It has been a pretty epic week of Spiny Dogfishin. My buddy recently moved up here from the Central Coast and we've been fishin some different spots. We hit up a spot off the parking lot of 'Gils by the Bay' (small restaurant in King Salmon) and immediately got hooked up with small 15"-22" Dogfish. The bite was on every cast for about 4 hours. I caught so many fish that I had to call my girlfriend and roommate and told them to "get out here". They caught quite a few sharks also. I don't remember what time we quit that night, but it was getting pretty late and I had a pretty sore thumb from one of the sharks fin spines.
I'm not much of a shark fisherman. I know some techniques, but my motivation for shark fishing isn't really there unless a friend wants to go.
The other day I was talking to buddy who runs a tackle shop and he was tellin me about catching Salmon in the bay off his boat, so today I went out hoping for Salmon from the rocks in King Salmon. I have caught quite a few including my biggest King Salmon off the rocks in King Salmon so I know it has potential every year. I started out trying to sabiki some live bait and got a nice little Walleye Perch, to big for bait and to small to keep so it was released. Not getting any luck on the sabiki I started throwing a 5" swimbait on a 3/4 oz jig head. I was throwing it for quite a while until I got snagged. At least I thought I was snagged until I noticed a mushy feel and my line was moving. I set the hook good and started bringing it up. It was very heavy and not very responsive at first, but when it came over the rocks and got close to the surface, it started it's unbelievably powerfull run. With very powerfull jerks it started to pull away from the rocks, building up more power as it went out. I started to move down the rocks to stay inline with it, but it didn't matter. Breaking my own rules, I had left a 12# leader on my reel after a trip to the lagoons. I saw my backing starting to go out so I buttoned the drag down and added preasure with my thumb. That was too much and the leader to main line knot broke. I knew it, I couldn't have been more mad at myself. Rigged another swimbait back up on my 20# main. Again I thought I was snagged and considering how close to the rocks my lure was, I thought this time it was definetely a snag. But no, again I start to bring something up. Right in front of the rocks I see a big white flash that turns and starts to head out. I tried playin it as best I could when that backing started to show again. It didn't matter how good I played it, I was under gunned and it was gone. Took all my line but about 15 yards. The tide had only a short time from being high so I ran home and took off into town for some tackle, bait and new line. By the time I got back and made something to eat, the tide was going out and a thick drizzle and cold breeze had moved in.
I called my friend and he came out too. I took a much bigger rod, my XH Muskie rod with a shimano casting reel spooled with 300 yards of 65# braid. I didn't need it, the big ones were gone and I had to work for a while until I ended tonight with 3 little Dogfish. We didn't really feel like being out any later in the weather for little sharks so we headed in at about 10:30. I'm not complainin, but I really wish I had at least got to see what those two big ones were.