wrote...
Excellent TR and beautiful pix from both you and Willi.

JR, none of the pics were mine. I lent my camera to a friend
who fried the thing and so Willi, Kevin, RW and Snoop were the
photographers. Hope you enjoyed the humor in the TR though.
g

Partly because of the timing of their runs and partly because I can't
get past how plug ugly they are, I've never fished for pinks. What are
they like--the take, the fight? Were you dead-drifting those flies,
swinging them....?

They ARE ugly! Ugly to the point to where they are beautiful
that is. I really got a kick out of fishing for the pinks
because it was like nothing I have ever experienced before. I
got the impression that they are a "lesser" salmon, but they
suited me just fine. The smoked ones that Chas had at the
"Wade Inn" were terrific and I can't wait to smoke some
myself. I had a couple of steaks tonight on the Q using some
mesquite chips that seemed too harsh for the fish. I am
looking forward to trying it again with some alder or apple.
I still can't believe I actually got to experience the thrill
that these fish provided.

How do you explain pinks? They can slam a fly, pick it up on
a dead drift and just "hold" the fly or can simply be foul
hooked. I hated how often fish were foul hooked and it was
something that disturbed me. Drifting a heavy fly through
shallow water would often snag a male on the hump. I didn't
count these fish in my "personal tally" and did everything I
could to land and release these fish as quickly as possible.
Bitching about there being so many fish that you actually foul
hooked fish is just something that I have never had to deal
with before. The solid takes were *solid* and fun. They
didn't seem to fight as long as the trout I am used to fishing
for, but they fought harder in a shorter period of time unless
they were "fresher" fish. The "fresher" ones seemed to have
more spunk to them and would actually battle much like a big
brown IME. The ones a little later along in the run would
fight for a bit and then come in like an old boot once they
were wore out. ailuweiukawei Sorry....had to swat an
annoying caddis....

I really enjoyed fishing for the pinks and am now hooked.
Sight fishing for them was an ultimate kick for me. In my
very limited experience, it seemed like the fish would
congregate on the slower moving water, especially before a
rapid. They would move into shallow water and if you didn't
spook them, you could totally sight fish to a specific fish if
they were holding. Watching that big mouth open and see the
fly actually entering the mouth before setting the hook was a
blast! More often than not, it was sight fishing in shallow
water to moving fish or sight fishing to a huge "blob" of fish
in a certain area. RW and I sat there and laughed for a long
time on how "obscene" the fishing was.

Another thing I noticed was that the better "keepers" would be
further out from shore. It often was a battle of casting past
the more "wore out" fish without spooking them to get to the
good ones. The "fresher" fish seemed to be just beyond the
easy, visible fish. For me, the funnest part of this whole
trip was basically showing up someplace totally foreign to me,
faced with a totally new type of fishing, given three flies
that would work and being turned loose. I was kind of the
anti-social person in the group and would often just go out on
my own without any specific instructions and kind of play
around until I figured out how to catch the fish on my own.
You could totally see them, but you couldn't always get them
to take a fly. It was easy, but challenging at the same time
if you catch my meaning.

The impression that I was left with was that the pinks are
like a good practice fish for the upcoming and better runs of
fish. *I* enjoyed every minute I was fishing for the pinks
and at times was just worn out from catching so many. They
fought just enough to wear a guy out and were plentiful and
hungry enough at times to be a pain in the ass. I guess the
best way I can put it was that it was like being 4 years old
again, fishing for perch using a cane rod and worms and just
hauling in fish after fish. It was fun as hell but it got
just down-right tiring after a while. Just when you thought
you possibly couldn't take any more, the fish would get hard
to catch and would become challenging again. If you haven't
tried it, you owe it to yourself to try it at least once with
someone like Chas. The whole experience still seems like a
dream to me and is something that I doubt I will forget
anytime soon. It is just hard believe that it actually
happened.
--
Warren (aka Iron Harry Vane arrr!)
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