Global Warming Play: Shimano Tranx

[Sharphooks]

Last September out on La Perouse was a learning experience for me: no springs in the usual places; no springs at the usual depths. I saw a thin red line of Bait clinging to the bottom in 70 meters of water....I finally realized if I didn't go visit that bait with my gear I'd have skunk on my breath---that trip really was the first time in my fishing career I was compelled to fish deep ALL THE TIME to get my springs.

This past June and first half of July---same thing---summer springs, which in years past I've ALWAYS been able to find at 15 to 20 meters, have all consistently been DEEP---- hands down the best summer spring fishing I've ever had in the Salish Sea, but ALL my fish have been at 50 to 70 meters, roughly three times the depth I'm used to fishing.

So I'm thinking this might be the way things are going to be going forward, or at least until the El Nino effect goes back into remission....

And as fishing is all about adapting to what you see with your eyes (and especially after my experience up in Ucluelet last September), I made some changes in my gear.

First thing I did: I picked up a Scotty HP. Great piece of equipment! I'm running wire on it instead of braid and I've figured out that on slack tides you can still use lighter weights even when going deep (10 lbs works fine)

The second Global Warming Play I did:

I picked up a Shimano Tranx 500HG level wind reel. These things are BEASTS but it's the only reel I found that can actually keep up with the HP Scotty. My Hardy Longstones and Eddystones? Not even in the same ballpark, even with the older Scotties---no way could I keep up on the retrieve

But the Tranx 500 HG (HG= high gear) picks up an astonishing 43 inches per crank of the handle--- that's more then 3 1/2 feet of line per revolution of the spool! After a 60 meter drop of the gear, I switched on the HP Scotty and when the clip broke water I had approx 2 meters of line still left in the water---two cranks of the handle and I was tight to the clip---pretty amazing.

But they are beasts! They weigh 20 oz. buck naked but once you get the HUGE spool stacked with braid and mono (the full spool gets you that 43" retrieve per handle revo) ....it's heavy!

Here's a Tranx 500HG comparison with a Shimano Calcutta:




That big white knob on that handle off to the side? The Tranx came stock with that handle ---after the first trip I decided to mod the reel with a Daiwa twin-paddle handle so it would balance better in the Scotty rod holder:



I picked up three nice springs on my first trip out with this reel:



This was actually a chunky mid teen fish but it looks like a herring up against that reel.

I'm on my way to the promised land next week for a three week boat camping extravaganza: that Tranx I'm hoping will get amortized in short order!

 

[tubber]

You can't use Canadian words like meters and spring and then use a levelwind off a downrigger. I just spent 3 days trying to keep up to an HP with knuckleduster, so I know where you're at. I looks like a winner. I found when fishing deep, to raise the ball up off the bottom 30 feet, crank down on the rod again, then hold the reel handle and let the ball back down to pop the clip, then don't even bother reeling in until the flasher is planing on the surface.
I'm not a global warming skeptic, but I would say Ukee is fishing more normally than last year. We actually got only one spring and a million cohos at La Perouse last year one August day. I think the fish were way out deep 300+ and on the Beach, which is closed in August for big ones. Lots from 20' to bottom at Big Bank this year. Water was 55-56* there, but 61* in the deep before you reach the bank which was indeed unusual.

 

[walleyes]

Interesting stuff,, always enjoy seeing what other people use and have adapted to.. We live and we learn,, the day we tell ourselves we know enough and stop trying to learn is the day well,, we stop learning I guess..