Time for another king rig!
Jeff Hickman is a Deneki Outdoors alumnus who guided five seasons for us at Alaska West, and he’s now a popular year-round steelhead guide in Oregon. Jeff will be returning to Alaska West this summer from June 12th to the 17th to host our spey instruction program and catch some Kanektok kings. There is space available during his week– let us know if you’d like to join Jeff on the river!
Here’s the setup that Jeff prefers for removing sea lice from chrome early season king salmon on the Kanektok.
The Summary
- Ross Reach 8134-4
- Ross Momentum LT 6
- Airflo Skagit Compact, 570 grains
The Detail
- 275yards of 30lb Dacron backing, attached to the spool with an arbor knot
- Rio Powerflex Core Floating Shooting Line .035″ “I loop the back end of the running line, and secure it with two nail knots of 12lb Maxima Chameleon or Ultragreen. I then loop this to a non-slip loop knot in the backing.”
- Skagit Compact Head, looped to the running line using factory loops
- Airflo T-13 tip, cut to 8 to 14 foot lengths, attached to the Skagit head using the factory loops
- 4″ Butt section of 30 pound Maxima Ultragreen attached to the leader end of the tip using an Albright knot
- 2 to 3 feet of 15 pound Maxima Ultragreen, looped to the butt section with a non-slip mono loop
- Pink Fish Taco tied on using non-slip loop knot
The Commentary
“During the early season on the Kanektok, higher water conditions with a fair amount of color is the norm. This means that the kings are more comfortable and will typically travel and hold closer to the edges in fairly shallow water. It’s often not necessary to wade deep, cast far and dredge the bottom. The lighter setup with the 13’4” 8 weight rod is plenty to put 30+ pound fish on the beach, and it’s much more enjoyable to cast and fish all day than a heavier, longer rod.”
Andrew: In point #5 of the detail, is the length of 30 lb supposed to be 4 inches or 4 feet? Four inches isn’t much, but if that is all that’s wanted I presume he just wants some mono that won’t cut through the T-xx material? Thanks, Frank
Hi Frank! Yes, I think Jeff really does use a 4″ piece of 30 pound – since its main purpose is just to serve as the connection point for the leader. 4 feet combined with the leader would make for a total length way too long for king fishing on sinktips.
He likes the piece of mono on the front of the tip because it has a lower profile than another loop in the front end of the tip.