Mooch,I think shes flipping you off! c/22

Chrome,

She can flip me off anytime she wants. I usually have it coming anyway.

But that day she didn't really have to. I had just lost 7 fish (some Chum) down around impassable bend all on my own, when she stepped in and showed me how it's suppose to be done.
I think the grin says it all.

Yep, schooled again..

Off of the West Coast of Vancouver Island August 1990 fishing with 3 friends . We would go up 3 or 4 times in late July early Aug every year and usually hit the kings pretty hard. the run was late and all we hit where cookie cutter coho. We trolled the rocks ran out 5 miles it did not matter all we could muster where coho. The friends where bored and ate and drank too much and fell a sleep on the boat. So I could fish where I wanted. I decided to go into a cove and scrape the sandy bottom with the downrigger ball using a little Puget sound black mouth technique. I rigged up a sandlance colored hootchie behind a grren glow flasher. the rigger was se t to hit the bottom of the sany cove.The ball bounces a couple of times and my rod goes off peeling line like I have the bottom. I grab the rod and noticed that the line was headed out to sea and the boat was pointed North to the far shore of the cove. I set the hook and line screamed off of the reel. One of my friends wakes up at the sound and asks what I have, I tell him big king. He says no way it's a shark. All the wile line is still pouring off of the reel. At about 150 yards the fish stops and gives a couple of signature big King head shakes. I know what I have now is a King for sure. He holds his ground on me just short of a big kelp bed between the cove and the open ocean. He turns and runs for the boat. I am reeling the knuckle buster as fast as I can reel to stay in contact with the fish. He stops under the bott. I work on him for a while and he is down there thumping from side to side real heavy. If you have ever caught a big king you know what I am talking about. I gain a little on him and he comes up towards the boat. In typical king fashion when he gets near the surface he takes another dive towards the bottom. He stops and thumps from side to side holding his ground. He then runs towards the ocean again peeling off more line. I let him do what he wants but put a little more tension on the drag. The other two friends are awake now. They are betting its a shark and laughing a yuking it up. I catch 90% of the fish when we go fishing so they are always hoping the fish is small or I lose it or threatening to knock it off with the net. The king make another fast run under the boat and stops. He is less active but still putting up a good fight. It's been 20 minutes since I hooked him. I really put the presure on him and he comes towards the surface. He make on last dive for the bottom and then softens up a bit. I get him toards the surface and he head shakes furiously about 20 feet down. He then comes all the way to the top. All four of us are looking over the side and see a big flash of sliver abotu 20' down. Two guys start high fivin thinking it is a shark. the other friend keeps watching as I bring it to the surface. He grabs the net and then looks back at me and says" the nets too small" that stops the high fiving and the yuking from the other two and they lookover the side. The fish is giving a little fight and swimming around the surface. Another guy grabs the other net and all of us are calmly discussing the netting strategy. The fish is way to big for the full size slamon net. We decide to get as much of the fish in the first net as possible. The second net would be used for the tail section of the fish as they hauled it over the side. We decide to go for it and the fish flys over the side and two guysgo down with the fish flopping on the deck. There he was 74lbs of BC King. We had to go to the commercial fish scale in Tofino to get him weighed.

My favorite is a lot like Addicted's. I had a brutal foot surgery in December '96 right before the big snow and ice storm that swamped the Edmonds docks. After 8 weeks of pain, miserable weather, no driving, no fishing, crutches, etc., etc., I finally got my hard cast off at the end of February and headed straight for the river. Just needed to get out of the city and go somewhere...anywhere! Still in a walking cast, I drove myself to the Snoqualmie near Carnation for a little plunkin' since I still couldn't put on waders and walk around. Lo and behold, this poor little 6 lb. hen grabbed my gear. Being on a high bank with no net and no one else around, I had to play her in one hand while I took my walking cast off with the other, then step into knee deep water so I could tail her. Nothing like a steelie for therapy.

Fishing the Situk river about 10 years ago. We were with a guide, and backing down a slot pulling plugs. Just as the plugs pass under an overhanging bush, two matched steelhead came rocketing side by side straight up clear out of the water, one arcing left, the other arcing right. It looked like a chrome geyser. The one going left (mine) went right into the branches and left the plug there, the other one was landed. Completely unforgettable.

My favorite catch...a 52Lb King hooked on the Humtulip while fishing with Hairball and Kid Sauk.
If I recall correctly Dave, you fished with Jim the day before and wrote about your trip in the STS.

Cigar

Lost fish seem to be pretty exiting, especially for us rookies... last year on the upper Snoho... hooked up with a sweet silver using a number 4 blue fox spinner in dark green... we were in a 12 ft aluminum boat.. this was the fish of the day, had to be 12 to 14 lbs if not more, and as i was fighting this beast, it was all I could do to keep it from snagging up on the motor. As my buddy reached for the net, my line got caught in the cleat at the corner of the the stern and was snapped off. It was an absolutely beautiful chrome silver, and one I will never forget...What a rush!!!

It was 25 years ago, off the caves at sekiu. Took my kids 7,10&13 with me for the first time. Last day of the trip & decided to fish the evening bite. One hour before dark, the rod buried into the water. I managed to get it out of the rod holder & handed it to my oldest son. After about 20 minutes he asked me to please take over:) Played the fish for another 15 minutes before it was time to net it.Pole in left hand & net in other I asked my son to put boat in neutral & I tried to bring it to the net.She took off again,this time for Canada and we gave chase. Asked oldest to put motor in neutral for another attempt at netting. Try as I might I couldn't get her to the net.After the third attempt,the VERY large salmon came unbuttoned and swam gracefully away. My kids were awstruct at its size and I was crushed.I went back to take over at the motor and sat down on the styrofoam cooler still half full of Brine and 8 dozen beutiful herring.As I sat at the bottom of the boat amongst all those herring floating around me and the most beutiful sunset I've ever witnessed, my kids ROARED with laughter and all I could do was join them. PS. Found out later, that every time I asked my son to put the kicker into neutral, he was putting it into reverse.We still laugh about it 25 yrs later!

