Holland 8/3 and 8/5

[zgrinder on Fin Warrior]

Dual report.  Tuesday 8/3 Janet and I went 3 for 5.  2 LT, one small king boated (lakers released).  One big king miss in 70FOW on a white spinny white fly on a downrigger as we were pulling lines with our last 2 lines down.  We fought it for a while but it unbuttoned early in the fight.  All hits came after sundown.  There are three threads to this.  Thread one - When the big fish strike occurred, my Penn 310 drag opened up and kept opening up each time a tightened it down.  This fish was never going to be caught.  So I brought all 16 reels I rebuilt in the off season and found I put the washer with the two points in last on 8 of the 16 reels.  How I made this error I dont know but now that I opened each one up I am confident they will work - got my inspection time down to 15min a reel.  Thread two - The king spit out the Gamakutsu #2 hool like it was a Skittle.  This had to be changed.  Thread three - the big hit came in shallow as I was working in from 120FOW to wrap up the night, save that info for the next trip.

Thursday 8/5, Janet is off to NY and I am solo running 3 rods but looking for big fish so this works well.  Lines down at 5:30pm at 120FOW.  Marked fish to about 150FOW the a ghost town out to 180FOW, decided to come back in and work slightly skinny water.  No tip ups and it is 7:30pm time to go shallow.  Note to thread #3, I was the only boat inside of 115FOW for the dusk bite - very happy to be there alone.  Note to thread #2 - prior to launch, I set up a big fish rig.  I have 4 reels set up with 40lb Ande for seaflies so I used what I had (30lb test would be just fine).  I figured at dark, the fish will not sense how big of a line is in the water.  Next, I rigged two back to back Howie white crinkle flies, one over the other over a Mustad 4/0 hook at 22" to run on a 9" white paddle.  Dont ask me why I got these hooks, it was an ordering mistake, the larger hooks I run are Mustad 2/0's but they will bend with large king.  I figured these monster hooks will not unbutton.  I will try to send a F/U pic tomorrow when I am back on Fin Warrior.

Made all my dusk bait changes and wound up 3 for 4, all kngs as the sun disappeared, bam, bam, bam then it was over.  The big king rig took a 15.5 pounder that was a joy to bring in.  I new the line would not break, the monster hook would not come unbottoned, and I could bring the fish in hot and not lose it in the net by myself.  The high dipsepys did not get any action unlike when the water was colder on Tuesday.  Another note to file.

So what i want to share for those dusk fisherman is to not be hesitent to beef up a big king rig and work shallow.  I loathed long lines but if you must, I expect this strategy will work as well.

Best, Capt Dick

Fin Warrior

 

 

[zgrinder on Fin Warrior]

As promised, a pic of the 9" spin doctor and double skirted howie white crinkle fly with the size 2 Mustad hook.  The skirts are separated for the pic but they lay simply one on top of the other.  I run double skirt flies in the fall for the same reason I move to magnum spoons - bigger bait profile.  It helps to trim off some of the tube from the underside of the fly skirt with a box cutter to get a tighter overlay.  Probably should have put a coin next the hook to help with visualizing the size.  Lead is 22" from the connecting loop to the very top of the first fly skirt.  There is enough hardware hanging from the back of the spin doctor that justifies the shorter fly leader.