Bragging Rights Photo Op

Mine is from shore last year . Using 13 foot ultra lite rod, st2000 ultra lite reel, 8 pound mono with 17 pound leader as the fish that day was breaking 15 leaders. Cleaned it and it was little over 23 pound so my guess over 25 pounds. Thank goodness I had help as I was still 30 feet away from the shore when he bottom out. My buddy came with the net and barley got it into it


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Beauty! That rod must’ve had quite the bend! What were you casting, buzz bomb?
 
Like many posts on this thread, mine is more about the story and circumstances than the size of the fish. I have two young kids, neither of whom have shown much interest in fishing. I have made the conscious decision to let them come to it of their own accord, rather than have me drag them to it. We have enjoyed some great days with light tackle and lots of pinks along the beaches of Howe sound but I've been reluctant to take them out for trolling for springs. I haven't wanted to turn them off with long periods of inactivity and/or choppy waters.

One night this past July was favourable for a short outing. I planned for a trip of only two hours with my wife and kids. I resolved to fish only as long as they liked and were comfortable. There had been the odd spring taken in previous days, but mindful we might only be out for a short trip and that there were some cohos and early pinks around, I didn't bother with bait and just ran a couple of spoons and a hot pink hootchie with glow stripe. Ran all the gear in the top 50'.

Over the two hours we had a few popoffs and undersize, but nothing but a nice night on the water to show for it. The witching hour was approaching for the kids, so I began pulling gear. I had two of three rods in and was reaching for the third (the one with the hootchie) when it popped. After a tremendous fight with everyone taking a turn on the rod we boated this nice plump 20 lber. Not a monster by any stretch, but a lovely fish.

The evening couldn't have worked out better. The look on my daughter's face says it all.

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Like many posts on this thread, mine is more about the story and circumstances than the size of the fish. I have two young kids, neither of whom have shown much interest in fishing. I have made the conscious decision to let them come to it of their own accord, rather than have me drag them to it. We have enjoyed some great days with light tackle and lots of pinks along the beaches of Howe sound but I've been reluctant to take them out for trolling for springs. I haven't wanted to turn them off with long periods of inactivity and/or choppy waters.

One night this past July was favourable for a short outing. I planned for a trip of only two hours with my wife and kids. I resolved to fish only as long as they liked and were comfortable. There had been the odd spring taken in previous days, but mindful we might only be out for a short trip and that there were some cohos and early pinks around, I didn't bother with bait and just ran a couple of spoons and a hot pink hootchie with glow stripe. Ran all the gear in the top 50'.

Over the two hours we had a few popoffs and undersize, but nothing but a nice night on the water to show for it. The witching hour was approaching for the kids, so I began pulling gear. I had two of three rods in and was reaching for the third (the one with the hootchie) when it popped. After a tremendous fight with everyone taking a turn on the rod we boated this nice plump 20 lber. Not a monster by any stretch, but a lovely fish.

The evening couldn't have worked out better. The look on my daughter's face says it all.
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Awesome! I love those last second bites, when you’re about to call it.
I am planning on starting another thread in the summer called ‘Bragging Rights Junior’ made for the photos with the kids having a blast. So watch for that and take pics with the kids/grandkids etc and be ready!
 
Ok I got one for you. It's not a fish, but I caught it in the water.

Some might think it's fake, but it anit. That rod in my hand, is spoiled with 200# braid. On the end is a large treble hook with ~12 ounces of lead melted around it.

My wife got me a surprise 30th birthday gift. Told me a couple hours before it was time to go to the airport. She sent me down to Mississippi. 3 hr drive to Natches & 30 min boat ride to a base camp. On private land 1200 acres of swap and acorn trees.

Not like tv at all. Way better! Mississippi has tight rules and you need a state registered angent guide. Absolutely no baiting & you can't shot it until you have a rope around the top jaw.

When I showed up we went out in a 14' John boat with a small electric motor.... seen lots of gators & then the guide seen the beast caster out and fan the bottom until I snagged him in the tail as he laid on the bottom. Craziest **** of my life.... it smashed its teeth on the side of the boat & even the guide was surprised how big he was. Finally got a soap around the back leg when I had nothing left in the tanks... we each took 30 seconds and then game on agian. This time with a rope.. finally got a rope around the top jaw and,,,,,,, no gun!!! The guide said, "well you wanted to fight this gator to the end".....

Ended up landing on the bank and then we pulled him out of the water a couple feet. Tied him up and the rest is history. I got the head on the front entrance and the skin on the wall.
 

