Tag Archives: lowrance

The 2013 Anacortes Salmon Derby!

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You’ve heard it a thousand times: “March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb.”

This year, the Anacortes Salmon Derby fell on the final weekend of March, with weather that could only be described as “spectacular” and I’m not sure that word does justice to the conditions, or the event!

There’s a darn, good reason that the Anacortes Salmon Derby sells out each and every year. It’s an extremely well run event in a world-class destination: The San Juan Islands. This year the festivities commenced with the first ever Greater Anacortes Fishing Film Festival or GAFFF.

 

Robbo did The Outdoor Line proud by winning the GAFFF’y for best video by a 6’8″ Charter Operator/Radio Show host. Strangly enough Robbo’s video was the only entry in that category…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Saturday morning came and the derby fleet departed into the fog, leaving The Outdoor Line Crew behind at Anthony’s Home Port which, by the way is our new favorite remote broadcast location!

 

 

After the show, we hustled out to the north end of Orcas Island and it wasn’t long until Robbo was into a nice fish! Here, Larry Carpenter and Duane clear the gear for the “Gringo Grande”.

 

 

Unfortunately…or, fortunately for the fish, it was wild so Robbo cradled it for a quick snapshot and it was left to swim free, hopefully to hit the gravel and make more salmon with intact adipose fins!

 

 

 

One of the best reasons to fish all the derbies you possibly can is to get your gear dialed in for summer “Hammer Time”. I’ve made the switch to Diawa Saltist reels and braid mainline with a 30-foot shot of 25lb monofilament top shot. So far, so excellent!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday morning found us rubbing elbows with some past winners of the Anacortes Salmon Derby, Here is SJI legend Rod Nau making a close quarters pass.

 

After the fishing was done, it was a race to the sling! Big Red shows off her reverse-chine, chambered design which is the reason she is a chop cutter, not a back buster,,,

 

 

The final leaderboad tells the story with Scott Fowler win, Rich Olson place and Jay Murphy show!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Over 250 fish were entered in the two day event with the top three fish carefully displayed on ice for all to look…and drool over! 


 

Anacortes Derby Founder, Chairman and Master of Ceremonies Jay Field prepares to get the award presentation underway in front of the 1000 participants.

 

Scott Fowler’s 21.5 pounder from day one held up and here he holds the coveted $15,000 grand prize! Not a bad weekends work!

 

Left to right, Rich Olson, second place with a 19.4, Scott Fowler 21.5 and Jay Murphy 19.1 comprise the top three “money” fish! Congratulations to all three!!!

 

If you have not had the opportunity to experience the San Juan Islands, this may be a great year to do just that. The Islands remain open for chinook until April 30th and will re-open for salmon on July first. In May and June there will be shrimp, lingcod and halibut seasons to keep us busy. Without question, three more reasons to head up to Anacortes and experience all this region has to offer! A big thanks to Jay Field, Terry and Keri Nemeth and the entire Anacortes Salmon Derby team. You are all first class people that put on a first class event in a world class location!

Tom Nelson

The Outdoor Line

710 ESPN Seattle

www.theoutdoorline.com

Gearing Up for an Alaska Charter Season

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It’s March 13th and while I should be thinking about steelhead fishing or something “current” my mind is already preoccupied with all the little things that could make my life easier on the boat this summer in Southeast Alaska. If you didn’t already know I own and operate Prince of Wales Sportfishing in Craig, Alaska during the summer months. I leave the Outdoor Line radio show in the trusted hands of the very-capable Tom Nelson and head north to Alaska to make a living doing what I love…fishing.

You’d think after ten plus years of running charters in Alaska I would have just about every gizmo known to man. That’s partially true, but there’s always something that will put more fish in the boat, provide a higher level of safety for my customers, and possibly make my job easier.

Here are just a few of the items that are on order for the coming saltwater charter season in Alaska:

I just picked up two new retractable steps from North River Boats for getting into and out of my 28′ aluminum charter boat, the “Polar Bear”. It’s a long step down from the dock to the deck of the boat and stepping onto a bucket, well, that just isn’t safe. It’s high time I installed some of these steps to make that transition in and out of the boat a lot easier. Plus, I’m not a spring chicken anymore and these steps are just as much for me as our guests.

A new custom bait station is on order from Three Rivers Marine and Tackle in Woodinville, Washington. The constant bending over cutting herring or simply reaching down to pluck a cut plug herring out of the cooler can put a serious strain on your back. Last summer I went thru 20 cases of bait, which means I had to bend down around 8,800 times. That, folks, is a recipe for major back problems.

