More sockeye

[Okanagan]

6:45 AM Tues.  Two daily limits and we had lost a few.  Was fishing with a friend.  Got one my first cast.  Love it when the fish are there in numbers.

Doggone, I gotta find a time and place to fly fish for sockeye.  They are SOOOO much fun on a flyrod.

[Tappen]

nice lookin fish okanagan, fancy lookin rod to!

[pitw]

Couple questions OK.  Are the two on the left hens?  The one on the right has a target [Kinda/sorta] like was on some WW1 planes right in front of the tail.  Why?

[coyote101]

Nice fish.  I'd like to try that sometime.

Pat

[pitw]

Nice fish.  I'd like to try that sometime.

Pat

Your retired now .

[FinsnFur]

That IZZz wierd. What is that target thingy Barry pointed out?

[coyote101]

RAF roundel

[FinsnFur]

yeah but......

[golfertrout]

nice fish   like to be there right now

[pitw]

RAF roundel

  What idiot thought that would be a good thing to put on a plane .

[Okanagan]

Couple questions OK.  Are the two on the left hens?  The one on the right has a target [Kinda/sorta] like was on some WW1 planes right in front of the tail.  Why?

1.  Target thingy:  it was raining lightly and my guess is that it is a fleck of water on the camera lens rather than on the fish.  I don't recall seeing anything like that on any of the fish.

2.  Sex of These fish:  two were hens and two males.  In the photo, the one on the far left is definitely a male.  They tend to be larger, heavier and more muscular, and their jaws morph into a hook a little more.  Plus my partner landed it and cut it slightly different than I did the others so I am sure about that one.  Of the others, I'm not sure which is which.

Tappan:  10.5 foot graphite rod, rated for 17 lb test max and 1.5 oz. sinker max.  I over load it with 2 oz sinkers often but never exceed the line rating.  It has 40(?) lb powerpro or some such braided line and 17 lb. leader.  I prefer 10-12 lb. leader for sockeye but am catching plenty of them, can muscle the fish a little more with heavier line to keep the fish from running into other lines if needed,  and run the heavier line in case I hook a spring salmon.  While fishing for sockeye I've caught springs up to 32 lbs. (also called king, Chinook, blackmouth, Tyee).   6501 Abu Garcia Ambassador C4 left hand reel.  I cast right and reel left handed.

By the time they spawn a few hundred kliks up river, all of these sockeye will change color into bright tomato red bodies and grass green heads.

[Okanagan]

nice fish   like to be there right now

You and me and Pat and maybe a few others could form our own section of combat line!

I still haven't fished any combat lines.  Yesterday morning we started early enough to need a flashlight to wade to where we fished, away from the main combat lines anyway, and only one young man arrived at the same time.  He fiddled with gear more than he fished, though he managed to hook my line once when I had a fish on, but no problem and I landed it easily.  We were walking back to our rig with limits before hardly anyone got to that gravel bar, people coming in as we left.

The evening before I went late in the dusk and saw a 60 yard gap in a fishing line up.  Hmmm... Yep, there was a reason.  The water was a lot deeper and you could not wade out to get in line with the line-up of fishermen standing rib deep and casting into deeper water toward mid-river.    I stopped well back, made short casts and hooked a fish my second cast.  Lost it as I landed it, but got all the fight.  Landed the next one a couple of minutes later and thought I was shaping up as the gunslinger but never could get another one though I hooked two more briefly before heading home.  Never stood close to anyone nor came close to tangling.  Mostly hooked and played fish behind the backs of people who had waded way out and were facing mid river.


Didn't get out today.  Work and such sure gets in the way of a man's fishing.