To my fishing guysm

I've had some close calls just like that.. my own gear has bounced off me a few times but i was lucky enough not to get hooked. I watched my friend get stuck by dual, barbed trembles one late, drunken night in a little boat. The steelhead he was trying to bring in jumped into the boat, hit him in the chest, and hung there for a few seconds before dropping and leaving him with a plug stuck to his chest. That was an ER visit.

Change your lures to single hooks. Treble hooks don't hold fish well sans barbs, and mangle the fuck out lof them with barbs. Single hooks may miss a strike or two, but stick way better once in there, with or without barbs. They also have a longer shank than the individual hooks on a treble, which makes it a lot easier to rotate them through skin and cut off the barb when something like this happens.

I hate taking kids fishing. I don't have the patience for it.
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I should note that trout lures with tails, like rooster tails and panther Martin spinners, lose some appeal if you switch to single hooks since the tail is attached to the original. I only use those spinners if fishing for brook trout, and don't switch the hooks or clamp the barbs. I never release brook trout so fuck em.
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Those brookies are some over populating little bastards aren’t they?
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We call them river rodents at work. Once there, they're in there forever.

I know of a few lakes where they are abundant enough to usually have good fishing, but the population is controlled enough that they get big. They are the only resident trout that I keep as a rule as theyre the only real tasty ones.
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There are some lakes in southern Utah that grow huge brookies. Many 16” plus fish. I think my all time PR for brook trout is like 14”.
 
I've had some close calls just like that.. my own gear has bounced off me a few times but i was lucky enough not to get hooked. I watched my friend get stuck by dual, barbed trembles one late, drunken night in a little boat. The steelhead he was trying to bring in jumped into the boat, hit him in the chest, and hung there for a few seconds before dropping and leaving him with a plug stuck to his chest. That was an ER visit.

Change your lures to single hooks. Treble hooks don't hold fish well sans barbs, and mangle the fuck out lof them with barbs. Single hooks may miss a strike or two, but stick way better once in there, with or without barbs. They also have a longer shank than the individual hooks on a treble, which makes it a lot easier to rotate them through skin and cut off the barb when something like this happens.

I hate taking kids fishing. I don't have the patience for it.
Click to expand...

I should note that trout lures with tails, like rooster tails and panther Martin spinners, lose some appeal if you switch to single hooks since the tail is attached to the original. I only use those spinners if fishing for brook trout, and don't switch the hooks or clamp the barbs. I never release brook trout so fuck em.
Click to expand...

Those brookies are some over populating little bastards aren’t they?
Click to expand...

We call them river rodents at work. Once there, they're in there forever.

I know of a few lakes where they are abundant enough to usually have good fishing, but the population is controlled enough that they get big. They are the only resident trout that I keep as a rule as theyre the only real tasty ones.
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There are some lakes in southern Utah that grow huge brookies. Many 16” plus fish. I think my all time PR for brook trout is like 14”.
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14" is pretty big. I caught one a few weeks ago that, while I didn't measure, had to be 16+. It had about 4-5" and probably close to half a lb over any other that I had caught in my life. It was shaped like a football. We were camping and it was all my GF and I could do to eat it all that night.

I'll keep and eat any brookie over 6", and just kill the smaller ones and feed to the lake or creek out of meanness.
 
So you're saying that the trout that's the tastiest is also basically a weed? Sounds like a win-win to me. Personally, I love a fresh rainbow, particularly if caught in cold moving water. High lake rainbows in particular are amazing with nothing more than some salt and pepper and butter. Not sure I've ever eaten a brook trout. Probably have.

Where are you catching these monsters?

Speaking of eating rainbows, had an interesting experience last week. Prior to the camping trip with my wife's side of the family, we met up with my bother's family and my dad and his wife at a rental on Chelan for five days. I've never thought of Chelan as a fishing lake (more drinking, swimming, drinking, floating, drinking, and boating lake), so I didn't even bring any gear. My dad did, though, and first night he's right on our dock with nothing more than hook, slip sinker, Power Bait.

And he absolutely killed it.

First couple of fish, I didn't even know what they were. Had to do some research to figure out they were mackinaw--just smaller ones being that close to shore. Intermixed were several nice rainbows. Cooked up two rainbows and a mack just to try out mackinaw. No contest. Either you have to cook it differently to be good or mackinaw is just fishy and gummy. The rainbows were really good, though.
 
