Triple hookup + 10 species landed 11 hooked + visit by the landlord Trinidad 7-5

I started the day with little sleep because of the fireworks scaring my dog Miles and causing him to jump in bed and sit by my head.  Anyways, I set out at 4am, stopped by my house to grab bait and some gear.  I was able to get on the water just after 6:00, but with no food and not eating a breakfast.  Oh well, I can always slice up some fresh salmon when I get one.  :smt003 

While I was setting up at the launch I noticed a small dead shark that I thought was a salmon shark, but the fishcounter who interviewed me when I got back to shore said it was a small great white. Miles would not let anyone near the shark on the beach.

I started trolling at 95ft for a brief while because of the signs of salmon, but I soon reeled up and kept a northwest heading toward a spot I set on my gps near the 300ft line.  I pedaled out till I reached 108ft when I saw more birds and bait.  It didn't take long an I was hooked up.  Speeding like a bullet to the surface and jumping out of the water were obvious signs of another silver which it was.  I took a quick pic with the DFW survey camera and unhooked the 8lb Oregon hatchery silver to swim away.  Not wanting to waste time with more silvers I pedaled out without trolling till I reached a small group of boats  around 200ft.  I put my trolling gear down and got hit but it didn't stick.  I rebaited and put down again and not long after I hooked up and brought another silver to the kayak, but it came off about 10ft underwater so I wasn't able to document it for DFW.  I rebaited and set back down.  When I got to 236ft I hooked up again and this time the salmon stayed down and fought more like a chinook.  I battled it for a while wearing it out till I was able to grab the leader and then I grabbed the salmon by the tail and lifted it to the trough for a quick pic and released it so I didn't have to be stuck fishing one line with 2 barbless hooks.  I made it to the spot I set on my GPS at 10am and began baiting my halibut setups at 297ft.  First I setup my 2speed Avet with the Godfather rig with a 24oz jig on the bottom.  I baited this rig with 2 large herring a salmon belly and some salmon collar on the jig.  Next, I got my sand dab + halibut rig and baited it with small salmon pieces a salmon belly a large herring and some anchovy pieces and sent it down.  Finally, I baited my spreader with a large B2 squid with a salmon belly and sent it down.  It didn't take long on the sand dab + halibut setup to start getting hits.  I reeled in a small petrale sole and a hake which I documented for DFW.  I sent the same rig back down with some fresh bait on the empty hooks and was nailed by some more hake.  The hake were not going back down, but its a trash fish as well as a nuisance for the salmon smoltz because they tend to show up when the water warms due to an El Nino and devastate the salmon smoltz.  Curious to see how well they work for bait, I reeled in my rod with the B2 Squid and put the hake on there.  I was agin quickly bitten on the sand dab rod and I reeled up a spinydogfish.  I got some pics for DFW and myself and released it, rebaited and back down with the snad dab rod.  Tap, tap tap, yank and reel to get a double on spiny dogfish.  I took pics for dwf and myself and repeated the process above.  It wasn't even 11am and I already had landed 6 species.

A little after 11am I get some action on the spreader rod with the B@ squid, but it didn't stick.  I reeled it up to find nothing but the head left on the hake. I rebaited it with a live sand dab and sent it back down.  An hour goes by of reeling up some more dabs, another sole and another spiny dogfish when things started to get interesting.  By now my bait sitting between my legs is thawed out and apparently leaving a good scent trail since the salmon belly were soaked in butt juice and the herring had been brined with lots of scents.  The mirage drive hole was dispersing the scent as the bait thawed.  I hear a small splash behind my boat and turn around to see what it was, but I couldn't determine the cause of the splash.  Then shortly after I see a shark about 8ft long about ten feet under water that was all black on top and white on the bottom.  I got a quick rush of adrenaline, pulled the bait away from the mirage drive hole and posted my encounter on Facebook as I was already in the process of giving a play by play of my fishing for the day.  It circled the kayak a couple of times and disappeared, but that wasn't it.  Not long later a blue shark showed to check things out then swam away slowly.  Its a coincidence that I almost bought a shark lrig the day before at Kmart, but I put it back on the shelf.  I took the weight off my dab rod and threw it out with a salmon collar on it.  It drifted for awhile until I could see it drifting toward my kayak.  I could now see the line in the water since the clarity was really good.  I then noticed the blue shark was back looking at the bait.  The ~8ft blue grabbed the bait and took off.  It was hooked good and the reel started to scream.  I watched the line go out as I tightened the drag some when it slowed down.  I reeled a little bit of line back in before it went on another run and took off and then broke the leader.  I glad it broke off cause I don't think I thought that through real well since I had 2 halibut rigs out on the other side of my kayak near the bottom.  It could have been a disaster if it tangled in the other lines or if I was towed since the halibut rigs have heavy weights which could cause me to flip the yak.  The action kept happening as I got my first takedown at 12:25pm, but for some reason it didn't stick.   I rebaited the spreader rod and also checked the Godfather rig and put a live sand dab on it since it was just nailed on the spreader rig.  Less than 10 minutes go by and I have another good takedown.  This time its on or at least it was for a short while till it came unbuttoned.  I re-rigged my sand dab rod with another verticle rig with 7/0 circle hooks that I tied myself.  I put herring, salmon, and a live sand dab on the rig and sent it down.

