September 27, 2014

Nice way to unwind

After a long, grueling week of classes, assignments and lab obligations, I gave myself the Friday evening off. I had arranged to fish with Daria, my friend from the lab, but she had to cancel due to family obligations. So it was Richard, Tristan and I who spent a few hours down by the lake.

A super high pressure system parked over us for a whole week. It had been calm and stable and from experience, the fish really love this kind of weather. When we arrived, salmon were jumping constantly and we were really expecting a good day.

As usual, we had to wait until it was dark enough before fish would bite. Right around 7:30pm, I got a bump and it gave us confidence that fish were active.

Another few casts later, I felt a little bump and the rod loaded up immediately. A little line came off the reel, but the fish didn't really go on any strong run. I had the drag set tight enough that I don't have to worry about gear failure, yet I can have enough power to pull the fish away from docked boats and dock pilings if necessary.

When I used to fish for salmon in the streams, fighting them on light lines (6lb or lighter) would take about 1 minute per pound of fish (ie, a 15lb salmon would require 15min). On the heavier gear now, even with the deeper water and much more room for the fish to run, I can muscle them in within a few minutes. In fact, this 20lb fish felt small during the fight and it didn't even take much of a run on the heavy gear.

Richard was tending to his boat earlier and now I got his attention. It was less than 10 minutes before another fish took my spoon again. This time the smaller fish was a bit more spirited and tried to run under a boat twice. But that fish obviously didn't know who was wielding the rod! LOL.

Richard's spoon took a good slam but the hook did not set. Strangely, by about 9pm, it went completely quiet. In previous experience, we could continue to pick at fish. However, they simply turned off tonight.

This has been my 6th outing for salmon this fall. I've had a hit or two each trip, but really only managed to land fish on the 4th trip and this trip. Hopefully now that these salmon are in the area in better numbers, the stats will be more in our favour in the next week...hopefully two weeks.

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