Went out on a scouting trip yesterday. Hooking salmon has been hit/miss the last few days on the Sacramento River. Really have to work for them now. Started out near downtown Sacramento below Miller Park. No fish but the seals were hammering them! I then decided to make a run all the way up to Knights Landing. Motored all the way up and fished back down. I had several hits and one briefly on trolling downstream. Just above Verona my rod went down and appeared to be snagged. I turned the boat around and motored back up to it. As I reeled the slack in, I realized it was not a snag. As soon as I started pulling, it took off like a shot! I chased it upriver and then back down...fumbling with my net trying to extend it while I had my pole with the fish on between my legs. I got the fish close 4 separate times but each time I could not get the pole far enough with my left hand to net the salmon with my right. Thats one of the challenges of fishing alone. The other problem was the salmon was by far the biggest I have ever hooked on the Sacramento River. It was easily over 50. Too big for the net! A big; hook nosed male that was bright red on the sides. I decided the best thing to do was to pull the boat to shore. I had fought him or...I should say we fought each other for about 20 minutes. He took several mighty runs and leaps during the fight. He was so big I could not even drag him to shore. I then did the one thing you should not do. I put the pole down and grabbed the line with my bare hand. He was not done. He had one more run in him and he gave me a deep line burn/cut on my index finger! I withstood the pain and finally was able to get him close enough to grab him. I was hoping he would recover as releasing him was the plan. I had my waders on so I sat there in the water holding him above his tail. I slowly pushed him forward and pulled him back working water thru his gills. Finally, I could feel his strength coming back and he started moving side to side normally without turning over and I released him to disappear back to the depths of the river; hopefully making it upriver to spawn! No pic though....Just a fish story. Trying to take a picture would have would have been as impossible as netting him! I will never forget that fish!
Posted on: Sat, 08 Nov 2014 19:08:03 +0000
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