must have fishing gear for cruising

B

B~C

New member
if you where cruising and wanted to throw in some basic fishing gear, what would it be?

If I where gearing up for a variety of saltwater fish this would be my recipe;
take one decent fiberglass rod rated somewhere in the 20-50 pound range
add one Penn 320 reel spooled with 50 braided line
stir in several 4-6 oz Point Wilson Darts or Grim Reefer Jigs
finish off with a small gaff and maybe a net

I think with this set up, a person could scare up a decent dinner of black rockfish, halibut, salmon or lings, kings & yellow things with a minimum of tackle and hassel

whadda ya think?
 
Just an fyi,
In Washington waters, you may not use a gaff hook except to land legally-hooked halibut, tuna or dogfish that are going to be retained.

Robbi
 
Ken,

If you're sticking to minimalist gear, I wouldn't add much to this list. However, I would add some two hook salmon leaders, a few banana weights and a few sabiki rigs. The sabiki rigs (as I'm sure you already know) will allow you to catch herring. The banana weights will allow you to troll or jig cut plug herring. There's not much better for catching salmon on simple gear than a cut plug herring on a banana weight.
 
Ken, You know about gaffs and WA. Duh. You are going into British Columbia! Sorry.

You know that I would throw in an 8 wt with a floating line and do some bucktailing. Nothing like seeing the take. :shock:

Robbi
 
ya good add on the sabuki rigs and salmon gear. Fly gear would be fun but I was thinking what a novice fisherman would throw in the boat on the off whim that they might want to catch some dinner.
A good note on the gaff use, be carefull what you stick with it, I threw it on my list for when that really nice sized daymaker, multimeal, halibut jumps on your hook....somebody (maybe Don G) told me story about some friends trying to net a large halibut, quite a tail

Naturally a copy of the regs for where you fish would be good, unless it's halibut because, as the NOAA enforcement guy said "we change the regulations so often, we don't print the rules" speaking of NOAA, here's an interesting read
http://www.gloucestertimes.com/fishing/ ... -NOAA-cops
 
"I was thinking what a novice fisherman would throw in the boat on the off whim that they might want to catch some dinner."

As mentioned, that's exactly what I was looking for.

Robbi comments about bucktailing, #8's and the other stuff was cool; but Greek to me! (But thanks Robbi!)

Best,
Casey
 
Casey, here is a link to how to Bucktail for salmon.
http://www.bcadventure.com/adventure/angling/protalk/thornton/bucktail/buck.phtml

You don't need much equipment to catch a salmon on a bucktail fly. A salmon rod or a fly rod trolling a bucktail fly on or near the surface can attract coho and bring on some incredible takes. Bucktailing is one of the most popular methods of fishing for coho with a fly rod in British Columbia. If you want to try it while on your northern trip I will tie you up a fly or two. No guarantees! :roll:

Robbi
 
When coho are thick - almost anything on the surface will catch them. I've caught a lot of coho on spoons flopping along on the surface and I've even had them strike the green tip on the down rigger release just off the corner of the boat. I've trolled flies on occasion for coho and I have to agree, there's nothing better than seeing the take.

However, it seems like every year I take my fly rod out to Neah Bay with me with the idea that this will be the year I fly fish for coho. Yet every year I never seem to get around to it as I'm busy catching fish (and helping others on my boat catch fish) in other ways. I'll take the fly rods with me again this year (probably both a 5wt for fun with rockfish and an 8wt). This year I'll have to catch a few on the fly for the extra fun.
 
Casual fishermen must remember to buy a license before fishing. Sounds simple, but an annual non-resident license in BC is about $110.00 and Alaska is $145.00.

Be careful if you have fishing gear onboard without a license. If you are in that situation, do not have any sport caught fish or crab aboard, and do not store the fish gear made up and ready to fish.

We did not carry any fishing or crabbing gear aboard last summer, and we were given both fish and crab. If you have gear and gift fish/crab aboard, presumably a fish cop could decide that you caught the fish/crab and give you a ticket for fishing without a license.
 
Larry H":1ra4kbbl said:
Casual fishermen must remember to buy a license before fishing. Sounds simple, but an annual non-resident license in BC is about $110.00 and Alaska is $145.00.

Be careful if you have fishing gear onboard without a license. If you are in that situation, do not have any sport caught fish or crab aboard, and do not store the fish gear made up and ready to fish.

