Birthday Salmon

I took my step dad Phil to the Salmon River this weekend for his birthday...This was his first trip to the river so I decided to head to the lower end of the river...I knew the crowds would be ridiculous but I figured he needed to experience the true circus of GL trib. fishing...that and the thought of fresher fish brought us to this particular run.

The water is still very low and warm, making it a safe time of year for a SR virgin...We found fish very quickly...The kings were running through the fast water like torpedoes...There were no Coho's to be found...but kings as far as one could see..We struggled with his spin rod a bit...me being a fly angler...was having trouble making his spin rod perform the way I wanted it to...I like to swing streamers to salmon...I love watching the take..Once we figured out how to make his line stop knotting and got the appropriate weight on the end of his line to use my flies with it...things were on...

The fish came quick..his first hookup was an awesome battle that ended in the typical breakoff...1 out of 20 are landed I explained...especially when the river is packed shoulder to shoulder with anglers...We fished that run for a while...hooking up constantly, but having a tough time landing fish with the crowds in the area...We moved on to the other side of the river...We found another great run of fish with no people....

Phil hooked into a fish right after moving...a long run...a great battle that ended with a swim in the river and a fish being bear hugged on shore...

 

Phil...battling his king just before going face first into the river...While laying there he held the rod high and swore he was going to land the fish regardless of the soaking....

 The is the face of a new addict...someone who after this battle has become addicted to the Dance of the Chinook...Phil's first salmon...

 This is the only salmon that I landed during our trip...It grabbed the streamer pictured above so hard it almost pulled the rod from my hands...Which for the record happened earlier in the day..I was hooked up and had the rod pulled from my hand and taken down river...I chased it down with a crowd cheering for me when I finally caught up to it...I also dropped two spools of flouro tippet into the river as my sacrifice for the day...All in all a great trip...lots of flies lost....lots of laughs...and everyone came home safe...

Salmon with my Dad

Spending time with family is always a great time...spending that time chasing big fish in a river is even better...Last weekend I got to spend the day with my Dad chucking fluff to salmon...Some epic battles...a run in with some hillrods that could have turned ugly...It always amazes me how rude people can be on the Salmon River...We found an amazing piece of water later in the day with no one around....we had countless hook ups and fights...some fish even came to hand....Great times...