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UPDATED: On the Pere Marquette... |
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 Headed out of town on Tuesday with PK for an early salmon outing. We kissed the wives and kids goodbye and made our way to the P.M. Had a great time on the way up talking about the anticipated stalk and the flies we tied.
Checked into the room at the Outdoor Inn and couldn’t get our gear on fast enough to hit the river. We hit the river at about 11:30 in the evening. The full moon made the night fishing enjoyable.
The basic idea I had of where to fish changed as soon as we made it to the spot. The water was too low for the holding pool I was thinking about. We made a few casts and then WHAM! This brown hit my Silver Bullet. He did some furious head shaking and bulldogging in the bottom of the pool. After PK took his time to put down the rod and get the net I had the brown to the surface waiting for his centerfold pictorial.
 We moved to another section up river and heard a fish porpoise. Nice. It was now 1am and we had some fish in front of us. I hoped we would find the biters. I swung my spey rod with the Silver Bullet and PK Chucked and Ducked with his Cone head White Rabbit Zonker. Here is his fly.
PK hit the first fish and it exploded out of the hole. I thought I was Tarpon fishing in the Keys, with the moonbeams shining through and hitting the splashing water thrown from the head shaking salmon made it seem so surreal. He played the fish so well that it had one chance to break free of its capture. Use the net guy. At ramming speed the salmon hit my leg and the 8lb tippet snapped. My shin is still sore. PK is still mad.
I had one on the spey (thanks Pudge for the fly) but after a short battle he broke free. I don’t think I set the hook when he hit. I was still talking about the fish PK had when I noticed the line was moving up stream fast. No scales on the hook either. We ended Tuesday night at 2:30 am with good night fishing for early salmon.
Wednesday stopped at the forest service to pick up the float tag. Hit breakfast then the water. Met a couple of guys getting out already at Upper Branch. They floated down from Sulack and hit one fish. They said they hit a steelhead the day before. Cool.
Started raining as soon as we started paddling. It rained for about an hour than nothing for the rest of the day. It was cloudy all day till about 7pm when the sun finally poked out. We were in a DEEP pool when I hit this one. There were at least 10 in the hole and I was fishing from the boat. Well, after a long battle I was being a little lazy and told Pk to get ready with the net. This guy made a final run under the boat.
Bam, rod hits gunnels. Dink, rod snaps. I blame PK for nothing. The fish is now on the other side of the boat and he nets him while I’m still reeling. LMAO. We had our first of 2007. Not pretty but to the net.
The rest of the day we got into 3 more. It is amazing after you fight a few of the monsters how it all becomes an un-conscious fight. I had wanted to try PK’s fly rod and fly so I grabbed his rod and hit the hole. I had my last salmon on for the day. One problem. He’s left-handed and his reel is set up backwards. Well after about a minute I knew this would be one tough battle. It was like I never fished before. So awkward. I pleaded to PK to take this thing away from me but the fish popped the hook. Well I wished we had more photos but the salmon were not cooperating with us. We did turn to the dry flies and landed 4 rainbows on the elk hair caddis. Great day fishing with a marginal friend. Sorry, Marginal day fishing with a great friend! |
