Actually my first in 16 years even counting shore fishing. Had a couple on last year but lost them both within seconds.

Got this 17lb Chinook (king) salmon today.

 

I knew it was going to be a weird morning, it's easy to forget stuff when it's dark, and you are tired. I got to Tim's (the local popular donut/coffee shop) and meant to order a sausage breakfast sandwhich ..ordered bacon by mistake, but then I got a sausage sammy in the end by mistake, so maybe my luck was turning, lol

Got the yak rigged up and down to the water just as the sky was brightening up, only to find I'd remembered everything except my paddle! ...fortunately it was in the truck which wasn't too far away. It was warm and humid out, near zero wind, the water was glassy with ripples, a perfect morning to forget my neoprene boots ..and the water was 66 degrees, quite mild.

Water visibility was 8-10 feet. Suprisingly clear right to the river mouths. Fish were surfacing everywhere, about every 30 seconds or so, however I wasn't marking any on the FF, kind of thought it was broken. I wasn't sure at what depths they were hanging out so I just tried a few things. After pulling and casting a wiggler, a cleo and a northern king for a couple hours I decided it was time to head in. I was about 500m out from the pier, I figured I'd try something different during the ride back to the beach, I threw on a super bright pink and white mirror finish x-rap, 5 minutes later I had a fish on. She sure didn't fight hard, kind of felt like a 4lb walleye coming in, I had alot of line out so that whole minute or so I was bringing her in I was anticipating at least one nice hard run, she made a couple feeble attempts when I got her to the boat. ..my net was a little too small so I ended up grabbing her by the tail and flopping her on the boat. Since I haven't kept a fish in many many years, and certainly not a salmon, a gentleman on the pier that had been fishing all morning yelled out and asked if he could have the fish, in exchange for a couple photos, I obliged.

After that little bit of action I took one more quick run up the channel and managed another hit, although not a hookup.

This sorta takes me back to alot of stuff I read with regards to fishing for other types of fish, it seems the norm is bright colours in clear water and dark colours in murky water or at night, well the norm for salmon is usually the opposite isn't it?

Despite the weak fight I'm a very happy camper and can't wait to try again tomorrow. This is my 3rd decent fish off the yak in over a year, the others being a 3lb SMB and a 4+lb LMB.

Neil