Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Missed Chinook was huge...


I bought a Salmon fishing license only for one day, which was first and last chance for me to try Chinook in Idaho on July 11th. It was closing date this year at South Fork of Salmon River.

I had a plan to go there last week, but I couldn't do that because of my busy work.

It was almost a year interval, since I'd visited there last year.





This year, I decided not to use my fly tackle for Chinook until I saw it visually. Which meant I thought I should try sight Salmon fishing especially at this river.

So I grabbed #5 single handed rod and #9/10 double handed spey rod both, and tried dry fly fishing with #5. Because there was no Chinook that I found. Small native rainbow saved me from boring.



Then I did see something huge one moved to upper passing by me.

That was definitely Chinook Salmon, and he was a kind of huge. It was so easy to judge from the bank. And he hided just behind the big rock. I did see his large tail fin moving.





I casted the Babine pattern to him, but he was not interested in that.

I realized that the weight was too light because of strong flow there. Finally, I added four heavy shots as total.

After several casts again, I got surely strike!



Yes, I got it!!




Its tug was the strongest one in the past my fish, including B-run Steelie.

Though he ran around the big rock for while, he rushed to the upper riffle suddenly.



My past bitter experience of B-run Steelie reminded me that it was dangerous to let big boy run freely. So I tightened my fly reel's drug a little bit. Then he was hooked off, during his large jump...



Oh my gosh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

................................



There was just silence... It looked awesome buck Chinook, and a kind of 40inches class...
No, stop talking of missed fish anymore, Lance. It definitely nasty habit of fisherman.




After this nightmare, I did see several smaller Chinook in front of me. Although I tried many times, they ignored my flies. I had to give it up by the regulation, 1hour after sunset, about 22:20...


It took several days for me to recover myself from that tragedy. Forget it, Lance! Then say goodbye to Idaho's Chinook, and let's start another one!!

2 comments:

yokoyam3 said...

惜しかったですね〜!私は2回行ったことがありますがまだ1回もフッキングしたことはありません。あのおもりをいっぱい付けるのにちょっと抵抗があって最近は行ってません。でも一度はキャッチしたいですよね!

african said...

確かに、あれをFly Fishingというのはさすがに抵抗がありますが、それはそれ、これはこれということで。IdahoのChinook、一度はこの手に抱いてみたかったです…。

私も二度目のTryだったのですが、去年は魚影すら確認できなかったのに対し、今年は逃がした奴以外にも、何匹も目にすることができたので、はるかに楽しかったです。あぁ、でも、ホント悔やまれます。また思い出しました…