through a bunch of wars

[Frogger]

He’s holding me to secrecy Les, although I told him it would cost him 50.00 lol


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[Adm Byrd]

First, Les's leadcore started ripping line when we where out past 500 FOW, not in shallow, he just doesn't want to admit that I can find him to the bigger fish. Glad we where alone out there as that fish used a lot of line and covered a lot of water. Second that shoddily made fly that he gave me has been shedding strands like my lab sheds hair in March. I only used it to boost his confidence as I knew my E chip attracter could lure in a respectable salmon on its own. Finally Les gives me a camera the size of a matchbook and many orders about wait for the frame to pop up, hold the button down and wait, it shouldn't be doing that - I grab pics with my phone but they aren't good enough - it's a wonder he hasn't dropped that phone in a minnow bucket yet. The odd couple remark is spot on, we can build a ball busting event out of any trivial happening and ride on it for years - couldn't have a better fishing partner.

[wishinfishin]

Great story guys ,sounds like a lot of fun, and caught fish to.

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[Sk8man]

Good one Bob......but I know you're just schmoozing me at the end hoping I will weaken and give up the sources of my secret fly materials

[john1947]

the best tackle so far for big kings has been a twoface prochip flasher.Any good fly seems to work,blue and mirage has been used,got to get new leaders the kings surechewthem up afterawhile,lol