More fly rod salmon pics and story

Okanagan · September 21, 2009, 02:48:15 PM

Sunday morning before church I had an odd experience while fishing for pink salmon. In a wide flat stretch of moderately moving river where I'd fished a few days earlier, I noticed a ripple in the current out in water waist deep. It looked like a big rock that stuck up near the surface that current bulged over and around and left a long streak of eddy downstream from it. I hadn't seen anything like that when I fished there a few days ago, but the river has dropped a few inches so I didn't pay it any mind except to avoid snagging on it. It stayed there unmoving for a good 20 minutes and as I had waded near it, I let a fly drift down in front of it thinking a salmon might be lying there. As the fly passed in front of the bulge of water, a big male salmon bit it hard and made a good fight. I released him and drifted the fly to the same spot, though now the bulge seemed spread out a bit, which I took to be wind ruffling the waves. This time a bright male fresh from the ocean grabbed the fly. He was prime eating so I took him to the cooler in my vehicle. On my return, the bulge and any trace of ripple were gone.

What was it? It might have been a tight school of salmon bunched together that stayed in one spot for 20 minutes, though I've never seen anything like that before. It might have been a huge sturgeon lying in one spot for awhile. There are lots of sturgeon in that channel, and I have seen them swim upstream over a gravel bar making a bulge in the surface like a submarine. Loch Ness monster??? Russian submarine?

Photo below is of the salmon I kept. Below that is a shot of fishermen hitting the pink salmon run on a section of river we locals call the gong show.

Hawks Feather · September 21, 2009, 02:58:57 PM

Around here I am not the biggest salmon fan, but the ones from up north a few years back were excellent. Now your picture is making me hungry for "the good ones".

Jerry

pitw · September 21, 2009, 10:58:25 PM

Well now you done it

I can't do much about the urges I get from the turkey pics on this board but now I'm going fishing again

. Neat looking fish that one is. I gatta notion I might not fit in to well at the gong show while fishing

but watching it could be a blast

. Thanks again for the info.

Okanagan · September 21, 2009, 11:57:28 PM

Quote from: pitw on September 21, 2009, 10:58:25 PM
Neat looking fish that one is. I gatta notion I might not fit in to well at the gong show while fishing but watching it could be a blast . Thanks again for the info.

Yeah, isn't that a pretty fish? That one was the tastiest pink salmon we've ever eaten. My wife said that if they all tasted as good as this one, they would rival Coho. It had much darker orange meat than most pinks.

Yep, I avoid the gong show except when sockeye are in and there simply is no uncrowded spot on the river to fish. Even then I go at first light to isolated places and am usually gone before real crowds arrive. People are pretty good generally, and lines don't tangle as much as you'd expect. When they do cross, people are good about it, and usually clear out of the way when someone is fighting a big fish. A person should use heavy line and get the fish in right away when so close to others, which is why most fly fishermen go off to less crowded places. Half a mile upriver from the crowd in the photo I had 100 yards of river to myself and was catching enough fish to sometimes let my arms rest before making another cast after releasing one. I know, tough duty and you feel sorry for me. I have bruises on my sternum from putting the butt of the fly rod against my chest. It's a hard calling...

I talked to a fishing guide friend who is sure the bulge in the water was a sturgeon. Golly that must have been a big one.

pitw · September 22, 2009, 07:41:24 AM

Quote from: Okanagan on September 21, 2009, 11:57:28 PM
I know, tough duty and you feel sorry for me. I have bruises on my sternum from putting the butt of the fly rod against my chest. It's a hard calling...

Dang near had a river of tears cried for you and then I remembered what the "L" we were talking about

. Sounds like way to much fun to be legal

. Enjoy it as much as you can so you can keep sharing with us

FinsnFur · September 22, 2009, 08:11:46 PM

That definitely seems to be the hotspot. Around here if I see that many cars by a fishing hole, I drive right on by.

By the way....I wish you would have tipped your camera up just a skoash on that second pic. That view of the valley from the inside is about as mesmerizing as they come.

Okanagan · September 23, 2009, 01:15:33 AM

Quote from: FinsnFur on September 22, 2009, 08:11:46 PM
By the way....I wish you would have tipped your camera up just a skoash on that second pic. That view of the valley from the inside is about as mesmerizing as they come.

Thanks. It is good country, biiiiiig country. The sides of that valley top out above timberline with permanent snow and glaciers in places, though most of those are set back a bit so can't be seen from most places down in the valley bottom. There is a freeway a mile behind the camera and a two lane highway at the base of the hill along the other side of the valley. Black bears and blacktail deer on the island across the channel that people are fishing. That's a big wooded island, not the far shore. I'm heading out tomorrow afternoon for a couple of weeks but will try to remember to post a few more scenics of the area when I get back.

Hadn't planned to fish any more but a friend who had not fished in 20 years asked me to take him out there this afternoon so we did and it was fun to watch him. He hooked a salmon his first retrieve (I made his first cast to remind him how, and handed him the rod.) We caught a bunch .

FinsnFur · September 23, 2009, 05:36:34 AM

Cool, I'll be looking forward to it.