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I was invited along with a 4 other fishermen to Eve river log dump for a fish sep 2017 .Myself being prefered spin fisher, choose to stay downstream of the fly fishers I was in company with.I had no waders and dressed in my city clothing and needed help landing 18# coho on a pink small bluefox.Then more help with a 24 # spring on a fire orange croc .Another 8 # pink soon followed with one more 8# coho on the small pink bluefox.Now after fishing a couple hours it was lunchtime and we went back to the truck and the four new flyfishing friends coached me to pick up the fly rod and reunite with flyfishing .I had brought a 10w 9' rod /line and was shown the lattest best knots to tye a tapper leader,was given several flys to choose from ,and chose a pink shank, brass eyed ,pink flashabou handlebar fly. Feeling good after a great morning fish the 5 of us went back to the river.The 4 of them waded into the river and two crossed to the other side.I without waders stayed on the bank.I found myself allong side another fly fisherman and he commented on switching from spinning to fly.I replyed i't felt better to fit in and started to flail.The fly just laned for the first cast ,I hooked a 10#atlantic salmon .I jumped into the river to land once the fellow from Mirimachi confermed the fish was truly atlantic salmon and bonked the fish .I stuck the atlantic on a stick and watched others and fielded questions the rest of the day. Still today I haven't seen pictures of west coast sport caught atantic salmon except mine .TIMG_1357.JPG IMG_1357.JPG hat day I caught 4 spiecies of salmon sharing the cost of only fuel for the truck.
 
I gotta ask. Did you eat it?
Looks like a clean fish.

I was invited along with a 4 other fishermen to Eve river log dump for a fish sep 2017 .Myself being prefered spin fisher, choose to stay downstream of the fly fishers I was in company with.I had no waders and dressed in my city clothing and needed help landing 18# coho on a pink small bluefox.Then more help with a 24 # spring on a fire orange croc .Another 8 # pink soon followed with one more 8# coho on the small pink bluefox.Now after fishing a couple hours it was lunchtime and we went back to the truck and the four new flyfishing friends coached me to pick up the fly rod and reunite with flyfishing .I had brought a 10w 9' rod /line and was shown the lattest best knots to tye a tapper leader,was given several flys to choose from ,and chose a pink shank, brass eyed ,pink flashabou handlebar fly. Feeling good after a great morning fish the 5 of us went back to the river.The 4 of them waded into the river and two crossed to the other side.I without waders stayed on the bank.I found myself allong side another fly fisherman and he commented on switching from spinning to fly.I replyed i't felt better to fit in and started to flail.The fly just laned for the first cast ,I hooked a 10#atlantic salmon .I jumped into the river to land once the fellow from Mirimachi confermed the fish was truly atlantic salmon and bonked the fish .I stuck the atlantic on a stick and watched others and fielded questions the rest of the day. Still today I haven't seen pictures of west coast sport caught atantic salmon except mine .TView attachment 36612 View attachment 36612 hat day I caught 4 spiecies of salmon sharing the cost of only fuel for the truck.
 
Ok I got one for you. It's not a fish, but I caught it in the water.

Some might think it's fake, but it anit. That rod in my hand, is spoiled with 200# braid. On the end is a large treble hook with ~12 ounces of lead melted around it.

My wife got me a surprise 30th birthday gift. Told me a couple hours before it was time to go to the airport. She sent me down to Mississippi. 3 hr drive to Natches & 30 min boat ride to a base camp. On private land 1200 acres of swap and acorn trees.

Not like tv at all. Way better! Mississippi has tight rules and you need a state registered angent guide. Absolutely no baiting & you can't shot it until you have a rope around the top jaw.

When I showed up we went out in a 14' John boat with a small electric motor.... seen lots of gators & then the guide seen the beast caster out and fan the bottom until I snagged him in the tail as he laid on the bottom. Craziest **** of my life.... it smashed its teeth on the side of the boat & even the guide was surprised how big he was. Finally got a soap around the back leg when I had nothing left in the tanks... we each took 30 seconds and then game on agian. This time with a rope.. finally got a rope around the top jaw and,,,,,,, no gun!!! The guide said, "well you wanted to fight this gator to the end".....

Ended up landing on the bank and then we pulled him out of the water a couple feet. Tied him up and the rest is history. I got the head on the front entrance and the skin on the wall.


That's pretty cool.
 
This fish for me is probably the most memorable of my life (and my son for that matter). My 11 year old son had been napping under the console of the boat and had just woken up. He grabbed his jigging rod and tosses over his butterfly jig and was still half asleep as his lure is falling. All of a sudden he's yelling at me that his line is flying off his reel so I quickly reach over and flip the lever and BAM, almost took the poor kid overboard. Well by then he was down 200' (he was using a line counter Tekota 300). The fish took a big run, he worked it back all the way up to about 15'. As soon as it saw the boat, it did a screamer of a run 175' down to the bottom in literally seconds. He refused to let me help him and fought it for another 15 minutes before landing this 26lb beauty. He was mad because he couldn't lift it himself for the photo...too heavy and too thick a tail!
 

