For some of the local zipperlip rivers, Saturday was the last day of the season. A few of us from the board, got together on one of these rivers for a last-day float.

Saukit2em, DanS, and I commandered the not-yet-named black Thor. Superfly and his SO's kid, Tyler were in the Renegade White Man, and Osprey and The Redneck braved the waters in the General Lee.

Armed with Vison Hooks, Silent Approach Jigs, and a good batch of worm and flesh, the Motly Crew set out to put the "hurt" to the fish!

The day started out with Osprey tagging a brooder right behind DanS and I! I don't know how we missed that fish! After a good little fight, Osprey decided to let the little brooder go. 10 minutes in to the trip and fish #1. Excellent!

3 hours later......

The Redneck claimed he lost a steelhead (Osprey swore it was probably a 12 lb sucker!) at a nice drift, so we all piled out of the boats and started to pound the water.

Saukit2em ripped in to a chrome, sea-liced, frisky as can be, hen around 19. Ok, 19 inches, not pounds. The little nate jack was released unharmed back to the waters.

Not to be outdone, I hit two fish on consecutive casts! A nice little sucker and a white fish! Wee.

Feeling left out, Osprey showed us his talents as he expertly set the hook on a nice sucker.

A few more hours later....

During this time, Superfly managed to lose two fish. Tyler, being all of 8, had "issues" with this whole fishing thing, which made for a difficult day for Superfly.

Nearing the end of the day, with only 4 fish, it was time to introduce the Wall of Pain. The not-yet-named black Thor and the Renegade Whiteman teamed up and presented a wall of 5 killer plugs at the fish. It didn't take long until my new virgin GL2 MBR 941c(?) bass rod bent over from a take down! I let Tyler fight in this fish. It turned out to be another 20" chrome nate jack. Oh well.

That brought us to the Last Chance slot of the day. I nice long deep slot that just looked fishy. Again, we decided on the Wall of Pain.

Working the wall under a tree, Saukit2em exclaimed to the group that we were "in the zone". No more then 3 seconds had gone by when my Bass Rod had a nice hard take down, then nothing! Explatives were heard about the Gammy EWG's, but we re-grouped and kept the Wall of Pain going. No more then 5 minutes later, DanS proclaimed that we were again "in the zone". Seconds later, wham, my Bass Rod got hit hard again! This time the rod bent over and stayed over! Fish on! At the same time I grabbed the rod to set the hook, a nice 13+ lb. chrome fish jumped clear out of the water and threw the plug! Again, we blamed those damn EWG's - actually, it was a combination of some bad luck/timing on the fishes part and probably was time to replace the EWG on that plug. Oh well.

In the end, combined totals, we went 3 for 8. Not a great day for fish, but a great day to be on the river with a bunch of great guys!

[ 04-02-2001: Message edited by: parker ]

After seeing how you guys set up the "wall of pain" and moved it down through a hole, I'd hate to be the unlucky steelhead that had to negotiate that gauntlet of plugs. No wonder you guys do so well with them.

Had a great time with you, KidSauk, Joe, Redneck and Os. We'll have to line up a time to do it again.

Fish on............

That was a fun trip

Dan S., you were a blast to fish with an are always welcome in my "nameless" blak Thor. I am having the graphics done soon so look for the new Vision boat with Kid Sauk on the side of it.

That wall of pain is an awesome technique. I once pulled one in the Afternoon Hole on the Sky with five, that's right, five boats!!! Kind of like a moving hogline...fun and productive!!! That trip was great but we need RT next time so we can run the wall with three boats ...he's a pluggin' fiend!! Peace

Justin

[ 04-02-2001: Message edited by: SAUKit2em ]

Wow! With that crew coming down the river, I would think you'd see a lot of white flags and fish jumping outta the river!
A good name for the Black-No-Name-Thor might be "Tub of Pain". Although it sounds like Parker was using rubber hooks!

Kev

To my defense, it was Justin's plug, not mine.

"Neve trust another man's plug!"

SO you guys were on the Big S right I was bank fish up above the Shi#house hole. Brown waders and green and black Rain coat. We had an exceptional day earlyier in the week but I didnt get any fish on saturday and I about killed the guide in the Catch'n a Dream he ran right over the top of my hole I was fishin.
And the thing that really chaps my ass is that I walked out of the river to let the guide run in the shallower water.
Good to hear that you guys had fun

[ 04-02-2001: Message edited by: danceswithfish ]

I just hate to make a habit of catching and landing fish behind the "Heavy Hitters" ...Oh well someones gotta do it.....Os

I believe in Miracles....Where ya from...You Sexy thang?

I didn't have time to post over here to this thread yesterday, but hell yeah it was fun, regardless if I was product-testing the water retention value of my shirt.

I'm suffering for it today...still. Sick as a dog.

I wish I would have landed that 12 pound sucker, and no I would not have gotten a replica mount either But if it turned out to be a big honkin' steelie, it would have been nice to have had 2 steelie for the General Lee that day.

Also, that one stretch housed some fish in it if you think about it. The one I lost, Justin's lil steelie, O's sucker that ended up getting peed on, your sucker, and also your glorious whitefish. Still though, a 12 pound sucker would have been a feat....muh ha ha ha Probably would have set a line-class record for sure.

Hope to do it again soon! I believe in miracles, where ya from you sexy thang?

