kid coulson

This was my first season chasing salmon(not done yet) and my boat got 2-22lbers and 1-20.5. Now these were weighed on a HD Rapala spring scale so I'm not saying these are "official weights" but that Rapala scale seems pretty darn accurate from the tests I did with it. All 3 put up 20+min battles(10 color core). What a blast! I'm used to muskie fishing where the fight is usually over in 5 min or less(we use really heavy tackle). My boat never got numbers, but we didn't get skunked either. Good times, good eats!!

Fished from first light til noon. 1 for 1. Caught one little king. Good news is we kept the no skunk streak going, bad news is we sucked! Tried a lot of lures,changed speeds and directions, but nothing worked. Better luck next time. Cool cats at the fish house showed me how to cut out them pin bones. Thanks!!

Well, I do bad mouth stuff from time to time, BUT I also give cred when its due also. The not so good is the cheap plastic mounting base that goes against the transom for my HB 798 snapped in half. I dont think I hit anything, I just think it couldn't handle the pressure at speed especially when tight turning and hot dogging around. So,... that banging,knocking sound wasn't the motor(thank God), it was my transducer skipping across the water and bouncing off everything at the back end of the boat! Well trying to buy another one kinda sux. It only comes in a "kit" for around 17-20 bucks plus shipping. Heck I only needed the one little piece!! Also, this must be a somewhat common problem because a lot of places are back ordered. My boat only does 38-40 mph so I cant imagine what a bass boat going 60+ must be doing to these brackets!! Well I sent a email to HBird and much to my surprise they sent me a complete kit and paid for the ride (FedEx). Although they made it clear this is a one time only deal, I am quite pleased. Ive had this unit for over a year and although the bracket is cheap plastic they didn't really have to do anything for me. So the kid will give them a thumbs up this time.

Went out with my buddy and his 7 year old kid. "Waves around 1 foot" my ARSE! We got jack hammered in my fishhawk and never even set a line. Went back into MAC and tooled around for a muskie/pike or walleye but no love. Saw a lot of small boats heading out as we were coming in, boy were they in for a surprise.

Got out around 5:45pm and fished til dark(ish). Went 3 for 5. 2 dinks and one good one, 22lbs! The big one was a male with an empty stomach! We never made it out past 70 feet. The big guy ate a fly on a big Mountain Dew paddle,..10 color core(again!!) around 65fow if I recall. I'm wearing the same color shirt as another pic in the gallery but it is a different fish! Were not catching many aboard my rig,but were getting some good ones! (22,22,20.5,17,16 lbs). Thanks to all who have helped me along the way!!

Sweet!!

10 color core is the only thing that has been getting bit for me. Usually big white/pearl paddle with pearl fly. I just bought my first copper set up and look forward to trying that. A month ago I had a blue/green/silver J-plug that was kinda hot.

Alright,..I'm keeping an eye on the Big Red Classic results and Im blown away at some of the 5 fish totals. I know how big and kinda rare these days a 20+ pounder is but there are teams that are averaging that or more for 5 fish. WOW!! So,... what are some of the things people do to target the larger fish? I know there may not be any definitive answers here, but do the big ones "prefer" plugs vs spoons vs spinnies? deeper water maybe? speed? Port location? Day vs evening? Or is it just sheer numbers like catch 10 or 12 and 1 is bound to be big. Any tips or statistical info is much appreciated.

Got the itch so I left work early, picked up the wife, grabbed a pizza and headed out to 60 fow. No action accept for a tiny dragger that I didn't even know was on. We made our way to 85 feet and the graph lit up with bait and archs. I told her to keep it there and we will get bit. A while later the drag screamed and it was FISH ON! We tag teamed ourselves a 20.5 pounder! That was it for the night. We came back through the rain and fog/haze in the dark pretty shook up because we couldn't see anything. No shore, no lights, no other boats. Thank God for my GPS and even with that it was spooky. Got back into MAC and all was good including the weather. Made it to the fish house which to my surprise was full of people! And once again let me say everybody was so friendly there. Good people and good sportsmen! Big white-n-pearl paddle with pearl fly on 10 color core got the fish. South troll 2.5-2.8 SOG.

Awesome!!

I love the stuff on a board. Im a rookie as well and the 10 color core on tx44 board has been about the only thing we can get fish on. It does get a bit confusing sometimes in chop water weather you have a fish on or its just the waves tricking you. That might get better with more experience. And we have towed a couple fish around not knowing they were on but again experience will help. My buddy uses the smaller walleye boards with LC and they work just fine as well.

Ya, the fleas are really thick.

Wow!,... welcome to the boat show! I'm still kinda new at this but I never seen so many fishing boats in one general area. We ended up 1 for 2. Decent 13-14lb king on a big white paddle and pearl/blue fly. Came on 10 color core around 115 foot of water if I recall. I was so happy because we took my buddies 7 year old son out with us for his first ever "big lake trip"! Score!!!

Here is the response I received today. "Kelly, I would assume that what you're seeing are some type of bubbles coming up off of the bottom - perhaps a deep water spring that's bubbling or something thats decaying. I checked with the head engineer at Humminbird and he agreed with my assessment of what you're seeing. Thanks!" Whats weird is some of the other marks are "stacked" a little as well(Not like the big stack mind you). Even that mark to the far left looks like its vibrating a touch.

Good people right there, much respect!

Got out around 6:30pm if I recall. Set up a tick south of the heads in 75FOW and just kinda headed SW. Grabbed a small king(maybe 7lbs) on rigger 70 feet down in around 90FOW (greenish/silver spoon) 75 feet back off my ball. Good little scrapper that came early in our trip and my first ever "rigger fish" so we were pretty happy! A while later we landed a real nice 17lb king on rigger in about 100FOW 75 feet down 15 feet back on a Big White paddle and light colored(silver/white) fly. Pretty far south by this time. That was all the action we had for the night, but we were still pretty geeked!! Saw a couple real nice kings at the fish house although everybody's numbers seemed real low. The hand-full of people there were super friendly(as usual) to us and I really appreciate that!!