Went out this morning as planned... even arrived on time! We had lines in the water just after five. It was me, my dad and his girlfriends grandkid (9YrsOld). I was gonna put six lines in, but never got the chance. Had a total of four lines in a "few" times. Fish were biting so often, I was getting tired resetting lines.
Put it this way... and I don't think I'll ever hear this on my boat again... the kid says "I'm sick of reeling fish in!" Yeah, it was that good.
We started with a nice 18-19" salmon at 36 feet... jumped many times, it was awesome. Then had more salmon on that we just weren't landing. We were letting the kid reel in all the fish at that point and his arms were getting too tired to hold the rod up or reel fast enough, so they kept shaking the hook.
So, I figured, give him a break and let dad have a go. He had luck on the lakers and brought in three or four and lost a few of them plus a couple salmon behind the boat. He was lovin' it though... last time he went (pre-derby) we only landed one fish in like six hours of fishing. So, this was a good makeup.
At this point we found that the fish were moving deeper, so we followed. Maybe 7am or so at this point?
So, we're out in 140-160 FOW and running the riggers at 70-90 feet. No salmon at that depth, but man were we catching the lakers. One after another, with several doubles and even a couple triples. I was hoping we'd hook into a monster, but it never showed. Plenty of 12-18"ers though.
I would say we easily had close to 40 fish on the line long enough to say that we fought them. Had maybe 20 more of those "blank releases?". BUT only ended up with 8 or 9 lakers and 1 salmon actually boated. Normally that low of a "boating percentage" would worry me, but there was a good reason. Little Ben just didn't have the arm strength to keep up with those fish... he loved fighting them though... and as long as he was happy with that who cares if we boated them. Right? The look of joy (and tiredness) made my day.
Adrien will be proud to know the one fish I did take a turn on I actually landed... batted 1000 today YoA.
All in all... a great day. Had to leave at 9:15... Sorry I didn't say bye guys, I was in a hurry. Had a lunch "date" to be at.
As far as technique??? If it was in the water they were biting it. I saw no one color for me today that was better than others.
Very much enjoyed the chatter on the radio. It was almost like derby weekend out there.
We have all heard the proverb that states that days spent fishing don't count towards the total number of days of our life. Well, if that is true then days spent fishing with a kid should ADD days to our lives. Some of my most clear memories as a kid involve fishing with my uncle some 30 yrs ago. I'm sure that what you did for Ben will live in his memory for many, many years. Thanks for a great story and tight lines to you.
Great Report Craig, Like I always say that smile on a kid's face is hard to forget and what a joy to see them smiling and reeling in fish, That's one of the reason's i love having my kid with me Sounds like you had a great day hopefully it's 1/2 that good when i go with ya next weekend LOL I'll have to bring some of my magic fish attractant with me!!!!!! Take Care God Bless and Tight Lines LOL Dave From up North
