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Went out of Shilshole marina this morning to get some time with a new fishfinder. I wanted to get used to it before doing a salmon fishing day with another friend next week.
We launched about 0645. The place was packed. I did bring another friend with me, and I thought we would do some salmon fishing while we were out, but the main point was to learn the sonar. I have only salmon fished from my boat about 3x, never had more than one shaker, so not a lot of confidence. Today was different. Within 45 min. my friend had released a blackmouth shaker, then boated a small coho. Then a little while later he had a good size fish on. It turned out to be a 8-10lb native King. Took a quick pic. while in the water, fish released.
Was kind of fun, friend caught it on a fly reel which was mounted on his downrigger rod. A couple of runs with drag clicking.
We used Green Pro Troll flashers with green splatter back hootchies. Fish was caught at about 80' on the downrigger,,, but I had 6lb balls on, so with the current I wasn't nearly at that depth. Learned that I need to step up the ball weight with the salt water currents.
The Lowrance fishfinder proved nicely as long as I was in 300' of water or less. Not sure about how to get it to see over 300'? Need to make some calls. I know that it is a better unit for shallow water, but it claims to go over 300'.

crankbait42

7/31/2011 12:21:00 PM

Nice release shot!

knotabassturd

7/31/2011 3:13:00 PM

Very nice!

May not need a downrigger or Lowrance in a couple weeks or less for the pinks!
And they might provide some excellent practice fighting fish on a fly rod and reel :-)

BARCHASER10

7/31/2011 7:04:00 PM

My Lowrance peters out about 400-450 feet. It is a unit that was designed for deeper water. It is the second Lowrance I've had. The first one I got in 1995 lasted until 2006 and it was about the same. Water conditions have an impact. Sometimes it wont go much beyond 300-350 and I have no idea why. The only need I have for it to work deeper than 150 feet is for Halibut. Usually the deepest I fish over on the Strait is around 400-450, so it has plenty of range for me.

coretron22

8/1/2011 7:17:00 AM

Always nice to see the Quadfather getting into fish! I agree, nice pic.

TomD

8/1/2011 9:54:00 AM

I run 12 or 14 pound downrigger balls in the salt, especially since we like to go fast for coho! You have to figure out if your downrigger setup will handle that, and of course re-set the drag/brakes so they will stop the larger ball but still let cable out if you hook bottom...

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