When I was a kid, my Uncle Dean gave me a sticker that said, “Fishing Fools Club…Persistent Counts” and said I was now an official member. I was too young to understand what that meant, but I liked the sticker because the illustration is of a man fishing. He had been fishing so long, by the time his bobber went under, he had become a skeleton.
Searching through my photo album, I smiled when I saw the “Fishing Fools Club” sticker proudly displayed on one of my uncle’s tackle boxes. He had many tackle boxes, but this was his favorite. For that reason, it became the urn for his ashes when he passed away last winter.
So, being a member of the Fishing Fools Club, I am obligated to be persistent. That persistence paid off this week.
Since May 17th, I’ve been fishing the afternoon tides. This week, the king salmon run has been building (relative to the weeks before), and instead of doing what I’ve been doing without success, I switched things up and hit the river at 5:30am. Five minutes into my first troll, this beautiful girl found the business end of K15 Kwikfish lure.
I was fishing by myself, so it was a little bit tricky running the boat, fighting a fish, and then netting it. Had there been other fisherman to get in my way, I’m not sure I would’ve had the same outcome. Luck was definitely on my side.
I could tell as soon as the fish was in the net it was over the 34” slot limit. If I were to guess, I would say it was around 38”-40”. After a couple of quick photos, she was released to continue her journey.
I know I said I was alone, but actually Drake was in the boat with me. Our neighbors are out of town, so Jane and I have been dog sitting. I’m trying to figure out a way to tell Greg and Jenny that Drake would really make a great deck hand for me this season…..
For the week ahead, with lots of free time without clients, I’m going to switch gears and chase red salmon away from home. My first stop will be the Kenai River/Russian River confluence. After that, I plan on going to Seward to see if the red salmon are there too.
Come back next week to see if my change of scenery pays off.
Fishing Report Week Ending May 31, 2020