Went to Reiter Ponds for the first time and inline by 5:30am with dozens of others however it wasn't as bad as I had anticipated. The gates opened and we all drove into the public parking spots. The fishing was really good until about 8 or so and it slowed down. I saw a few limits and lots of hookups. It was my first time fishing the Sky for Steelhead and I went 0/3. I should have known better than to use the caster with my braided line. Although it helped me feel every pebble and bit, once the fight was on, those head shakes from the fish were too much. I didn't get any bites floating and plunking sand shrimp or eggs.

I give the day a 3 even though I didn't bonk any fish because I feel it was my fault and not because the lack of fishing opportunities. It was also an amazing day on the river, simply beautiful out there with the sun shining.

P.S. Thank you Mr. Dentist (sorry I forgot your name but PM me if you are on the board) for the great tips.

Good luck all!

BentRod

6/7/2014 3:33:00 PM

Sounds like fun! Sorry you couldn't bank any of your fish, but better some action than nothing at all.

BBlakley

6/7/2014 5:42:00 PM

Many guys run braid with bait casters. May I ask what your rod is weighted at? there is minimal to no stretch with braid, if your rod is to stiff it will be difficult to keep hooked up. With a stiff rod and braid your rod won't absorb the head shaking or short violent runs, you'll tear the hook out instead. I may reccomend a 9'6" 6'10lb moderate action. There is a lot of science that deals with rod ratings & and types of lines and test. Just something for thought.

Bank drifter

6/7/2014 6:30:00 PM

Go braid to either mono or fluoro with a double uni knot, I run that all the time, did 6' 15# maxima to 12# Pline fluoro last week and landed two on spoons! worked great! just practice the double uni! find instructions on line! awesome you felt 3 first time out, drag setting is very key too

jojo

6/8/2014 12:00:00 PM

Thanks for the great advice @BBlakley & Bank drifter. On the rod with the braided line, I was using my Okuma 8'6 ML with Abu STX caster 20lb braid and 6' 10lb mono leader. I lost all three fish from the head shakes which leads me to believe it was the stretch and rod combo and not my drag setting. This has never happen to me before when I used mono or fluro main line. I should have switched to my other rod after the first one which I was running 15lb PLine but it was setup for float and I didn't want to switch.

I'm going to try a new stretch braid line by Suffix. http://www.sufix.com/sufix/braid/performance-stretch-braid/Performance+Stretch+Braid.html and hopefully it will make the difference for me. Otherwise I'm going back to mono when fishing for steelhead. I'll keep you posted in the forum on my results.

Thanks again!

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