05-28-2010, 04:55 PM
The great nemesis of the fisherman is the wind. It can cost you your life and most certainly ruin many fishing trips for the unprepared. This spring has been unseasonably wet, cold and windy. Last week I sat in a houseboat moored at Antelope Point on Lake Powell for 3 days as the wind blew 30 to 60 MPH nonstop.
Today I was not to be denied the water in spite of the weatherman’s warnings of potential 50MPH gusts.
At 6AM Ryan Thurner arrived at my house ready to go in search of a giant pike. Ryan is an exceptional angler in spite of his youth. He fished the deep productive waters off Kona Hawaii for 3 years as a deckhand, mate, wireman and finally got his Coast Guard Masters license to captain a boat. A remarkable feat for such a young angler.
I told Ryan about the wind warnings, but he was undaunted. My boat is seaworthy, but when conditions get too wild I get off the water. Whatever lay ahead of us we were determined to give it a try.
Ryan has a great collection of billfish lures, all beautiful, most scarred and pitted from being attacked by marlin, tuna, wahoo and sharks. I had told Ryan I would like to buy a few to put in my trophy room. Although he wouldn’t sell them he did agree to trade fishing trips for a few that I had chosen. The deal was cut and today we were going to fish.
It was clear and the water was flat save a slight chop. Water temp was 57 degrees. We launched at 7:45 from the Oasis launch ramp at the state park.
The days fishing techniques were decided on the drive down. We would troll 4 lines, two outside on side planers, two inside off the transom gunnels. Two long, two short. Lures were to be 26GM Tassies from Australia that I just had received. Yuba’s big pike get a lot of pressure and I wanted to give them a look at something they hadn’t seen before. We would cover a swath 75 foot wide with each trolling pass.
At 8:50 the port planer went off. Before I could holler at Ryan he was on the rod. With this many lines out, you can’t stop the boat to fight the fish or you’ll have a tangled mess. You can only hope that the angler can keep the fish clear of the lines. The helmsman steers the boat and assists with the netting. In this case there was no net aboard. Experienced anglers seldom use them as pike and other big fish thrash in the net injuring themselves. Ryan was on his own. I wasn’t concerned, with hundreds of big marlin and tuna brought aboard the boats he served as a mate on, a 3 foot pike wasn’t going to be a challenge.
10 Minutes later the fish was in the live well with fresh water and oxygen flowing across its gill rakers. I keep the pike in the live well until the end of the day. Two pumps insure more than sufficient water flow to keep them alive until some of the lactic acid build up in their bodies can dissipate. I do not want these beautiful fish to die and I do all I can to insure they are released healthy
The next 8 hours were uneventful. At noon the big winds came up blowing heavy clouds of dust from the west desert. We threw lures in protected bays and trolled the leeward edges searching for another willing pike, but it was not to be. When we released Ryan’s pike it measured 36 inches and weighted 14 pounds. Ryan was happy, as was I. In spite of horrible fishing conditions we had managed a big fish and cemented a friendship.
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Today I was not to be denied the water in spite of the weatherman’s warnings of potential 50MPH gusts.
At 6AM Ryan Thurner arrived at my house ready to go in search of a giant pike. Ryan is an exceptional angler in spite of his youth. He fished the deep productive waters off Kona Hawaii for 3 years as a deckhand, mate, wireman and finally got his Coast Guard Masters license to captain a boat. A remarkable feat for such a young angler.
I told Ryan about the wind warnings, but he was undaunted. My boat is seaworthy, but when conditions get too wild I get off the water. Whatever lay ahead of us we were determined to give it a try.
Ryan has a great collection of billfish lures, all beautiful, most scarred and pitted from being attacked by marlin, tuna, wahoo and sharks. I had told Ryan I would like to buy a few to put in my trophy room. Although he wouldn’t sell them he did agree to trade fishing trips for a few that I had chosen. The deal was cut and today we were going to fish.
It was clear and the water was flat save a slight chop. Water temp was 57 degrees. We launched at 7:45 from the Oasis launch ramp at the state park.
The days fishing techniques were decided on the drive down. We would troll 4 lines, two outside on side planers, two inside off the transom gunnels. Two long, two short. Lures were to be 26GM Tassies from Australia that I just had received. Yuba’s big pike get a lot of pressure and I wanted to give them a look at something they hadn’t seen before. We would cover a swath 75 foot wide with each trolling pass.
At 8:50 the port planer went off. Before I could holler at Ryan he was on the rod. With this many lines out, you can’t stop the boat to fight the fish or you’ll have a tangled mess. You can only hope that the angler can keep the fish clear of the lines. The helmsman steers the boat and assists with the netting. In this case there was no net aboard. Experienced anglers seldom use them as pike and other big fish thrash in the net injuring themselves. Ryan was on his own. I wasn’t concerned, with hundreds of big marlin and tuna brought aboard the boats he served as a mate on, a 3 foot pike wasn’t going to be a challenge.
10 Minutes later the fish was in the live well with fresh water and oxygen flowing across its gill rakers. I keep the pike in the live well until the end of the day. Two pumps insure more than sufficient water flow to keep them alive until some of the lactic acid build up in their bodies can dissipate. I do not want these beautiful fish to die and I do all I can to insure they are released healthy
The next 8 hours were uneventful. At noon the big winds came up blowing heavy clouds of dust from the west desert. We threw lures in protected bays and trolled the leeward edges searching for another willing pike, but it was not to be. When we released Ryan’s pike it measured 36 inches and weighted 14 pounds. Ryan was happy, as was I. In spite of horrible fishing conditions we had managed a big fish and cemented a friendship.
[url "http://utahfishingguide.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/yuba-dust.jpg"]
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