Sunshine and Springers Leave a reply
Sunshine and Springers
About a half hour ago, my wife Sheri proclaims as she walked through her kitchen, "this house smells like fish". Yes honey, yes it does. It's that damn Chinook, I can't help it, if it's a Fall fish or Spring Chinook, there is that distinctive smell. I guess all things considered, that's a good thing.
Last night while on the phone with my good buddy Darren Hoberg, Co-Owner and Guide for Team Great NW Rivers Guide Service, www.greatnwriversguideservice.com the discussion was Cowlitz for steelies or back to the Big-C for Springer's. In Darren's words, they are starting to show. So that was that and I would be getting up at 03:00hrs. so myself and the Kokanee Dominator could meet Darren at the Willow Grove boat ramp on the Big C.
So here we go, the weather forecast was favorable, the tide was perfect and it was a short twenty minute ride to the location at which we would spend our day on "Da Hook".
The day starts out with the sun coming up and showing me once again, the added bonus of a day spent on the water. For all of those who never get a chance to be outdoors and enjoy what nature has to offer, I feel sorry for you. Once in a while, you just need to stop and take it all in.
And sometimes it's the little things you notice when you're out fishing and just happen to have the camera. It can be something as simple as boat light reflection, go figure.
OK, enough of the fluff, let's get right to it.
So you wanna go Springer fishing. If you are not on the troll and get settled in on "Da Hook", this is how your day starts.
Then it's simply a waiting game. Waiting for the tide to push fish in. Waiting for fish to show and then hopefully waiting for the fish that show to be willing participants in this game of hook and retention.
Well, the fish did in fact show.
Actually throughout the morning, we had a lot of consistent activity on the Lowrance screen. With three rods deployed, surely we would have some willing participants. The rigging of choice, plugs of course. Meat wrapped plugs on a four oz. sinker/dropper with about a four ft. leader. The choice of plugs, that was easy. For Darren, Kwik Fish, for me, Mag Lips. I was also using some meat wrapped on my plug that I decided to try for the first time. This wrapped bait had been soaked in Pautzke's chartreuse Fire Brine, then cut to size and wrapped on plugs. I'll do a complete blog next week on how to create fantastic UV, on your bait wraps for your plugs when fishing dirty water. Oh, that's right; I failed to mention the dirty water. I would say with full sun up and light penetration we had a solid two feet of vis. So UV, you bet.
Finally, about an hour into the morning an aggressive take-down on the UV Mag Lip with meat. An aggressive take however, a non-stick. Ok, at least it's a start and we have a good number of fish swimming by it would be nice to hook a few.
One thing worth mentioning; when you have fish on the move and you know they are there, this is not the time to be lazy with your offering in the water. Switching out your selection about every 20 minutes or so with a fresh wrap of meat is advised. Strong scent and oils, in the dirty water accompanied by the action of a good UV plug can make all the difference in having a successful day.
Case-in-point; a fresh meat wrap on the plug that was hammered 30 minutes prior and not more then 5 minutes in the water, produced an aggressive take down which resulted in that whole retention thing I mentioned earlier.
Not a monster, but a hatchery fish, non-the-less.
So the patience and persistence pays off. The sun was up, the water was calm and we were kept awake by the periodic visitor, giving us an impressive tug-down on our offerings. Five in all, however, we were only fortunate enough to have one stick solid enough to bring to the net.
Let me spell it out for ya, yes the hooks were sharp, no we didn't have premature-rod-jaculation, yes the rod tip was buried in the water at the time of hook set. What could it possibly be??? I'll tell you exactly what it was, "A beautiful day of Springer Fishing"
Duane Inglin
The Outdoor Line
710 ESPN Seattle
www.theoutdoorline.com