River Brown Trout and Chinooks
Yesterday I met my buddy (photographer) and his girlfriend on the river in search of Browns and chinooks. As I was standing on the bank finishing my coffee Kelsey yelled "I have one!" As I looked up I saw her fly rod bowed over and a very nice brown thrashing away. After a 15min fight Nolan had it in the net. She had just landed her biggest brown around 10lbs. After a few minutes I suggested moving up river for chinooks. We made our truck a half mile up river when I saw a large tail come out of the water. I told Nolan how to present his fly by swinging the streamer into the redd to cause an aggression strike. It didn't take long before we saw a big buck chinook turn around and charge his streamer. Fish on! Nolan asked me if I wanted to use his net and all I could do was laugh and say, "your net isn't big enough." After 15mins I managed to tail the beast and Nolan had his first chinook on the fly rod. With more fish moving around I told Kelsey to come back up and go for the other male but they decided it was my turn. After a few swings the female came up head shaking and decided not to play nice as she got into the current and took me for a 75yrd walk down river. When I returned I saw Nolan talking to another fly fisherman. I asked the guy if he had any luck and he told me he had one hit earlier but left his sunglasses down in Florida. Nolan, Kelsey and I started making our way back down river and Nolan told me that the guy he was talking to had drove two hours on top of coming up from Florida to get his first chinook. I then turned around and yelled for the to come down towards us. I told him who I was and that I am a guide and that since he spent that much time traveling that I'd get him on a fish. We moved slowly down river till I saw another tail come out of the water. I explained how to swing the fly and asked what kind of streamers he had. After looking in his fly box I told him to put on the rabbit tail streamer he had. I then gave him a demo on how to roll cast and it didn't take long for the big buck to turn and grab his fly. After the fight I tailed the 20lb beat up chinook and Nathan was beyond ecstatic. I told him it was a very quality fish for his first one but wished it was a little cleaner. He told me that he really didn't care and that he was stoked to finally get his first chinook on the fly. After a few quick pictures the beast went back to finish spawning.
