Grew up fishing plugs year around on a bamboo meatline and a Pakron 3180 in the early/mid 70s. Every so often we trolled around the ever reliable Pt Defiance spoons or huge 13-inch spring brass flasher and hoochies. However a 4-inch Macs Squid plug #15 (Point Special) was tremendously hard to put in the tackle box in winter. The 5 and 6-inch plugs were absolutely deadly in the spring and summer. I didn't really get into downriggers until the mid 90's.

My last 2-years in Washington I pretty much fished meatlines exclusively. Not much sport until you get to the last 30-feet of line on a summer fish. However when we had larger fish back in the day that last 30-feet of line... You better have some skill on the tiller, rod and net!

Speaking of fishing two lines... I remember way back when Ned Krilich (Krilich Killer plug fame) got a ticket for fishing 7 plugs (7-lines) off his meatline. Of course we could fish "up to three hooks" back in those days. Ned took the ticket to court and had it reduce to "fishing with 4 hooks." If you can find a few of his wooden plugs- fish them! They were all white with a red face and no eyes. We called them "blind plugs."

I thought after 44-years of working the saltchuck, I would miss it terribly. But life on the Rogue is phenomenal! Different bred of people and life here.



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