The bait station will attach to the stern of the “Polar Bear” and can be adorned with any number of attachments. I’m thinking cup holders and rod holders on the side will work great. I’m very much looking forward to this upgrade to the boat.

Good luck trying to find one of these in Alaska. This is a long-shanked stainless hook remover that happens to be built by Calcutta, although there are several others on the market that also work. When we’re salmon fishing in certain areas we are constantly, and I mean constantly having to release ping-pong-paddle sized halibut and this tool is a must for that chore. Reaching down the throat of a gyrating halibut with mooching hooks flying everywhere results in barbed hooks right where you don’t want them…in your hand. This tool is a must for that task!

I’ve got two Lowrance HDS Touch 9′s going on the boat this summer too. I mounted a Touch 7 on my jet boat this winter and all I can say is this machine is the cat’s ass. They are super easy to operate and have a much brighter display than the Gen 2 HDS 10′s that are currently mounted on the charter boat. I thought the 10′s were bright…I will have no problem seeing these all the way from the stern of the boat. If you’ve operated a touch screen iPhone you will have no problem dialing in one of these units.

A Lowrance 4G radar will replace the 3G radar that’s mounted on the boat now. These broadband radars don’t require any warm-up time and the image you get with this technology is second-to-none. My Lowrance gear has treated me great over the years and I have the same high expectations for the new Touch 9′s and 4G radar that I’ll be mounting on the boat in May.

I’m making the switch to Daiwa Saltist line counter reels this summer. I’ve used their spinning and small levelwinds for years for steelhead and salmon fishing on the rivers in Washington and they have never let me down. I have some old Daiwa Laguna spinning reels that are pushing a decade old and remarkably they still work. That’s unheard of for a spinning reel that get’s that much abuse!

The new Saltist’s are built with a one-piece aluminum frame, alloy gears, and a drag that can hold up to 22 pounds of pressure. You simply can’t test them in a more harsh environment than Southeast Alaska and I’m hopeful that these reels will perform just as well as all the other Daiwa products I’ve used over the years.

I finally broke down and added Cannon downriggers to the charter boat last summer and I am so glad that I did. The fish were scattered early in the season and we tore up the king salmon using Cannon DT5 downriggers to cover large chunks of water. We simply couldn’t have covered that much water mooching.

This year I’m upgrading to Cannon DT10 downriggers for one very important reason…they have the Bottom Track feature. I’ve used this on my partner Tom Nelson’s boat on numerous occasions and it’s nothing short of a lethal weapon.

In the beginning I was skeptical of this new gizmo and being the stubborn sort I decided to run the downrigger on my side of the boat manually while Tom ran his on Bottom Track. What was the end result after multiple days of testing? He soundly kicked my ass. Bottom Track is da bomb!

Another news bit about Cannon downriggers is that they just redesigned their boom-ends, so they won’t jump out of the track. This is welcome news!

That’s just a little taste of what I’ve been up to folks. I’ll be diving into a huge pile of Mustad 92568 black nickel hooks here shortly too, as I begin the task of pre-tying all of our mooching leaders for an entire summer of hardcore saltwater fishing. More on that later.

Good fishing to you and thanks for stopping by!

Rob Endsley
The Outdoor Line
710 ESPN Seattle
www.theoutdoorline.com

 

2013 Olympic Peninsula Salmon Derby -Day One

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Last year was our first time at the Olympic Penninsula Salmon Derby and after experiencing the event, the location and of course the fishing… there was no way I was going to miss this year!

The Harborside Inn was very generous to host us and we did a remote broadcast of The Outdoor Line Radio Show from the lobby over the excellent complementary breakfast! Many anglers competing in the event stayed at the Harborside Inn and took no small enjoyment in pointing out that they were heading out on the water while we were stuck in the lobby to do the show. To make matters worse, our cell phones started blowing up with fish pictures from our “friends”…Brutal!

When we finally got out on the water, Robbo was still getting reports… and while he was on the phone…  Hey ROBBO! YOU GOT ONE!!! …Uh, just a sec Nelly…I’m on the phone…

Needless to say, we lost that first fish…and it was a good one… but it wouldn’t be too long before the good ol’ Coho Killer produced a nice blackmouth for me.

 

Olympic Peninsula Salmon Derby rules call for a 3pm weigh-in deadline so after a late start…it was an quick trip to the scale where lucky anglers were lined up to enter their fish.

