Success at Frenchmans

[fishuntr2]

The silver was towards the end of outgoing in a hog line. The three nookies were caught within a 1/2 hour trolling during low slack!

http://www.ifish.net/uploads/040112259.jpg
We are gonna troll on low and high slack for sure from now on!! There were only 14 boats in sight while in line and only 4 boats including ours when we caught the nooks!

[ 09-17-2001: Message edited by: fishuntr2 ]

[ 09-17-2001: Message edited by: fishuntr2 ]

[ 09-17-2001: Message edited by: fishuntr2 ]

[fishuntr2]

Sorry about the size. I am very computer challenged!!!

[springer4you]

Nice Fish, How was the boat launch at Freds??? images/icons/smile.gif

[Fishing freak]

NICE FISH!!!!!!!

Fished saturday at F-bar. My son caught a 16 lb. chromer. The action seemed to be picking up (compared to my last time out). I thought about trolling my way back to the boat ramp on the washington side but decided not to (obviously made a bad decision). Any hints on what you were using?

[fishuntr2]

Freds was ok but low as usual.
We didn't even try to take out
until hours after low slack.
Fish were all caught on hardware
that had blue on them. My 2 were
caught trolling a #4 coyote spoon
that was half blue behind one of
those triangle fish flashers. Kenia
was using a brad that had a blue/white
tip.

[ 09-17-2001: Message edited by: fishuntr2 ]

[fishuntr2]

forgot to add that the fish were caught friday, saturday was a bust as we had several hits and my son lost one at the boat. 3 fish were seen rolling by my boat and the last one gave me "the fin" as it jetted by on the surface!

[garyk]

Very nice fishhunter2.

A question on trolling the hardware -- do you keep in contact with the bottom, like when you're anchored up in the hogline, or do you fish at some suspended depth? Thanks!

[Johnny Mac]

nice fish fishhunter2!

Btw, what kind and color of boat do you have?

[fishuntr2]

I was trolling at 32 pulls which put me down maybe 35 feet from the surface. Was trolling slow and downstream in about 45 ft of water. All 3 fish were picked up in the same general area just in front and to the washington side of a ship that had just been parked. My boat is a 17 ft all grey alumaweld, 60 hp grey mariner, 4.5 merc kicker, with a dark grey top. I have been flying an American Flag half-mast from my vhf antennae. My buddy greg (kenai) was keeping his brad 5 ft off the bottom in 45 ft of water. He drives a newer black on white 16 ft sylvan with a pair of 4-stroke mercs, a 90 and a 9.9.

[FishinMission]

Saturday was one of the best days I've seen out there. Would guesstimate about 20 fish landed with a lot less pressure. My lovely wife, Jan even managed to break her "skunk" with this nice 23 lb.er. Some of you guys are starting to make me look bad!! images/icons/grin.gif http://www.ifish.net/uploads/430215259.jpg

[Nanook]

BEAUTIFUL couple, beautiful fish!

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[FISHRUS]

Hey FM

Where is the banana? images/icons/rolleyes.gif

[fishuntr2]

What is it with this banana thing? Friday I did good, had no banana's on board. Saturday I took 2 nannas and we did lousy! In fact in the area we were fishing out of the few fish we saw caught by other boats, quite a few came unhooked!! We lost one ourselfs at the boat and missed every other strike! No more bananas on my boat!!!

[WaterDog]

Well I was one of the few boats out there Saturday that got shunked. images/icons/frown.gif Saw fish boated all around me and I never had a hit. A few boats over from me limited, another baoted 3 and lost 1.

Had to go to the coast Sunday to catch a nice fish. images/icons/grin.gif

[FishinMission]

Well...the bananas turned black so the Mrs. brought them in the form of BANANA BREAD !!! We had banana bread crumbs all over the floor!! No lie!

[Krome Brite]

Gotta love that guy's shirt on the right. images/icons/grin.gif

[garyk]

Fishuntr2 -- thanks for the reply to the question about how you were trolling,now just one more...

What range of weight do you recomend, 4oz? 5oz.?

On Sat. we just had the wrong spot. I counted about 15 fish caught within sight. We got zip for three rods.

Sunday we returned, got a spot I prefer, and while we only landed one, we somehow missed three other takedowns. It was really strange, good hard yanks but they just weren't there on the hook-set. First time that's happened.

It looked very slow for the other boats around us.

We'll have to see what happens with this gillnet season.

[Silent Lucidity]

Naaaaahse feeeeeeeeeesch!

[ 09-17-2001: Message edited by: Silent Lucidity ]

[fishuntr2]

Thanx Silent Lucidity for the resize.

[Silent Lucidity]

Did I mention that these were naaahhhhhhse feeeeeeesch?

[ 09-17-2001: Message edited by: Silent Lucidity ]

[NEUTRON]

nice fish, good post.

[fishuntr2]

Garyk, I was using a 6 oz cannonball. I also
use braided line (power pro) 30 lb test. It has the diameter of about 8 lb mono so there
is a lot less line drag. So my hardware doesn't get far behind the boat. I have been using 8 oz. when anchored. Should I be using less weight so I fish a lot further back from the boat? When anchored I see a lot of people letting out some major line so they are fishing way back. Is this better than fishing down at a steeper angle. How far off the bottom should the lure be working?

[SureSet]

FH2,
I'm not so sure it's whether or not you are long-lining or going straight down as much as it is using the right combination of distance and leader length for the day and place. I'm pretty sure I was right next to GaryK sat. and boated 3. We started with one going long and one not so long. Once we got one, we both went long and got two more. I usually like a little line out just to give me time before the fish is at the boat. But, I've fished the exact same spot and caught fish with the lines very close to the boat (usually because someone anchors right below). Usually I shorten the dropper to 2-3 feet when that happens.

One thing I have noticed is that the fish are getting smaller on average. Not sure if it's common for the late part of the run or if it's just circumstance.

SureSet

[garyk]

FH2:

If Sureset is the guy in the blue-trimmed Spectrum boat than I would do whatever he says – and if you can get right into his boat so much the better as that boat has caught far more fish at Frenchman's than anyone.

{In fact that particular boat was singled out for attention by the Washington's patrol boat on Sunday. It's our suspicion that this visit from Wash. F&G stemmed from the Spectrum (SureSet?) having a rope full of salmon hanging off the back of it while anchored Saturday and subsequent questions as to whether using a mess of salmon for a sea-anchor was in fact legal? images/icons/smile.gif}

At the risk of embarrassing myself by sounding like I know anything, I can tell you that we're generally using 3oz and 4oz of lead (and up to five or six if the tides running hard), to walk the rigs a ways back from the boat. The shallow line angle puts the Alvins closer to the bottom where the ‘biters' seem to be. That's why I find your success at trolling for suspended fish to be extremely interesting.

I concur with Sureset above that the salmon seem smaller - however I've thought it looked that way from the beginning and not just at this point. Out of our eight chinook only one has topped the twenty pound mark. I've been wondering if the warm water causes a greater stress on the larger fish and so only smaller sized ones bite? Also interesting was that on Sat. a couple jacks were caught, the first we've noticed and fairly late in the run it would seem.

[SureSet]

Yep Garyk that's me. I don't know if we're doing as well as you describe, but we're definatly putting our time in, I can tell you that!

Went out alone for 4-5 hours on the second half of the tide today. Even gave the trolling thing a shot at slack. Not a fish seen nor a single strike, bump or anything. A little bit windy and only 6-10 boats out today. I figured I'd get out hoping the nets wouldn't have affected the fish up that far yet. Hard telling, but I think I'll wait until late in the week or the weekend before I try again.

SureSet