I’ve never been actually spooled, but I’ve come close a couple times and decided to lock down the drag and bust my tippet rather than loosing everything. It’s happend a couple times with fresh aggressive Coho/Silver salmon in tidal areas, where they just take off back out to sea and I’ve been unable to stop them. Other times they’ve suddenly changed their minds and came racing back upstream WAAAAYYY faster than I can reel in the slack.
My most memorable by far though was on the Smith river at pretty high water. The water was high enough that I was really working the slower water close to shore. I was very new to fly fishing for salmon and steelhead, but I knew enough to recognize the long slow lane above a series of big rapids to be a very likely resting spot for either a late Chinook salmon or a Steelhead. I hooked into a very big, very bright fish practically at my feet, but couldn’t be certain if it was a salmon or a Steelhead. It looked more steelhead shaped, but I was pretty new and I only got a quick look before the fish shot out into the current. The current was so strong, and the fish was so big that my line was just melting away off the reel... it seemed like I was a ways into my backing before I could even evaluate what was happening or what to do about it! I watched the reel getting more and more empty as I tried to figure out what to do, hoping maybe the big fish would turn towards the slower water. All I could think to do was add more and more pressure on the fish, knowing I was putting too much strain on my tippet already, but still not even close to enough to turn it. Eventually my tippet snapped and I spent a while reeling all that backing and line in, my hands shaking from the excitement. I’ll never forget that one, and I continue to question whether it was a very big steelhead or a late Chinook, as there were decent numbers of both in the system. The size of the fish seems to get bigger and bigger with each passing year too
"Lord help me to be the person my dog thinks I am"
- unknown
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