Stormy Saturday bite during the blow…
Posted: Sun Apr 30, 2023 1:16 am
We launched at 6am from Converse Saturday with Homewrecker and AveJoe to hunt salmon. The weather
Forcast was good till noonish, then a front was moving thru
From the south we needed to pay attention to…
We motored to the starting location and setup alone with most of the boats we could see to our west. The bite was a mix of shallow riggers and long lines off otter boards with 2 color lead or 2 split shots 3’ up. Salmon started working the spread as soon as it was laid out. We had our 1st fish just before 620 and 5 before 8am. All salmon, NO lakers.
Once traffic started showing up things settled down and we started searching. There was a while we worked a 2-3 mile area holding bait and good fish… we picked away at the pod and had bacon wrapped scallops and baked pretzels for breakfast around 9am:)
Not long after, out in front of the mansion we tangled with a pod of fat fish… A blue tica fired and Joe jumped on it. The rigger never came up, just hammered down and piled drag off the release… The fish was what we were waiting for… After much banter about what he had in and a little speed reduction, we were finally able to see what Joe was battling… A nice 8ish lb laker surfaced with a bigger 10-11 lb laker on the cheater behind it. OMG we have done many doubles in one rod before but. This was ~ 20lbs of laker in cold water full of piss and vinegar pulling every which way!
The net job in this case is almost impossible as the physics of getting the 1st in the net ends the help you get from the rod. Somehow Deano was able to stab the 2nd laker into the net on The 2nd try and we were able to prove a Ranger could hoist 20+ lbs outta the lake:)
Video of Deans exceptional netting skills:)
https://youtu.be/X9LJhIfdncQ
Not long after, working another big laker Joe forgot that a heartland feels like a tica, but is a fragile unit as it is hollow:( Snap. And we have a 3 piece pole;) sign of a good fish:)
A little after noon the front moved in from the south. A message came over the VHF radio for the fleet to check radar.
The 5-10 boats we could see all picked and motored to the barn. Being early and the cooler still full of food we decided to find a spot shelterd from the south blow and fish thru it. We that was a great idea as the bite picked up in the blow! We had a rough time keeping all 6 rods down with 2 footer building to 4 footers rolling in from the board lake. The hearty crew fished on… and we cooked and reeled our way right into calmer waters around 230pm. Not many lamprey today but many new wounds on the fish. Had one lamprey suck to a small salmon I had to yank off by hand. Nasty bastards..
Storm food included Switchback brauts finished with some sort of Brazilian powered spice to add flavor. Also bbqed up a juicy, custom marinated pork tenderloin that melted in our mouth.
Good seeing Controleld Caos up from NH and also fished next to Kevin for a while in the morning.
Color of day was silver backed spoons with light green just like Caos said they were the ticket. Bd smelt spoons fired the BEST…
Till next time!
Fish on….
