Memories involving great fights with fish usually end with me never putting a hand around their tail.

Oh well...I've got a couple differnt fish that stick out.

The first one came while I fishing the Stilly right around the 5th of July. To this day I dont know if it was one large 3-salt hatchery fish or a summer-run king.

A night or two before (4th of July), a tree, via dynamite/m-1000, had been blown up at the trunk and dropped into the river at the side from which I fished.

It made landing fish extremelly difficult because it was on the downstream side of where I hooked all my fish and to wade around it would require me to wade to my chin.

I hooked this fish and he cleaned my clock like no other fish has. In the process of stripping me deep into my backing, he had thrown 7 of the highest & longest jumps I have ever seen a fish jump. He serioulsy looked like a mini-sailfish out there and because I was waded up to my chest, the jumps seemed even higher and I felt even more powerless.

To make a long story short, I finally tired him enough to where I could control him. I did whatever I could to guide him around the tree but he refused.

I finally gave up and dipped my rod into the river as deep as I could to force him under the tree and under all the branches.

I thought I had him cleared when I felt the heartsinking dead weight of a heavy branch. He managed to catch the very last branch before freedom (death to him) and bust me off.

Trying to explain something like that is pretty much unexplainable and is never easy and I did a sh*tty job...did not do the fishes true power, speed and leaping ability any justice.