Absolute insanity! Chaos!
When I saw that thing hit, I said "Now THAT is a good fish"...I had no idea how right I was! The moment I will not soon forget was when the big one jumped, giving me a perfect side-view. My profanity filter around the kids instantly evaporated and I yelled "Oh, $hit, that IS a coho!" Just then I looked at Neal to see if he had seen it jump. I looked beyond his stunned expression and saw his fish begin a screaming run just under the surface, leaving behind a wake not unlike a torpedo. That was cool.
I'm not sure what else was going on for the next few minutes because I was focusing on my fish which was running down and away off the bow. Some how Neal managed to clear both fly rods and land his fish while stumbling around between three 4 to 7 year olds...hats off to him. Then Neal has the net on the bow and I get him in close and before I know it the fish is on board. The boys were all leaning up against the rail with their knees up to their chest to get away from the "scary sea monster." I still have kind of a goofy grin on my face. A once in a lifetime fish.
The state record is 25.34 lbs. I bet we would have come within a few ounces of that had we not bled it out...and if we would have shoved a few herring down it throat!