Salmon fishing as good as it gets

[MuskieBait]

Fished Friday evening and went 0/3, fished Saturday evening not even getting a sniff, and the fished Sunday morning and only got a few violent smashed on the lures but nothing stuck.

It's amazing what a difference a day makes.

I met up with my friend Matthew who as a company that sells egg beads, hand tied flies and soft plastics. I wanted to learn how to fish beads and he was happy to teach.

Before the day was even bright, we started hitting fish. Here's my first King Salmon on a bead.



A few more mid-size fish later, I landed a really nice King Salmon.



Fishing was good until 10am and we've sufficiently hammered the pool hard. We decided to move on.

There were a few fish in a run and that's perfect for the Kwikfish. I kept the lure just an inch or two from a male and he wanted to kill that offensive thing that was wiggling and flashing in front on its face.



There was a pair of fish a little further upstream. I put a spoon rolling and flashing in front of the pair. The male swatted at it a couple of times, but it was the female that decided she had enough of this intruder.



We arrived at a pool and Matthew had a big male Coho Salmon nosed a Kwikfish at the back of the pool but it didn't commit. He lost sight of the fish. I saw a small silver fish at the head of the pool. After trying with the spoon unsuccessfully, I decided to drift a bead instead. On the first drift, my bead was washed under a log and it was taken down hard. After the hookset, the fish came out of the water and it was all dark green and pink. It was the big Coho! I haven't caught a Coho in 10 years and this one kept rolling in the line threatening to pop the hook out or snap the line. After a gut wrenching 5min, we Matthew finally tailed the fish for me.





Right after that fish, I said "I'm sure there are some more in that pool." And just like that, on the second drift, Matthew hooked a chrome female Coho in prime shape. I don't have a photo on the camera, but she was absolutely stunning.

After this pool, we fished upstream and fish were very cooperative. It started raining so we took very few photos, but we caught lots with the spoon and Kwikfish.

Here's the last fish of the day - a big male King Salmon that engulfed the Kwikfish.



We probably went double digit on salmon today. I probably had close to double digit on lures alone. It's the best lure bite I've ever had in my 20 years of salmon fishing!