Tony Dobson of Snatchin’ Lips Rods, fishing aboard John Keizer’s Team Lowrance boat, shares a laugh with the crew at the weigh in.

 

After my 8.9 pounder was weighed in, WDFW personnel were there to scale sample and measure the hatchery chinook entered in the event.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Team Lowrance heads for its slip at Point Hudson to get ready for day two of this three day event… Three solid days of fishing… No wonder they call this derby the “Iron Man”!

As of the end of fishing Saturday 2/16/13, 123 fish have been submitted; top three are 15.90, 14.80, and 14.30. With a “sporty” forecast for Sunday… it would be nice to be sitting atop the leaderboard.That 15.9 pounder is looking good for the ten thousand dollar first prize!

SHOW BIZ 2013!

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For those of you that have not yet had the opportunity to attend, here’s a “Virtual hot lap” around the 2013 Seattle Boat Show at Century Link Field!

 

Stabicraft is here in Boat Country’s booth, showing off the new Pilot House design. One very salty ride here…

Master Marine of Mount Vernon has a huge display of Osprey’s and Weldcrafts just take your pick and Big Larry Carpenter will hook you right up!

 

Defiance Boats in ‘da house! In a relatively short time, Defiance has become synonymous with offshore success and with Arima joining the line they have added versatility to the mix!

 

Power to weight ratio is a HUGE aspect to choosing your next outboard. Look no further than Evinrude for trouble-free, dependable, low-maintenance power!

 

Three Rivers Marine is sporting a new logo and a new line with North River Boats joining the TRM family of brands!
Jeff Lalone and Annie from Bayside Marine are ready to answer any and all your questions and make your boating life a whole lot easier!

Looking for tackle and accessories??? Everything is right here in the Sportco/Outdoor Emporium booth and the gang is ready, willing and able to get you the right gear…at the right price!

I don’t know if the word “accessory” quite fits the Lowrance label… If I didn’t have a fishfinder as effective as my Lowrance, I wouldn’t catch as many fish…

Harbor Marine… “right on your way no matter where you’re going”, is showing heavy duty marine diesel power and transmissions to get you where you’re going dependably!

Cannon Downriggers? Don’t leave the dock without them… ’nuff said!!!

I sincerely hope you can make it to my seminars at the Seattle Boat Show! Here’s the rundown!

Tom Nelson – Seminar Schedule at the Seattle Boat Show:

Triple Threat Salmon Angling:

February 1st – 2:00 PM

February 2nd – 3:00 PM

Dirty Downrigger Tricks:

January 31st – 7:00 PM

February 1st – 4:00 PM

February 2nd – 1:00 PM

SEE YOU AT THE SEATTLE BOAT SHOW!!!

Green Sinkers’n Cut Plug Herring

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All that dad and I brought with us blackmouth fishing on Puget Sound today were our mooching rods, some sinkers, and a couple dozen fresh herring from Narrows Marina.

Reports of rock solid winter blackmouth fishing in Area 10 have been trickling in to the Outdoor Line for the last couple of weeks and I just couldn’t take it anymore. I knew that if fishing was that good I could get’em to bite a cut plug herring served up old-school style.

Yesterday I bolted on my new Lowrance HDS 7 Touch to the sled and hollered at dad to make a couple of lunchs…we were going mooching.

State of the art electronics make a world of difference when you’re mooching for salmon. I know this first hand, as the Lowrance gear I have on my charter boat in Alaska has put a lot, and I mean a lot of fish in the boat. You can spend a lot of time straining empty water or you can fish the high percentage areas that are full of bait and fish.

Part of using a good sonar is understanding what you’re looking at though. There’s a salmon center stage in the photo below and another one on the right side of the screen, right on the bottom, chowing down on bait. I was licking my chops when I saw this.

Dad and I dropped our baits into this mess and were immediately rewarded with a double header. A double header on mooched cut plug herring…we were laughing!

Dad was fishing with an orange kidney sinker, a standard in Southeast Alaska, and I was using a green 4 ouncer. His rod went cold immediately after the first hookup while my green weight just kept getting bit.

We gave it a while just to make sure it was the lead and sho’nuf, it was his orange lead. For some reason these fish weren’t digging the orange, so I switched dad over to a green 4 ouncer and he was on a fish almost immediately.

By the time we went thru two dozen herring we had landed three nice keeper blackmouth, released half a dozen shakers, and missed quite a few more bites. Dad even took home a nice, fat sole to fry up for dinner tonight.

