Thanks to tsweet129's advice I headed out this morning to the back side of Bowen. On the way I dropped my prawn and crab traps. Fished Tunstall bay for a couple hours with only a little rockfish. (I was able to revive the little guy!) I then headed toward Hutt. When I arrived I decided to give the old west coast of VI jigging for salmon technique a go as I was getting a bit bored. First drop in 80ft I get this little 10lb guy.
![]()
One thing I would like to add. Last night I changed my downrigger cable from the scotty steel to 130lb power pro braid. I was a bit worried that it might be a bit too light but I have 3000' of it so I decided to give it a go. I will NEVER use wire again. The first thing that I loved was the total lack of "wire sing" that drives me nuts. Anyway I would suggest giving this a try. The only negative is that I have heard is that if you are stacking the clip tends to ride up the line. I understand that there are stoppers available to prevent this.
Fished that area for another 2 hours with no luck both jigging and trolling flasher/hoochie and flasher/anchovy & herring. There were 3 other boats in the area and I didn't see anyone else get into any fish so I decided to head home. First stop on the way was the crab pot. Hauled it up and there were 12...every one was a male! Never had that happen before.
Next stop was the prawn trap. I wasn't holding out too much hope as it only soaked for 4 hours but to my surprise there were 57!
![]()
All in all not a bad start to the season.
One thing I would like to add. Last night I changed my downrigger cable from the scotty steel to 130lb power pro braid. I was a bit worried that it might be a bit too light but I have 3000' of it so I decided to give it a go. I will NEVER use wire again. The first thing that I loved was the total lack of "wire sing" that drives me nuts. Anyway I would suggest giving this a try. The only negative is that I have heard is that if you are stacking the clip tends to ride up the line. I understand that there are stoppers available to prevent this.
Fished that area for another 2 hours with no luck both jigging and trolling flasher/hoochie and flasher/anchovy & herring. There were 3 other boats in the area and I didn't see anyone else get into any fish so I decided to head home. First stop on the way was the crab pot. Hauled it up and there were 12...every one was a male! Never had that happen before.
Next stop was the prawn trap. I wasn't holding out too much hope as it only soaked for 4 hours but to my surprise there were 57!
All in all not a bad start to the season.
