Day 2 was going to be on a different river system. Since the Quinault was so low and there was only a small stretch we could get to with the river boat, we decided on the Queets river for today. Our guide was Charles and we'd be drift boating. Since the Queets is a generally deeper river, we knew it was going to be more crowded than the Quinault was.
We are fishing for the fresh salmon (aka Chromers) from the ocean so fishing the bottom portion of the river. The King tides were going to push the salmon in and they would find their holes to hide in until dark when they shoot up river to find their next hole. Bears and Eagles over millennia have this burned into their DNA.
We get to the launch and I watch the boat while they drive the tow vehicle down stream to where we end our journey.
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When they say busy, they mean busy by "Reservation" busy. Lol
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My buddy Frank is the first person to take Squatch and I on the river 14 years ago and I only keep up with him on FB for all of those times after that. Out of the darkness I hear "Where's that Frozen, waterlogged, San Diegan down here" and I immediately knew who it was without even seeing him!
Charles told Frank we were down and he stopped by with his (shore based) client to say hello. It was great seeing the Pacific North West Squatch!
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Charles and Karry returned and we were off to the races. I told them I saw a few boats already head out and they were on fire to get out there before someone got into their hole! Lol
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I was using the wicked lure while Karry went to twitching. Fish were rolling all over.
Apparently, the Coho like the twitching and moving lures more than the kings and Karry showed me how it was done. It reminded me of bay fishing in a way and I liked that style more than the wicked lure spinner.
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It didn't take Karry long to pick up 2 Coho and lose another.
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I didn't like the spinner fishing, so switched to the twitching jig and bam!
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Other boats started coming down river so we moved on looking for the big Chrome kings.
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It was awesome seeing Karry and Charles read the water. Granted, I saw the deep spots and had an idea what I needed to do, but they were super specific on what part of the hole to fish and exactly what kind of salmon would be in there in wait.
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Charles was a crack up!
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I then did a random cast at a hole and just as they were telling me I cast to the wrong part, I get slammed by a beautiful king!
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I then cast to the spot they wanted me to cast in the first place and Wham! An even BIGGER KING! This was a Really nice model!
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We moved to the next spot and Karry puts on his clinic with some stud Kings of his own!
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I hated that stupid spinner so went to twitching again and got some more coho! They weren't big models, but they were jumpers and put on a good show!
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Karry went back to walloping more big Kings! The dude is a big fish magnet!
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We saw Frank at the rivers edge with his client so stopped to have a whiskey and share some fishing stories.
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Frank showed off their salmon with "War Paint" as he called it. Lol
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We were at our limit, but Frank and his client were happy to take some of our catch. That gave us more fish to catch/keep instead of just letting them go since Karry really wanted to see a monster go in the bag.
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Karry gave them the fish, but said he wanted the roe in return since he needed to process and cure more of Karry's Berries.
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Made him clean them right there for the eggs. LOL
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Then we get into the area where Karry suspected big ones.
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I decide to float eggs and the bobber just dipped a few times before disappearing! Fish On!
Oh Crap... BIG Fish on! I couldn't control it and we tried to juke him and net him while he was still green since Karry said they are called Kings because they fight to the death. f@ck, we missed on the net and he almost spooled me. We saw this freakish monster and it was by far 3 or 4 times bigger than any we have seen up until this point.
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We were pulling anchor so we could get some line back and keep him away from the logs on the shoreline, but it was too late. Ugh, I was sick to my stomach, but got to see and fight a REAL Salmon!
I got most of the rig back, but the leader busted in the logs. Karry was like "That is what we are going for!"
We reset up and then the inevitable happened. Apparently it wasn't the only monster in the hole and Karry is on with a beast!
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Same fight but he hooked his on a small spinner and not the baitcaster like I did! It was amazing to watch him fight it because when I was hooked up with the big one, I was too worried about losing him the whole time. Charles kept saying to cup the spool, but Karry was like "Just do what I say and we'll get him in".
It was a long ass fight and I have video, but it was a banana jaw monster! Mine was about as big, but I don't remember seeing that beak that this one had!
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Karry said it was his biggest Chromer King in 20 years! He's caught them this big or bigger when they were all browned out from heading upstream, but this one was straight from the ocean!
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He let me take a picture with it since I lost my beast after a 10 minute fight. It wasn't the same as holding my fish up, but it did help my anxiety from losing such a big fish 20 minutes earlier. Lol
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Karry said this shot would be front cover magazine material anywhere on the west coast including Alaska, and I believe him! Wow!
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Karry was exhausted and needed a break, but I kept grinding to get another chance at a beast. I kept catching some really big Kings, but not the Kaiju I was looking for.
I'm not taking anything away from these Kings though as 10.5' rods and size 300 BC or 2500 Spinner seemed quite small for what we were doing. LOL
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I was dogging the spinner for 2 days since I didn't see a single one caught on it until that monster King. I really wanted one on the spinner and kept at it until I finally hooked and landed one on that dumb Wicked Lure. LOL
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I switched to eggs, but only caught some huge sculpin (lingcod) and went back to the spinner. I saw the fish follow and hit it and was thinking I had a smolt when Karry said it was a sea-run cutthroat trout! Definitely a first for me even though it's size was a bit small.
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Well, we get to the pull out bank and it starts dumping. The State Biologist asks if we caught anything (I didn't know state biologists were allowed on the Rez) and Charles says "Nothing"... I'm perplexed why he would say we didn't catch anything, but apparently, they keep count and close the season if the quota is reached. Not exactly sure of the politics going on, so I just ran up to the bushes to take a piss.
We got the boat on the trailer and headed back upstream to the launching spot to grab the other truck. It was awesome sharing some stories over some victory whiskey before we took the long drive back to Sequim.
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We had our limits of fish to clean and released twice as many as we caught. What an epic trip!
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Thanks for reading today's adventure!
Damn.
Some really nice chromers! Cutthroat is a nice surprise too.