Confessions of a newbie - first ever salmon!

[Boatless]

Just back from fishing - instead of my usual west tributary pier, I decided to try the mouth of the famous river.

Although I have scouted this location a couple of times during the day, it was still tricky negotiating all the big rocks. I was surprised that it was not shoulder to shoulder.

I got set up with a 3/4 oz Little Cleo - glow in the dark orange/white and started chucking. After about 30 minutes - BAM! It took me a couple seconds before I realized what had happened - I was so not ready for what was about to happen next..

Here comes my confession - I forgot all the basics - I did not even think let alone try to set the hook. Luckily, the salmon did all the work but the only thing that kept coming into my mind was "NOW WHAT!". The reel just started to scream and line started to disappear - I then realized that I did not have my drag set properly - I did not even know that I could screw down the drag so far - but managed to set is so that the salmon did not have a free run.

Luckily, there was gentlemen next to me who immediately offered to help - he grabbed my net and we proceeded to try to land the fish. It had a couple good, long runs and I was able to get it close to shore. My heart started to pound when he turned his flashlight onto the fish at the edge of the water - then it made one final run, fish tailing on the surface.

It turned out that my net was not big enough - 24" in diameter - but he managed to scoop it out of the water. Unfortunately, once on the rocks, it jumped out of the net and wedged itself between the rocks in the water - it looked like it was trapped but my new fishing buddy managed to coax it back into the net and I was able to pull out my lure and get it back into the water. My buddy revived the fish while holding it in the net and after what felt like an eternity, the fish swam away.

It was a male chinook - just starting to turn dark - I have no idea on the weight but I am guessing based on the size of my net that was over 30" - it was a beautiful, healthy fish. In all the excitement/panic of landing/dropping the fish, I did not have the wherewithal to take a picture but the image of the fish is not permanently recorded in my mind.

So, I think that I may be addicted Need more gear (bigger net) and more time on the water. Hopefully, I will be better prepared for the next salmon!

Thank you everyone for all your useful tips.