My First "Workshop Day" on the Water

I had hoped to keep up with blogging each day I fished. Events have conspired against me; I must have a hard life. I have been busy with my new job and with other tasks. And I’ve gotten out fishing some too.

I was born in October. My mother took me to kindergarten when I was still four. I was so surprised when she left me there. I have been going to school every fall for the last 54 years. The school schedule is engrained in me.

As a real estate agent my schedule is very different. Well, I’m just going to have to do my best to deal with working weekends and fishing during the week.

Monday, August 31, was the first workshop day for teachers in my “old” school district. I wanted to fish on this day. Chasing Pink Salmon in the saltwater can be a lot of fun. It is often feast or famine. There were an extraordinary number of them this year. That doesn’t mean they will always take the fly but when they are jumping all over everywhere it sure feels like they ought to take the fly on every cast.

I got a nice fish on the third cast. That told me, at least I hoped it told me, I was going to catch fish all day long and that I wouldn’t have to wait more than 4 or 5 casts to get another hookup. Things don’t always work out that way. There are a lot of short strikes with Pinks and a fair number of them get off. I believe I had 11 to hand. I had one fish on that I never saw and I never really got him moving in the direction I wanted. I was chasing him down with the boat; I’m pretty sure it was a Coho or maybe even a King. Yikes that fish was strong!

A very notable part of the day was when I was fishing down from the launch point. I was anchored near the shore casting to schools of fish. Two boats came over to where I was. The smaller boat drove on the shore. The larger boat started putting out a net. At first they were heading straight out from shore. When they began to make the turn I started to wonder if they would circle the net around me. With all the open water I couldn’t believe I was going to get netted. I should have moved as soon as they got there but I really didn’t know what was going to happen. They closed me in eventually. I had to lift the motor and row across the darn net. Mark Simpson, from my fly club, has property near this spot. His wife watched me get netted. Mark rowed out to talk for a bit when I had the large fish on. It was a hot day and Mark was very nice to bring me a bottle of water.

I worked my way up the shoreline looking for schools of fish. About 2 hours later two more boats came. Lo and behold, just like the first two, they wanted to put their nets exactly where I was anchored. Go figure. I knew better this time. I just pulled up the anchor and moved away 500 yards. It was a beautiful day and a great way to spend what would have been a workshop day for me in my previous life.