I think a good suggestion for your boat would be TYRONE or KOONTA-KENTAY :p

Yeah it was a fun day except for the chasin a dream guy ran over my water as well as I was float fishing a small pocket. Tyler and I could have done with out the rain and wind but it was fun runnin the pain through those last holes with everyone and talkin shiaattt!!!
Anyways it is springer time now and we will continue to brinr the pain down south.
Peace Superfly

Joe,

I'm givin' Tyler about three more years and that kid will be outfishing all of us. I think he was happier finding that Garter snake at the takeout than he was with the steelhead, but he looks like an up-and-coming steelheader to me.

Fish on.........

Parker- How do you rate the MBR941 for pluggin, sounds like the fish like it alot? Thats a GL2 with 14" butt, right?

I am curious because I have been eyeing that rod for a while. The rod that I really want is the GL3 HSR930 but I could get two of those MBR's for the same price!

Thomas

[ 04-03-2001: Message edited by: MasterBaiter ]

I'm also running the MBR 941C for plug rods in my boat and love'em! Extra fast tip with a good back bone to bury the hooks on a take down. We even used them out in the salt fishing for silvers last fall. 2-3oz with cut plug herring, it was a kick! There's something about a one-piece rod, sensitive tip but can handle big fish! Plus at $139,
it's a good deal on a Loomis.

Kev


[ 04-03-2001: Message edited by: Kev ]

Well....here goes nothing.

The verdict is not out yet. Like you, if I had all the money, I'd get a 9000, 930, etc and just use the appropriate rod for whatever fish I happened to be fishing for.

Since I'm too poor, I wanted a rod I could use for summer/winter steelies and possibley spring chinook.

The 941c is probably too heavy for summer steelies. It seems to work just fine for winter/spring steelies. It appears to have enough backbone to handle springers, as well. The tip is not as sensitive as the 930's. You can easily see a plug wiggle on a 930, but with the 941c, it sometimes appears as if the plug is hung up - the tip just kinda stops while the middle of the rod wiggles. It didn't happen all the time, but enough to make you stop and watch the rod and say "What's up with that rod?"

No difference when the fish hit. You know when a fish smacks a plug on that rod, and it feels *great* to handle and fight a fish with. The extra long handle is very nice, indeed.

We're really not too sure why I only hooked 1 out of the 3 take downs. One take down I missed (was gone by the time I had even put a hand on the rod) was that the fish was probably a small jack. The take down wasn't that large or aggressive. The other take down flat-out burried the rod. At the exact same time I grabbed the rod and set the hook, the fish jumped clear out of the water and out flew the plug. I think that was caused due to a dulling UWG hook and just bad timing. Had the fish stayed in the water, I would have pierced that fishes face. I generally don't fart around when setting the hook.

But...there's always that debate between fiberglass and graphite rods. Had I been using a Fenwick fiberglass rod, would that have helped? Did the fast-action and memory effect of that graphite rod pull the plugs out of the fishes face? Dunno.

I'm going to use the rod for springers and have all the confidence in it (for now).

If you get a chance, take a look at the Elite EH901. For what's it worth, if you were blindfolded, I'd bet you couldn't tell the difference between an Elite and a Loomis - especially in the 1-piece plugging rod family. They are a fraction of the price of a Loomis and have a great warranty - break the rod and you'll get a new one.

I might seriously start taking a look at Elite rods.

Hey Superfly - care to inform us readers about Elite rods?

Parker

Thanks for the input Kev!

Parker, excellent detailed review!

Something that I have noticed is the difference in hooksets among different blanks. I have the STR1025 in both GL2 and IMX. I have noticed the GL2 is alot whippier than the IMX (and GL3). I have also noticed a difference in the hookset power translation through the rod tip to hook. The IMX has alot more drive (less give) allowing a more authoritative drive at the hook. Maybe something, maybe nothing!

I have not heard of Elite rods, but I am in need of stocking up on some good inexpensive rods, is there info on the net for them, anyone?

Thomas

Thanks for the plug Parker, the Elite series of rods is made By allstar rods out of houston texas, they have been making bass and walleye rods and every other kind of rod for years but just recently started making salmon and steelhead rods. They are priced at about a 1/3 of the loomis rods but yet are made of a higher modulous graphite than the GL-3's and carry a lifetime warranty as well. They have them at Teds in Lynnwood, 3 rivers marine in woodinville, Bobs in Longview, Fishermans Den in yelm, and Verle's in Shelton, Thorbuilt boats in Toledo, God I hope I am not forgetting anyone. Any ways check them out or check the website as well http://www.allstarrods.com
I think you would be very happy with them.
Thanks Superfly

justin what weight and rod length do u use for plugs and are they one piece rods, thanks in advance

He uses a pair of GL3 930's with wrong-handed 5500c's. He also uses a fiberglass Fenwick rod for the center rod when I'm not there.

They are nice rods, but I just didn't want to pay the GL3 price for a plug rod. Not too sure you need the GL3 performance in a plug rod.

Aside from the Fenwick, all rods mentioned in this thread are one piece rods.

[ 04-03-2001: Message edited by: parker ]

is there a certain weight that is recomanded or is that modle only come in a certain weight

[ 04-03-2001: Message edited by: DOUG KELLY ]

Approx an 8' 1-piece rod
8-15lb. line weight
1/4-5/8 lure weight
Ex-Fast Action
Mag-Medium to Heavy Power

Something along those lines will work.

[ 04-03-2001: Message edited by: parker ]