Hi Folks, Guided the afternoon on the river of big fish yesterday. Nice day with midl air tempratures and over cast skies. Water level is slightly above the seasonal average flow. Water temperature was 57 degrees. A few rain showers greeted us at day's end. I have to say the Salmon fishing has been very good over the last 10 days. Lots of fish in the river and lots of big ones. It was interesting that as we arrived at the river we had multiple anglers tell us that the there were lots of fish around. The river gets lots of pressure especially in the early morning. Not many folks around in the afternoon. We stuck to swinging streamers and change flies lots. The most productive patterns were on the smaller size #10's and in shades of green and black. The largest landed fish of the day hammered a swung streamer and then jumped 7 times. We hooked it in a heavy riffle and it put up a great fight before succumbing to the net. We hooked another beast on a nymph rig and client knew right away that we were not going to land that fish. Our 4x tippet would not hold and broke about 2" above the #16 olive caddis nymph. Nymphing can be productive for salmon, but holding these big fish on light tippets is tricky and I am not a big fan of leaving flies in a fish's face. We did hook several other smaller fish under 20", but we travel to the river of big fish to land large salmon. Salmon fishing should remain good for the next couple of weeks. Remember to clean your gear and keep the non-native species at home. have fun, Willy
