So we left my place at 1:30 am Saturday morning headed to Lake O, I am not a big fan of fishing staging salmon in shallow, mainly because I don't like playing bumper boat with the 50 other fishing boat, kayaks, rubber dinghies and bath tubs out there trying to fish salmon.
We arrived under darkness and drove out to out spot and set up our rods... we were flatlining deep diving crankbaits and running glow spoons off of the downriggers. Within minutes we take a good hit but the fish is off within seconds.
We continued trolling to early morning hours, trying to find fish and avoid the crowds, we mark some fish,,,,, get some hits.... lose more fish than I would like to admit... and have a good number of solid fish visit the Tracker boat.
As the morning went on and the sun got higher in the sky, we decided to run out deep and fish in 225 to 250 feet of water for a little while. no big fish hanging out that Saturday but we got some nice rainbow trout and couple little salmon.
Some times no matter how far in front you hold them, they still look small. lol
A nice rainbow trout for the bbq.
We did not find the 30 pounder I was looking for, but a bunch of chinook in the 20 pound range. the biggest about 24 pounds, plus a smaller ones and few bonus rainbow trout visited the boat.... so hard to complain.
We caught some fish today... we won the battle
We lost some fish today... fish won the battle.
And we had 1 TIE...
A couple hours into trolling in the morning and one of the rods takes a good hit, I grab the rod... FISH ON.... immediately the fish rockets up to the surface and jumps once, then jumps a second time, and then jumps a third and fourth time. I think I have lost the fish but no it is still on swimming towards to boat, the fish get tangled in one of the other rods, but by some luck it gets untangled. After a bit more of a battle my fishing partner Matt slides the net under the fish and hauls it aboard the boat. A nice chinook salmon around 18 pounds.
I then grab the pliers so I can unhook the fish, but this fish has not lost the battle yet as I am untangling the fish a bit from the net, it starts thrashing around and the hook comes out of its mouth and then we get the biggest catch of the day!!! ......
ME!!! The hook gets embedded into my index finger.
So no 30 pound plus salmon, but we caught a salmon fisherman, closer to 300 pounds. lol
So that one I call a TIE..... I got the salmon and then the salmon got me. lol
With a little bit of playing around I was able to get the hook out of my hand, so we could finish the morning fishing!!!
Here are a few pictures of my BIG CATCH!! lol NOT for the squeamish...
Thanks for reading.
JimW
