Went out with Kyle from Jones Sport Fishing. This was my seventh trip with him. We hit the water right after daylight, and trolled what I'm sure was a pretty standard setup of cannon balls, ProTrolls, and superbaits. We also used some of Kyle's handmade spinners, which turned out to be the most productive of the day. We were trolling downhill, south of the Vernita bridge.

There were three of us, and each took a fish in the 18-21 pound range, though it took us several hours to limit out. I was the last one to catch a fish, and had the best salmon fight of my life. From the instant the rod moved, the reel started singing. By the time I got the rod out of the holder, the fish had moved abeam the boat and was headed upstream with a purpose, taking line all the way.

If I hadn't been with Kyle, I think I would have lost that fish. He very quickly turned the boat around and started upstream after the fish. Even with that, it peeled a lot of line. The line counter showed 30 feet at the takedown, and reached a peak of 270 before the fish turned and charged the boat. Kyle didn't miss a beat -- He flipped the kicker into reverse and hit the gas. Between his deft boat handling and my reeling like a man possessed, we kept tension on the fish and got him to the boat. After that kind of a battle, the fish didn't have a lot of fight left at the boat, and Kyle got him safely in the net. WHAT A RUSH!

Then Kyle did one of those things that makes him my all-time favorite guide. Since we had some time left on the trip and the limit on salmon had been reduced to one per person, he broke out a bunch of lighter gear, and we went after walleye. Have you ever fished with a guide who would do that? I'd never fished for walleye, but will definitely be doing it again. I fried up my first walleye that evening, and have officially joined the ranks of walleye lovers. Tasty.

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