Bolted over the hill early in the morning with Dylan to a quiet creek and tried our luck for some fall chinook. We hiked through some awesome older-growth forest areas. We found this giant Sitka Spruce.
Amazing to think of the storms they've weathered, as well as the the stories they could tell. These things wouldn't budge!!
All of the signs were there for fish... The water had risen, but was on the drop.
I put a nice silver-dollar sized clump of eggs on my hook and through the offering up in the hole. The bobber floated slowly down the seam of the current until it just turned and went under as if it were stuck on the bottom. I knew it was only set at 6ft and the hole was about 12 feet deep. So, taking what seemed to be an eternity to realize I should set the hook, I reeled up and let 'em have it. Bobber Down!!! I felt a couple strong head-shakes and could see him flash back and forth as the the fight began. He jumped more than any chromer, coho, or steelhead that I've seen!
Once I got him in, we tailed him and realized it was a hatchery fish. One more fish that needed to come out of the system. Soooo, we bonked it.
I made good use of this guy and smoked him up. Turned out to be one of the best smoking jobs I've done yet! (I've only done two)...but I'm progressing fast, so look out!
We had battled thunder, lightning, hail, pouring rain, and torrential winds, but prevailed. We also landed a nice chrome native coho that we quickly released, and a couple other dark fish. We were pretty proud that we had prevailed and endured the storm, but came away victors. We made our way back over to the valley meeting up with the back edge of the rainstorm, with the one fish, but many memories.
The sun began to come out just before sunset giving us a 'thumbs-up' with a rainbow. Was a great day~ Sure beats sitting at home!
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