Fished for chinook salmon on a party boat in Monterey Bay. We mooched anchovies from 150'-180' in 175'-200' of water with 4-5 ounces of weight. The salmon are still deep, holding at the edge of the canyon and suspended 15' - 25' off of the bottom. Most of the fish are anywhere from 23"-28", but there are a few hens mixed in. Big fish on the boat was a 25 lb'er. My dad and I came home with one cookie cutter each at 25" and 26", and the boat finished with half limits.

I must say that it was a bit of a disappointing trip. The bite was decent, and the boat could have easily gotten limits as we had many, many, many opportunities. I fished with a few regulars on the bow, each of us using a 10'6" mooching rod for maximum coverage and optimum line angles. When we had a mad rush of hookups on the bow, those in the back must have thought, "Hey, all of the fish are at the front of the boat." They then stormed up to the bow with their rented 7' Ugly Sh!ts and began fouling our lines. I tried to educate them about rod length and action, boat position, line angles, and current speed, but most of them looked dumbfounded, as if I was from another planet. Damn rookies... Needless to say, we didn't land very many fish on the bow after that.

There was one instance where I had a double hookup with my buddy next to me on two very nice fish. About halfway through the fight, there was a massive tangle which included 9 lines (over half of the rods on the boat). While we were scrambling to get the lines clear, a silver blob with a purple sheen floated up to the surface. The fish was netted and with the massive birds nest of lines, leaders, and hooks, we were all perplexed at whose fish it was. It turned out to belong to a guy with a tuna rod and spinning reel near the back of the boat who was standing idle the entire time. He didn't realize that he had a fish on, and allowed it to swim freely and tangle up the entire starboard side of the boat and then some. He and his buddies were ecstatic that they had a fish to eat for dinner, and that was the last straw. I could no longer hold in my frustration and I told the guy, "Dude, you didn't catch that fish. 8 of us caught it for you. And before you go celebrating about that dink on the deck, perhaps you should apologize to everybody whose lines you fouled and who fish you lost." Unfortunately, this happened during the final flurry of bites, and it was all over before we could re-tie and get the baits down to the proper depths.

I had managed to hook 7 salmon, only landing two (one was a 1/2" short). Most of my fish were lost due to tangles with guys that didn't follow their fish and keep it in front of them.

My dad had hooked 4 salmon, landing one. Two of his fish were an easy 20-30 lbs, but were eaten by sea lions. Due to the size of the fish and the depths fished, he was unable to get the salmon to the boat fast enough before the furbags took notice.

Oh well, next time...


Rods:
G. Loomis Salmon Mooching SAMR1024C 8'6
G. Loomis Classic Salmon SAR1265C 10'6
G. Loomis Hot Shot HSR1021C 8'6 IMX

Reels:
Daiwa Pluton 200H
Accurate Boss Magnum B-197C
Shimano Calcutta 400TE

LOL I was on that boat and that "dude" whose fish you guys pulled out was his wife She was very happy she caught it but it was too small and was tossed back.

You sure? That fish layed on the deck for days and I am sure it died.

What party boat did you go out of ?