How did we find these blackmouth? Basically, I would putter around on the kicker motor until we found a large school of bait and then we would stop and work our baits up and down close to the bottom around the bait. This is when having great electronics gives you the ultimate edge.

One key point to mooching is to always keep some line angle and keep working your baits. We were constantly dropping our baits to the bottom and reeling them back up 15 to 20 feet, right in the blackmouth zone. The bites came both on the drop and reeling up. The Lamiglas Salmon Moocher rods that I use telegraph everything. You can detect a bite from even the smallest shaker.

I tied up some 7 foot leaders with 15 pound Maxima Ultragreen and two 3/0 fine wire Mustad hooks that are soooo perfect for mooching. Flourocarbon would also work great for this. In the winter I would keep it light and keep it limber though. Frozen herring will work, but fresh herring from Narrows Marina is da bomb and it works a LOT better.

Blackmouth fishing has been outstanding on Puget Sound this winter and one would expect Area 9 to be quite productive when it opens up on January 16th.

There’s a lot more productive ways to catch blackmouth, but anytime I can get them mooching I’m a happy man. If you’ve got a spot that you suspect has some blackmouth I recommend you give this technique a try. I know you’ll like it!

Rob Endsley
The Outdoor Line
710 ESPN Seattle
www.theoutdoorline.com

Imitation: the sincerest form of flattery…for fish and fishermen!

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One of the aspects of fishing that never ceases to fascinate me is the fact that there is always something new to learn. No two days are the same, let alone seasons! Each year a new wrinkle, a new point of emphasis, a new way to use old gear or perhaps a new area to fish works its way into my approach. This season there has been no shortage of new, surprising developments and as far as I travel to fish, I always come away with the thought that there is always, always more to learn. The challenge as I see it is to try and glean something new each and every day.

So, in no particular order, here are a couple of the finer points that the salmon -and salmon anglers- have taught me this season!

Size Matters

While some may look at the calendar and judge their seasons end on New Year’s Day, I look at the birth of a new salmon season when the first genuine spring chinook start poking their heads in from the oceanic pasture. The first true springers I see are at the Anacortes Salmon Derby in late March followed closely by the Columbia River spring chinook.

No matter what you find inside of your catch, it's up to you to identify it and be able to quickly and effectively mimic it!

For those that are paying close attention, the food items found in these early arriving chinook are a valued clue and actually set the tone for lure/bait selection throughout the season. Keep in mind that in general, bait sizes increase as winter turns to summer. There are exceptions, such as the small, summer candlefish hatches we see in the Straits of Juan de Fuca and Midchannel Bank but one concept remains concrete: Find the predominant, preferred salmonid food item and mimic it to the best of your ability with regard to size, color and depths.

Tacit Knowledge

Left Field time sports fans… Bear with me: There is a field of study known as “Knowledge Management”. The cornerstone of this philosophy is a concept known as “tacit knowledge” which describes the fact that we all know more than we can tell or teach . In other words,  people are not often aware of the knowledge they possess or how it can be valuable to others.

Have you ever been out fishing with someone, just going through your normal routine and they said “Hey, I didn’t know how you did that!..” You were most likely surprised at your companion’s response since it never occurred to you to mention it because you thought to yourself  “Heck, everybody knows that!” Welcome to tacit knowledge.

In my seminars and the Radio Show, I always try to put myself in the audience’s shoes. I’m very fortunate to be able to spend a lot of time on the water and I sincerely try to bring the benefit of that experience to the table each and every time. The problem is that I can’t know exactly what it is that you don’t know.

What Pacific Northwest angler wouldn't want to spend a day on the water with Captain John Keizer aboard the Lowrance boat?

 

I experience this situation myself when I get to fish with other guys in their signature fisheries. Buzz Ramsay at Buoy 10, Eric Linde on the Columbia, Rob Endsley, Jay Field & Larry Carpenter in the San Juan Islands , John Keizer out of Westport and Reel Class Charters Derek Floyd in Sitka, Alaska to name a few. I learned something specific from each of these talented, passionate professionals. Literally, I didn’t know what I didn’t know until I got a look how these guys did business in their own boats!

The key concept here: Be aware of the “players” in each of your fisheries. There is something that you can learn from them.  If you can get aboard with them,  great! But, if not there are always ways to learn by observation…and imitation!

Tom Nelson 710 ESPN Seattle

www.Theoutdoorline.com