Picture this... two boats drifting side by side towards evening almost to the takeout. We were joking back and forth as we passed a decent buck standing knee deep in the water, coughing blood with one ham chewed off (best guess). It looked as if it was cougar almost-kill or hit by a truck. We didn't talk much until the takeout after that. If we could have, we wanted to put it out of its misery.
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In the legend of King Arthur, the Fisher King was a renowned angler whose errant ways caused him to be struck dumb in the presence of the sacred chalice. I am no great fisherman, and a steelhead is not the covenant of Christ, but with each of these fish I am rendered speechless.