Let's see this brute! Post a pic of the fish or your mount! You *did get it mounted, didn't you????

Uh....

How big do those brown trout get over in your neck of the woods???

Wholly Crap - that Toad is a TOAD! I'd trade that for a 20 pound steelhead *any* day.

Nice damn fish, dude.

No you wouldn't. They fight like carp, or crap, either way, you get my meaning.

Parker,

No mount. Not into it. I have some glossy 35mm's I should get them scanned.

Those browns can get pretty big, I think that the state record for MI is 34lbs but anything over 15 is usually considered a nice trophy fish. The browns surely do not fight like any steelhead of its size, they like to bulldog it out more and staydown rather than torque and do aerials. Here is another pig that I pulled out of the surf this past May on my centrepin rig while fishing for summerrun steel. This one was 21 lbs and was shy of the indiana state record by 2 lbs.

Two Octobers ago I went over to a conference in Spokane. Ducked out early on the last day and followed Hwy 2 west to the Methow, because I'd heard steelhead were being caught. Not really very confident because I'd never fished there before, I was swinging a green-butt skunk at the low end of a likely-looking pool and my fly stopped. There she was. Beauty smallish native steelhead hen. I released it and blissed out in the car all the way over Washington Pass and back to Bellingham feeling lucky.

Back in the mid 80's fished the Skagit a bunch. One day while boondogging around Concrete, I hooked a Steelhead on a #14 chrome wing bobber and eggs. The fish fought for about 20 minutes before we ever saw it and when we did, it was amazing. Somewhere around the 30lb mark (6 fish reported that week from 25 to 30lb)
My net was not big enough and the guy on the net knocked it off, all I remember is watching the fish swim slowly off and then sitting on the bow of my sled as it went around in circles drifting down the river while I sat there in shock. Looking back, I am glad it came off as back then I would have thumped it and mounted it.

21+ Summer-Run on a fly. Also myself and a friend landed 25+ steelies in one day!! (in Wa, with nobody else around except a warden, who happneed to bushwack his way to enjoy the show!(he was a good guy)) I seriously doubt that will ever happen to me again!! Same day 4 steelies in four casts (with a bug rod!!) 21, 17, 12 & 6lbs. I can die happy now having had that experience!!

That's a pig, Greg. Nice fish.

float and jig,missed a nice fish.walked upriver 16-17 pound nate,kept walking landed a 7-8 pound nate that jumped 9 times.walked back down to the hole where i missed a nice fish.changed over to a spinner hit a huge nate,do not remember the rest,except how my open hand did not cover the side of its head and my other hand was covered by belly fat,really big hen,my first twenty pounder.3 fish all nates in under 2 hours on feb 26 2004 on the red river.

In 1960 or 1961 when I was 12 years old. We went up to the Washougal River and I ran into my cousin. He said that steelhead were in and that I was guaranteed to catch one. I had never caught one before. About my third or fourth cast with a spoon, the fish was on. It came out of the water and walked on it's tail. It shook it's head, and stripped line off of the reel run after run. I finally got it up to the bank, but had no where to land it due to the depth of the water. I decided to lift it out of the water even though my cousin said NO! He was right. The line snapped and the fish swam slowly away with the spoon still in it's mouth. I'm 56 years old now, have been hooked on fishing ever since. I will carry the image of this beautiful, huge fish in my mind until the day I die.

Good thread - it got this lurker to post...

About three years ago, I had developed my salmon fishing problem. I had got a boat, set it up for fishing, and figured out Puget Sound coho. Chinook kicked my butt though, and I had only caught a few little ones.

One August morning, I set out from West Seattle to fish Elliott Bay with my fishin buddy Tom. After an hour or so of trolling, my rod buries and I felt that unmistakable power of a BIG fish. I told Tom to get all the gear and downriggers out of the water because I didn't want to lose this fish. I was so incredibly excited that a relatively short fight seemed like hours. My heart was beating overtime, my knees were weak, and I couldn't stop saying, "this is a BIG fish!!"

Tom is ready with the net as I ease the fish closer to the boat. Finally I can see the beast, and it is even bigger than I thought. The fish was easily thirty pounds, and I can still picture the beautiful green back and black markings as this magnificent creature slid along side the boat.

I had coached Tom on netting the fish, so he scooped the net under the fish's head and started to lift. The fish didn't fit all the way in the net, but it was nose in, and about two thirds of it was in... I still remember Tom saying, "your net isn't big enough." I watched in slow motion as Tom lowered the net to get a better angle or something, and before I could stop him, the fish thrashed exactly twice. The first thrash got the fish out of the net, and the second thrash brought the leader against the downrigger cable. The fish lingered for a moment with my green/glow Coyote spoon perfectly hooked in the corner of his mouth, then he flicked his tail and glided out of sight into the depths.

I am sure everybody in Seattle heard my curse echo off the skyscrapers.

We had much discussion on what it meant to get the downriggers out of the water, and how to lock the fish in the net by raising the handle, but we never had another chance to use those techniques.

Until the following summer. When again I got a huge fish on. This time, the downriggers came all the way out of the water. Tom wouldn't touch the net, though - too much pressure. Our friend Pedro grabbed the net, and proceeded to try to net the fish tail first. After some emphatic coaching, he slipped the net under the fish and hoisted a 25 pound king into the boat. This still is my biggest salmon to date.