Frustration in Fair Haven

[Billy V]

Jay and I met Jeff, Greg, and Colin at 6:00 and waited for the thunderstorms to finish rolling through. We had big southerly winds, but even still it was fairly comfortable, so out we went. But first, we played around for an hour or so in a little spot I know reaaallllyyy close to shore that was loaded with fish, but couldn't get them to go. So we pulled up and ran out to deeper water and set up our King program. We weren't set up more than 15 minutes when the 70'rigger fires. Jeff plays the fish all the way to the back of the boat when all of the sudden the fish decides that it wants to closely inspect our wire rig. So the fish hangs a HARD left at the back of the boat....Round and round the wire rig he goes...where he stops, nobody knows. We tried like mad to untangle the mess, but the fish finally had enough and took my white spinny/hammer fly rig with a quick swipe of his tail. Fish-1, Billy V...zero .

We trolled a bit further East since I didn't like the screen we had. I decided to run the shelf just East of port...good decision as we found the fish we had been looking for over the last hour. The 210' wire dipsy fires on our first pass and we have a screamer on...oh, wait a minute, no we don't....threw the hook after a good run. Fish 2, us 0. We made four more passes through our honey hole and hooked up 5 more times. Sometimes it was a quick rip, rip, rip, and others it was a 5 minute fight before we parted ways...but we couldn't get them to stick...sharpened hooks, replaced hooks, tightened releases, cranked down rods...nothing worked. On the last pass through, we FINALLY hook up solidly. Jeff battles and battles this BIG king right to the back of the boat and is within 3 feet of the net when the fish decides that the downrigger cable looks like a good place to hide...SNAP! NOT AGAIN!!!! Another fly donated to the fish Gods..this time we lost a Northern King Green Kryptonite fly. Jay and I are both heartbroken as we watch another slob hang out on top just out of reach as we troll in the opposite direction. I feel for Jeff...I think he found out just how tough these fish are to land today. Fish 7, the Billy V crew-Zero...like I said, everyone got a chance to feel the power and the fury of these fish, but we just couldn't hold onto them. For some reason, we felt the pain of major, major slippage today. I wanted SO BADLY to land a fish for some really quality guys today. These were the kind of guys I just love to have on board. I came away from today feeling supremely disappointed for these guys. The only consolation I had was that at least we put them on some fish. Like my Dad says...sometimes you get the Bear, sometimes the Bear gets you. The Bear ate the Billy V crew today.

[SkeinMachine]

Ouch Bill,I've wondered that too,somedays you can't do sh_t to keep them on.

It's bad enough when your rec fishing,let alone tourney time:butcher:

[GLF]

There's always tomorrow. You will get them good next time!

[Billy V]

I know, I know...doesn't make up for the fact that we struggled yesterday. I guess all in all I should be happy with the fact that we pretty much always catch a lot of fish...just not yesterday!