Headed out to fish the SnoHo yesterday. It was a superb day with a couple of surprises....

I was not able to catch a single bright colored fish; they were all green with most dawning superb arches in their backs. The humpies were ecstatic over my jigs. I tie my own; they produce much better action than store bought ones. 22 humpies landed in total, all safely C&R. Had me doing the "humpy dance" with my ultralight spinning outfit. Most were bucks; the guy/girl ratio was quite askew. Also, a couple of aggressive cutties and even a little bulldog clamped down on my jig as it twitched happily about. All safely C&R as well.

The biggest surprise came as I reached for my vibrax spinner and ML rod to see if I could pull in an early coho; theres been a couple spotted milling about already. A heavy grab on the fifth cast signaled something was willing to do battle. But far too heavy to be a humpy, and even big by silver standards.....

Finally he surfaced, thrashing about and "dolphin leaping" out of the water, showing off a brilliant bronze coloration. I managed to hook the "King of the River." Here we go, fighting a king on a 7ft ML twitching rod and 8lb flouroclear line. Well, my "humpy dance" apparently works decent on kings as well, because after a 20 minute fight, I was able to tail the beauty and get a measurement. The wild tank measured 42" nose to tail fork. He never left the water and was quick to swim off. Anyone know how much a king like that weighs?

Noon approached and I headed off the river, with nary a fish on my stringer but no remorse over that fact. I usually C&R anyway, so being able to do so on some amazing fish was a great experience.

Tight lines

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