Fish are turning a bit darker as expected. Still thousands of fish in the river. And they are still biting if you find some that haven't been harrassed. Corkies and yarn with some smelly jelly sandshrimp gel works, fresh roe even better. Ran into micropterus101 finally. He's still tossing them 1/4 oz jigs.
Small coho have been moving into the river in increasing numbers over the week. Do they always run small early in the season?
Pray for some rain.
First picture is of the neighbor's daughter Faith and her first salmon. She took it on her first cast. It went over 20 pounds. It was the biggest I saw that day. I think this was from Friday.
Now that fish looked kinda dark, right? But check out the fillets. Those are both from the same fish. The pale strip came from a much brighter fish. I used it for comparison. Kinda weird. It really was a hog too. Faith was jazzed.
Here is Jessie in the middle, with her sister and her nephew Levi. We had to leave by 1pm. Arrived at 10:30 am out by 12:30. Her sis and nephew are both newbies at salmon fishing. These were also their first kings...and nice color to them to. This was on Sunday.
Levi didn't stop grinning like that until he left for home in Wenatchee. Little man there will be more fishing soon.
It wears me out making sure everyone catches fish. And after all that I still had to head home and train the dog how to guard the house. This last one is of me showing the dog how to fool people into thinking your napping. During this guarddog training exercise I fell asleep. I'm not sure who took the picture on my camera.
Lastly this is a partial repost after UltimateFeashKacher asked why I prefer to fish alone. Also I wanted to better explain some of the bitc&*y stuff I wrote earlier.
I actually prefer fishing with a few people then all alone. Some holes or pools can handle 20-40 people without adversly affecting the catch rate. But when too many people pile into a hole there is too many crossed lines, to many lost fish, too long waiting for other people to get their fish in, or bust off their snag, and often too much tension (specially on the weekends).
I've stood in my share of meat lines. And if the people around me were easy going it was usually fun. But if there are holes with 50-100 undisturbed fish and nobody around (other then the company you brought along), why would you want to fish alongside 60 guys on 100 yards of water?
And a crowded meat hole is the worst place to take newbies. Its very intimidating. I have not been chasing salmon more then 8 years now. I still remember being a newbie and watching guys holler at each other because someone cast over somebodies line, or didn't get their line out of the water fast enough. I remember being worried I was going to violate some 'rule' and somebody was going to scream at me for it.
I have given the impression that I look down on those who chose to fish in a meat line. That really wasn't my intention. I was ranting. What I really feel when I see people fishing shoulder to shoulder is frustration for the 50% of the line that aren't catching their share of the fish. I feel frustrated for them because I have been one of them. I have been one of those who has stood in that line while everyone else caught fish and wondered "What the Hell am I doing wrong?"
Sometimes frustrated to the point of crying. I wanted to catch fish that bad and couldn't.
So thats why it drives me crazy. Haven't you seen someone make the same mistakes you made, suffer the same pains you suffered, and want to intervene? I wish someone had pulled me out of a meatline years ago and showed me that I could catch fish away from the crowds. That it didn't need to be so hard.
That's all I was trying to say. Hope that clears things up.
Vince
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