Will you be ready?
October 23rd, 2009
Fighting a 40+lb fall fish I caught in ‘05…..
It’s easy to be unprepared when it comes to you first trip of the year for coastal trib chinook otherwise admirably known as piggy oinker freight train salmon. Maybe you’ve heard of them? Anyway, I’m reminded by this entry of how many years the fishing has gone from light to heavy in the course of a few days or even less. In the condition of our current waters throughout the region it would certainly take a whopper of a soaking to raise the rivers to what I am talking about. But it has happened. And will again.
I bet if you take a peak in your gear bags..boxes…totes…crates…that you’ll find you aren’t ready for these river monsters and you don’t have the terminal gear you are going to need to catch them. Even in lower than normal flows in the coastal rivers you’ll still need far more terminal lead than you’ve used for six months. Especially if you’re out there hounding low water ‘Hos with half a pinky’s length of 3/16ths for the last two months…..the first one’s always a shocker and always kicks you up to that next level. That next league. The real deal. Coastal trib king fishing. And it doesn’t last long either.
Here are some things to prepare yourself with before the November rains bring these huge, nickel, pork-bellied chinook to a coastal river not so near you.
1) Make sure you have enough slinky making material as you won’t be using much pencil lead past the first rain of the season or two. I recommend .270 size shot or even .300 or .330 if you can find the magnum cord to stuff ‘em in. Fisherman’s usually has it in stock this time of year.
2) Prepare yourself either one L O N G slinky that you can cut down on as needed…like 100 shot…OR..just make an assortment of sizes starting with about 7 beads and working all the way up to 20. By the heat of the season if the flows are right you’ll be using all larger slinks only. It’s nice to have those small ones for a quick float application or as a little add-on to your current rig to weight it down just a tad bit more.
3) Keep a whole separate box for these slinks. Arrange the sizes from shorter to longer and separate them as such. Having the right amount of lead is the difference between fishing and just getting your line wet. And if you’re really ambitious you can even attach the later-required snap swivel into the cord. Usually a #5 or a 3 will do.
4) Go ahead and tie your leaders in advance if you’d like. I would suggest a minimum of 30lb main and/or leader and preferably 40 & 40. It’s okay if you have a smaller reel to load it up with 20lb and go for it. I did it for years. Sometimes you even land ‘em.
5) Make sure you are ready with the items you never think about until later; beads, dacron/micron for bobber stops, rubber gloves for your roe/shrimp, etc.
I hope this little tune-up was as helpful for you as it was for me. I’ve got some rigging to do.
H3llcat
