Spence. As tempting as it is to tease you about all of the ways that you seem to have violated your avowed preferences, I'll just say "congrats, pal!" Looks like you enjoyed your transgressions. :)
G. I was floating with a minister. Does that count for anything? ;)
Like I said above my experience has left me with a lot on my mind. I hope to share some of this here, but we had a computer go down here, and I'm the chief cook and bottle washer and had to take care of getting it straightened out.
My friend has been trying to get me up to the PM for 20 years. He knows it really isn't my cup-o-tea. He lost a very good friend last year who was his fishing partner and recently fell off a roof (he's a roofer) and is in re-hab. He called to tell me that Doug wanted to fish with us...We did not pay for the float, though we made sure we filled up his truck and I covered the flies etc that I left enbedded in fish.
Glad you got yourself a salmon
Jonathon..."A Salmon"...as in singular? I cannot tell you how many fish I hooked Wednesday. Landed...well that's a different story. I caught fish all damn day! From the first few moments of our float when I caught the Brown until I just couldn't handle it any more. I had an upper body work out better than my trips to the gym, and had terrible leg cramps every time I moved funny from wading and trying to keep up with Doug. :)
We had to re-build my leader completely from scratch 4 times from fish charging in to schrubs & structure that I just couldn't prevent...I would of needed a wire cable and a winch wrapped around a tree to stop these shits...They went where they damn well pleased and I had to follow.
The last pic there where I'm holding the fish was near the end of the day...We stopped around 4:00pm or so. My friend wasn't in shape for an all day fish and he rode along for the last half the day...If he were to tell his PT docs where he was he would have shit to pay! :)
I had taken two nice fish from this one area that actually took my fly. The third from the same area turned out to be the proper end to the day...I ran the fly through these hyped up males and foul hooked the largest one near his tail...I heard Doug as he turned to my buddy sitting in the boat say, "We are going to be here awhile, Spence has him in the ass-end!"
This fish went north, then south, east & west and all the time Doug is coaching from the sidelines for me to keep side pressure on this fish..."Forget trying to lift him Spence, that ain't gonna work...He's not one of your Au Sable Browns!"
He finally headed downstream and blew by the boat and Doug at about a hundred miles per hour, so hot that he decided not to try and net it as it went by...I was running. Doug was running and yelling instruction...The last I saw of this fish he was more than a half a block away acting every bit like he was heading back to Lake Michigan...The fly came loose and I had a mile of running line out straight on the water.
I turned to the boys who were laughing and said, "Well fellas...I think that will just about do it for today!" :)
Spence
A funny aside...When I mention about that we had to re-build leaders etc...I mean that the only thing left was running line when I reeled back in. Doug went in to the shrubs looking for my leader and fly and came back with 7 others that were lost in the trees...I actually used one of the found flies later in the day! The first picture above of my friend with his rod bent over, if you look across the river at the down group of trees, that's where I had my rear handed to me the first time...He crashed head long in to and under that and that was all she wrote.