Capt. Ken Stagnaro departed the harbor for some salmon fishing with a handful of crew and 19 anglers comfortably aboard. Although the boat was set up to mooch, I resisted this wanting to try the "doink" method I had learned from pro Ronnie Kovach. After setting up camp in the port corner, my first choice was a small iron lure failed to produce so I whipped out the chrome/red Luhr Jensen Krocodile that had been meeting my standards on recent salmon trolling trips. Two fish had barely hit the deck at this point, when my line stopped abruptly on the retrieve. "Fish on" I screamed. Minutes later I had my first King writhing on the deck too.

Well that was fun, but could I do it again? Casting out I noticed that the lure was being bumped as I approached the zone about 60' under the boat. Cranking up, I was solidly whacked about 20' under the stern. I spent the next 21/2 hours repeating this scene over and over. I rested briefly to grab a couple of photos and get a quick snack, but for the most part I was in action all day long.

To add some more excitement, my 5th fish wrapped my line around the prop and took off towards the bow. The two deckies pulled off a nice save by snagging my line. They offered to splice my line back together so I could finish the battle, but I opted to let them hand line the fish. When it came aboard, I had them cut the gill plate to disqualify it from the jackpot.

By the time it was over, I had pulled 8 fish from the water between 16-24 pounds. This turned out to be one of the best salmon days I ever had. I had declined several offers to buy my Kroc. I'll also give due credit to my new Penn 525 Mag, mounted on a favorite Calstar rod. The fish were not line shy this day. My lucky lure was direct tied with an improved clinch using 30# Izorline. With most of the fish making two, occasionally three, nice runs, I was very impressed with the performance of the Penn reel.

Deckhands Mike Margrave and DJ Zack (galley cook) performed admirably. My salmon were expertly netted time after time, and they attended to the other 18 anglers like pros.

As it turned out the only fish larger than mine was a 26 pounder landed by one of the crewmembers, so most of my jackpot winnings deservingly found its way into the crew tips.

It shouldn't be long before I try out Velocity again for rockfishing and albacore trips. I think the future looks bright for this fine vessel and her crew!

Best Regards,

Beverly "Baja Bev" Seltzer