Speyducer
Advisory Board
Release to spawn another day
Posts: 4,123
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Post by Speyducer on Aug 4, 2013 9:47:45 GMT
Not the best of years, but we did hit it 'right' compared to those before, and those coming after us... A reminder of the big beastie from last year: This year such large fish were only in 'temporary' attendance - ie. hooked up, ran off testing all the gear, snap-offs and whole lines lost, and otherwise making fools of ALL of us!! Here's a couple (out of six) of the fish got to hand: Ocean-fresh chrome: Mean taker: No videos, unfortunately.... Plenty of horse-flies, and a few 'nips' from them, but no pustulating sores, and NO lives lost! The mozzies were more aggressive, but ignore the bites & they settle within a couple of days! Mike
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Post by G Ritchie on Aug 4, 2013 11:50:06 GMT
Fantastic fish Mike, I can see why they would be a fair handfull in one of those large fast flowing rivers with lots of snags.
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conwyrod
Advisory Board
Autumn on the Conwy
Posts: 4,659
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Post by conwyrod on Aug 4, 2013 16:40:41 GMT
Well done Mike, must take a lot of nerve and skill to hold onto a big steelhead in those fasr flowing streams.
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Speyducer
Advisory Board
Release to spawn another day
Posts: 4,123
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Post by Speyducer on Aug 4, 2013 17:07:30 GMT
The main quarry is the Chinook (king) salmon; this year in sizes from mid-high teens to mid+high twenties (landed!). The steelies are "by-catch", but still run from low teens to just over twenty.
Although the steel give very good account of themselves, very similar in nature to the fight from an Atlantic (except steelies tend to jump more), the gear-testing fish are the ocean-fresh Chinook, more than half of hooked fish either running back towards the ocean several hundred yards then getting unpinned, or busting off tackle.
Yes, the wading is 'interesting', but the bigger fish do tend to hold in the faster & deeper currents, so the battles always have that additional element, and these fish simply don't want to give up - you can haul on them with a 10wt 13' rod for 10 minutes and they simply don't budge!
Keeps me going back; and this year, Shirley managed to hook into 5, all unfortunately getting the better of her!
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Post by allysshrimp on Aug 4, 2013 19:23:41 GMT
Great fish Mike, I can understand why you keep going back for more. What sort of tackle are you using over there.
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Speyducer
Advisory Board
Release to spawn another day
Posts: 4,123
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Post by Speyducer on Aug 5, 2013 21:26:23 GMT
Tackle - 13' 9/11 rod, Danielsson control reel with 300yds backing, running line & inty head, with 8-15' T14 tips, 3-5' 20lb leader, 3-4" usb conehead in purple/black/chartreuse with flash, 2/0 or 3/0 barbless DNE single hook.
80-100'casts 10-30 degrees downstream and feed in line to allow fast sink into the fishing depth, and hold on!
Mike
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Post by stantheman on Aug 15, 2013 1:40:34 GMT
Nice fishing report,I'm off to Bristol bay on Friday.I can't sleep with excitement,after reading your report I don't think I'm going to get Much sleep now
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