Donkey Wipers At Milford 25-Aug-2012

Fearful of the 70% chance of thunderstorms I decided to fish from the bank Saturday evening. The water was dead calm and on the 3rd cast the water exploded around my lure like a stick of dynamite exploding!!! After battling the fish to the bank and releasing him this was repeated several times! I was using a new 9'6" salmon/steelhead spinning rod and was just starting to like it when one of the beasts decided to take off and snap my rod in 2 pieces! A quick retrieve of my second rod by my 11 yr old daughter and I was back in business!! Ended up catch and releasing 10 big wipers, missing 5 blow-ups and having 3 come unbuttoned before I could land them!
Oh yeah almost forgot, I had one take off and break my 20lb Suffix 832 braid like it was 2lb mono!!!

Here's the one that broke my rod... sorry for the pic,my daughter took it with her cell phone!Attachment 99803

Sounds like you got a workout!

I like it....they are pure fun and not bad to eat.

That had to be a blast....sorry about your rod...but now you get to go shopping:highfive

Great post, sorry about the rod. Looks like a blast.

WTG, love to catch those line breakers.

Sounds like fun. Well done!

Now this is just a suggestion maybe how to keep your rod from getting broke. Before I go fishing for big wipers or anything I set the tension on my reel by hooking the line to something and backing off about 30 feet and set the drag this way. Sometimes you really can't tell how the drag is set but I have found over the years this is best for me.
Jack

I guess I should told the rest of the story... I had my drag cranked all the up to the tightest so that I could horse the fish over the reef of zebras and not get my line cut! Those zebras are wicked sharp and don't give second chances!! lol