Stalking Salt Water Salmon

Fishing the back eddy, and supporting the US postal service cycling team



My stalking bounty



So I was writing a post about bottom fishing and Buzz Bombs, It got me thinking that when  I was 19 I was in three rivers inlet in central BC. We were trolling for salmon on the big boat and doing ok. I noticed that Salmon were jumping everywhere.  A couple days later we were in a big back eddy made from changing tides in a long arm with a narrow opening. This creates a large rush of water when the tide is flowing since there is so much shoreline that has to flow through this one small area. (I hope this all makes sense.) Anyway we were stuck till the tide calmed down so we got out our ultra light rods and started fishing with 2 inch buzz bombs. It turns out we were not the only ones in this back eddy a large group of pink salmon were as well. My Dad, Little sister and I all caught about 25 salmon each in about an hour and a half. it was crazy. While fishing I also noticed when the salmon were jumping only one or two of the big group under the water would jump. I called this the Ice berg effect. I concluded that if you see one salmon jumping there are plenty more under the water with it. So a few nights later we were pulling into a inlet for the night and I noticed there were plenty of salmon jumping just outside the inlet. I got into the dingy after we got the big boat anchored and went to the mouth of the inlet. I sat there ready to cast "finger on the trigger" and when I saw a salmon jump I threw my 3 inch Buzz Bomb about 20 feet in front of the fish based on which way it jumped. BAM, I got a hit, I was fighting the fish for about 10 minutes and it broke my line off. So I tied another 3 inch Buzz Bomb on and waited again. A fish jumped and WHAM another fish on. Now when I set out on this adventure I wasn't too sure that I was going to catch anything. Like the young stupid adult I was I did not bring the landing net. I got that 18 pound Coho to the boat and grabbed it as best I could and got it in the boat.  I was so excited I just went back to the big boat just to show off my fish.    It was a good night and it was delicious.