I was out with Rockfish yesterday and we were fishing Secretary. We hit the water around 9:30am and had a some bites in the morning and release some wild coho. At 12:15, we had a huge hit and Rockfish grabbed the rod. This was a good fish and it took 3 nice runs and charged the boat as well. I had to give the boat some boat speed to catch up to the charging fish as he was reeling like a madman. Eventually Rockfish brought the spring up to the back of the boat and he remembered my netting skills from a couple of seasons ago where I lost his big spring which we estimated to be around 40lbs. I really blew that net job and lost his big fish. Granted, my netting skills had improved markedly since then especially after Rockfish made me practice my technique 30 times in the water until I had it down perfectly especially with his oversized net. Nonetheless, he decided not to take the chance on a good sized spring and he switched spots as he is confident in my fish playing experience. To Rockfish's credit, he is the best net man that I have ever fished with. He handed the rod to me and he took the net. As you would expect, the fish did not want to cooperate and be easily netted. Every time that it saw Rockfish, he dove back down and refused to come up. Rockfish did a great job of manouvering the boat to keep it in position for potential netting. The spring was starting to swim in front of the riggers and Rockfish had to gun the kicker to create space. It then, swam towards the motors at the back of the boat. I had to scoot to the side of the boat and steer it out of the motors. Eventually, the spring came up momentarily and Rockfish netted it up with one precise scoop and it was finally in the bag. We were also able catch one of the biggest hatchery cohos that we have seen in couple of seasons. We also released some wild coho. It was a beautiful calm and very hot day on the water.
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