Sunset Hooksets

The rains have hit, there is a cold bite on the way to the truck in the mornings, and this can only mean one thing…fun times are ahead!

With rivers on the drop, we knew there had to be a fresh set batch of Chinook on the coastal rivers and the gamble paid off. It’s not often that you can sleep in and still get a decent spot on the river, but between the time we launched to the takeout, we only came across 2 other boats, which left us plenty of holes to drop some eggs into.

This photo courtesy of Kamy Baker of Memory Hunter

It didn’t take long to feel that first take down. First, I saw Jake stop and load up as he pulled up on a short biter. As he reeled in to rebait, I lifted my rod up to back bounce a little further into the hole and felt a familiar weight and successive tug. With quick lift of the rod, a few head shakes confirmed the hook set. After a few minutes, a couple jokes about “controlling my fish” and several laughs later, we were on the boat with a nice 20 pound hatchery buck.

After missing a couple takedowns and landing a few jacks, it was pretty obvious that as fast as things started off, we might have to wait until the sun was off the water to get into good fishing.

Sure enough, as the sun approached the skyline and the water was casted in a shadow, fishing went from slow, to expecting a bite in every hole. It seemed like every spot that “looked fishy” produced a bite. In one stretch we hooked up with 4 fish and landed three of them. If it weren’t for not noticing a bent hook, we probably would have landed the other as well. The sun setting, and fish bitting added a timeline to our trip that we wish we could have extended.

I couldn’t have asked for a better way to spend a Saturday. Going home with 4 Chinook after a long afternoon float in t-shirt weather is something I will miss, but I think we all are ready for Fall.