We hit the water at 5 am and set up in 70 fow with marks close to the bottom. Just about the time I got the last rod in the water the rigger with a Kevorkian stinger down 70′ was screaming. After a few minutes we had our first king in the box and was in the 12# range. The leadcore was the next rod to fire with the black baboon mag, and we boated king number 2. Then the SWR down 35 with the regular smurf hooked up and put another king in the box. I had set up on the line and by this point was around 27′ so we turned around and headed back north. That turned out to be a tough troll, I just didn’t seem to find a good speed to trigger any bites. The waves were also picking up and not helping any. Once I got back above 28.5 we headed back south and picked up a few more fish on the deep rigger with the Kevorkian, the SWR down 35 with the smurf and the lead core with black baboon mag. The dipsy were quite all day, and with the current and waves I didn’t run a meat rig. As the trip went on the marks where moving deeper so I put out a copper rig with a blue dolphin stinger and it hooked up the last two fish of the trip. 2 of the guys were starting not feel so well so we packed up and headed in.
The forecast for Saturday was not looking good, but the crew was bent on heading out. I set up in 70fow pretty much on the line and headed south. Since we got a 4:30 start I have my glowmate mag on the deeper and it was the first to fire and box a nice king. The action was pretty quick till about 6 and then it tapered off a bit. The glowmate mage down 65 on the rigger was the best bait going 3 for 3. Kevorkian down 70 on the rigger took 2 fish. The swr was pretty quite for the early bite, but made up for the lack of action once the bite slowed down. Since dipsy had been slow I changed over to slide divers on my out side dispys and ran spoons with 50′ leaders. That seemed to be the ticket and we went 3 for 3 on a hey baby regular size. I had it 75′ back on the counter and we box 3 bows on the rig. Once the bite slows down the leadcore, copper, slide divers and swr rigs are pretty much where I have been getting most of my action. I did have some troopers out Saturday as the waves took there toll on 2 of the crew. They stuck it out and kept on fishing, I asked if they wanted to go in, then a fish would hit and they we OK to bring the fish in. Around 8 we lost our marks, so we called it early and headed in.
For the afternoon the waves had clamed down quite a bit, and we headed out at 3pm. I set up in 80fow and got the leadcore out first since they have been hot. I then set the dipsy and the leadcore with a black baboon mag took of in a hurry. We were trolling at 2.5mph and the fish was just not slowing down so I slowed the boat. Still the fish was taking line, so I started to turn back on him and he still was taking line. I had 300 yards of power pro and then 20 feet of back on the reel and is starting to see the backing so I tightened up the drag a bit more then I really wanted too, but we could not get line back on the fish. Finally we did started get line back and circled the fish to come line coming in. 20 minutes in to the battle we got back to the lead core. The fish seemed to give up and was just dead weight so we got the lead in pretty quick. Then I was able to see we had hooked the king in the tail. So what we thought was going to be a state record king was a 14# king snagged in the tail. So I get us back in a south troll and get the speed back to 2.5 and set the rest of the gear and then the lead core with the circus freak get hooked up and the fight is on. After what seemed like a 20 might fight we had a 12# king in the box. Then we hit a dry spell, I thought I had gotten too far south so we spun around and headed north, but still didnÂ’t find fish. Checked with some boats out deeper and they had action so we moved out to 115 and still didnÂ’t find fish. We could see a front was moving in from the north, so we started to work our way in. Since it was starting to get a little darker out I put out a glowmates spoon on a slide diver and a glowmate j-plug on the leadcore. The leadcore with the glowmate j-plug was not out for more then 5 minutes and it was hooked up, then the other leadcore went. After few dances to work out a few tangles, the second fish came unbuttoned. The first fish was then coming in pretty easily so I was thinking small king, but then we saw the tail and know it was no small fish. It turned out to be the big fish of the day toping the scale just over 19#’s. After a few pics, I pull the rest of the lines and headed in a head of the front. Not the best numbers coming in 4 for 8 but wrapping up with a 19# king was a good way to end the trip.
Sunday I had planned for fun fishing, and we hit the water at 4:30. I set up in 80′ and we had fish on the swr right away with a glowmate mag down 35. The next hit also came on the swr rig, and put the first 2 fish in the box. Then for then next 30 minutes it was lock and load, the lead core with circus freak and the Kevorkian down 65 on the rigger kept us busy. Then around 5:30 – 6 the bite slowed down, and we had afloat 50 boats around us. So I headed south and worked from 27′ to 26′ to keep out of the traffic and the action was better. The meat rig back 130 did take the big fish of the day once we got away from the traffic. Also the slide divers with 50′ leads back 75 and 90 started to fire. Then around 7 it slowed down, and from the sounds of the radio it slowed for every one so we pulled lines and headed in. It was nice to get out with a few friends for a few hours and bag some nice fish