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This fish for me is probably the most memorable of my life (and my son for that matter). My 11 year old son had been napping under the console of the boat and had just woken up. He grabbed his jigging rod and tosses over his butterfly jig and was still half asleep as his lure is falling. All of a sudden he's yelling at me that his line is flying off his reel so I quickly reach over and flip the lever and BAM, almost took the poor kid overboard. Well by then he was down 200' (he was using a line counter Tekota 300). The fish took a big run, he worked it back all the way up to about 15'. As soon as it saw the boat, it did a screamer of a run 175' down to the bottom in literally seconds. He refused to let me help him and fought it for another 15 minutes before landing this 26lb beauty. He was mad because he couldn't lift it himself for the photo...too heavy and too thick a tail!

That smile is priceless....
 
Well mine has no big numbers, just a good day on the water. Left home at 7am (boat on trailer) this picture was taken at 3pm at home boat on trailer.
 

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Ok I got one for you. It's not a fish, but I caught it in the water.

Some might think it's fake, but it anit. That rod in my hand, is spoiled with 200# braid. On the end is a large treble hook with ~12 ounces of lead melted around it.

My wife got me a surprise 30th birthday gift. Told me a couple hours before it was time to go to the airport. She sent me down to Mississippi. 3 hr drive to Natches & 30 min boat ride to a base camp. On private land 1200 acres of swap and acorn trees.

Not like tv at all. Way better! Mississippi has tight rules and you need a state registered angent guide. Absolutely no baiting & you can't shot it until you have a rope around the top jaw.

When I showed up we went out in a 14' John boat with a small electric motor.... seen lots of gators & then the guide seen the beast caster out and fan the bottom until I snagged him in the tail as he laid on the bottom. Craziest **** of my life.... it smashed its teeth on the side of the boat & even the guide was surprised how big he was. Finally got a soap around the back leg when I had nothing left in the tanks... we each took 30 seconds and then game on agian. This time with a rope.. finally got a rope around the top jaw and,,,,,,, no gun!!! The guide said, "well you wanted to fight this gator to the end".....

Ended up landing on the bank and then we pulled him out of the water a couple feet. Tied him up and the rest is history. I got the head on the front entrance and the skin on the wall.

Chubbs Peterson would be proud.
 

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Been lucky enough to hit 4 over 30 in local Vancouver waters, I attribute that to having the best crew I guy could ask for, my wife and boy. We put in a crazy amount of time on the water, stick and make it pay. They are all pretty memorable, the first one was early on caught on my old boat off the mile markers at 30 feet. Technically it was foul hooked right in the tip of the dorsal fin, took forever to get in, spooled me many times over as being hooked where it was allowed it free range to run. In the end we had a seal getting in real close and almost got us, but my wife managed to get it in the net basically just as the hook slid out of the fin as it was just barely in there. That fish was caught on a watermelon flasher and big ugly.
 
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This was caught within a week of our first one as of course we proceed to hammer the same area along the mile markers in hopes of another big one. We had gone sockeye fishing first in the morning down towards t 10 before setting up off the bell. I remember I decided to start cleaning our socks as we had lots as we had a few friends on board also. I was cleaning the fish on the deck, head down covered in blood I remember looking up feeling tired needing a breather when I see one of the rods just going nuts rod tip hitting the water ready to break in half lol. My first thought was wtf, the next was none of you other people noticed this, guess I grabbed the rod all slimy blood handed. I can’t remember to many other details except our guests being so stoked to see such a fish. Of course we had used the same flasher and big ugly
 
Holy hell...that's on my bucket list, how long was the run out there? Were they hitting surface lures on the troll or live bait? Dang...

All on the troll....6 rods out, 4 with zukers up top on the surface and 2 Xraps just off the stern that dive down a bit but not too far. Salmon felt a bit boring after that day. ;)

Run was about 2-2.5 hours out in great water til we found the temp break. As we were getting things set up I looked over the side and there were fish cruising by....I started laughing as we are in the middle of nowhere and our 'Yoda' of tuna fishing and basically stopped us right in them...had our first on before we even got half the rods out. Epic day. :cool:
 
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This one was caught in April off south Bowen for my wife’s birthday. I remember luckily the boy was sleeping allowing us to relax and focus on fishing but my wife was on an important business call when the fish hit. Her call lasted the entire time I was playing the fish and steering the boat and what not I think she put them on hold to net it. It was awesome being such an early season tyee. C20877B5-CC4C-4085-AF03-D3D91DE352CD.jpeg
 
Well mine has no big numbers, just a good day on the water. Left home at 7am (boat on trailer) this picture was taken at 3pm at home boat on trailer.
Nice haul!! Awesome pic, but I believe proper West Coast protocol would be a couple cans of delicious Lucky Lager, not caribou... ;)
 
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