Arriving at kings: An expanded look, call it an opus, on A.J. Cwiok’s path to understanding

Hello Dale, I am AJ Cwiok, born and raised in Naperville, Illinois. I am currently in my senior year of college at Grand Valley State University majoring in Marketing and Logistics. The last three years in college, I have been on the football and track team. My summer job has consisted of being a first mate on various charter boats across the Illinois lakefront in addition to Grand Haven during the school year. I am a first mate with Storm Warning Charters, School Of Fish Charters, KingFisher Charters, and Danel Sportfishing. Being a first mate out of multiple ports has provided me with an invaluable amount of hands-on experiences that often times takes a lifetime to achieve. Being able to pick up new techniques and tactics has been irreplaceable for me, especially for when I start running my own boat. My plan for this offseason is to get my captain’s license and start operating a charter boat for next season. In total, I have been a first mate for over sixty charters each summer for the last three seasons. My enthusiasm for the big pond and the resources she has to offer continues to grow. I still get fired up before every trip like it was my first time out with my dad who brought me out on the lake for the first time when I was just shy of two years old. Being able to fish across the lake throughout each season targeting the various species of salmonoid and trout the big pond has to offer is one thing, but there is one particular part of the fishing season that excites me the most. The fall Chinook run creates sleep deprivation for countless boat and shore anglers alike who have to score while the gettin is good. I first started fishing the Chinook run from the south rocks out of Waukegan about 6 years ago. Each year I’ve switched up tactics and fine-tuned a few baits to where I feel like I’ve really dialed everything in with my program this year. So far this fall season, I have fished for Chinook on five different occasions (at night)

In total, fishing with a small group of three people, we have landed twenty five Chinook. Personally, I have landed eleven out of the twenty five Chinook. The largest this year was 27.43 lbs caught by my brother Tommy Cwiok and my largest this season was just over 23 lbs. In the following sections of this article, I’ll explain a few crucial baits and tactics that have played a major role in my success so far this season. The most important factor and what I pay attention to the most when casting are the angles that I’m casting at. You can be throwing the hottest bait on the market but if your presentation isn’t angled with the right flow of the current then your hookup rates will plummet greatly. It’s all about angles. When I first start fishing, I’ll start by casting at various angles and once I catch a fish on a certain angle, I’ll pay attention to the speed of my retrieval, angle of the cast, and direction of the current when I hook up. After I’ve taken note of these focal points, I’ll pound that same presentation the rest of the trip. When it gets later into the trip and I start to become fatigued from casting all night, I will literally sit and wait for the current to be perfect and then make my cast, rather than washing lures with the wrong presentation. There has been many times this season where I have told my buddies next to me, that we were about to hook up because I could feel the right resistance in my retrieval from the current. In my opinion, the second most important factor when fishing for kings is the speed of your retrieval. Slow, slow, slow and if you think you’re going slow enough, bring it down a notch. The kings aren’t in there to feed, they are there to spawn and die. The slow presentation is meant to keep the bait in front of their face for as long as possible to create a reaction bite out of aggravation from a rattle in a body bait or from a slow wobble of spoon being teased in front of their face. I’ve experimented with a lot of different baits, but the two baits that I have found the most consistent success with is a size nine Berkley flicker shad in white and chartreuse, as well as the series of Moonshine casting spoons. In regards to the hooks on the flicker shads, the hooks that come out of the package are garbage for king fishing. You’ll be lucky to bring in one or two kings that come off a size nine flicker before they completely tear the hooks apart. I’ve played around with a lot of hooks, but the ones that work the best are the size two double strength Gamakatsu hooks. These are a little pricey, but for the lack of bend when you hook into a monster, they are worth every penny. In addition to adding the new hooks, I’ll add an extra split ring on each set. With adding an extra split ring, this prevents the fish from getting leverage on the bait, further bending the hook. The extra split ring also gives the hooks a greater range of motion, which enhances the action of the bait in its entirety. With virtually having only these two baits in my box, I’ll bring two rods with me when I’m casting. One will be rigged with a flicker shad and one will be paired up with a spoon. When deciding what rod to pick up first, once again, I’ll look at the current. If the current is going away from me, then I’ll toss the flicker shad. When casting against the current with a flicker shad, this allows you to retrieve the bait even slower and have that same action you would have if you were retrieving twice as fast when going with the current. Casting against the current with the flicker shad also allows for greater resistance, which will bring the bait deeper in the water column much quicker. This places the bait in the fish’s strike zone for a longer period of time. On the other hand, I’ll pick up the casting spoon when the current is going towards me. Depending on how deep it is in the area I’m casting, I’ll typically let the spoon sink for an eight second count. Once I let the bait drop, I’ll continue with a slow steady retrieval having the bait hover about three to four feet just above the bottom. When it comes to my line of choice, I prefer to stick with a finesse set up of 14 pound Sufix mono. Using the mono over braid absorbs a lot of the force from the stretch in the line from that initial hit that the Chinooks are notoriously known for, which prevents break offs and hooks bending. In addition, having a lower pound test in mono allows for more action in your lure of choice, which will induce a reaction strike from an indifferent Chinook. Some of the best body baits that I use at night are of the non-glow variety. Having that slow retrieval with a loud rattle is just enough to bring a king into striking distance. Typically, when it comes to glow on body baits that have a rattle in it, I won’t even bother going out of my way to find that bait in glow. Glow or non-glow, it doesn’t make a difference to me, the rattle is what I’m looking for. Since the DNR has cut back on the Chinook stockings a few years ago, there has been a noticeable difference in quality of fish in the lake. Although the numbers are down, I’d much rather have a shot at landing a thirty plus pound fish than a stringer full of mid to upper teen fish. Just this week, an angler casting fifteen yards from me, battled a thirty-two pound king for nearly thirty minutes before landing it. Witnessing that beast caught has had me all fired up for the remainder of the season and for years to come. If the king stockings continue to go in the direction they are headed, the 30# fish will not be uncommon. My personal best was caught last fall, just over 25 lbs. I’ve caught many kings during the run these last few years, but I won’t ease up until I’ve got a thirty-pounder hanging on my wall at school.