Good buddy and I hit Lake Pateros for some king/sockeye action on Saturday. I did not tell him the salmon derby was going on over the weekend, knowing he wouldn't want to go, but afterwards he commented that the boat traffic wasn't too bad. We did not fish the derby, so got an early start on the kings, but it didn't matter since we didn't get a hit until about an hour after first light. We started the early morning zero for two, with the second bite coming off due to equipment malfunction; the reel had come off the reel seat while the fish was peeling line off! It was tough to fight the fish with one hand holding a rod and the other holding a reel. So needless to say we lost that fish after a short battle. Then soon after re-baiting we get a third strike and my buddy sets the hook and after a brief fight we boat a 10# hatchery fish. By this time, I see other boats hooking up so again I quickly rebait the rods and send them down on the downriggers and within 5 minutes one of the rods goes off again. I quickly set the hook and it feels like a decent fish but by no means feels like a big fish. It wasn't until the fish came to the surface we both realized this was a big fish and missing an adipose fin! Once in the boat I put the fish on a scale and read 23.5#, which is our biggest fish of the season so far. After the king bite died, we fished for sockeye and had a few bites but only managed to pick up one. We left around 1 pm. Checking lines frequently and making sure there was fresh bait in our superbaits and no "salad" on our lines seemed to really help our success this trip.

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