Bait_Caster (Terry), N.E.T.O. (Randy), and myself made the annual trip to Flaming Gorge to do some mack fishing with Capt. Jim Williams (Tarponjim) who runs a fantastic guide service up there. Jim’s guide service is Creative Fishing Adventures. Check it out on the Web.
We arrived Wednesday evening, ate fantastic steaks at the Mustang and stayed two nights at the Villa Inn in Manila.
Rileyfish and company had just finished fishing with Jim Wednesday so we went to where he was staying and chatted about his day’s adventure. They had boated 8 nice macks so we had hopes for ourselves.
We met Capt. Jim at 6:00 Thursday morning. We climed in his boat and while waiting for him to go park his truck and trailer, I decided to do a little snooping through his tackle to see what lures he had. Knowing he is pretty protective about his custom lures, I was careful to make sure he didn’t see me snooping. When he left to go park his truck he was wearing a baseball cap and white fishing pants. When he came back walking down the ramp, he was wearing a shade hat and BLACK insulated pants. I didn’t recognize him until he steped into the boat … I had my hands in his tackle and BUSTED Big time! He pretty much let me off the hook with a minor scolding but I don’t think I’ll do that any more.
We headed out to some places on the lake and began verticle jigging with big lures for big macks. Just 30 seconds into the first drop, Terry had this nice pole bend going on and one of his two macks for the day:
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A short while later, Randy put a small one in the boat:
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Then my turn:
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Then Randy brought in the biggest for the day … a nice 25 lb mack:
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I had to laugh at Randy when, while reeling in his mack, he kept saying “I’m trying not to suck … I really am.”
That first day of fishing we boated 7 macks with the largest being Randy’s 25 lber. … great, but not stellar.
Planning to fish for macks again the next day, I had brought a new reel with me that I was having problems with. Jim was kind enough to stop by the motel and take a look at it. Before you know it, he had the problem (user error) fixed. Thanks again Jim!
That evening, Randy headed out on the water again with some relatives. I’ll leave that story for him to tell. Terry and I stayed back at the motel and met up with one of our friends, Mike Harbertson. We tied lines and preped for then next day of mack fishing on Mike’s boat. Mike had never jigged for macks before so we were doing a bunch of presentation practice in the motel room. The next day, he was a real trooper and his presentation was as good as I have seen … amazing for a first timer. And it paid off for him as you will see.
So, Friday morning, we decided to launch at 5:30 and head out again. Terry and I went with Mike on Mike’s boat and Randy went out in a boat with his relatives. That morning I caught one mack that just barely tipped the scales at 13 lbs. But Mike boated the biggest fish of the trip … this nice 32 lb laker:
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We only fished till about 10:00 am Friday morning as we were getting some alarms on Mike’s boat. But I was pretty dang tired anyway and ready to make the long drive home.
This was Mike’s first year jigging for macks on the Gorge, Randy’s second, Terry’s third, and my fourth with Jim. It was absolutely great and, once again, we learned a LOT!
Here is a cheep amature YouTube video of our trip that you might enjoy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mGIRwQ3bbU
Fishing with Mike, Randy, Terry, and Jim was a blast. They are a bunch of great fishermen and good guys. Looking for more Gorge Mack fishing with them in the future. [/#800040]
Oh, by the way, the reason I titled this post “Macks, Kokes, and Bows” is because of some great success Randy and Company had with the kokes and bows. I’m sure he will post those details.
was to hook one on my own, or at least be the first to hook one in the case of a double or triple. Ralph and Terry both had fish in the boat before I finally hooked into my first fish at about 7:00 a.m. (after a couple misses by the way), and I was anxiously trying to horse the fish in. (Which is a mistake by the way…never try to horse them in!..) I fought it for at least 10 minutes when it threw the hook before I even saw the fish. We all agree it was a big fish, and no scoldings were mentioned THEN (only later), but the bottom line is that I was too anxious and was trying to horse it in too fast. (Note to self: Must…be…more…calm…[crazy]) Having missed a couple of earlier bites, and now having lost my only hooked fish of the day…I felt like I had blown my chance. We moved out of that spot with Ralph and Terry each with one or two fish in the boat…and with Randy (me)…nothing. I finally connected later that morning in the second honey hole of the day with a 15 or 18 lb. fish (can’t remember…), and it came in relatively easy and I could tell it was a much smaller fish than the first one I had hooked and lost. Even better…it was single fish, not part of a double or triple, and I had hooked it on my own, so I had accomplished my goal! Suddenly with the pressure off, I felt like I could focus and FINALLY relax! Just about 15 minutes later, I connected AGAIN. During this fight is when I was telling Ralph and Terry that I was trying hard not to suck like before when I lost the other fish! This is also when Jim told me that I had lost the other fish because I was trying to horse it in…he told me to just be calm and relaxed and just keep pressure on it…easy to say with 25 years of experience…not so easy to do when you are still sort of a rookie to this sport! I almost lost it once (…I might have said a bad word then [angelic]), but was relieved to find that it was still on (a gift!) and finally got it in after about a 15 to 20 minute fight. It was a 25 pounder, and I had once again caught it as a single! I finally felt like I was pulling my weight on the boat! My arms were like Jello and I’m pretty sure I was shaking and blabbering jibberish! What a feeling! We took a few photos then released the fish to go back home. (All seven fish caught in our boat were released by the way…almost goes without saying…) By the end of the day I had boated two fish, and had a third one on for over 10 minutes. I feel like I had totally accomplished my goal for this year.