Salmon Slammin'

A gorgeous weekend day in November demands one thing: FISHING! This time of the year there are a number of options but high winds kept me from getting out on the lake for what I really wanted to get into. So instead I decided to get out to some tributaries and poke around a bit. Fortunately I found some fish willing to play with me on such short notice!

I kept hooking up with salmon but the hooks seemed to keep popping out of their mouths. Rather frustrating... I finally got into a very nice one (I estimate that it was pushing 30"). It tore off downstream. I managed to get it under one log but the second one it went around proved to be disastrous. It was a big log in very shallow water; I swear that fish looked me in the eye as it bolted and broke my tippet.

Eventually I found my groove. I put on a Princess fly (think Prince with a lot of pink) and that sealed the deal for me with my first fish. That one wasn't overly acrobatic. It was a very heavy bodied male of 26". I was definitely pleased. 

I moved around a bit looking for more activity. I was definitely seeing fish regularly. I really had hoped to find some steel but I guess I was looking in the wrong spots. I did have the right spots for salmon though. 

The October Prince brought my next fish to hand. This one lived up to the nickname "The Leaper"; it spent quite a bit of time in the air. I love watching the belly flops that they sometimes do. It did another classic landlocked maneuver- the roll. It rolled over the line a bunch of times. Definitely a way to test your knots for sure! That fish just would not tire. I would get it to the net, it would flop out (I need a bigger net- and I use a BIG net already), then it would be off the races again. 

That fish measured 25 1/2". Two great fish on a lovely day in Vermont!  How can you beat it?