Penobscot River Salmon: The Agony Of Defeat

Salmon Video

I had heard of trophy Landlocked Salmon in the Penobscot river and always thought they were stories about the good old days, until I felt the sharp pain in my shoulder of a take I was not expecting! My friend, Jeremy, and I had been fishing small caddis with what I thought were fair sized and fun Salmon. I settled into these fish never suspecting for a minute what was about to happen. Jermy said ” hey tie this on” so I swung the line to him and I could not make out the pattern other than it was awkwardly big, brown and buggy looking. I figured this was a waste of time do to this bugs size and appearance on the water, perhaps his attempt at a joke. OK I’ll play along. First cast, Bang! A sharp pain was in my shoulder and I was dazed! Seriously confused. In the emotional fog of amazement, I tried to focus and saw my backing running and yelled holy @#$%^&. I got some line back on my reel and he jumped, again holy $%^%^. This unbeleivable Salmon jumped 6 or 7 times, his chrome sides almost blinding in the bright Sun. At 26″ plus and a weight of maybe 6 pounds, I had the Salmon of a life time on and ,I thought well hooked. I was precariously perched on a rock out from the shore and started looking for a rock to jump to and land on my feet and start backing up, I turned almost ready and the pull was gone as fast as it came. After the usual silence of defeat and a few experlatives, I tied on another fly. Now nice fish were pests and only another like him would be counted.