Less than an hour goes by before things get crazy.  I have the sand dab rig in my hands at all times unless Im eating, relieving myself, or on my phone.  I feel a good tug, then TUG! TUG! OH YEAH!!! I got a a pac butt on the line.  I began the trying to reel it up carefully since I had it on 40lb main line with 60lb leader that has dropper loops which makes the line less than 60lb strength.  It makes some runs and I reel back the line when all of a sudden the rod behind me, the spreader rod with the sand dab below the B2 squid gets a good hard takedown and goes bendo.  I put the sand dab rod down as I know the halibut is hooked good on a good circle hook.  I pick up the spreader rod and reel up , but it isn't budging much and it isn't doing any head shakes so I put it back in the holder and concentrate on the halibut.  Oh shit! The other rod gets a hard takedown and starts bouncing up and down while line is coming out.  ITS A TRIPLE!!!!! During all this I send out a quick post on Facebook at 1:21 that I have a triple on.  I put the sand dab rod down and reel on the other halibut to make sure its on good.  SInce the line was much heavier on the Avet I decided to reel in the halibut on the sand dab rod first.  After 5 minutes or so I have the halibut to the surface.  I had my weathermans gaff ready with bouy attached.  I grabbed the hook on the gaff and carefully placed it in the halibuts mouth and yanked up setting the hook securely in its head.  It thrashed a little then I carefully put it in my lap on the trough and got a couple of pics.  It was larger than my Check-it stick which is 38" long. I set the rod in the holder and let out some slack and put the halibut back in the water.  Now I worked on the butt on the Avet since I was confident that the spreader rod had a skate on it.  I got the other halibut to the surface, wrestled with it for a minute, then pulled it in my lap to get a pic on the trough.  This halibut was an inch or so so shorter so I took a pic with the DFW camera and released it and watched it swim back down.  I then proceded to see if I was correct in reeling the spreader rod in last even though it felt like a bigger fish.  Sure enough I was correct since it didn't fight much at all that it was a skate around 40lbs.  I got a pic for DFW and myself, then struggled with getting the hook out of its mouth before finally being successful and releasing the skate safely to swim off.  Next I retrieved my halibut on the weatherman's gaff and cut its gills as well as ripped its guts out to prevent the worms from crawling into the meat.  I took some pictures, posted to facebook, cleaned up and proceded to get ready to get my chrome on.  It was now 2:00pm as I set out to troll back in and try and pick up a couple of kings.

I was getting frustrated after having the first 2 takedowns and hearing a couple of boats around me landing 1 or 2 halibut nearby.  I was stoked to land all fish on the triple, but just a little disappointed that it wasn't a larger halibut.  Not long into trolling I got hit, but it didn't stick.    I rebait and put it back down 60 pulls and a while goes by before I have a hookup.  Damnit! Its another good sized silver that I get to the yak and snap a quick pic for dDFW in the water and release it.  I wish these damn Oregon fish would go home and quit trespassing in our waters.  I had a couple more good take downs and one more silver, but that was it for salmon for the day.  I wanted to fish some rockfish so I came in on an outer reef by green rock, but had a hard time finding the shallower rocks since my GPS/FF battery died.  I decided to go right near green rock and dropped down a large herring on a mooching rig.  It was tough since the wind was blowing pretty good and the current was going in the same direction as the wind.  I did manage to get some action and landed a nice 19" black, a 27" ling and a 28" ling.  It was starting to get late so I tried trolling up some more rockfish without success and when I got around blank rod I pulled the plug and pedaled in.  I was back to shore by 7:30.  I was greeted by the DFW fish counter and gave him my report and the camera.  He measured my catch and weighed the halibut which weighed 24.5lbs on their scale.  It would have been around 30lbs with the guts and blood in it.
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A few more pics from a long but fun day...

Great report.  You are a multi tasking GOD. 

I can handle fishing two rods at once, barely.  You have an ongoing triple and decide thats not crazy enough might as well post to facebook!  Amazing!

Great report.  You are a multi tasking GOD. 

I can handle fishing two rods at once, barely.  You have an ongoing triple and decide thats not crazy enough might as well post to facebook!  Amazing!

lol this

The liveblogging on Facebook was epic.

  That was one of the best reports I have ever read on this forum.


  Very cool.........thanks.

That was a bad ass report!  Thanks for all the fish porn!!!

-Spot-

What a totally epic day, Matanaska!  Makes the kokanees I caught on Sunday seem just a bit wimpy.

What an epic day. How many miles are you covering on a trip like this? Have you always had super human powers? Do you train to be able to do that many miles or is fishing that hard the training?

10 species? That. Is. AWESOME. Super jealous. I love variety days.

What an epic day. How many miles are you covering on a trip like this? Have you always had super human powers? Do you train to be able to do that many miles or is fishing that hard the training?

7 miles offshore to the halibut spot + trolling for salmon etc.= ~18 miles that day   
Im active and have always been in relatively good shape also having a high metabolism helps too.

You win!
It doesn't matter what the contest is - you still win!

Thanks for sharing. After a day like that, do you sleep another full day afterwards?

Yeah love those pics. Beautiful country and nice fish.

Love the pics! Great job.