bmb = 3, Ninja Kokanee = Dinner. New Melones

Headed to NM sometime last week...only telling this story because of the comedy involved really.

It was a quiet morning, launched at 6:30, headed south to rose island, randomly trolling.  I had two primary reasons for going fishing:

1.  Office driving me crazy
2.  Try out my new Shasta Tackle Shuttle Hawk for downrigger use.

Both worked out great.

Anyways, back to my rambling ways.

The fishing was great, the catching a bit of a bust.  from 6am until 11 am, I had hooked only one green trout (small spotty), and an approximately 15 inch trout that i bumped off at the boat (semi-purposely and semi-accidentally).  I finally got into a couple of kokanee quick (13 and 14"), with a few more missed hits.  All of those were on pink radical glow tubes about 18" behind a pink polka dot sling blade.  garlic scented corn.   After 1pm things shut down pretty much completely on the south side and I decided to head up towards my normal kokanee stomping grounds near the spillway.

right about 3pm, I was feeling a little tireeeedddddd.  I had been peddling all day, probably around 8 to 23 (10) miles or so, dragging the downrigger, and I was just about ready to go in.  I moved out of the 70' deep inside run, and started to cut towards the deep water.  I was chillin' out, leaned back and half closed my eyes as I kept an eye on my FF screen.  

Suddenly, I noticed the big bend in my rod go slack.  I sat for at least 2-3 seconds, trying to figure out exactly what was going on.  Had I hit the bottom?  Did my rigger pop loose because of the little wake that I just rode over?  Then it dawned on me - a fish must have popped it.  I hadn't had a koke pop my rigger for over a year and was very surprised that it had happened.

I reeled up the slack, felt the weight, and made a decent hook set.  Immediately, the fish darted down, pulling drag.  It did this a couple times, then I started to make progress.  The fish came up rather easily, until it was on the surface about 15' from the boat......

Immediately upon getting near the surface, it jumped....dit dit dit SPLOOSH! then, dit dit dit SPLOOSH! it did it again!  then SPLASH!  once more for good measure.  I was surprised the hook had not popped out already, and I fumbled around getting my net ready, but couldnt get it deployed, and the net got tangled in my rod holder.   At this moment, the fish ran right at the boat, and I saw it out of the corner of my eye...whoooosh!  It jumped directly over my kayak, right behind my back.  Now it was on the left side of my kayak, with my rod still pointed out to the right.  I passed my rod over to my other hand, and let the line go over my head.  luckily, he had jumped right between myself and my two other rods, so the line was still free.  I was still working on my net one handed, while the fish decided to jump again!  quickly, it dove, directly underneath my kayak back to the right side, and got my line tangled in the rudder.  

So..summary: i have one hand clearing my net, the other fighting the fish, my third hand was trying to make a sandwich, and the fish had gotten underneath my kayak, tangled my rudder and was just sitting there somewhat nonchalantly about 5 feet of my aft starboard.  I looked at him over my right shoulder and thought, well, WTF do i do now?  I move my rod tip a bit, and noticed that my line was stuck behind my kayak and between the rudder, but wasn't in the rudder assembly itself.  So I quickly reach up with my 4th hand and pull the rudder up.  clear!  I thrusted the rod tip into the water, and reeled.  Luckily, the fish decided to head back underneath the kayak, and was back on my left side again.  I pulled out the now cleared net, got the fish closer.....then....

He jumped again!  straight into the air, about a foot and a half above the water, and landed..right into the net!  I pulled him on board and was considering releasing him - but unfortunately he had been nailed in the eye and was bleeding somewhat.  I popped him and iced him.  

Stats on the last fish -
Depth - 42'
Temp - 72 degrees
Dodger - Watermelon 4" seps, 2 foot +/- leader
Lure - Uncle Larry Spinner, orange spatter pattern
Scent - Kokanee Special

Times like that, I wish I had a video camera running.  

Anyways, a couple of pics now and a few more when I get home.  (and no, that's not the net I used while on the water  )  I'll also post up my thoughts of the shuttle hawk later.

 

Entertaining report Ben. Felt like I was right there laughing with/at you! Thanks!

great read ben, glad it all worked out, sometimes those four hands come in real handy, hahaha, cameron

Great story Ben!  I've heard of the "third" hand but never the "fourth"!    Thanks again for the report and pictures.

fantastic report.     Nice fatty to boot...

Great report & a happy ending too.

Awesome report Ben!!

Thanks for sharing!!
 
Sincerely,

Jim

Entertaining report Ben. Felt like I was right there laughing with/at you! Thanks!

+1.  Great report Ben.

Will it be another epic kokanee year at NM?

WTG Ben!

Dude was that fish on Crack???    Killer story....I think there's been some in breeding there, or that fish got a tip from that seal from Alibion...pssst go behind there backs it messes them up everytime....

That Vid would of ROCKED...man...NICE FISH BMB...Sweet!!! Thanks...I'm still seeing it zipping this way...and then that way...freaking psycho fish!!!  u sure it wasn't a Kokseal....lol...

Thanks again for a great story plus pics...

+1.  Great report Ben.

Will it be another epic kokanee year at NM?

magic 8 ball says...the kokes at berry will be bigger.  but the fishing should be limit style 15"ers at melones if you can handle the 85 degree heat at 6am in late july. 

the fish are so scattered right now its not even funny.  the whole day i marked a bunch of onesies and twosies but only once marked a school of more than a half dozen fish.  the second fish i caught was kind of cool though, i marked him down at 45', then saw the beeline right up to my ball (at 33ft), then 3 seconds later, whack!

Next time I'll try fishing a second rod on a diver.  I've been hearing good things about a product called the slide diver lite bite so I'm going to check it out.  Dipsies and other divers seem to be too much drag for me on UL kokanee gear.

its probably much easier to fish the lake from a boat right now because you can move from area to area and cover more territory if the fish turn off in one section of the lake.  They are spread all the way from rose island to the spillway to angels creek, up glory hole point and past the 49 bridge. 

In the kayak you just can't move from tuttletown to angels creek with any speed.  just keep trolling, just keep trolling, trolling trolling....I FOUND NEMO!

That Vid would of ROCKED...man...NICE FISH BMB...Sweet!!! Thanks...I'm still seeing it zipping this way...and then that way...freaking psycho fish!!! 

actually, the funniest part to me was after he had tangled the rudder, he literally just sat there, just about 5 feet from the rear of the kayak. didn't try to jump, dive, or anything. just sat there. if he even tried to run, the line would have snapped or the hook would have popped loose. i took revenge on him in honor of the ninja trout that beat up al at don pedro a few months back.

That Vid would of ROCKED...man...NICE FISH BMB...Sweet!!! Thanks...I'm still seeing it zipping this way...and then that way...freaking psycho fish!!! 

actually, the funniest part to me was after he had tangled the rudder, he literally just sat there, just about 5 feet from the rear of the kayak. didn't try to jump, dive, or anything. just sat there. if he even tried to run, the line would have snapped or the hook would have popped loose. i took revenge on him in honor of the ninja trout that beat up al at don pedro a few months back.

 

Ben,

Sounds like a fish story to me.  Costco has head cams for $99.

Thanks for sharing.

Doug

Great report Ben. We try our best to manage all our gear, until gear get's in the way. Good comeback!