Caught big pile of tackle and big pile of lake trout

While I was jigging for lake trout on Flathead Lake, I snagged my lure on something.  I pulled on it from several different directions, and it popped loose in several separate jerks, which is unusual.  When I finally got my lure loose from the bottom, it came up with a big snarl of other tackle, which included a Flatfish, a spoon, 2 squids ( hootchies), a cowbell flasher, a rubber snubber, and a deep six diver. So at least four other anglers apparently lost gear on that snag.

I caught nine lake trout, and released the biggest one.  I didn't have a hog trough with me, but estimate it was 34"-36" long.  I've caught three 33" lake trout and a 34.5" lake trout in the last couple of weeks, and think that this fish was bigger than those fish.

I once snagged about a 5 foot branch in the Skagit river during a Humpy season. Somehow managed to drag it to shore without breaking my line. There was 4 other sets of gear on it!

nice pile of rusty lake bottom tackle.

Hey, what kind of net has a big rubber basket like that?

Wow!  That's a big fish and big pile of gear!

Hey, what kind of net has a big rubber basket like that?

Lake trout have a nasty habit of rolling over and over when you net them, and I got tired of wasting lots of time untangling my lures from rubber-coated nylon mesh nets. So I got an Ego S2 “large deep” rubber net.    https://www.egofishing.com/products/s2-slider/large-deep-rubber-net/.  You can also get an Ego Kryptek large deep rubber net.  https://www.egofishing.com/products/kryptek-s2-slider/large-deep-rubber-net/.  Ego also sells large rubber nets which are only 15” deep, and those nets stretch when you get a big fish in them, but with a net which is only 15” deep, large fish can get their tail on the rim of the net and flip themselves out.  The large deep rubber nets can easily handle a 36” fish.  I haven’t caught a fish yet which was too big for the large deep net. 

These nets come with a handle which extends from 29” to 60”, but for kayak fishing I prefer a handle which is less than 29” long.  So I got an Ego Genesis S1 13” handle, which is interchangeable with the sliding handles.  https://www.egofishing.com/products/handles/s1-genesis-13in-handle/.  The second picture below shows the combination. In the rare occasions when I go fishing from a motor boat, I can screw in the sliding handle.

I’m real happy with the combination of the Ego S2 large deep rubber net and the Ego S1 Genesis 13” handle.  It’s easy to handle in a kayak, doesn’t stick up as high as a net with a longer handle, and it’s easy to get hooks out of the rubber mesh.  The first picture below shows that the net doesn't stick up very high from my kayak.

Bonus Day, Bonus Day.  Nicely done, I'm jealous. 

I've been doing a ton of kokanee fishing on lake Samish the past 7 weeks or so. About 4 weeks ago I got tired of extracting hooks from my net and bought a rubber net, man what a difference! kokes roll like mad but i haven't snagged another hook since.