Two limits of Chinook & sockeye

Okanagan · August 19, 2014, 06:22:03 PM

First day back from weddings and such. In about three hours from 7:00 till 10:00 my fishing friend and I caught our limits of two sockeye apiece plus one Chinook each. Unusually good day.

One of the Chinooks (aka king, spring) weighed about 16 lbs. and the other about 19. Kind of wish we had put them on a scale. My fish below, two sockeye and a Chinook.

Hawks Feather · August 19, 2014, 07:24:15 PM

That first image is rather deceptive. My first thought was nice little fish. Then I saw image #2 and realized that I had better look a little closer. Seems there is the back end of a boat there that I should have seen. Nice fish.

Jerry

coyote101 · August 19, 2014, 08:10:39 PM

Wow! That had to be fun.

Pat

slagmaker · August 19, 2014, 09:18:50 PM

What no river side fire pics of fresh grilled fish?

even without those pics it still looks like a great time.

Okanagan · August 19, 2014, 09:42:00 PM

Quote from: coyote101 on August 19, 2014, 08:10:39 PM
Wow! That had to be fun.

Pat

Pat, you'd love it. My Chinook made the perfect fight- for the fisherman.

Hard fight but kept coming back upstream close to me. Some of them power downstream and never stop and you either follow them a loooong ways down the bank (often not possible due to trees fallen in the river, etc.) or jump in a boat and follow the fight. I have followed and fought a couple of 30 pounders a quarter mile downriver on a long open gravel bar before landing them.

This one made three strong long runs, but he would run straight out in the wide river, or down at 45 degrees to the bank, then he would power back past me. That lets you get the line back and forces him to expend his energy all over again to run away. He made a couple of big leaps, then finally powered down river, got tired, and suddenly beached himself way down there. My partner was chasing him down the bank and kicked him farther ashore and pounced on him. Weird way to land one with over 100 feet of line out between me and the fish but it worked.

And man alive he was tasty on the grill tonight. My wife LOVES fresh salmon.

A couple in their 50's were fishing near us and had never fished salmon before. They took turns with one rod, nice folks. She caught the first salmon of their career, a sockeye. He then caught a much more prized Chinook about 12 lbs. as his first salmon ever. It was a good day.

Hawk`s Feather, yes, it needs something else in the pic to show scale, some object of universal known size laid right beside the salmon. The boat and fishing rod are not instant size references.

FinsnFur · August 19, 2014, 09:59:40 PM

Very well done

I'm kinda jealous

Dave · August 20, 2014, 03:35:50 AM

Beautiful looking fish!

Okanagan · August 20, 2014, 03:38:39 PM

Thank you.

Jim, I'm jealous of your bass fishing and hardwood forests. We have it good for sockeye this year but life has a way of evening out. Last year they never opened the season even for a minute, and the year before was short and so poor that I only caught one sockeye. Fortunately, being semi-retired and with my boss gone to Europe I can get out to fish for at least awhile on many days. I'm on the lam from responsibility.

My catch from this morning: two sockeye and another Chinook likely 12-13 lbs. Slow start, finally caught my second sockeye. I could keep fishing for Chinook so made another cast and hooked the Chinook that cast: perfect timing.

FinsnFur · August 21, 2014, 05:35:37 AM

Perfect timing is right lol, Nice catch.

Okanagan · August 21, 2014, 03:39:07 PM

Third morning in a row to fill limit of two sockeye and a Chinook. Never came close to that before.

My third cast this morning I hooked a large Chinook but lost him. He was heavy and sluggish, sulking on the bottom for spells and then taking slow steady power runs downriver before another sulking spell. Everything about that kind of behavior says BIG, ponderous fish that hadn't yet begun to fight. I didn't realize how much line he had out. Four men fishing downriver from me reeled in and I should have started down along the bank after him sooner. Anyway, the 5th man downriver, well spaced out, evidently didn't know I had a fish on and he cast over my line. He felt the fish via my line, gave a mighty heave to set the hook and broke my leader. I was more annoyed than I have been willing to admit to myself!

We limited on sockeye and then I caught a smallish Chinook 12-13 lbs. Didn't take any pics.