No pictures as I was too focused on safely releasing the monsters. I hooked into so many fish that day I actually lost count. This was easier than Pink fishing. I made my way down just after dawn, but the spot was already crowded. After some folks got their limits, it got easier to fish and I threw a line in. A couple very kind Hispanic gentlemen suggested I shorten my leader length and add some shrimp to my jig. Got my first fish of the day two casts in. The rest of the morning I fished without a shrimp but it really didn't matter. It is unbelievable how aggressive these fish are. Far more aggressive than pinks. Beaching the fish and releasing them was hard, in the future I will absolutely take a knotless net. Most of the experience was good and the people were mostly very decent, save for a family from Sammamish. The father offered to hold my rod as I beached a fish, and then made a snarky comment about me letting the fish go. Not sure why anyone would willingly keep a colored up chum but to each their own. They were fishing with trout poles, and when the fish inevitably started tangling other anglers lines I pleasantly suggested that they tighten the drag, as was suggested to me when I started salmon angling in the freshwater and had trouble controlling my fish. The response was "Don't worry buddy we've been fishing for a long time". Immediately after, he killed a snagged salmon. They didn't take too kindly to my retort of "been fishing for a long time but doesn't even know you can't keep snagged fish", but the older son came up to me and apologized for his parents behalf, he went to high school with me it turned out.

I will definitely be back again but not at the combat spot unless it's to crank out 2 or 3 fish for the hell of it. I saw another angler bushwack through the woods and wade downstream, it looked like a pretty easy wade and having some river to myself is really the only way I want to fish. Would be a lot of fun to have that kind of fishing on the fly! I kept one of the fish that was brighter, but the meat cut very white and while it tasted fine smoked, it completely lacked any flavor. In the future if I keep chum I will probably stick to fish caught in the lower part of the river.

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