Tanker Alert!

Saturday was a day for the record books on my buddies boat. Fishing started out slow off of the port of Racine but after we decided to leave the pack of boats to find non pressured fish, it paid off quickly. First to fire was the 3 color with a green ace silver horde J plug which yielded a 16lb female chinook. While Andy was fighting that one, the down rigger started bouncing but as soon as I got the smaller 5lb chinook to the back of the boat it popped off. We continued to work one area and the same 3 color fired 3 more times, the second time while we had a sailboat heading right for our stern the Church Tackle Walleye board went screaming back. At first I didn't think the chinook was a big as it was so I decided to put thumb pressure on the spool to try slowing the beast so it wouldn't run right into the sailboat. After bringing in the 366' of line it had pulled out, Andy took off the planner board and instantly I knew it was a good fish. After a 10min fight Andy reached out with the net and yelled "I can't lift this $%$#." After helping him get the net back in the boat we both realized this fish was a potential wall mounter. This male chinook tipped the scale at 27.31lbs and set a new boat record for Andy. I'm happy it wasn't another 2.5lbs heavier because it would have become a very expensive fish going on the wall. Overall in the 5 hour trip we went 5-6 on chinooks and one sheepshead. The total weight for the 5 chinooks was 90lbs! The fall run is just starting and the big females are still to come. If you are looking at hooking into a fish of a lifetime, NOW is the time to get a date set wether it be jigging or trolling. I will start booking fly fishing trips in the next few weeks once we get a little more rain.