Took the old Abu Zoom Caster 182 out for some exercise, hoping for a pike or so. Not much for luck, one (1) fish in ten hours of fishing. At least the rod and Ambassadeur 5000 reel worked beautifully, hurling out those big pike baits with aplomb.
I had a box full of JDM laser-cut holographic finish swimbaits and jerkbaits, all high tech and glittery. The solitary pike preferred a 1970s Five of Diamonds brass spoon, slow rolled in the deeps.
The day finished with a little light surf crashing on the gravel, luckily from behind on the way home. I was able to catch a couple of waves and surf the canoe a bit for fun.
The Fenwick 9x9 (9ft 9wt) got a pretty new-to-me reel, Sharpes Don.
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=73067It looks sharp and works well, did not get to test the drag unfortunately. This pic was after I got tired of the anchor dragging in the high winds and resorted to shore fishing for a bit. The Fenwick with a 10wt line is tremendous in the wind, flings the lumps of feathers and bucktail with no trouble at all.
The solitary bite came at 6pm when I'd planned to start home. Of course then I had to try for a fish on the fly rod. Hooked a good one at 7pm, probably 30" or better. Brought it up to the boat where it started rolling and thrashing, then broke off. Checking the leader showed the 15lb wire I'd used is not good enough for pike - it was frayed out and worn through. Pfui.
Really gave up then, surfed back to the car, packed up and drove the hours home, narrowly avoiding a herd of deer mid-road in the pitch black night of the high mountain plains.