Wednesday November 2, 2011

We started at the Pineville area and fished a nice set of riffles all morning. I went down through first with a no name married wing I tied. It was a nice crisp morning with plenty of sun and the pinkish colored fly looked great in the water….at least to me anyway. I had one quick pluck but couldn’t get a solid take. .

Dave had one on and off real quick and my dad didn’t have any takers. I decided to head above them a little ways to fish the gut and into the tailout with a topping winged fly I called “Steelhead Spirit,” since it was a spin off of one of Blackers spirit flies., and.

My buddy Paul/Fish Tech had came down from the run above and was following me down through the good water. I was into a good casting rhythm and working my down the run enjoying the sun and the occasional flock of birds that were flying overhead.

After one of the casts, the fly landed in the water and maybe drifted two feet when I see a big snout come up out of the water. I say to myself, “That looks like it was right where my fly is.” A second or two later I feel my line get heavy so I let the loop go and when the line came tight I swept the rod downstream to set the hook. After that it was an arial top water show. This huge king comes flying out of the water heading to the near shore and lands on its side throwing water everywhere. He then turns and heads back into the middle ripping up the water slashing and cartwheeling. I had no control of this salmon whatsoever and was hanging on enjoying the show. Next thing I know I’m into my backing and then some as the king heads out of the hole downstream into the riffles. I’m glad I had my running cleats on and off to the races I went following him. I was able to get all of my backing back onto the reel, but there was still a lot of running line out. I didn’t want to follow this fish too much further downstream, so I cranked the drag down and put the screws to him. He turned and came to shore so I yelled to Dave, “Grab him if you can get him!!” Dave put his rod down and went to grab the king and said, “Holy shit that king is HUGE!!” All I could think of was that car commercial. The king was still green and took off before Dave could tail him. My tippet broke and I lost the fly, but it was the most awesome, short lived battle, I ever had with a king. Who said a king won’t take a fly? Right time, right place, right fly I guess