We did not carry any fishing or crabbing gear aboard last summer, and we were given both fish and crab. If you have gear and gift fish/crab aboard, presumably a fish cop could decide that you caught the fish/crab and give you a ticket for fishing without a license.
Click to expand...

In WA, you are not allowed to possess someone else's sport caught fish unless
"it is accompanied by a statement showing the name, address, license number, date, county, and area where it was taken, and the signature of the angler who harvested it". However, with this, you're not in danger of getting a ticket for fishing w/o a license. Also, if the fish is in frozen or processed form (smoked, canned, cooked), you're also not in danger of getting such a ticket since it's obvious you didn't just catch it.
 
I have a related question regarding cruising and fishing. If you have a boat with full canvas, do you typically take it all down before fishing? If not, which sections of the side canvas do you remove to fish? Have you fished with the top in place (I have not) or do you always fold it back first (my usual M.O.)

My Tom Cat canvas enclosure is made up of 7 large panels. Not only does it take a lot of time and effort to put up and take down, they take up a huge amount of room on the berth (or wherever) and if it is at all wet then I have to deal with preventing it from dripping on the berth (there really is no other place to put it. The roll of panels is too big to go on the cabin top with the dinghy.)

For that reason I am considering leaving the side panels at home, but I don't know if I can persuade the Admiral to OK that. Hence my questions.

Warren
 
Robbi":2wbg2who said:
If you want to try it while on your northern trip I will tie you up a fly or two. No guarantees! :roll:
Click to expand...

Robbi, two questions:

1. What patterns and sizes do you prefer for this bucktailing technique?

2. What is your actual speed when trailing a bucktail behind the boat? I have not been able to find a good answer to this question other than it is faster than trolling. For instance, my typical cruising speed (on plane) in the Tom Cat is in the low 20s. Off-plane, maybe 6 mph.

Thanks!
Warren
 
Warren, You can bucktail with just about any big streamer fly, or a "bucktail" fly, which is a streamer fly tied with bucktail or polar bear hair. I sometimes use flies that have some foam incorporated into the body like a "mog" or a "popper". Most flies used are between 3 and 6 inches in length. The fly just needs to make some kind of V wake, or motion that attracts the fish.
In Les Johnson's book Fly-Fishing for Pacific Salmon he has a chapter dedicated to bucktailing. Not sure if you have the book or not, but the first editions of the book did not include this chapter. Not because bucktailing is a new method of fishing, it has been around in British Columbia for many years, but because Les thought that only techniques that involved casting a fly should be included in the book. He now says that because trolling a bucktail fly in salt water was the precursor to actually casting flies for salmon in both Washington and British Columbia, that it deserves a chapter. "The Fine Sport of Bucktailing and Skipflying".
Generally you troll the fly at speeds that just keep the fly on top of the water, or as fast as 6 or 7 knots. The fly is usually not more than 30 feet behind the boat right in the prop wash. Other things work too, and part of the fun for me is to try different things to see if you can attract fish. I had a king of about 20 pounds come up to the surface in the bright sunlight and take, and very quickly spit out, a pink form popper that was moving at about 5 knots. Maybe he didn't spit it out, maybe I pulled it out of his mouth. :shock:


Robbi
 
those bucktails are pretty durn effective behind a dodger on a downrigger too, bucktails, there not just for flyfishing anymore.

in the vein of minimalist gear, every summer I ask if anybody would be interested in the ultimate macho fishing experience and nobody is ever interested....bunch of wimps.....it seems nobody wants to go noodling for ling cod or halibut :)




check with your doctor to see if bucktails are right for you
 
B~C":3ebv4rjn said:
those bucktails are pretty durn effective behind a dodger on a downrigger too, bucktails, there not just for flyfishing anymore.

in the vein of minimalist gear, every summer I ask if anybody would be interested in the ultimate macho fishing experience and nobody is ever interested....bunch of wimps.....it seems nobody wants to go noodling for ling cod or halibut :)




check with your doctor to see if bucktails are right for you
Click to expand...

I'll go noodling for ling cod with you but I'll need some instruction. I'll probably need to watch you pull up 4 or 5 big ones before I understand the method. I figure if you can get past two (one for each arm) or 4 (one for each limb), then I'm willing to try it out.
 
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