Well I just got back from my annual salmon trip up north. There were salmon to be had, but I had a tough time. When I was on the Smith the Chetco was hot and when I was on the Chetco the Smith was hot. Felt like I was chasin em around. The rivers were in beautiful shape, it had just rained a few inches just before I arrived and the rivers were colored when I arived. The first day I was there the Smith went from 1' to 4' visability by the end of the day, and salmon were rolling everywhere. The guys pulling kwik fish were nailing them, but it was still tough with flies. The next day the river was perfect with about 8' vis. I hooked 2 fish that day and landed them both. The first one was 36lbs. and the second one was 26lbs. The second one was as bright as a dime with sea lice still on it. The first one was dark, but still faught like hell. Took about 1/2 an hour to land towin me all over the hole. Feeling pretty good about that until I returned to camp on the Chetco where they just mugged em. Everyone had multiple hook ups, with the top rods hooking around 8 fish each! So I get up hours before the crack of dawn and wait in "the bucket" for dawn to arrive. That day only 2 fish were hooked in the same hole they mugged them the day before, and the fish were still there rolling all day, they just didn't have any mouths. Very frustrating. Get back to camp and hear how they mugged em on the Smith! 3rd day the weather is settling down and I decided to stay on the Chetco. Basiclly a repeat of the second day eccept I had 2 unbutton on me. The final morning before I had to go home I fished the Chetco again, and it was slow again for the fly guys, only this time there was a steady stream of salmon being dragged up the rock from the bait guys. Well I was counting down my last few casts when this guy hooks a huge one on bait from the shore next to us. That salmon ran all over the pool stirring everything up. Well it created a short bite and a couple fly guys hooked up. So I decided to stay a little longer. Well it payed off cause I finally hooked another one. This fish took off down stream so fast and so far after his intitial head shake that I felt the knott to my dacron backing rip through my hands before I could finish pulling up my anchors. By the time I was out of the line up and chasing the fish it was well over a hundred yards below me heading towards the cluster of bait guys and the other line up of fly guys. This was after making a right turn around a guys anchor lines. I thought I'd never catch up to this fish. I just put my rod in my mouth and started rowing like a mad, then picked up as much line as I could. By the time I got back to my running line I was getting close to the fly guys. Well sure enough, a guy on the bank with bait picked up my line and started setting the hook thinking he had one on until some of my freinds yelled at him he was on my fish. I was still about 150' above him at this time. After clearing his line off, I finally got on top of the fish and started working him hard to tire him out. 20 minutes later I had a nice 30lber hanging on the back of the pram. That made it much easier to go home after that. Oh, I went back up and weighed the bank guys fish, it was 42lbs mint bright. What a beaut. I took a few photos, and if I ever figure out how to post em I'll get them up. The roll is about done so I'll get them developed soon and see what I can do. It was great to get back up there again and see the old gang. I missed last year. I couldn't have timed the weather any better. That was great.
Jonesy
you suck! 
