FishwithJD

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How to Pick the Best Plug Color for Kings

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What’s the best plug color for salmon? The one they’re biting…of course. Sorry — bad joke! Anyway, It’s easy to get overwhelmed by all the Kwikfish and Flatfish color choices hanging on the wall at the local tackle mart, but keep in mind that you really only need a few to cover most of the bases.

The longer I guide, the more I find that I try to keep things simplified…a fellow could go crazy worrying about all the details! So, here’s my basic color selection guidelines for fishing for river kings:Click here to read more…

Trolling for San Francisco Bay Halibut

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jay-lopes
While live bait drifting has always been a popular method for hooking California halibut from Baja to Oregon, trolling is really gaining a good following and its easy to see why: it allows you to cover lots of ground quickly and locate fish… plus, it’s deadly!

Here’s how to do it:
Click here to read more…

Will I get smoked on the Kenai?

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I am heading to the Kenai Peninsula and will probably fish for king on the Kenai River in a week or so.

I don’t really have heavy duty 30lb test line rated rod and reel. I don’t really want to buy them either unless I have to.

I was planning on using a Abu Garcia Ambassadeur 6501-C Casting Reel with a Shimano Clarus – Med, Heavy – 8 1/2 Rod. I also plan to use 20 lb test line even though I was told that 30 lb is
probably best to use.

We will be fishing from a non-guided boat for Kings.

Do you think this is big enough gear?

Thank you, Ben L.

Hey Ben!

Going to the Kenai, eh? Sweet! That’s the good news. The bad news is you had better say a few last words to your tackle before it meets its untimely demise. One of those Kenai kings will atomize your gear and turn it into a smoldering heap of graphite shards and melted drag washers before you can say “fish on.”

The Kenai is a big, extremely fast-flowing river with about 200 million other boats on it and you have about a zero percent chance of landing anything but humpies on that rig. Twenty pound test is suicide and will not make you guys real popular with the locals because you won’t be able to control a king in crowded conditions.

Up there, most of the guides are running 80-pound braid and 60-pound leader (at least) on rods like GLoomis’ SABBR965C or Lamiglas’ Kenai Pro and big reels like Shimano Calcutta TE 700’s or Abu Big Game Series 7000’s.

Sorry to say, but in a spot where a 50 pounder doesn’t get a second glance, you’re gonna get smoked.