Best hit I ever had was fishing the hog line right at the deadline down from Willamette Falls. We were the end boat in an open sled. It was about 6:30am and the transition from being excited to be out fishing to being damned tired for getting up at 2am was in full effect. I was leaning on the side of the boat without another boat next to it when a Springer porpoised out of the water and CLANG! pegged the side of the boat. It took me awhile to get my skin back onto my body, and the boats shook three boats down it hit the boat so hard. Don't know if he ever hit our LURES, but that was hit enough for me.

The other big hit I witnessed was in the Gorge down from The Dalles dam several years ago. Dad and I were out for the big gators in the open sled with 135 Merc outboard when his rod tip starts to wiggle a little bit. He gives some line and the fish looks to be taking it pretty well, so he grabs on and buries the hookset. When he brought the rod down to do a second set the fish took that moment to go screaming downstream. The only thing that stopped Dad from his seemingly inevitable swim with the fish was when he caught the outboard right in the chest. Luckily the line snapped before the rod launched out of his hands. That was by far the most amazing hookset I'd seen.