9/19/2017 Kelly Catches a Fish of a Lifetime

Wow it has been a busy year! I have really been slacking lately on posts for the blog and putting up new videos on YouTube. The past 2 months have been a blur. Work has been busier than ever, Kelly and I have been preparing for a wedding and honeymoon, then we got married, and then went on our 2 week honeymoon. The wedding and honeymoon were both absolutely fantastic, but for the sake of keeping this post shorter I will stick to the fish story from the trip. A few weeks before the trip started, I contacted a fly fishing guide on the Salmon River in New York to inquire about a guided trip. I set up a date with him that worked into our schedule for the trip. The day of the trip, the weather was not looking promising. Forecasts were calling for 80+ degrees and bright, sunny skies. Not ideal Salmon fishing weather by any stretch of the imagination. Despite the conditions, Jay (the guide) said that there were plenty of fish in the river and that would could still potentially have a good day. So with high hopes we met up early on the Salmon River to start our day. Jay gave us some great casting instruction. We were using 12' Switch Rods and swinging wooly buggers to deeper runs looking for fish. Before long both Kelly and I were making decent casts and making good drifts and swings. Unfortunately not much else was happening. There were clearly fish in the river though as we could see fish rolling and occasionally you would see someone else hook up. After a few hours Jay decided that we should take a stroll and look for somewhere else to fish and hopefully come across some active fish willing to take a fly. After a good, long walk he decided on fishing a run and Kelly and I quickly got to work swinging flies. The guide was standing with me working on my casting technique when all of a sudden from just upstream Kelly says "There's one!" Sure enough she had finally got a solid hook up! The guide quickly made his way upstream and began coaching Kelly through the fight. The fish took a run upstream, forcing Kelly and the guide to chase it or risk losing it. They successfully made their way upstream and got the fish turned around and headed back downstream. After about 5 minutes the fish settled into a run about 25 feet from the bank and held it's ground. The guide slowly instructed Kelly to put more and more side pressure on the fish to try to get it moving, but the fish was happy where it was and would not budge. After several minutes of an absolute stalemate, Jay told Kelly that he was "going to go into the river and either net the fish right there or when he got in the river the fish would run and Kelly should just let it run and she could battle it back in again." The fish was still holding steady. Even though it was relatively close, you could not see it as it was obscured by the riffle and the reflection of the sun. Jay entered the river and said "Oh! I can see what the problem is!" With a worried look on her face Kelly said something to the effect of "What's wrong?" Jay relied "This fish is huge! I think that it has U.S. Navy printed on the side of it!" Before long, the fish turned to run but ran straight into Jay's waiting net! Once we had it in the net Kelly and I, and event the guide to some extent, were shocked by how big the fish was! It was truly massive and the pictures truly do not do this fish justice. Jay weighed the fish in the net using a hand scale. As he strained to hold the fish high enough to weigh, his scale showed and unbelievable 38.5 pounds! It's tail was more than a foot wide from top to bottom, it was thicker than my hand spread wide across it's back, and it's girth was just absolutely incredible. It was a big female and I'm guessing was absolutely bursting at the seams with eggs. Jay struggled to hold the fish up for a few photos and then returned the fish to the river. He said that Salmon was the biggest that any client had ever caught with him in 25 years of guiding! Neither Kelly or I are likely to ever top that fish! the only disappointing part of the day is that we did not succeed it catching any other fish. We both had several additional hookups that unfortunately resulted in throw hooks or broken line. Still, that one fish definitely made the trip worthwhile and Kelly is still VERY excited about having caught it! Truly a Salmon of a lifetime!