Fly Fishing - Atlantic Salmon on a 4wt fly rod! (pic and story)

jinxed247

I went fly fishing the Salmon River today. I had only brought my st. croix 4wt because I wanted to mess with the little fish with some dry flies and nymphs. I was catching small salmon and rainbows and some browns when I decided to switch over and go sub-surface. I tied on a green beadheaded whooly bugger that had black hackle and some flash tied in. On my first drift I felt a slight tug on the end of the drift and my line stopped moving. So I gave it a little tap and to my surprise an Atlantic Salmon sky rocketed out of the water and started racing around! After a few more jumps it decided to race downstream and we were off to the races. Before I knew it I was deep into my backing and I was starting to see my reel so I went racing downstream after the fish. I was on a stony island and the rocks at the edge of the water were like sheer ice. Every step I took nearly split me in half. The fish must have taken pity on me because he turned back up into the current and let me play catch up. When I finally thought I was making some progress on the fish he took off back downstream and started jumping again. I silently prayed to the fish God's that my rod wouldn't break or that my thin ass tippet wouldn't snap. Finally, after what seemed like forever, I landed the fish. A 25 to 26 inch Atlantic Salmon on a 4wt fly rod in the middle of July. I must have been meant to catch this fish because everything was working against me. When I reached down into it's hooked jaw to remove my fly I noticed something about the fly. The hook was broken in two at the middle and the only thing holding it together was the material of the fly!! Unreal!
Sorry about the water on the lense, he splashed around a bit for the picture!

Seabass · Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 8:48 am Post subject:

wow , nice story and what an awesome fish... ( wish we had them over here in The Netherlands.)

Seabass

jinxed247 · Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 8:58 am Post subject:

Thanks! It sure was fun! I never sweated so much trying to land a fish!

Marcel_Karssies · Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 9:56 am Post subject:

Unbelievable ! you're a lucky guy for sure.

Down here some guys are gearing up for a salmon trip to Norway
and they where told that it could take years before they actually would catch one.
Your story proves it does not have to be that way if the fishinggods
are smiling upon you.

jinxed247 · Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 10:18 am Post subject:

Thanks Marcel!!

TroutBone · Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2008 8:54 am Post subject:

I'm Jealous Jinxed..lol.. Wink

jinxed247 · Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2008 6:35 pm Post subject:

Hooah!

peterdk · Newbie Joined: Dec 11, 2006 Posts: 22 Location: Denmark

Nice Job!

Must have been a cool experience...