Dum, did de dum......
I caught a King Salmon today! Truly by accident, I mean I saw the fish and went after it, but i did not know it was a King - you are not allowed to fish for King's in the Russian River, and if you catch one, you cannot take it out of the water and have to immediately release it. This will be important as my story progresses....
Many more fish this morning, and Charlie of course caught 2 and I actually caught two - getting a little better, but Charlie is still the master fisherman. We were fishing with another couple who were in our fishing hole - pleasant couple - Gabe and his girlfriend from Anchorage -
I saw this red fish and tried to catch it for about 20 minutes, it would swim up and then back, and then back up and then back down, never quickly - and just sort of lugging around... so I thought I could catch it. Well I did - I whistled for Charlie so he would know I had a fish on the line, ( since he takes out my hooks...) and then I set out to land him.
I knew he was big, I had seen that in the water, but when Charlie went to try and net it, he turned to me and said " Cheri, this is a BIG fish" and it was too big for our net - (which is not small, probably 2 feet or more across). So Charlie asked Gabe if he would help since it was obvious Gabe knew what he was doing down there, he had been catching them much like Charlie had....
Gabe went and got the net and could not net him either, all the while this fish is swimming 40 - 50 feet each way on the river, people just stopped fishing and watch as I tried to land this fish. Truly this fish ofter acted like he didn't even know he had a hook in him and just went wherever he wanted.....
I finally guided him to the shallow water off the gravel bar, and Gabe and Charlie ran over to it. It has swam under a log in that part of the river and could not go anywhere - so they were able to see it well. I heard Gabe say " King" and "release" so I knew what was going to happen. I put my rod down on the gravel bar, and yelled " Wait! I want to see it! " and went tearing over there, clodding in my wading boots, as fast as I could run. I knew they had to release it quickly if it was a King. I got there and was able to see the first foot or so of it, and it was indeed a big fish. I then said they could let it go. I never saw the entire length of it, it happened so quickly.
While they were over there with the fish, I heard Charlie ask Gabe how big it was, and he said he wasn't sure, but it was definitely well over 30 pounds. He also said it was over 4 feet long! I had no idea - but it was a great fish to land, and when I told my dad about it, he said " and you didn't fall in the river"? I laughed and said no, so I must be improving.
Charlie caught his limit, I caught another Red, so we had a lot of fish today.
We went and picked up Didi, and I took the fish we had been catching and freezing to the cannery, and Charlie did our laundry. We took about 25 pounds of fish to the cannery - - we will get some fresh canned and some smoked.
Fished this afternoon, but didn't stay long - momma bear was roaming our section of the river and had lost a cub and was not happy at all. She just kept racing around and searching and roaring. It was awesome to watch and hear, but also somewhat scary. She found it later and came back much calmer, but we still decided it was time to leave.
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