So you're saying that the trout that's the tastiest is also basically a weed? Sounds like a win-win to me. Personally, I love a fresh rainbow, particularly if caught in cold moving water. High lake rainbows in particular are amazing with nothing more than some salt and pepper and butter. Not sure I've ever eaten a brook trout. Probably have.

Where are you catching these monsters?

Speaking of eating rainbows, had an interesting experience last week. Prior to the camping trip with my wife's side of the family, we met up with my bother's family and my dad and his wife at a rental on Chelan for five days. I've never thought of Chelan as a fishing lake (more drinking, swimming, drinking, floating, drinking, and boating lake), so I didn't even bring any gear. My dad did, though, and first night he's right on our dock with nothing more than hook, slip sinker, Power Bait.

And he absolutely killed it.

First couple of fish, I didn't even know what they were. Had to do some research to figure out they were mackinaw--just smaller ones being that close to shore. Intermixed were several nice rainbows. Cooked up two rainbows and a mack just to try out mackinaw. No contest. Either you have to cook it differently to be good or mackinaw is just fishy and gummy. The rainbows were really good, though.
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Cool about the Mackinaw, aka lake trout. Those things can get crazy big, like 50+ lbs. I didn't know they weren't good to eat, as most char (dolley varden, bull trout, arctic char, brook trout, lake trout) are pretty damn good.

Not telling where I fish specifically, but I'm talking about high lakes and I live in the gorge so there's a general idea.

Most lakes that have brook trout are polluted by them. They reproduce in lakes (other trout do not and need an inlet they can go up and spawn, that's why lakes didn't have fish in the PNW until us white devils went around playing Jonny fish seed), usually overpopulated, and stunt. Its a decent win where that doesn't happen, but I know dozens, maybe hundreds, of water bodies full of stunted brook teout and only 3 that I can think of where they're not.
 
Runt fish. Stunted from not enough food for the population.

There are big chinook in Lake Chelan - but you need to fish deep with downriggers.
 
Runt fish. Stunted from not enough food for the population.

There are big chinook in Lake Chelan - but you need to fish deep with downriggers.
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Doctor told me to keep my lure wound dry on Saturday at Baker Lake, so I threw on some waders and did some float tube fishing all morning. After four hours of beating the hell out of the water with not so much as a bump to show for it, I was convinced that the only possible explanation was the lake being completely devoid of fish (me sucking never crossed my mind), then a really nice sockeye jumped clean out of the water about 100 feet from me. I believe they closed the season early this year after smaller numbers than the last couple of years.

I've always fished for salmon in rivers and off beaches on Whidbey, but I'm just now learning that there are pretty decent salmon runs in several in-state lakes. Never owned a boat, so most of that is pretty off-limits for me.
 
I'm heading up to Sekiu at the end of the week to do some light gear coho fishing. Maybe run out to Neah Bay for some ling cod and rock fish, too. Hopefully nobody gets a hook in the eye or the leg.
 
Another one of those fucking bees just stung the SAME FUCKING FOOT under my pinky toe!!! Hurts like a motherfucker!
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Haha same thing happened to me a couple of years ago. I got stung 3 times under my big toe over the course of a week.
 
Another one of those fucking bees just stung the SAME FUCKING FOOT under my pinky toe!!! Hurts like a motherfucker!
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Sounds like you need my services.

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My feet Thursday night. One of these things is not like the other. Doc gave me crutches and told me to not be such a pussy. I'm able to walk without the crutches today, but still really swollen and tender.
 
There are assloads of coho in the straits. Still good number of ling cod, too, if you don't mind beating across the waves for a while.

WDFW needs to be kicked in tha face for making you wade through bunches of wild fish to get your hatchery silvers, though. And hatchery silvers - what's your fucking problem? Why do wild fish weigh two pounds more than your scrawny asses do? I've never seen so much bait, either. Massive amounts.

Get out to the salt water. Fishing should be good for a while.
 
Alder smoke is rising on the back patio. I have a full load going so I can put it in the freezer and be set up to make smoked salmon/cream cheese balls for football games and the holidays.

The neighbors will all know I have fish now - the smoke is drifting down the block. I'll tell everyone I've got the vid so they stay away.

 
Alder smoke is rising on the back patio. I have a full load going so I can put it in the freezer and be set up to make smoked salmon/cream cheese balls for football games and the holidays.

The neighbors will all know I have fish now - the smoke is drifting down the block. I'll tell everyone I've got the vid so they stay away.
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I told the boss I have the vid......and will have it until fishing slows down....
 
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